Re: Evolution of Romance (was: **Answer to Pete**)

Andreas Johansson wrote:
> Quoting R A Brown <ray@...>:
>
> [snip]
>> By 'Ancient Italian' I understand the Proto-language from which not only
>> Early Latin but also Venetic, Umbrian, Oscan, Sabellian and Sabine are
>> derived - if indeed Yves Cortez is calling Proto-Romance "Ancient
>> Italian" what does he call the Proto-language of all the related IE
>> Italian languages?
>
> I don't know what Mr Cortez calls it, but isn't this stage usually refered as
> (ancient, proto-) Ital*ic* rather than Ital*ian*?
Yes.

But if someone started talking about _Ancient_ Italian, I would, unless
there was further clarification, assume s/he meant 'Ancient Italic.'
OTOH I would understand 'Old Italian' to mean an older stage of the
present Italian language, possibly Dante or slightly earlier.

Cortez, from what we have been told, calls Proto-Romance "Ancient
Italian" - but I guess this is probably on reflexion poor translation,
i.e. translating 'italien ancien' as "Ancient Italian."

The trouble is that French 'ancien' and English "ancient" do _not_ have
the same range of meanings.

As I said in my original mail, I don't think we can get much forwarder
in this discussion without actually knowing seeing Cortez's book (or at
least having a fuller account of his thesis).

--
Ray
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