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Re: Vulgar Latin

From:Daniel A. Wier <dawier@...>
Date:Sunday, January 9, 2000, 20:01
>From: nicole perrin <nicole.eap@...>
>One of the proposed "Latin + Language X" combinations interested me (I >won't tell which one, if I pursue this project it'll have to be a >surprise), and, in case I ever get around to actually putting this >together, what were the main differences between Classical Latin and >Vulgar Latin? Especially phonological differences, but also differences >in things like the marking on verbs, nouns or adjectives (if there was >any). Thanks.
All I can think of, since I'm not that familiar with Vulgar Latin (or pre-Romance), is that where Class. Latin has five to seven noun/pronoun/adjective cases, depending on word, Vulg. Latin has only two: nominative and oblique. I forgot which form is marked with -(e)s and which is marked by -i, but you get the -(e)s plural in West Romance (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan) whereas you get the -i plural (*-ai > -e for feminine) in Italian and something similar in Romanian. Also the phonology changes in a big way. The diphthongs <ae> and <oe> are pronounced [E] and [e] respectively, and <c> and <g> before the front vowels <e>, <i> and <y> have the 'soft' palatal sounds [tS] and [dZ] (which became *[ts] > [s] and [Z] in West Romance). The ten vowels (six/aeiouy times two: short/long) merge to seven vowels (the same seven as Italian) with no length distinction: short long a > a a > a e > E e > e i > e i > i o > O o > o u > o u > u y had merged with i already However, the verb system didn't change a whole lot; thus the complexity of Romance verb inflection including the seven tense system... (Incidentally, concerning all these changes, you'll find something very similar in Modern Persian, by the way -- it is greatly simplified from its ancestors, like Avestan, Pahlavi etc.) Danny ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com