LATIN LANGUAGE 331
inscriptions the character is used for G) until about the 7th century after Christ. K went out of use at an early period, except in a few old abbreviations for words in which it had stood before a, e.g., kal. for kalendae. Q always followed by the consonantal u, except in a few old inscriptions, in which it is followed by the vowel u, e.g., pequnia. X, an abbreviation for cs: xs is, however, sometimes found. (c) Aspirate H, the rough breathing as in English.
2. Palatal. The spirant J, like the English y; it is only in late inscriptions that we find, in spellings like Zanuari, Giove, any indication of a pronunciation like the English.
3. Lingual. (a) K as in English, but probably produced more with the point of the tongue, (b) L as in English, (c) S, always surd when initial, but at one time sonant between vowels, and possibly when final, (d) Z only found in the transcription of Greek words in and after the time of Cicero.
4. Dental, (a) Sonant, D as in English; but by the end of the 4th century di before a vowel was pronounced like our j (comp. diurnal and journal), (b) Surd, T as in English, (c) Nasal, N as in English; but also (like the English n) a guttural nasal (ng) before a guttural. Apparently it was very lightly pronounced, and easily full away before s.
5. Labials, (a) Sonant, B as in English; but occasionally in inscriptions of the later empire v is written for b, showing that in some cases b had already acquired the soft sound of the contemporary β. B before a sharp s was pronounced p, e.g., in urbs. (b) Surd, P as in English, (c) Nasal, M as in English, but very slightly pronounced at the end of a word, (d) Spirant, V like the ou in Fr. oui, but probably often approximating to the South German w, i.e., a labial, not (like the English v) a labio-dental v.
6. Labio-dental. Spirant, F as in English.
II. Vovels. – ā, ū, ī, as the English ah, oo, ee; ō, a sound coming nearer to aw than the English ō; ē, an open Italian e, nearly as the vowel of pet lengthened. The short sound of each vowel was probably identical in quality with the long sound, differing only in quantity. Hence ă was pronounced as in the French chatte, ŭ nearly as in pull, ĭ nearly as in pit, ŏ as in dot, ĕ nearly as in pĕt. The diphthongs were produced by pronouncing the vowels of which they were composed very rapidly according to the above scheme. This gives – au somewhat broader than ou in house; eu like ow in the Yankee pronunciation of town; ae like the vowel in hat lengthened, with perhaps somewhat more approximation to the i in wine; oe, a sound intermediate between o and e; ei, nearly as in feint, with the greater stress on the i; ui, as the French oui.
Changes in Latin.
The changes which may be detected in the Latin language during the period of its literary development may be arranged under the heads of (1) vocabulary, (2) inflexion, (3) word formation, (4) syntax.
These will be best regarded separately in connexion with the four principal stages in the history of the language, which may be given, with their chief writers, as follows: –
I. Ante-Classical (240-80 B.C.). – Nævius (? 269-204), Plautus (254-184). Ennius (239-169), Cato (234-149), Terentius (? 195-159), Pacuvius (220-132), Accius (170-94), Lucilius (? 168-103).
II. Classical – Golden Age (80 B.C.-14 A.D.). – Varro (116-28), Cicero (106-44), Lucretius (99-55), Cæsar (100-44), Catullus (87-147), Sallust (86-34), Virgil (70-19), Horace (65-8), Propertius (150- ?), Tibullus (? 54-? 18), Ovid (43 B.C.-18 A.D.), Livy (59 B.C.-18 A.D.).
III. Classical – Silver Age (14-180 A.D.). – Velleius (? 19 B.C.-? 31 A.D.), M. Seneca (died c. 30 A.D.), Persius (34-62), Petronius (died 66), Lucan (39-65), L. Seneca (died 65 A.D.), Plinius major (23-79 A.D.), Martial (40-101), Quintilian (42-118), Plinius minor (61-? 113), Tacitus (? 60-? 118), Juvenal (? 47-? 138), Suetonius (75-160), Fronto (c. 90-170).
IV. Post-Classical.
Greek words introduced into Latin.
The additions made to the vocabulary of the Latin language from the Greek belong to four different stages (Corssen, ii. 814). The first corresponds to the period of the early intercourse of Rome with the Greek states, especially with the colonies in the south of Italy and Sicily. To this stage belong many names of nations, countries, and towns, as Siculi, Tarentum, Graeci, Achivi, Karthago, Poenus; and also names of weights and measures, articles of industry, and terms connected with navigation, as drachuma, mina, talentum, purpura, machina, patina, ancora, aplustre, nausea. To these may be added names of gods or heroes, like Apollo, Pollux, and perhaps Hercules. These were all freely adapted to the phonetic laws of the Latin language.
A second stage is marked by the closer intercourse resulting from the conquest of southern Italy, and the wars in Sicily, and by the contemporary introduction of imitations of Greek literature into Rome, with its numerous references to Greek life and culture. In this stage, also, Greek words were freely adapted to the forms familiar to Roman ears: we find words like pessulus, scutula, amurca, fungus, balineum, bucina, techina, comissari, canistrum, carcer, sona ((
Greek characters)), tarpessita, &c. In many cases hybrid forms are freely employed, whether by the addition of Latin suffixes to Greek stems as ballistarius, hepatarius, subbasilicanus, sycophantiosus, or of Greek suffixes to Latin stems as plagipatidas, pernonides; or by derivation, as thermopolare, supparasitari; or by composition as ineuscheme, thyrsigerae, flagritribae, scrophipasci. The character of many of these words shows that the comic poets who indulged in them must have been able to calculate upon a fair knowledge of colloquial Greek on the part of a considerable portion of their audience. The most remarkable instance of this is supplied by the burlesque lines in Plautus (Pers., 702 sq.), where Sagaristio describes himself as
Vaniloquidorus, Virginisvendonides, Nugipalamloquides, Argentumexterebronides, Tedigniloquides, Nummosexpalponides, Quodsemelarripides, Nunquampostreddonides.
During this period Greek words are generally inflected according to the Latin usage.
But with Accius begins a third stage, in which the Greek inflexion is frequently preserved, e.g., Hectora, Oresten, Cithaeron; and from this time forward the practice wavers. Cicero generally prefers the Latin case-endings, defending, e.g., Piraeeum as against Piraeea (Ad Att., vii. 3, 7), but not without some fluctuation, while Varro takes the opposite side, and prefers poemasin to the Ciceronian poematis. By this time also y and z were introduced, and words newly borrowed from the Greek were faithfully reproduced.
A fourth stage is marked by the practice of the Augustan poets, who, especially when writing in imitation of Greek originals, freely use the Greek inflexions, such as Arcadĕs, Tethy̆, Aegida, Echūs, &c. Horace probably always used the Greek form in his Odes, the Latin in his Satires and Epistles. Later prose writers for the most part followed the example thus set.
Language of Plautus.
In Plautus we have the best example of the vigorous native Italian idiom, enriched, but in no way fettered by imitation of the Greek. His constructions are sometimes free, and do not square with the canons of later grammarians; but there is much life and freshness, and it is very rarely that the right phrase is lacking to set forth his meaning with telling vigour.
The chief peculiarities of his grammar are:
1. The use of some substantives with a gender different from that afterwards usual, e.g., dorsus, collus, nasum.
2. The retention of inflexions afterwards obsolete or retained only in archaic phrases: -i- in the subj. pres., duint, creduis, posivi, die septimi. With regard to some of these archaic inflexions it is still a question how far they may be safely restored to the text of
manner which makes it impossible to believe that the pronunciation of the c depended upon this, e.g., decumis and decimus, capis and recipis; (2) if c was pronounced before e and i otherwise than before a, o, and u, it is hard to see why k should not have been retained for the latter use; (3) no ancient writer gives any hint of a varying pronunciation of c; (4) a Greek κ is always transliterated by c, and c by κ; (5) Latin words containing c borrowed by Gothic and early High German are always spelt with k. To these arguments it may be added that the varying pronunciations of ce, ci in the Romance languages are inexplicable except as derived independently from an original ke, ki.
