LATIN LANGUAGE 339
bastic extravagance, and the style of Sidonius Apollinaris displays, with a profusion of erudition, an entire absence of correctness. Latin was to him no living language; his natural medium of expression was the sermo rusticus, and this has left its mark on every page.
Ecclesiastical Latin.
The influence of the Christian church in the development of the Latin language was mainly in two directions. In the first place the new conceptions introduced brought about a large extension of the vocabulary. As the most important of the early Latin fathers belonged to Africa (Tertullian, Cyprian, Arnobius, Augustine), this extension was made under the influence of the African Latinity; the newly-coined terms took an awkward and almost barbarous form; and the tendency of the time to abstract expressions and clumsy compounds was heightened by the needs of the writers. Secondly, the Christian teachers, as several of them expressly say, thought little of the grammatical exactness of their language, provided they could make themselves readily intelligible to the common people; e.g., Augustine confesses "Melius est reprehendant vos grammatici quam non intelligant populi," and again, "Saepe enim et verba non Latina dico, ut vos intelligatis." Hence in the writings of the early fathers we find a large element of plebeian Latinity introduced into the clumsy and affected rhetoric and the bold linguistic experiments of the African schools. Perhaps it is Tertullian who represents this stage of the language in its most extravagant form. He has genitives like imbrium utilia, accusatives like Campania erepta Pompeios, adverbs used for adjectives, metaphorical terms employed in the boldest fashion (e.g., adulter, aestum, census, contentiosus funis, communicare, &c.), numerous abstract words, often in the plural, like corpulentiae, discentiae, inexperientiae, and finally the most extraordinary compounds, such as interibilis, clementicius, concupiscentivum, ethnicalis, extructorius, famulatorius, &c.
The language of the Vetus Itala (a version of the Bible, made in Africa) and of the Vulgate has been made the subject of an admirable study by Hermann Rönsch (Itala und Vulgata, 2d. ed., Marburg, 1875), from whom the following sketch of its leading characteristics has been mainly derived (comp. also Bernhardy, Röm, Lit., pp. 334, 335). Many of the phenomena are common to the plebeian language generally, and have been already noticed as appearing occasionally in earlier writings.
1. In the formation of substantives there appears a preference for full-sounding forms, constructed by a free use of the suffixes mentum, -minium, -arium, -orium, -culum, -bulum, -aneum, -inium, -ura, -udo, -ntia, -itas: e.g., nugamentum for nugae, sessimonium, sessibulum, or sessorium for sedes, calcanium for calx, poenitudo for poena, dolositas for dolus.
2. Plebeian terms take the place of their classical equivalents: e.g., caballus (= cheval), mansio (= maison), bucca (= bouche), testa (= tête), in gyrum (= environ).
3. Substantives in -tor and -io receive large additions (Rönsch gives more than one hundred and eighty of the first kind, and more than two hundred and seventy of the second kind, found either now for the first time, or previously only in writers like Plautus and Petronius).
4. Adjectives are turned into substantives. From this class are formed many Romance words: e.g., montana (= montagne), hibernum (= hiver), diurnum (= giorno), volatile (= volatili, volaille), matutinum (= mattino, matin), murale (= muraille).
5. Adjectives in -alis and -bilis, -urnus, -bundus, -lentus, and -osus are largely introduced, often replacing simpler forms: e.g., placibilis = placens, aeternalis = aeternus, longiturnus, amarulentus, meticulosus, dignitosus; and verbals in -or give rise to participial forms like expudoratus, intimoratus, caloratus.
6. The terminations -im and -iter largely replace e in adverbs: e.g., inordinatim, pressim, avariter, improbiter.
7. Verbs of secondary derivation take the place of simple verbs, thus meeting the love for fuller forms, as mensurare, amaricare, taediare, potionare, deteriorare; an intensive force is given by composition with ad, de, cum, ex, in, and ob; e.g., adminari, coinquinare, confortare, deplanare, elonginquare, incrassare, obdulcare; and sometimes, in imitation of the Greek, there is a double prefix, as in adinerescere, perconterrere, obrelinquere, discooperire (= decouvrir).
8. Intensive and frequentative verbs are especially common, and have given rise to many Romance words; e.g., compressare, proiectare, recollectare.
9. In composition there is great freedom, and the use of the negative in- is very common, e.g., imbonitas, disconvenientia, indicto-audientia, quaterducatus (= tetrarch), admanumdeductor. Hybrid forms are common, like thelodives, accidia (for (
Greek characters)), cataplectatio ((Greek characters)), aporiari ((Greek characters)). Especially noteworthy is the use of two prepositions or an adverb with a preposition, as de mane (= demain), de foris (= dehors), de intus, and ab intus (dans = de ab intus), de retro (= derrière), de sursum (= dessus), ab ante (= avant).
10. In inflexion there are many irregularities, largely due to the reappearance of forms which had long been obsolete in the literary language, but partly produced by the love of fuller forms, often
resulting in heteroclite words. To the first class belong u-stems in flected according to the second declension, e.g.,fructi, victi, strepiti, &c.; masculine for neuters, e.g., fanus, foenus, lignus, &c., and, on the other hand, nasum, populum, &c.; numerous pronominal forms, such as alis, ipsud, alio and illo (dat.), &c. To the second class belong ossum for os (comp. August, Doct. Christ., iii. 3: mallem, quippe cum barbarismo divi "non est absconditum a te ossum meum," quam ut ideo esset minus apertum, quiamagis Latinum cst),princi- pens for princeps, praescpium for pracsepe, lampada for lampas, retia, for rete, &c. Comparatives and superlatives are largely invented, often with the aid of magis and plus, sometimes used pleonastically, as plus lucidiores. In verbs analogy has often replaced the classical forms by others which seemed more regular: odio is inflected through out like audio; verbs are transferred from one conjugation to another, e.g., floriet, fugiit, linies, extergunt; compare perfects like contend, porregi, collexi, prandiderunt, futures like augeam, per- suadeam, metuebitis, peries, scibo, sepelibo. Many deponents appear with active forms, as so commonly in archaic Latin, and less fre quently vice versa.
11. In the meaning of words there are many changes, especially in the way of giving a concrete force to abstract and figurative forms. Some of these preserve their acquired force in the Romance languages: e.g., cortina (curtain), focus (fuoco, feu), exhibitio (= maintenance), papilio (pavilion), sella (se lle), spatula (epaule), substantia (= property), venatio (venaison), gentcs (gens), cxtermi- nare (exterminate), instaurare (store), involarc (embler), remenw- rari (remember), renuntiare (renounce), traduccre (traduce), recupcrari (recover), stare (être). Ad and apud are treated as equivalent; de is constantly used with an instrumental force, and as equal to ex: it replaces the partitive genitive (de colentibus multitudo magna; tantum de chartis), and sometimes forms with its case a substantive used as a nominative (ampulla in qua de oleo [de l'huile] continebatur).
12. In syntax there is everywhere visible a negligent simplicity
of structure, careless of grammatical rule, but aiming at directness
and ready intelligibility. Hence the tendency to analytic rather
than synthetic construction, observable in earlier stages, is ex
tended. Prepositions are constantly used instead of the simple
cases, often with entire neglect of their classical construction: e.g.,
ab, cum, de, ex, in, and sub (of rest), prae, pro, sine, with acc.; in and
sub (of motion), infra, post, &c., with abl. ). Verbs are construed
(Greek characters), instead of according to classical usage: e.g., egere c.
acc., misereri and impedire c. dat. Ille, hic, and is are used for the
definite article, units for the indefinite. Quod, quia, and quoniam
are constantly used for the accusative with the infinitive; the in
dicative follows ut and indirect interrogatives. Sometimes (as at
times in modern German) the subjunctive is used in expressing
astonishment. The infinitive follows a preposition, as quomodo
potest hic nobis dare carnem ad manducare (à manger); non habuit
unde reddere (comp. de quoi vivre). The pluperfect conjunctive fre
quently replaces the imperfect (comp. que je punisse), and the perfect
infinitive the imperfect, especially with possum and debeo. The abla
tive gerund often takes the place of a participle, and the gerundive
of a future infinitive.
Of Græcisms, which are very numerous in the literal versions of the Bible, the only one requiring notice here is the frequent use of habeo with the infinitive (not unknown even to Cicero), which has given rise to the Romance future.
The changes of pronunciation which had been effected by this time consisted partly in the wider extension given to tendencies previously existing in the popular speech, partly in that gradual disintegration and weakening of sounds always observable in the history of a language. Our knowledge of them has to be derived almost wholly from inscriptions; for, although the conclusions derived from these may sometimes be usefully supplemented by the evidence of manuscripts, there is usually a doubt possible in the latter case whether the forms occurring bear witness to the pronunciation of the author or to that of the copyist in a later age. Interesting evidence is sometimes furnished by the rhymes found in the poets who discarded the classical forms of verse for rhyming metres. For instance, the tendency to drop a final consonant, shown in inscriptions of every period, comes out plainly in the verses of Sedulius, who has the following rhymes: pectoris–dei, impie–times, viderant–praeviam, personat–pignora, millia–victimam, fundere–originem, torridi–obstruit. The following table (mainly from Schuchardt, Vokalismus des Vulgärlatein, i. 104-5) gives the principal facts of the popular pronunciation, with an indication of the periods at which the change can be proved to have taken place. It will be understood that it is always possible that the more correct pronunciation may have been retained side by side with the corruption long after the latter makes its first appearance.
foau (plostrum for plaustrum). I. e = ae (see above). 100-50 m obscured before labials (Deccbris, C. I. L., i. 930). B. c. n obscured before dentals and gutturals (parctes). I m, s, t dropped when final.
