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THE See also:HISTORY OF LATIN 9. We may now proceed to See also:notice the See also:chief changes that arose in Latin after the (more or less) See also:complete separation of the See also:Italic See also:group whenever it came about. The contrasted features of Oscan and Umbrian, to some of which, for See also:special reasons, occasional reference will be here made, are fully described under OSCA LINGUA and See also:IGUVIUM respectively. It is rarely possible to See also:fix with any precision the date at which a particular See also:change began or was completed, and the most serviceable See also:form for this conspectus of the development will be to See also:present, under the heads of Phonology, See also:Morphology and Syntax, the chief characteristics of Ciceronian Latin which we know to have been See also:developed after Latin became a See also:separate See also:language. Which of these changes, if any, can be assigned to a particular See also:period will be seen as we proceed. But it should be remembered that an enormous increase of exact knowledge has accrued from the scientific methods of See also:research introduced by A. Leskien and K. Brugmann in 1879, and finally established by Brugmann's See also:great Grundriss in 1886, and that only a brief enumeration can be here attempted. For adequate study reference must be made to the See also:fuller See also:treatises quoted, and especially to the sections bearing on Latin in K. Brugmann's Kurze vergleichende Grammatik (rgoz). I. PHONOLOGY 10. The Latin See also:Accent.—It will be convenient to begin with some See also:account of the most important See also:discovery made since the application of scientific method to the study of Latin, for, though it is not strictly a See also:part of phonology, it is wrapped up with much of the development both of the sounds and, by consequence, of the in-flexions. It has See also:long been observed (as we have seen § 4, iv. above) that the restriction of the word-accent in Latin to the last three syllables of the word, and its See also:attachment to a long syllable in the penult, were certainly not its earliest traceable See also:condition; between this, the classical See also:system, and the See also:comparative freedom with which the word-accent was placed in See also:pro-ethnic Indo-See also:European, there had intervened a period of first-syllable accentuation to which were due many of the characteristic contractions of Oscan and Umbrian, and in Latin the degradation of the vowels in such forms as accentus from ad+cantus or praecipitem from prae+caput- (§ 19 below). R. von Planta (Osk.-7 mbr. Grammatik, 1893, 1. p. 594) pointed out that in Oscan also, by the 3rd See also:century B.C., this first-syllable-accent had probably given way to a system which limited the word-accent in some such way as in classical Latin. But it remained for C. Exon, in a brilliant See also:article (Hermathena (1906), xiv. 117, seq.), to deduce from the more precise stages of the change (which had been gradually noted, see e.g. F. Skutsch in Kroll's Altertumswissenschaft in letzten Vierteljahrhundert, 1905) their actual effect on the language. 11. Accent in See also:Time of See also:Plautus.—The rules which have been established for the position of the accent in the time of Plautus are these: (i.) The quantity of the final syllable had no effect on accent. (ii.) If the penult was long, it See also:bore the accent (amabeimus). (iii.) If the penult was See also:short, then (a) if the ante-penult was long, it bore the accent (amabimus); (b) if the ante-penult was short, then (i.) if the ante-ante-penult was long, the accent was on the ante-penult (amicitia) ; but (ii.) if the ante-ante-penult was also short, it bore the accent (columine, pueritia). Exon's See also:Laws of See also:Syncope.—With these facts are now linked what may be called Exon's Laws, viz: In pre-Plautine Latin in all words or word-See also:groups of four or more syllables whose chief accent is on one long syllable, a short unaccented medial vowel was syncopated; thus *quinquedecem became *quingdecem and thence quindecim (for the -See also:im see § 19), *sups-emere became *supsmere and that sumere (on -psm- v. inf.) *surregere, *surregemus, and the like became surgere, surgemus, and the See also:rest of the paradigm followed; so probably valide See also:bonus became valde bonus, exterd viam became extra viam; so *supo-tendo became subtendo (pronounced sup-tendo), '*aridere, *avidere (from avidus, avidus) became ardere, ardere. But the See also:influence of cognate forms often interfered; posteri-See also:die became postridie, but in posterorum, posterdrum the short syllable was restored by the. influence of the tri-syllabic cases, pOsterus, posteri, &c., to which the See also:law did not apply. Conversely, the nom. *aridor (more correctly at this period *eiridos), which would not have been contracted, followed the form of ardorem (from *aridorem), ardere, &c. The same change produced the monosyllabic forms nec, ac, neu, seu, from neque, &c., before consonants, since they had no accent of their own, but were always pronounced in one breath with the following word, neque tantum becoming nec tantum, and the like. So in Plautus (and probably always in spoken Latin) the words nemp(e), ind(e), quipp(e), See also:ill(e), are regularly monosyllables. 12. Syncope of Final Syllables.—It is possible that the frequent but far from universal syncope of final syllables in Latin (especially before -s, as in mens, which represents both Gr. pipes and Sans. malls = Ind.-Eur. mntis, Eng. mind) is due also to this law operating on such combinations as See also:bona mens and the like, but this has not yet been clearly shown. In any See also:case the effects of any such phonetic change have been very greatly modified by analogical changes. The Oscan and Umbrian syncope of short vowels before final s seems to be an See also:independent change, at all events in its detailed working. The outbreak of the unconscious See also:affection of slurring final syllables may have been contemporaneous. 13. In See also:post-Plautine Latin words accented on the ante-antepenult : (i.) suffered syncope in the short syllable following the accented syllable (beilincae became bdlneae, pueritia became puertia (See also:Horace), columine, tegimine, &c., became ciulmine, tegmine, &c., beside the trisyllabic columen, tegimen) unless (ii.) that short vowel was e or i , followed by another vowel (as in pdrietem, mitlierem, Pilteoli), when, instead of contraction, the accent shifted to the penult, which at a later See also:stage of the language became lengthened, parietem giving Ital. parete, Fr. paroi, See also:Puteoli giving Ital. Pozzudli. The restriction of the accent to the last three syllables was completed by these changes, which did away with all the cases in which it had stood on the See also:fourth syllable. 14. The Law of the Brevis Brevians.—Next must be mentioned another great phonetic change, also dependent upon accent, which had come about before the time of Plautus, the law long known to students as the Brevis Brevians, which may be stated as follows (Exon, Hermathena (1903), xii. 491, following Skutsch in, e.g., Vollmeller's Jahresbericht See also:fur romanische Sprachwissenschaft, i. 33) : a syllable long by nature or position, and preceded by a short syllable, was itself shortened if the word-accent See also:fell immediately before or immediately after it—that is, on the preceding short syllable or on the next following syllable. The sequence of syllables need not be in the same word, but must be as closely connected in utterance as if it were. Thus m6d6 became modo, volupt Litem became volu(p)tdtem, quid est? became quid est? either the s or the t or both being but faintly pronounced. It is clear that a great number of flexional syllables so shortened would have their quantity immediately restored by the See also:analogy of the same See also:inflexion occurring in words not of this particular shape; thus, for instance, the long vowel of Imes and the like is due to that in other verbs (pulsa, agita) not of See also:iambic shape. So ablatives like modo, See also:song get back their -o, while in particles like modo, " only," quomodo, " how," the shortened form remains. Conversely, the shortening of the final -a in the nom. sing. fem. of the a-declension (contrast See also:lung. with Gr. xeptf) was probably partly due to the influence of See also:common forms like ed., See also:bond, maid, which had come under the law. i5. Effect on Verb Inflexion.—These processes had far-reaching effects on Latin inflexion. The chief of these was the creation of the type of conjugation known as the capio-class. All these verbs were originally inflected like audio, but the See also:accident of their short See also:root-syllable (in such See also:early forms as *fiigis, *fugitisrus, *fugisetis, &c., becoming later fugis, fug%uterus, fugeretis) brought great parts of their paradigm under this law, and the rest followed suit; but true forms like fugire, cupire, moriri, never altogether died out of the spoken language. St See also:Augustine, for instance, confessed in 387 A.D. (Epist. iii. 5, quoted by Exon, Hermathena (1901), xi. 383,) that he does not know whether cupi or cupiri is the pass. inf. of cupio. Hence we have Ital. fuggire, morire, Fr. fuir, mourir. (See further on this conjugation, C. Exon, i.e., and F. Skutsch, Archiv fur See also:lat. Lexicographie, xii. 210, two papers which were written independently.) 16. The question has been raised how far the true phonetic shortening appears in Plautus, produced not by word-accent but by metrical ictus—e.g. whether the See also:reading is to be trusted in such lines as Amph. 761, which gives us dedisse as the first See also:foot (tribrach) of a See also:trochaic See also:line " because the metrical ictus fell on the syllable ded- "—but this remarkable theory cannot be discussed here. See the articles cited and also F. Skutsch, Forschungen zu Latein. Grammatik and Metrik, i. (1892); C. Exon, Hermathena (1903) xii. p. 492, W. M. See also:Lindsay, Captivi (1900), appendix, In the history of the vowels and diphthongs in Latin we must distinguish the changes which came about independently of accent and those produced by the preponderance of accent in another syllable. 17. Vowel Changes independent of Accent.—In the former See also:category the following are those of chief importance: (i.) 1 became e (a) when final, as in See also:ant-e beside Gr. Inert, triste besides tristi-s, contrasted with e.g., the See also:Greek neuter ZSpe (the final -e of the See also:infinitive—regere, &c.—is the -i of the locative, just as in the so-called ablatives genere, &c.) ; (b) before -r- which has arisen from -s-, as in cineris beside cinis, cinisculus; serO beside Gr. i(o),tµt (Ind.-Eur. *si-semi, a reduplicated non-thematic present). (ii.) Final - became e; imperative sequere = Gr. i rs(v)o; Lat. ille may contain the old pronoun *so, " he," Gr. d, Sans. sa (otherwise Skutsch, Glotta, i. Hefte 2-3). (iii.) el became of when followed by any See also:sound See also:save e, i or 1, as in volt, volt beside velle; colo beside Gr. riXaoµat, ,roXeiv, Att. Taos; colOnus for *quelonus, beside inquilinus for *en-quelenus.247 (iv.) e became i (i.) before a nasal followed by a palatal or velar consonant (lingo, Gr. TEyyw; in-cipio from *en-capio) ; (ii.) under certain conditions not yet precisely defined, one of which was i in a following syllable (nihil, nisi, initium). From these forms in-spread and banished en-, the earlier form. (v.) The " neutral vowel " (" schwa Indo-Germanicum ") which arose in pro-ethnic Indo-European from the reduction of long a, e or o in unaccented syllables (as in the -Ms participles of such roots as stet-, dhe-, (10-, *statos, *dhatOs, *datos) became a in Latin (status See also:con-ditus [from *con-dhatos], datus), and it is the same sound which is represented by a in most of the forms of do (damus, dab-, &c.). (vi.) When a long vowel came to stand before another vowel in the same word through loss of i or ii, it was always shortened ; thus the -eo of intransitive verbs like candeo, ailed is for -eio (where the e is identical with the ,t in Gr. Ecbav ty, Eµavgv) and was thus confused with the causative -eio (as in moneo, " I make to think," &c.), where the short e is See also:original. So audiui became *See also:audit' and thence audii (the form audivi would have disappeared altogether but for being restored from audiveram, &c.; conversely audieram is formed from audii). In certain cases the vowels contracted, as in tres, partes, &c. with -es from e(es, *amo from ama(i)o. 18. Of the Diphthongs. (vii.) eu became ou in pro-ethnic Italic, Lat. novus: Gr. vtos, Lat. novem, Umb. nuviper (i.e. noviper, " usque ad Chngesot noviens ": Gr. (iv-)eEa; in unaccented syllables this theadiph--ov- sank to -u(v)- as in danuo from de novo, suus (which is thongs in. rarely anything but an enclitic word), Old Lat. sovos: dependent Gr. E(F)6 . of accent. (viii.) ou, whether original or from eu, when in one syllable became -u-, probably about 200 B.C., as in duco, Old Lat. doucO, Goth. tiuhan, Eng. See also:tow, Ind.-Eur. *deuco. (ix.) ei became i (as in dico, Old Lat.."deico: Gr. Seuc-vvµe, fido: Gr. iretdoµaa, Ind.-Eur. *bheidho) just before the time of See also:Lucilius, who prescribes the spellings puerei (nom. plur.) but pueri (gen. sing.), which indicates that the two forms were pronounced alike in his time, but that the traditional distinction in spelling had been more or less preserved. But after his time, since the sound of ei was merely that of i, ei is continually used merely to denote a long i, even where, as in faxeis for faxis, there never had been any diphthongal sound at all. (x.) In rustic Latin (Volscian and See also:Sabine) au became o as in the vulgar terms explodere, plostrum. Hence arose interesting doublets of meaning;—lautus (the See also:Roman form), " elegant," but See also:lotus, " washed" ; haustus, " See also:draught," but hOstus (See also:Cato), "the See also:season's yield of See also:fruit." (xi.) of became oe and thence u some time after Plautus, as in onus, Old Lat. oenus: Gr. oivit " See also:ace." In-Plautus the forms have nearly all been modernized, save in special cases, e.g. in Trin. i. 1, 2, immoene facinus, "a thankless task," has not been changed to immune because that meaning had died out of the See also:adjective so that immune facinus would have made nonsense; but at the end of the same line utile has replaced oetile. Similarly in a small group of words the old form was preserved through their frequent use in legal or religious documents where tradition was strictly preservedpoena, foedus (neut.), foedus (adj.), " ill-omened." So the archaic and poetical moenia, ramparts," beside the true classical form munia, "duties"; the historic Poeni beside the living and frequently used Punicum (bellum)—an example which demonstrates conclusively (See also:pace See also:Sommer) that the variation between it and oe is not due to any difference in the surrounding sounds. (xii.) ai became ae and this in rustic and later Latin (2nd or 3rd century A.D.) See also:simple e, though of an open quality—Gr. atdos, See also:aids), Lat. aedes (originally " the See also:place for the See also:fire ") ; the See also:country forms of haedus, See also:praetor were edus, pretor (See also:Varro, See also:Ling. Lat. v. 97, Lindsay, Lat. See also:Lang. p.44). 19. Vowels and Diphthongs in unaccented Syllables.—The changes of the short vowels and of the diphthongs in unaccented syllables are too numerous and complex to be set forth here. Some took place under the first-syllable system of accent, some later (§§ 9, 1o). Typical examples are pepErci from *peparcai and Onustus from *onostos (before two consonants) ; concino from *concano and hospitts from *hostipotes, legimus beside Gr. Myoµev (before one consonant) ; See also:Siculi from *Siceloi (before a thick 1, see § 17, 3); dillglt from *disleget (contrast, however, the preservation of the second e in neglEglt); occupat from *opcapat (contrast accipit with i in the following syllable); the varying spelling in monumentum and monimentum, maxumus and See also:maximus, points to an intermediate sound (u) between u and i (cf. Quint. i. 4. 8, reading optumum;and optimum [not opimum] with W. M. Lindsay, Latin Language §§ 14, 16, seq.), which could not be correctly represented in spelling; this difference may, however, be due merely to the effect of See also:differences in the neighbouring sounds, an effect greatly obscured by analogical influences. See also:Inscriptions of the 4th or 3rd century, B.C. which show original -es and -os in final syllables (e.g. Veneres, gen. sing., navebos abl. pl.) compared with the usual forms in -is, -us a century later, give us roughly the date of these changes. But final -os, -am, remained after -u- (and v) down to 50 B.C. as in servos. 20. Special mention should be made of the change of -ri- and -roto -er- (incertus from *encritos; ager, aver from *agros, *acris; the feminine acris was restored in Latin (though not in See also:North Oscan) by the analogy of other adjectives, like tristis, while the masculine acer was protected by the parallel masculine forms of the -o- declension, like tener, See also:niger from *teneros, *nigros]). 21. Long vowels generally remained unchanged, as in compago, condano. 22. Of the diphthongs, ai and of both sank to ei, and with original ei further to i, in unaccented syllables, as in Achivi from Gr. 'AXaFFot, olivom, earlier *oleivom (borrowed into See also:Gothic and there becoming alev) from Gr. See also:Mar.Fov. This gives us interesting See also:chronological data, since the el- must have changed to ol- (§ 16. 3) before the change of -ai- to -ei-, and that before the change of the accent from the first syllable to the penultimate (§ 9); and the borrowing took place after -ai- had become -ei-, but before -eivom had become -eum, as it regularly did before the time of Plautus. But cases of ai, ae, which arose later than the change to ei , were unaffected by it; thus the nom. plur. of the first declension originally ended in -as (as in Oscan), but was changed at some period before Plautus to -ae by the influence of the pronominal nom. plur. ending -ae in quae? hae, &c., which was accented in these mono-syllables and had therefore been preserved. The history of the -ae of the See also:dative, genitive and locative is hardly yet clear (see Exon, Hermathena (1905), xiii. 555; K. Brugmann, Grundriss, 1st ed. ii. 571, 601). The diphthongs au, ou in unaccented syllables sank to -u-, as in include" beside claudo; the form chide" , taken from the compounds, superseded claudo altogether after See also:Cicero's time. So cudo, taken from incudo, excudo, banished the older *caudo, " I cut, strike," with which is probably connected cauda, " the striking member, tail," and from which comes caussa, " a cutting, decision, legal case," whose -ss- shows that it is derived from a root ending in a dental (see §25 (b) below and See also:Conway, Verner's Law in See also:Italy, p. 72). Consonants.—Passing now to the chief changes of the consonants we may notice the following points: 23. Consonant i (wrongly written j; there is no g-sound in the See also:letter), conveniently written by phoneticians, (i.) was lost between vowels, as in tres for *treies, &c. (§ 17. 6); (ii.) in See also:combination: -mi- became -ni-, as in venio, from Ind.-Eur. *f~ mio, " I come," Sans. gam-, Eng. come; -ni- probably (under certain conditions at least) became -nd-, as in tendo beside Gr. retvw, fendo = Gr. Betvw, and in the gerundive See also:stem -endus, -undus, probably for -enios, -onios; cf. the See also:Sanskrit gerundive in -an-iya-s; -gi-, -di-became -i- as in See also:major from *mag-ior, peior from *ped-ior; (iii.) otherwise -i- after a consonant became generally syllabic (-ii-), as in capio (trisyllabic) beside Goth. hafya. 24. Consonant u (formerly represented by See also:English v), conveniently written u, (i.) was lost between similar vowels when the first was accented, as in audiui, which became audii (§ 17 [6]), but not in amaui, nor in av$rus. (ii.) in combination: du- became b, as in bonus, bellum, O. Lat. du onus, *duellum (though the poets finding this written form in old See also:literary See also:sources treated it as trisyllabic) • pu-, f- by-, lost the as in ap-erio, op-erio beside Lith. -veriu, " I open," Osc. veru, " See also:gate," and in the verbal endings -km, -be", from -bhu-am, -bhyo (with the root of Lat. fui), and fio, du-bius, super-bus, vasta-bundus, &c., from the same; -su- between vowels (at least when the second was accented) disappeared (see below § 25 (a), iv.), as in pruina for prusulna, cf. Eng. fros-t, Sans. pruiva, " See also:hoar-See also:frost." Contrast See also:Minerva from an earlier *See also:menes-ua, See also:sue-, suo-, both became so-, as in soror(em) beside Sans. svasar-am, Ger. schwes-t-er, Eng. See also:sister, sordes, beside O. Ger. Swart-s, mod. See also:schwarz. -yo- in final syllables became -u-, as in cum from quom, parum from pari.om; but in the declensional forms -uu- was commonly restored by the analogy of the other cases, thus (a) ser_tos seruom, serui became (b) *serus, *serum, *serui, but finally (c) seruus, seryum, serui. (iii.) In the 2nd century A.D., Lat. v (i.e. u) had become a voiced labio-dental fricative, like Eng. v; and the voiced labial plosive b had broken down (at least in certain positions) into the same sound; hence they are frequently confused as in spellings like vene for bene, Bictorinus for See also:Victorinus. 25. (a) Latin s (i.) became r between vowels between 450 and 350 B.C. (for the date see R. S. Conway, Verner's Law in Italy, pp. 61-64), as in ara, beside O. Lat. See also:asa, generis from *geneses, Gr. y€veos; eram, ero for *esam, *eso, and so in the verbal endings -eram, -ero, -erim. But a considerable number of words came into Latin, partly from neighbouring dialects, with -s- between vowels, after 350 B.C., when the change ceased, and so show -s-, as See also:rosa (probably from S. Oscan for *See also:rod,}a " See also:rose-See also:bush " cf. Gr. po,ov), ceiseus, " See also:cheese," See also:miser, a See also:term of abuse, beside Gr. puvapos (probably also borrowed from See also:south Italy), and many more, especially the participles in -See also:sus (funus), where the -s- was -ss- at the time of the change of -s- to -r- (so in causa, see above). All attempts to explain the retention of the -s-otherwise must be said to have failed (e.g. the theory of accentual difference in Verner's Law in Italy, or that of dissimilation, given by Brugmann, Kurze vergl. See also:Gram. p. 242). (ii.) sr became Jr ( = Eng. thr in throw) in pro-ethnic Italic, and this became initially fr- as in frigus, Gr. pIyos (Ind.-Eur. *srigos), but medially -br-, as in funebris, from funus, stem funes-.
(iii.) -rs-, ls- became -rr-, -ii-, as in ferre, velle, for *fer-se, *vel-se (cf. es-se).
(iv.) Before m, n, 1, and v, -s- vanished, having previously caused the loss of any preceding plosive or -n-, and the preceding vowel, if short, was lengthened as in
See also:Primus from *prismos, Paelig. prismu, " prima," beside pris-cus. iumentum from O. Lat. iouxmentum, older *ieugsmentom; cf. Gr. reiypa, i-byov, Lat. iugum, iungo.
See also:luna from *leucsna-, Praenest, losna, Zend raoxsna-; cf. Gr. Xeb'Kol, " See also: (vi.) Before n-, m-, l-, initially s- disappeared, as in nubo beside Old See also: 27. The treatment of the Indo-European voiced aspirates (bh dh, gh, 9h)in Latin is one of the most marked characteristics of the language, which separates it from all the other Italic dialects, since the fricative sounds, which represented the Indo-European aspirates in pro-ethnic Italic, remained fricatives medially if they remained at all in that position in Oscan and Umbrian, whereas in Latin they were nearly always changed into voiced See also:explosives. Thus Ind.-Eur. bh: initially Lat. f- (See also:fern; Gr. (Apw). medially Lat. -b- (tibi; Umb. tefe; Sans. tubhy-(am), " to thee "; the same suffix in Gr. fltr/-4i, &c.). Ind.-Eur. dh: initially Lat. f- (fa-c-ere, fe-c-i; Gr. Ber&s (instead of *See also:BaT&S), EBrt-Ka). medially -d- (medius; Osc. mefio-; Gr. pEcuos, See also:Oran from *pso,,os) ; except after u (iubere beside iussus for *iudh-tos; Sans. yddhati, " rouses to See also:battle"); before l (stabulum, but Umb. staflo-, with the suffix of Gr. oripyr70pov, &c.); before or after r (verbum: Umb. serf See also:ale: Eng. word. Lat. glaber [v. inf].: Ger. glatt: Eng. glad). Ind.-Eur. Eh: initially h- (humi: Gr. xapat); except before -u-(fundo: Gr. XE(F)w, Xbrpa). medially -h- (veho: Gr. Cxw, oxos; cf. Eng. See also:wagon); except after -n- (fingere: Osc. feiho-, " See also:wall ": Gr. Biyy&vw: Ind.-Eur. dheigh-, dhingh-); and before 1 (ig(u)lus, from the same root). Ind.-Eur oh: initially f- (formus and furnus, " See also:oven ", Gr. Beppos, BEppn1, cf. Ligurian See also:Bormio, " a place with hot springs," Bormanus, " a See also:god of hot springs ", fendo : Gr. Betvw, 4 beos, rrp&U-¢aros). medially v, -gu- or -g- just as Ind.-Eur. (ninguere, nivem beside Gr. vt'a, vetc/;.et; fragrare beside Gr. &o4patvopat [Oct- for ods-, cf. Lat. odor], a re-duplicated verb from a root 5°hra-). For the " non-labializing velars " (aostis, conGius, Glaber) reference must be made to the fuller accounts in the handbooks. 28. AUTHORITIES.—This See also:summary account of the chief points in Latin phonology may serve as an introauction to its principles, and give some insight into the phonetic See also:character of the language. For systematic study reference must be made to the See also:standard books, Karl Brugmann, Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der Indo-Germanischen Sprachen (vol. i., Lautlehre, 2nd ed. See also:Strassburg, 1897; Eng. trans. of ed. i by See also:Joseph See also:Wright, Strassburg, 1888) and his Kurze vergleichende Grammatik (Strassburg, 1902) ; these contain still by far the best accounts of Latin; Max Niederman, Precis de phonetique du Latin (See also:Paris, 1906), a very convenient handbook, excellently planned; F. Sommer, Lateinische See also:Laut- and Flexionslehre (See also:Heidelberg, 1902), containing many new conjectures; W. M. Lindsay, The Latin Language (See also:Oxford, 1894), translated into See also:German (with corrections) by Nohl (See also:Leipzig, 1897), a most valuable collection of material, especially from'the See also:ancient grammarians, but not always accurate in phonology; F. Stolz, vol. i. of a See also:joint Historische Grammatik d. lat. Sprache by Blase, Landgraf, Stolz and others (Leipzig, 1894) ; "Neue-Wagener, Formenlehre d. lat. Sprache (3 vols., 3rd ed.. Leipzig, 1888, See also:foil.); H. J. See also:Roby's Latin See also:Grammar (from Plautus to Suetonius; See also:London, 7th ed., 1896) contains a masterly collection of material, especially in morphology, which is still of great value. W. G. See also:Hale and C. D. See also:Buck's Latin Grammar (See also:Boston, 1903), though on a smaller See also:scale, is of very great importance, as it contains the fruit of much independent research on the part of both authors; in the difficult questions of See also:orthography it was, as See also:late as 1907, the only safe See also:guide. II. MORPHOLOGY In morphology the following are the most characteristic Latin innovations: 29. In nouns. (i.) The complete loss of the dual number, save for a survival in the See also:dialect of See also:Praeneste (C.I.L. xiv. 2891, = Conway, Ital. See also:Dial. p.285, where Q. k. Gestic, Q. f. seems to be nom. dual) ; so C.I.L. xi. 67o6i, T. C. Vomanio, see W. Schulze, Lat. Eigennamen, p. 117. (ii.) The introduction of new forms in the gen. sing. of the -o- stems (domini), of the -a- stems (mensae) and in the nom. plural of the same two declensions; innovations mostly derived from the pro-nominal declension. (iii.) The development of an adverbial formation out of what was either an instrumental or a locative of the -o- stems, as in lone. And here may be added the other adverbial developments, in -m (palam, sensim) probably See also:accusative, and -iter, which is simply the accusative of iter, " way," crystallized, as is shown especially by the fact that though in the end it attached itself particularly to adjectives of the third declension (molliter), it appears also from adjectives of the second declension whose meaning made their combination with iter especially natural, such as longiter, firmiter, largiter (cf. English straightway, longways). The only objections to this derivation which had any real See also:weight (see F. Skutsch, De nominibus no- suffixi ope formatis, 189o, pp. 4-7) have been removed by Exon's Law (§ i 1), which supplies a clear See also:reason why the contracted type constanter arose in and was See also:felt to be proper to Participial adverbs, while firmiter and the like set the type for those formed from adjectives. (iv.) The development of the so-called fifth declension by a re-See also:adjustment of the declension of the nouns formed with the suffix -ii-: ia- (which appears, for instance, in all the Greek feminine participles, and in a more abstract sense in words like materies) to match the inflexion of two old root-nouns ree-s and See also:dies, the stems of which were originally raj- (Sans. rats, rayas, cf. Lat. reor) and diets, (v.) The disuse of the -ti- suffix in an abstract sense. The great number of nouns which Latin inherited formed with this suffix were either (i) marked as abstract by the addition of the further suffix -on- (as in ratio beside the Gr. ysi)oi-or, &c.) or else (2) confined to a See also:concrete sense; thus vectis, properly " a carrying, lifting," came to mean " See also:pole, See also:lever "; ratis, properly a " reckoning, devising," came to mean " an (improvised) raft " (contrast ratio) ; postis, a " placing," came to mean " post." (vi.) The confusion of the consonantal stems with stems ending in -i-. This was probably due very largely to the forms assumed through phonetic changes by the gen. sing. and the nom. and See also:act. plural. Thus at say 300 B.C. the inflexions probably were: conson. stem -i- stem Nom. plur. *reg-es See also:host-es Ace. plur. reg-es host-is The confusing difference of signification of the long -es ending led to a levelling of these and other forms in the two paradigms. (vii.) The disuse of the u declension (Gr. nabs, See also:orb.xvs) in adjectives; this group in Latin, thanks to its feminine form (Sans. fern. svadei, " sweet "), was transferred to the i declension (suavis, gravis, See also:levis, dulcis). 30. In verbs. (i.) The disuse of the distinction between the See also:personal endings of See also:primary and secondary tenses, the -t and -nt, for instance, being used for the third See also:person singular and plural respectively in all tenses and moods of the active. This change was completed after the archaic period, since we find in the See also:oldest inscriptions -d regularly used in the third person singular of past tenses, e.g. deded, feted in place of the later dedit, fecit; and since in Oscan the distinction was preserved to the end, both in singular and plural, e.g. faamat (perhaps meaning " auctionatur "), but deded (" dedit "). It is commonly assumed from the See also:evidence of Greek and Sanskrit (Gr. Eaet, Sans. See also:asti beside Lat. est) that the primary endings in Latin have lost a final -i, partly or wholly by some phonetic change. (ii.) The non-thematic conjugation is almost wholly lost, surviving only in a few forms of very common use, est, " is "; est, " eats " ; volt, " See also:wills," &c. (iii.) The complete See also:fusion of the See also:aorist and perfect forms, and in the same tense the fusion of active and See also:middle endings; thus tutudi, earlier *tutudai, is a true middle perfect; dixi is an s aorist with the same ending attached; dixit is an aorist active; tutudisti is a conflation of perfect and aorist with a middle personal ending. (iv.) The development of perfects in -ui and -vi, derived partly from true perfects of roots ending in v or u, e.g. mOvi rui. For the origin of monui see Exon, Hermathena (1901), xi. 396 sq. (v.) The complete fusion of conjunctive and optative into a single See also:mood, the subjunctive; repam, &c., are conjunctive forms, whereas rexerim, rexissem are certainly and regerem most probably optative;the origin of amem and the like is still doubtful. Notice, however, that true conjunctive forms were often used as See also:futures, See also:tees, reget, &c., and also the simple thematic conjunctive in forms like erO, rexero, &c. (vi.) The development of the future in -bo and imperfect in -See also:barn by compounding some form of the verb, possibly the Present Participle with forms from the root of fui, *amans fuo becoming amabo, *amans fuam becoming amabam at a very early period of Latin; see F. Skutsch, Atti d. Congresso Storico Intern. (1903), vol. ii. p. 191. (vii.) We have already noticed the rise of the passive in -r (§ 5 (d)). Observe, however, that several middle forms have been pressed into the service, partly because the -r- in them which had come from -s-seemed to give them a passive See also:colour (legere = Gr. Xiys(o)o, See also:Attic MEyov). The interesting forms in -mini are a confusion of two distinct inflexions, namely, an old infinitive in -menai, used for the imperative, and the participial -menoi, masculine, -menai, feminine, used with the verb " to be " in place of the See also:ordinary inflexions. Since these forms had all come to have the same shape, through phonetic change, their meanings were fused; the imperative forms being restricted to the plural, and the participial forms being restricted to the second person. 31. Past Participle Passive.—Next should be mentioned the great development in the use of the participle in -tos (factus, fusus, &c.). This participle was taken with sum to form the perfect tenses of the passive, in which, thanks partly to the fusion of perfect and aorist active, a past aorist sense was also evolved. This reacted on the participle itself giving it a prevailingly past colour, but its originally timeless use survives in many places, e.g. in the participle ratus, which has as a See also:rule no past sense, and more definitely still in such passages as Vergil, Georg. i. 206 (vectis), Aen. vi. 22 (ductis), both of which passages demand a present sense. It is to be noticed also that in the earliest Latin, as-in Greek and Sanskrit, the passive meaning, though the commonest, is not universal. Many traces of this survive in classical Latin, of which the chief are i. The active meaning of deponent participles, in spite of the fact that some of them (e.g. adeptus, emensus, expertus) have also a passive sense, and 2. The See also:familiar use of these participles by the Augustan poets with an accusative attached (galeam indutus, traiectus See also:lore). Here no doubt the use of the Greek middle influenced the Latin poets, but no doubt they thought also that they were reviving an old Latin See also:idiom. 32. Future Participle.—Finally may be mentioned together (a) the development of the future participle active (in -irus, never so freely used as the other participles, being rare in the See also:ablative See also:absolute even in See also:Tacitus) from an old infinitive in -urum (" scio inimicos meos hoc dicturum," C. See also:Gracchus (and others) apud See also:Gell. i. 7, and See also:Priscian ix. 864 (p. 475 Keil), which arose from combining the dative or locative of the verbal noun in -tu with an old infinitive esom " esse " which survives in Oscan, *dictu esom becoming dicturum. This was discovered by J. P. Postgate (Class. See also:Review, v. 301, and Idg. Forschungen iv. 252). (b) From the same infinitival accusative with the post-position -do , meaning " to," " for," " in " (cf. quando for *quam-See also:dog and Eng. to, Germ. zu) was formed the so-called gerund See also:agen-do, ' for doing," " in doing," which was taken for a Case, and so gave rise to the accusative and genitive in -dum and -di. The form in -do still lives in See also:Italian as an indeclinable present participle. The modal and purposive meanings of -do appear in the uses of the gerund. The authorities giving a fuller account of Latin morphology are the same as those cited in § 28 above, save that the reader must consult the second See also:volume of Brugmann's Grundriss, which in the English See also:translation (by Conway and Rouse, Strassburg, 1890–1896) is divided into volumes ii, iii. and iv.; and that Niedermann does not See also:deal with morphology. The chief innovations of syntax developed in Latin may now be briefly noted. 33. In nouns. (i.) Latin restricted the various Cases to more sharply defined uses than either Greek or Sanskrit; the See also:free use of the See also:internal accusative in Greek (e.g. a$pl'v (3alveiv, rv¢aor rd See also:Tara) is See also:strange to Latin, save in poetical imitations of Greek; and so is the freedom of the Sanskrit instrumental, which often covers meanings expressed in Latin by cum, ab, inter. (ii.) The See also:syncretism of the so-called ablative case, which combines the uses of (a) the true ablative which ended in -d (O. Lat. praidad ; (b) the instrumental sociative (plural forms like See also:dominis, the ending being that of Sans. givai,f) ; and (c) the locative (noct-e, " at See also:night "; itiner-e, " on the road," with the ending of Greek fX,rtS-i). The so-called absolute construction is mainly derived from the second of these, since it is regularly attached fairly closely to the subject of the clause in which it stands, and when accompanied by a passive participle most commonly denotes an See also:action performed by that subject. But the other two sources cannot be altogether excluded (orto See also:sole, " starting from sunrise "; See also:cameo patente, " on, in sight of, tee open See also:plain "). 34. In verbs. (i.) The See also:rich development and See also:fine discrimination of the uses of the subjunctive mood, especially (a) in indirect questions (based on See also:direct deliberative questions and not fully developed by the time of Plautus, who constantly writes such phrases as die quis es for the Ciceronian die quis See also:sis) ; (b) after the relative of essential See also:definition (non is sum qui negem) and the circumstantial cum (" at such a time as that "). The two uses (a) and (b) with (c) the common Purpose and Consequence-clauses See also:spring from the " prospective " or " anticipatory " meaning of the mood. (d) Observe further its use in sub-See also:ordinate oblique clauses (irascitur quod abierim, " he is angry because, as he asserts, I went away "). This and all the uses of the mood in oratio obliqua are derived partly from (a) and (b) and partly from the (e) Unreal Jussive of past time (Non illi argentum redderem? Non redderes, " Ought I not to have returned the See also:money to him?" " You certainly ought not to have," or, more literally, " You were not to "). On this interesting See also:chapter of Latin syntax see W.G.Hale's " Cum- constructions " (Cornell University Studies in Classical See also:Philology, No. 1, 1887-1889), and The Anticipatory Subjunctive (See also:Chicago, 1894). (ii.) The complex system of oratio obliqua with the sequence of tenses (on the growth of the latter see Conway, See also:Livy II., Appendix ii., See also:Cambridge, 1901). (iii.) The curious construction of the gerundive (ad capiendam urbem), originally a present (and future?) passive participle, but restricted in its use by being linked with the so-called gerund (see § 32,b). The use, but probably not the restriction, appears in Oscan and Umbrian. (iv.) The favourite use of the impersonal passive has already been mentioned (§ 5, iv.). 35. The chief authorities for the study of Latin syntax are: Brugmann's Kurze vergl. Grammatik, vol. ii. (see § 28) ; Landgraf's Historische lat. Syntax (vol. ii. of the joint Hist. Gram., see § 28) ; Hale and Buck's Latin Grammar (see § 28) ; Draeger's Historische lat. Syntax, 2 vols. (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1878-1881), useful but not always trustworthy; the Latin sections in Delbriick's Vergleichende Syntax, being the third volume of Brugmann's Grundriss (§ 28). IV. IMPORTATION OF GREEK WORDS 36. It is convenient, before proceeding to describe the development of the language in its various epochs, to notice briefly the See also:debt of its vocabulary to Greek, since it affords an indication of the steadily increasing influence of Greek See also:life and literature upon the growth of the younger idiom. See also:Corssen (Lat. Aussprache, ii. 814) pointed out four different stages in the See also:process, and though they are by no means sharply divided in time, they do correspond to different degrees and kinds of intercourse. (a) The first represents the period of the early intercourse of See also:Rome with the Greek states, especially with the colonies in the south of Italy and See also:Sicily. To this stage belong many names of nations, countries and towns, as Siculi, See also:Tarentum, Graeci, Achivi, Poenus; and also names of weights and See also:measures, articles of See also:industry and terms connected with See also:navigation, as See also:mina, talentum, See also:purpura, See also:patina, ancora, aplustre, See also:nausea. Words like amurca, scutula, pessulus, balineum, tarpessita represent familiarity with Greek customs and See also:bear equally the See also:mark of See also:naturalization. To these may be added names of gods or heroes, like See also:Apollo, See also:Pollux and perhaps See also:Hercules. These all became naturalized Latin words and were modified by the phonetic changes which took place in the Latin language after they had come into it (cf. §§ 9-27 supra). (b) The second stage was probably the result of the closer intercourse resulting from the See also:conquest of See also:southern Italy, and the See also:wars in Sicily, and of the contemporary introduction of imitations of Greek literature into Rome, with its numerous references to Greek life and culture. It is marked by the free use of hybrid forms, whether made by the addition of Latin suffixes to Greek stems as ballistarius, hepatarius, subbasilicanus, sycophantiosus, comissari or of Greek suffixes to Latin stems as plagipatidas, pernonides; or by derivation, as thermopotare, supparasitari; or by See also:composition as ineuscheme, thyrsigerae, flagritribae, scrophipasci. The character of many of these words shows that the comic poets who coined them must have been able to calculate upon a See also:fair knowledge of colloquial Greek on the part of a considerable portion of their See also:audience. The most remarkable instance of this is supplied by the See also:burlesque lines in Plautus (Pers. 702 seq.), where Sagaristio describes himself as Vaniloquidorus, Virginisvendonides, Nugipiloquides, Argentumexterebronides, Tedigniloquides, Nummosexpalponides, Quodsemelarripides, Nunquameripides. During this period Greek words are still generally inflected according to the Latin usage.
(c) But with See also:Accius (see below) begins a third stage, in which the Greek inflexion is frequently preserved, e.g. Hectora, Oresten, See also:Cithaeron; and from this time forward the practice wavers. Cicero generally prefers the Latin case-endings, defending, e.g., Piraeeum as against Piraeea (ad AU. vii. 3, 7), but not without some fluctuation, while Varro takes the opposite See also:side, and prefers poemasin to the Ciceronian poematis. By this time also y and z were introduced, Aid the See also:representation of the Greek aspirates by th, ph, ch, so that words newly borrowed from the Greek could be more faithfully reproduced.
This is equally true whatever was the precise nature of the sound which at that period the Greek aspirates had reached in their See also:secular process of change from pure aspirates (as in Eng. ant-See also: V. PRONUNCIATION This appears the proper place for a rapid survey of the pronunciation' of the Latin language, as spoken in its best days. 37. CONSONANTS.—(i.) Back palatal. Breathed plosive c, pro- nounced always as k (except that in some early inscriptions—probably none much later, if at all later, than 300 B.c.—the character is used also for g) until about the 7th century after See also: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 used.for c before the vowel u, e.g. pequnia. X, an See also:abbreviation for cs; xs is, however, sometimes found. Voiced plosive g, pronounced as in English gone, but never as in English See also:gem before about the 6th century after Christ. Aspirate h, the rough breathing as in English. (ii.) Palatal.—The consonantal i, like the English y; it is only in late inscriptions that we find, in spellings like Zanuario, See also:Glove, any definite indication of a pronunciation like the English j. The precise date of the change is difficult to determine (see Lindsay's Latin Lang. p. 49), especially as we may, in isolated cases, have before us merely a See also:dialectic variation; see See also:PAELIGNI. (iii.) Lingual.--r as in English, but probably produced more with the point of the See also:tongue. 1 similarly more dental than in English. s always breathed (as Eng. ce in See also:ice). z, which is only found in the transcription of Greek words in and after the time of Cicero, as dz or zz. (iv.) Dental.—Breathed, t as in English. Voiced, d as in English; but by the end of the 4th century di before a vowel was pronounced like our j (cf. diurnal and See also:journal). 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 fell away before s. (v.) Labial.—Breathed, p as in English. Voiced, b as in English; but occasionally in inscriptions of the later See also:empire v is written for b, showing that in some cases b had already acquired the fricative sound of the contemporary ,B (see § 24, iii.). b before a See also:sharp s was pronounced p, e.g. in orbs. Nasal, in as in English, but very slightly pronounced at the end of a word. Spirant, v like the ou in See also:French oui, but later approximating to the w heard in some parts of See also:Germany, Ed. Sievers, Grundzuge d. Phonetik, ed. 4, p. 117, i.e. a labial v, not (like the English v) a labio-dental v. (vi.) Labio-dental.—Breathed fricative, f as in English. 38. VOWELS.—a, it, i, as the English ah, oo, ee; o, a sound coming nearer to Eng. aw than to Eng. o ; e a close Italian e, nearly as the a of Eng. See also:mate, ee of Fr. passee. The short sound of the vowels was not always identical in quality with the long sound. it was pronounced as in the French chatte, it nearly as in Eng. pull, i nearly as in See also:pit, o as in dot, e nearly as in pet. The diphthongs were produced by pronouncing in rapid See also:succession the vowels of which they were composed, according to the above See also:scheme. This gives, an somewhat broader than ou in See also:house; eu like ow in the " See also:Yankee " pronunciation of See also:town; ae like the vowel in See also:hat lengthened, with perhaps somewhat more approximation to the i in See also:wine; oe, a diphthongal sound approximating to Eng. of ; ui, as the French oui. To this it should be added that the Classical Association, acting ' The grounds for this pronunciation will be found best stated in Postgate, How to pronounce Latin (1907), Arnold and Conway, The Restored Pronunciation of Greek and Latin (4th ed., Cambridge, 1908) ; and in the grammars enumerated in § 28 above, especially the See also:preface to vol. i. of Roby's Grammar. The chief points about c maybe briefly given as a specimen of the See also:kind of evidence. (1) In some words the letter following c varies in a manner which makes it impossible to believe that the pronunciation of the c depended upon this, e.g. decumus and decimus, dic from Plaut. See also:dice; (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 K is always transliterated by c, and c by K; (5) Latin words containing c borrowed by Gothic and early High German are always spelt with k; (6) the varying pronunciations of ce, ci in the See also:Romance See also:languages are inexplicable except as derived independently from an original ke, ki.
on the See also:advice of a See also:committee of Latin scholars, has recommended for the diphthongs ae and oe the pronunciation of English i (really ai) in wine and oi in See also:boil, sounds which they undoubtedly had in the time of Plautus and probably much later, and which for See also:practical use in teaching have been proved far the best.
VI. TIIE LANGUAGE AS RECORDED
39. Passing now to a survey of the condition of the language at various epochs and in the different authors, we find the earliest See also:monument of it yet discovered in a donative inscription on a fibula or See also:brooch found in a See also:tomb of the 7th century B.C. at Praeneste. It runs "Manios med fhefhaked Numasioi," i.e. " Manios made me for Numasios." The use off (fh) to denote the sound of Latin f supplied the explanation of the change of the See also:symbol f from its Greek value (=Eng. w) to its Latin value f, and shows the Chalcidian Greek See also:alphabet in process of See also:adaptation to the needs of Latin (see WRITING). The reduplicated perfect, its 3rd sing. ending -ed, the dative masculine in -oi (this is one of the only two recorded examples in Latin), the -s- between vowels (§ 25, 1), and the -a- in what was then (see §§ 9, 1o) certainly an unaccented syllable and the accusative med, are all interesting marks of antiquity.'
40. The next oldest fragment of continuous Latin is furnished by a See also:vessel dug up in the valley between the Quirinal and the Viminal early in 1880. The vessel is of a dark See also: Some points in its See also:interpretation are still open to doubt,2 but the probable interpretation is
" Deos iurat ilk (or iurant ill') qui me mittat (or mittant) ne in to See also:Virgo (i.e. Proserpina) comis sit, nisi quidem optimo (?) Theseae (?) pacari vis. Duenos me fecit contra Manum, Dueno autem ne per me malum stato (--imputetur, imponatur)."
" He (or they) who See also:dispatch me binds the gods (by his offering) that See also:Proserpine shall not be kind to thee unless See also:thou wilt make terms with (or " for ") Opetos Thesias (?). Duenos made me against Manus, but let no evil fall to Duenos on my account."
41. Between these two inscriptions lies in point of date the famous See also:stele discovered in the See also:Forum in 1899 (G. See also:Boni, Noliz. d. semi, May 1899). The upper See also:half had been cut off in See also:order to make way for a new See also:pavement or See also:black See also: 453), and the only words that can be regarded as reasonably certain are regei (regi) on face 2, kalatorem and iouxmenta on face 3, and iouestod (iusto) on face 4.3 The date may be said to be fixed by the variation of the sign form between Hsi and W (with a for r) and other alphabetic indications which suggest the 5th century B.C. It has been suggested also that the reason for the destruction of the stele and the repavement may have been either (1) the pollution of the comitium by the Gallic invasion of 390 B.C., all traces of which, on their departure, could be best removed by a repaving; or (2) perhaps more probably, the Augustan restorations (Studniczka, Jahresheft d. Osterr. Institut, 1903, vi. 129 ff.). (R. S. C.) 42. Of the earlier long inscriptions the most important would be the Columna Rostrata,or See also:column of Gains See also:Duilius (q.v.), erected to commemorate his victory over the Carthaginians in 260 B.C., but for the extent to which it has suffered from the hands of restorers. The shape of the letters plainly shows that the inscription, as we have it, was cut in the time of the empire. Hence See also:Ritschl and See also:Mommsen pointed out that the language was modified at the same time, and that, although many archaisms have been retained, some were falsely introduced, and others replaced by more See also:modern forms. The most noteworthy features in it are—C always written for G (CEsET=gessit), single for See also:double consonants (clases-classes), d retained in the ablative (e.g., in altod marid), o for u in inflexions (primps, exfociont=exfugiunt), e for i (navebos=navibus, exemet= exemit) ; of these the first is probably an affected archaism, G having been introduced some time before the assumed date of the inscription. On the other See also:hand, we have praeda where we should have expected praida; no final consonants are dropped; and the forms -es, -eis and -is for the accusative plural are interchanged capriciously. The doubts hence arising preclude the possibility of using it with confidence as evidence for the See also:state of the language in the 3rd century B.C. 43. Of unquestionable genuineness and the greatest value are the Scipionum Elogia. inscribed on stone coffins, found in the monument of the Scipios outside the Capene gate (C.I.L.' i. 32). The earliest of the See also:family whose See also:epitaph has been preserved is L. See also:Cornelius Scipio Barbatus (See also:consul 298 B.c.), the latest C. Cornelius Scipio Hispanus (praetor in 139 B.c.) ; but there are See also:good reasons for believing with Ritschl that the epitaph of the first was not contemporary, but was somewhat later than that of his son (consul 259 B.c.). This last may therefore be taken as the earliest specimen of any length of Latin and it was written at Rome; it runs as follows: honcoino . ploirume . cosentiont . *See also:mail duonoro . optumo . fuise . uiro [virorum] luciom . scipione . filios . barbati co]nsol . See also:censor . aidilis . hie . fuet a [pud vos] he]c . cepit . See also:corsica . aleriaque . urbe[m] de]det . tempestatebus. aide . mereto[d votam]. The archaisms in this inscription are—(I) the retention of o for u in the inflexion of both nouns and verbs; (2) the diphthongs oi (= later u) and ai (= later ae) ; (3) -et for -it, hec for hic, and -ebus for -ibus; (4) duon- for See also:lion; and (5) the dropping of a final m in every case except in Luciom, a variation which is a marked characteristic of the language of this period. 44. The oldest specimen of the Latin language preserved to us in any literary source is to be found in two fragments of the Carmina Saliaria (Varro, De ling. Lat. vii. 26, 27), and one in See also:Terentianus See also:Scaurus, but they are unfortunately so corrupt as to give us little real See also:information (see B. See also:Maurenbrecher, Carminum Saliarium reliquiae, Leipzig, 1894; G. Hempl, See also:American Philol. Assoc. Transactions, xxxi., 1900, 184). Rather better evidence is supplied in the Carmen Fratrum Arvalium, which was found in 1778 engraved on one of the numerous tablets recording the transactions of the See also:college of the Arval See also:brothers, dug up on the site of their See also: The See also:text of the Twelve Tables (451–450 B.C.), if preserved in its integrity, would have been invaluable as a See also:record of See also:antique Latin; but it is known to us only in quotations. R. Schoell, whose edition and commentary (Leipzig, 1866) is the most complete, notes the following traces, among others, of an archaic syntax: (1) both the subject and the See also:object of the verb are often left to be understood from the context, e.g. ni it antestamino, igitur, em See also:capito; (2) the imperative is used even for permissions, " si volet, plus dato," " if he choose, he may give him more "; (3) the subjunctive is apparently never used in conditional, 3 The most important writings upon it are those of Domenico See also:Comparetti, Iscriz. arcaica del See also:Faro Romano (See also:Florence-Rome, 1900) ; Hulsen, Berl. philolog. Wochenschrift (1899), No. 40; and Thurneysen, Rheinisches Museum (Neue Folge), iii. 2. Prof. G. Tropea gives a Cronaca della discussione in a See also:series of very useful articles in the Rivista di storia antica (See also:Messina, 1900 and 1901). Skutsch's article already cited puts the trustworthy results in an exceedingly brief See also:compass. The inscription was first published by Helbig and Diimmler in Mittheilungen See also:des deutschen archaol. Inst. Rom. ii. 40; since in C.I.L. xiv. 4123 and Conway, Italic Dial. 28o,•where other references will be found. 2 This inscription was first published by Dressel, Annali dell' Inst. Archeol. Romano (188o), p. 158, and since then by a multitude of commentators. The view of the inscription as a curse, translating a Greek cursing-See also:formula, which has been generally adopted, was first put forward by R. S. Conway in the American Journal of Philology, x. (1889), 453; see further his commentary Italic Dialects, p. 329, and since then G. Hempl, Trans. Amer. Philol. Assoc. xxxiii. (1902), 15o, whose interpretation of iouesat = iurat and Opetoi Tesiai has been here adopted, and who gives other references. only in final sentences, but the future perfect is common; (4) the connexion between sentences is of the simplest kind, and conjunctions are rare. There are, of course, numerous isolated archaisms of form and meaning, such as calvitur, pacunt, endo, escit. Later and less elaborate See also:editions are contained in Fontes _furls Romani, by Bruns-Mommsen-Gradenwitz (1892); and P. See also:Girard, Textes de See also:droit romain (1895). 46. Turning now to the language of literature we may group the Latin authors as follows:—1 I. Ante-Classical (240-8o B.C.).—See also:Naevius (? 269-zo4), Plautus (254-184),See also:Ennius (239-169), Cato the See also:Elder (234-149), Terentius (? 195-159), See also:Pacuvius (220-132), Accius (170-94), Lucilius (? 168-103). II. Classical—See also:Golden See also:Age (8o B.C.—A.D. 14).—Varro (116-28), Cicero (106-44), See also:Lucretius (99-55), See also:Caesar (102-44), See also:Catullus (87-? 47), See also:Sallust (86-34), See also:Virgil (70-19), Horace (65-8), See also:Propertius (? 50- ?), See also:Tibullus (? 54-? 18), See also:Ovid (43 B.C.-A.D. 18), Livy (59 B.C.-A.D. 18). 47. Naevius and Plautus.—In Naevius we find. archaisms proportionally much more numerous than in Plautus, especially in the retention of the original length of vowels, and early forms of inflexion, such as the genitive in -as and the ablative in -d. The number of archaic words preserved is perhaps due to the fact that so large a proportion of his fragments have been preserved only by the grammarians, who cited them for the See also:express purpose of explaining these. Of the language of Plautus important features have already been mentioned (§§ Io-16); for its more general characteristics see PLAUTUS. 48. Ennius.—The language of Ennius deserves especial study because of the immense influence which he exerted in fixing the literary style. He first established the rule that in See also:hexameter See also:verse all vowels followed by two consonants (except in the case of See also:mute and a liquid), or a double consonant, must be treated as lengthened by position. The number of varying quantities is also much diminished, and the elision of final -m becomes the rule, though not without exceptions. On the other hand he very commonly retains the original length of verbal terminations (esset, faciel) and of nominatives in or and a, and elides final s before an initial consonant. In declension he never uses -ae as the genitive, but -ai or -as; the older and shorter form of the gen. plur. is -See also:urn in common; obsolete forms of pronouns are used, as mis, olli, sum (=eum), sas, sos, sapsa; and in verbal inflexion there are old forms like morimur (§ 15), fuimus (§ 17, vi.), potestur (cf. § 5, iv.). Some experiments in the way of tmesis (saxo cere comminuit-brum) and apocope (divum domus altisonum cael, replet to laetificum See also:gau) were happily regarded as failures, and never came into real use. His syntax is simple and straight-forward, with the occasional pleonasms of a See also:rude style, and con-junctions are comparatively rare. From this time forward the literary language of Rome parted company with the popular dialect. Even to the classical writers Latin was in a certain sense a dead language. Its vocabulary was not identical with that of ordinary life. Now and again a writer would lend new vigour to his style by phrases and constructions See also:drawn from homely speech. But on the whole, and in ever-increasing measure, the language of literature was the language' of the See also:schools, adapted to See also:foreign See also:models. The genuine current of Italian speech is almost lost to view with Plautus and See also:Terence, and reappears clearly only in the semi-barbarous products of the early Romance literature. 49. Pacuvius, Accius and Lucilius.—Pacuvius is noteworthy especially for his See also:attempt to introduce a free use of compounds after the See also:fashion of the Greek, which were felt in the classical I For further information see special articles on these authors, and LATIN LITERATURE.times to be unsuited to the See also:genius of the Latin language, See also:Quintilian censures severely his line . Nerei repandirostrum incurvicervicum pecus. Accius, though probably the greatest of the Roman tragedians, is only preserved in comparatively unimportant fragments. We know that he paid much See also:attention to grammar and orthography; and his language is much more finished than that of Ennius. It shows no marked' archaisms of form, unless the infinitive in -ier is to be accounted as such. Lucilius furnishes a specimen of the language of the period, free from the restraints of tragic diction and the imitation of Greek originals. Unfortunately the greater part of his fragments are preserved only by a grammarian whose text is exceptionally corrupt; but they leave no doubt as to the See also:justice of the See also:criticism passed by Horace on his careless and " muddy " diction. The urbanitas which is with one See also:accord conceded to him by ancient critics seems to indicate that his style was free from the taint of provincial Latinity, and it may be regarded as reproducing the language of educated circles in ordinary life; the numerous Graecisms and Greek quotations with which it abounds show the familiarity of his readers with the Greek language and literature. Varro ascribes to him the gracile genus dicendi, the distinguishing features of which were venustas and subtilitas. Hence it appears that his numerous archaisms were regarded as in no way in-consistent with See also:grace and precision of diction. But it may be remembered that Varro was himself something of an archaizer, and also that the grammarians' quotations may bring this aspect too much into prominence. Lucilius shares with the comic poets the use of many plebeian expressions, the love for diminutives, abstract terms and words of abuse; but occasionally he borrows from the more elevated style of Ennius forms like simitu (= simul), noenu (=non), facul (=facile), and the genitive in -di, and he ridicules the contemporary tragedians for their zetematia, their high-flown diction and sesquipedalia verba, which make the characters talk " not like men but like portents, flying winged See also:snakes." In his ninth See also:book he discusses questions of grammar, and gives some interesting facts as to the tendencies of the language. For instance, when he ridicules a praetor urbanus for calling himself pretor, we see already the intrusion of the rustic degradation of ae into e, which afterwards became universal. He shows a great command of technical language, and (partly owing to the nature of the fragments) airaE XeybµEVa are very numerous. 50. Cato.—The See also:treatise of Cato the elder, De re rustica, would have afforded invaluable material, but it has unfortunately come down to us in a text greatly modernized, which is more of See also:interest from the point of view of literature than of language. We find in it, however, instances of the accusative with uti, of the old imperative praefamino and of the fut. sub. servassis, prohibessis and such interesting subjunctive constructions as date bubus bibant See also:omnibus, " give all the oxen (See also:water) to drink." 5r. Growth of Latin Prose.—It is unfortunately impossible to trace the growth of Latin prose diction through its several stages with the same clearness as in the case of See also:poetry. The fragments of the earlier Latin prose writers are too scanty for us to be able to say with certainty when and how a formed prose style was created. But the impulse to it was undoubtedly given in the habitual practice of See also:oratory. The earliest orators, like Cato, were distinguished for strong common sense, biting wit and vigorous language, rather than for any See also:graces of style; and probably personal auctoritas was of far more account than See also:rhetoric both in the law courts and in the assemblies of the See also:people. The first public See also:speaker, according to Cicero, who aimed at a polished style and elaborate periods was M. See also:Aemilius See also:Lepidus Porcina, in the middle of the znd century B.c.2 On his See also:model the Gracchi and See also:Carbo fashioned themselves, and, if we may See also:judge from the fragments of the orations of C. Gracchus which are preserved, there were few traces of archaism remaining. A more perfect example of the urbanitas at which good speakers aimed was supplied by a famous speech of C. Fannius against C. Gracchus, 2 Cicero also refers to certain scripta dulcissima of the son of Scipio See also:Africanus Maior, which must have possessed some merits of style. which Cicero considered the best oration of the time. No small part of the urbanitas consisted in a correct See also:urban pronunciation; and the standard of this was found in the language of the See also:women of the upper classes, such as Laelia and See also:Cornelia. In the earliest continuous prose work which remains to us the four books De Rhetorica ad Herennium, we find the language already almost indistinguishable from that of Cicero. There has been much discussion as to the authorship of this work, now commonly, without very convincing reasons, ascribed to Q. See also:Cornificius; but, among the numerous arguments which prove that it cannot have been the work of Cicero, none has been adduced of any importance drawn from the character of the language. It is See also:worth while noticing that not only is the style in itself perfectly finished, but the treatment of the subject of style, elocutio (iv. 12. 17), shows the pains which had already been given to the question. The writer See also:lays down three chief requisites-(r) elegantia, (2) compositio and (3) dignitas. Under the first come Latinitas, a due avoidance of solecisms and barbarisms, and explanatio, clearness, the employment of familiar and appropriate expressions. The second demands a proper arrangement; See also:hiatus, See also:alliteration, See also:rhyme, the repetition or displacement of words, and too long sentences are all to be eschewed. Dignity depends upon the selection of language and of sentiments. 52. Characteristics of Latin Prose.—Hence we see that by the time of Cicero Latin prose was fully developed. We may, there-fore, pause here to notice the characteristic qualities of the language at its most perfect stage. The Latin critics were themselves fully conscious of the broad distinction in character between their own language and the Greek. See also:Seneca dwells upon the stately and dignified See also:movement of the Latin period, and uses for Cicero the happy epithet of gradarius. He allows to the Greeks gratia, but claims potentia for his own countrymen. Quintilian (xii. ro. 27 seq.) concedes to Greek more euphony and variety both of vocalization and of accent; he admits that Latin words are harsher in sound, and often less happily adapted to the expression of varying shades of meaning. But he too claims " See also:power " as the distinguishing mark of his own language. Feeble thought may be carried off by the exquisite See also:harmony and subtleness of Greek diction; his countrymen must aim at fulness and weight of ideas if they are not to be beaten off the See also: Lucretius and Cicero concur, it is true, in complaints of the poverty of their native language; but this was only because they had had no predecessors in the task of adapting it to philosophic utterance; and_ the long life of Latin technical terms like qualitas, See also:species, genus, ratio, shows how well the need was met when it arose. H. A. J. See also:Munro has said admirably of this very period:
" The living Latin for all the higher forms of composition, both prose and verse, was a far nobler language than the living Greek. During the long period of Grecian pre-See also:eminence and literary See also:glory, from See also:Homer to See also:Demosthenes, all the manifold forms of poetry and prose which were invented one after the other were brought to such exquisite perfection that their beauty of form and grace of language were never afterwards rivalled by Latin or any other people. But hardly had Demosthenes and See also:Aristotle ceased to live when that Attic which had been gradually formed into such a See also:noble See also:instrument of thought in the hands of See also:Aristophanes, See also:Euripides, See also:Plato and the orators, and had superseded for general use all the other dialects, became at the same time the language of the civilized See also:world and was stricken with a mortal decay. . . See also:Epicurus, who was See also:born in the same See also:year as See also:Menander, writes a harsh See also:jargon that does not deserve to be called a style; and others of whose writings anything is left entire or in fragments, historians and philosophers alike, See also:Polybius, See also:Chrysippus, See also:Philodemus, are little if any better. When Cicero deigns to translate any of their sentences, see what grace and life he instils into their clumsily expressed thoughts, how satisfying to the See also:ear and See also:taste are the periods of Livy when he is putting into Latin the heavy and uncouth clauses of Polybius ! This may explain what Cicero means when at one time he gives to Greek the preference over Latin, at another to Latin over Greek; in reading See also:Sophocles or Plato he could acknowledge their unrivalled excellence; in translating See also:Panaetius or Philodemus he would feel his own immeasurable superiority."
The greater number of long syllables, combined with thepaucity of diphthongs and the consequent monotony of vocalization, and the uniformity of the accent, See also:lent a weight and dignity of movement to the language which well suited the See also:national gravitae The precision of grammatical rules and the entire See also:absence of dialectic forms from the written literature contributed to maintain the character of unity which marked the Roman See also:republic as compared with the multiplicity of Greek states. It was remarked by See also:Francis See also: In this respect, too, Latin contrasts with Greek. The attempts made by some of the earlier poets to indulge in novel compounds was felt to be out of harmony with the genius of the language. Composition, though necessarily employed, was kept within narrow limits, and the words thus produced have a sharply defined meaning, wholly unlike the poetical vagueness of some of the Greek compounds. The vocabulary of the language, though receiving accessions from time to time in accordance with practical needs, was rarely enriched by the products of a spontaneous creativeness. In literature the taste of the educated town circles gave the law; and these, trained in the study of the Greek masters of style, required something which should reproduce for them the harmony of the Greek period. Happily the orators who gave form to Latin prose were able to meet the demand without departing from the spirit of their own language.' 53• Cicero and Caesar.—To Cicero especially the Romans owed the realization of what was possible to their language in the way of artistic finish of styles He represents a protest at one and the same time against the inroads of the plebeius sermo, vulgarized by the See also:constant influx of non-Italian provincials into Rome, and the " jargon of See also:spurious and partial culture " in See also:vogue among the Roman pupils of the See also:Asiatic rhetoricians. His essential service was to have caught the See also:tone and style of the true Roman urbanitas, and to have fixed it in extensive and widely read speeches and treatises as the final model of classical prose. The influence of Caesar was wholly in the same direction. His See also:cardinal principle was that every new-fangled and affected expression, from whatever See also:quarter it might come, should be avoided by the writer, as rocks by the mariner. His own style for straightforward simplicity and purity has never been surpassed; and it is not without full reason that Cicero and Caesar are regarded as the models of classical prose. But, while they fixed the type of the best Latin, they did not and could not alter its essential character. In subtlety, in suggestiveness, in many-sided grace and versatility, it remained far inferior to the Greek. But for dignity and force, for See also:cadence and See also:rhythm, for clearness and precision, the best Latin prose remains unrivalled. It is needless to dwell upon the grammar or vocabulary of Cicero. His language is universally taken as the normal type of Latin; and, as hitherto the history of the language has been traced by marking differences from his usage, so the same method may be followed for what remains. 54. Varro, " the most learned of the ancients," a friend and contemporary of Cicero, seems to have rejected the periodic rhythmical style of Cicero, and to have fallen back upon a more archaic structure. Mommsen says of one passage " the clauses of the sentence are arranged on the See also:thread of the relative like dead thrushes on a See also:string." But, in spite (some would say, because) of his old-fashioned tendencies, his language shows great vigour and spirit. In his Menippean satires he intentionally made free use of plebeian expressions, while rising at times to a real grace and showing often fresh See also:humour. His treatise De Re Rustica, in the form of a See also:dialogue, is the most agreeable of his See also:works, and where the nature of his subject allows it there is ' The study of the rhythm of the Clausulae, i.e. of the last dozen (or half-dozen) syllables of a period in different Latin authors, has been remarkably developed in the last three years, and is of the highest importance for the criticism of Latin prose. It is only possible to refer to Th. Zielinski's Das Clauselgesetz in Cicero's Reden (St. See also:Petersburg, 1904), reviewed by A. C. See also:Clark in Classical Review, 1905, p. 164, and to F. Skutsch's important comments in Vollmoller's Jahresberichten fiber die Fortschritte der romanischen Philologie (1905) and Glotta (i. 1908, esp. p. 413), also to A. C. Clark's Fontes Presae Numerosae (Oxford, 1909), The Cursus in Mediaeval and Vulgar Latin (ibid. 1910), and article CICERO. much vivacity and dramatic picturesqueness, although the precepts are necessarily given in a terse and abrupt form. His sentences are as a rule co-ordinated, with but few connecting links; his diction contains many antiquated or unique words. 55. Sallust.—In Sallust, a younger contemporary of Cicero, we have the earliest complete specimen of See also:historical narrative. It is probably due to his subject:See also:matter, at least in part, that his style is marked by frequent archaisms; but something must be ascribed to intentional imitation of the earlier chroniclers, which led him to be called priscorum Catonisque verborum ineruditissimus fur. His archaisms consist partly of words and phrases used in a sense for which we have only early authorities, e.g. cum animo habere, &c., animos tollere, bene factum, consultor, prosapia, dolus, venenum, obsequela, inquies, sallere, occipere, collibeo, and the like, where we may notice especially the fondness for frequentatives, which he shares with the early See also:comedy; partly in inflections which were growing obsolete, such as senati, solui, comperior (dep.), neglegisset, vis (acc. pl.) nequitur. In syntax his constructions are for the most part those of the contemporary writers. 56. Lucretius is largely archaic in his style. We find im for eum, endo for in, illae, ullae, unae and aliae as genitives, alid for aliud, rabies as a genitive by the side of genitives in -al, ablatives in -i like colii, orbi, perti, nominatives in s for r, like colas, vapos, humos. In verbs there are scatit, fulgit, quaesit, confluxet=confluxisset, recesse=recessisse, induiacere for inicere; simple forms like fligere,.lacere, cedere, stinguere for the more usual compounds, the infinitive passive in -ier, and archaic forms from esse like siet, escit, fuat. Sometimes he indulges in tmesis which reminds us of Ennius: inque pediri, disque supata, ordia prima. But this archaic tinge is adopted only for poetical purposes, and as a See also:proof of his devotion to the earlier masters of his See also:art; it does not affect the general substance of his style, which is of the freshest and most vigorous See also:stamp. But the purity of his idiom is not gained by any slavish adherence to a recognized vocabulary: he coins words freely; Munro has noted more than a See also:hundred alrae 1\eybµeva, or words which he alone among good writers uses. Many of these are formed on familiar models, such as compounds and frequentatives; others are directly borrowed from the Greek apparently with a view to sweetness of rhythm (ii. 412, V. 334, 505); others again (See also:forty or more in number) are compounds of a kind which the classical language refused to adopt, such as silvifragus, terriloquus, perterricrepus. He represents not so much a stage in the history of the language as a protest against the tendencies fashionable in his own time. But his influence was deep upon Virgil, and through him upon all subsequent Latin literature. 57. Catullus gives us the type of the language of the cultivated circles, lifted into poetry by the simple directness with which it is used to express emotion. In his heroic and elegiac poems he did not See also:escape the influence of the Alexandrian school, and his genius is ill suited for long-continued flights; but in his lyrical poems his language is altogether perfect. As See also:Macaulay says: " No Latin writer is so Greek. The simplicity, the pathos, the perfect grace, which I find in the great Athenian models are all in Catullus, and in him alone of the Romans." The language of these poems comes nearest perhaps to that of Cicero's more intimate letters. It is full of colloquial idioms and familiar language, of the diminutives of affection or of playfulness. Greek words are rare, especially in the lyrics, and those which are employed are only such as had come to be current See also:coin. Archaisms are but sparingly introduced; but for metrical reasons he has four instances of the inf. pass., in -ier, and several contracted forms; we find also alis and alid, uni (gen.), and the antiquated tetuli and recepso. There are traces of the popular language in the shortened imperatives See also:cave and mane, in the See also:analytic perfect paratam habes, and in the use of unus approaching that of the indefinite article. 58. Horace.—The poets of the Augustan age mark the opening of a new chapter in the history of the Latin language. The influence of Horace was less than that of his friend and con-temporary Virgil; for Horace worked in a field of his own, and,although See also:Statius imitated his lyrics, and See also:Persius and See also:Juvenal, especially the former, his satires, on the whole there are few traces of any deep marks left by him on the language of later writers. In his Satires and Epistles the diction is that of the contemporary urbanitas, differing hardly at all from that of Cicero in his epistles and dialogues. The occasional archaisms, such as the syncope in erepsemus, evasse, surrexe, the infinitives in -ier, and the genitives deum, divum, may be explained as still conversationally allowable, though ceasing to be current in literature; and a similar explanation may account for plebeian terms, e.g. balatro, blatero, giarrio, See also:motto, vappa, caldus, soldus, surpite, for the numerous diminutives, and for such pronouns, adverbs, conjunctions and turns of expression as were common in prose, but not found, or found but rarely, in elevated poetry. Greek words are used sparingly, not with the See also:licence which he censures in Lucilius, and in his hexameters are framed according to Latin rules. In the Odes, on the other hand, the language is much more precisely limited. There are practically no archaisms (spargier in Carm. iv. Ir. 8 is a doubtful exception), or plebeian expressions; Greek inflections are employed, but not with the licence of Catullus; there are no datives in I or See also:sin like Tethyl or Dryasin; Greek constructions are fairly numerous, e.g. the genitive with verbs like regnare, abstinere, desinere, and with adjectives, as integer vitae, the so-called Greek accusative, the dative with verbs of contest, like luctari, decertare, the transitive use of many intransitive verbs in the past participle, as regnatus, triumphatus; and finally there is a " prolative " use of the infinitive after verbs and adjectives, where prose would have employed other constructions, which, though not limited to Horace, is more common with him than with other poets. Compounds are very sparingly employed, and apparently only when sanctioned by authority. His own innovations in vocabulary are not numerous. About eighty avraE Xeybµeva have been noted. Like Virgil, he shows his exquisite skill in the use of language rather in the selection from already existing stores, than in the creation of new resources: tantum series iuncturaque pallet. But both his diction and his syntax left much less marked traces upon succeeding writers than did those of either Virgil or Ovid. 59. Virgil.—In Virgil the Latin language reached its full maturity. What Cicero was to the period, Virgil was to the hexameter; indeed the changes that he wrought were still more marked, inasmuch as the language of verse admits of greater subtlety and finish than even the most artistic prose. For the straightforward idiomatic simplicity of Lucretius and Catullus he substituted a most exact and felicitous diction, rich with the See also:suggestion of the most varied sources of See also:inspiration. Sometimes it is a phrase of Homer's "conveyed" literally with happy boldness, sometimes it is a line of Ennius, or again some artistic Sophoclean combination. Virgil was equally familiar with the great Greek models of style and with the earlier Latin poets. This learning, guided by an unerring sense of fitness and harmony, enabled him to give to his diction a See also:music which recalls at once the fullest tones of the Greek See also:lyre and the lofty strains of the most genuinely national song. His love of antiquarianism in language has often been noticed, but it never passes into pedantry. His vocabulary and constructions are often such as would have conveyed to his contemporaries a grateful flavour of the past, but they would never have been unintelligible. Forms like iusso, olle or admittier can have delayed no one. In the details of syntax it is difficult to notice any peculiarly Virgilian points, for the reason that his language, like that of Cicero, became the See also:canon, departures from which were accounted irregularities. But we may notice as favourite constructions a free use of oblique cases in the place of the more definite construction with prepositions usual in prose, e.g. it clamor caelo, flet noctem, rivis currentia vina, bacchatam iugis Naxon, and many similar phrases; the employment of some substantives as adjectives, like venator canis, and See also:vice versa, as plurimus volitans; a proleptic use of adjectives, as tristia torquebit; idioms involving ille, atque, deinde, baud, See also:quin, vix, and the frequent occurrence of passive verbs in their earlier reflexive sense, as induor, velar, pastor. 6o. Livy.—In the singularly varied and beautiful style of Livy we find Latin prose in rich maturity. To a training in the rhetorical schools, and perhaps professional experience as a teacher of rhetoric, he added a thorough familiarity with con-temporary poetry and with the Greek language; and these attainments have all deeply coloured his language. It is probable that the variety of style naturally suggested by the wide range of his subject matter was increased by a half-unconscious See also:adoption of the phrases and constructions of the different authorities whom he followed in different parts of his work; and the industry of German critics has gone far to demonstrate a conclusion likely enough in itself. Hence perhaps comes the fairly long See also:list of archaisms, especially in formulae (cf. Kuhnast, Liv. Synt. pp. 14-18). These are, however, purely isolated phenomena, which do not affect the general tone. It is different with the poetical constructions and Graecisms, which appear on every See also:page. Of the latter we find numerous instances in the use of the cases, e.g. in genitives like via praedae omissae, oppidum Antiochiae, aequum See also:campi; in datives like quibusdam volentibus erat; in accusatives like iurare calumnianz, certare multam; an especially frequent use of transitive verbs absolutely; and the constant omission of tilt reflexive pronoun as the subject of an infinitive in reported speech. To the same source must be assigned the very frequent pregnant construction with prepositions, an attraction of relatives, and the great See also:extension of the employment of relative adverbs of place instead of relative pronouns, e.g. quo=in quem. Among his poetical characteristics we may place the extensive list of words which are found for the first time in his works and in those of Virgil or Ovid, and perhaps his common use of concrete words for collective, e.g. eques for equitatus, of abstract terms such as remigium, servitia, robora, and of frequentative verbs, to say nothing of poetical phrases like haec ubi dicta dedit, adversum montium, &c. Indications of the extended use of the subjunctive, which he shares with con-temporary writers, especially poets, are found in the construction of ante quam, post quam with this mood, even when there is no underlying notion of anticipation, of donec, and of cum meaning " whenever." On the other hand, forsitan and quamvis, as in the poets, are used with the indicative in forgetfulness of their original force. Among his individual peculiarities may be noticed the large number of verbal nouns in -tus (for which Cicero prefers forms in -tio) and in -tor, and the extensive use of the past passive participle to replace an abstract substantive, e.g. ex dictatorio imperio concusso. In the arrangement of words Livy is much more free than any previous prose writer, aiming, like the poets, at the most effective order. His periods are constructed with less regularity than those of Cicero, but they gain at least as much in variety and See also:energy as they lose in uniformity of rhythm and artistic finish. His style cannot be more fitly described than in the language of Quintilian, who speaks of his mira iucunditas and lactea ubertas. 61. Propertius.—The language of Propertius is too distinctly his own to See also:call for detailed examination here. It cannot be taken as a specimen of the great current of the Latin language; it is rather a tributary springing from a source apart, tinging to some slight extent the stream into which it pours itself, but soon ceasing to affect it in any perceptible fashion. " His obscurity, his indirectness and his incoherence " (to adopt the words of J. P. Postgate) were too much out of harmony with the Latin taste for him to be regarded as in any sense representative; sometimes he seems to be hardly writing Latin at all. Partly from his own strikingly independent genius, partly from his profound and not always judicious study of the Alexandrian writers, his poems abound in phrases and constructions which are without a parallel in Latin poetry. His archaisms and Graecisms, both in diction and in syntax, are very numerous; but frequently there is a freedom in the use of cases and pre-positions which can only be due to bold and independent innovations. His style well deserves a careful study for its own See also:sake (cf. J. P. Postgate's Introduction, pp. 1vii.-cxxv.); but it is of comparatively little significance in the history of the language. 62. Ovid.—The brief and few poems of Tibullus See also:supply onlywhat is given much more fully in the works of Ovid. In these we have the language recognized as that best fitted for poetry by the fashionable circles in the later years of See also:Augustus. The style of Ovid bears many traces of the imitation of Virgil, Horace and Propertius, but it is not less deeply affected by the rhetoric of the schools. His never-failing fertility of See also:fancy and command of diction often See also:lead him into a diffuseness which See also:mars the effect of his best works; according to Quintilian it was only in his (lost) tragedy of See also:Medea that he showed what real excellence he might have reached if he had chosen to See also:control his natural See also:powers. His influence on later poets was largely for evil; if he taught them smoothness of versification and See also:polish of language, he also co-operated powerfully with the practice of recitation to lead them to aim at rhetorical point and striking turns of expression, instead of a See also:firm grasp of a subject as a whole, and due subordination of the several parts to the general impression. Ovid's own influence on language was not great; he took the diction of poetry as he found it, formed by the labours of his predecessors; the conflict between the archaistic and the Graecizing schools was already settled in favour of the latter; and all that he did was to accept the generally accepted models as supplying the material in moulding which his luxuriant fancy could have free See also:play. He has no deviations from classical syntax but those which were coming into fashion in his time (e.g. forsitan and quamvis with the indic., the dative of the See also:agent with passive verbs, the ablative for the accusative of time, the infinitive after adjectives like certus, aptus, &c.), and but few peculiarities in his vocabulary. It is only in the letters from the See also:Pontus that laxities of construction are detected, which show that the purity of his Latin was impaired by his See also:residence away from Rome, and perhaps by increasing carelessness of composition. 63. The Latin of Daily Life.—While the leading writers of the Ciceronian and Augustan eras enable us to trace the See also:gradual development of the Latin language to its utmost finish as an instrument of literary expression, there are some less important authors who supply valuable evidence of the character of the sermo plebeius. Among them may be placed the authors of the Bellum Africanum and the Bellum Hispanieazse appended to Caesar's Commentaries. These are not only far inferior to the exquisite urbanitas of Caesar's own writings; they are much rougher in style even than the less polished Bellum Alexandrinum and De See also:Bello Gallico See also:Liber VIII., which are now with justice ascribed to See also:Hirtius. There is sufficient difference between the two to justify us in assuming two different authors; but both freely employ words and constructions which are at once antiquated and vulgar. The writer of the Bellum Alexandrinum uses a larger number of diminutives within his short treatise than Caesar in nearly ten times the space; postquam and ubi are used with the pluperfect subjunctive; there are numerous forms unknown to the best Latin, like tristimonia, exporrigere, cruciabiliter and convulnero; potior is followed by the accusative, a simple relative by the subjunctive. There is also a very common use of the pluperfect for the imperfect, which seems a mark of this plebeius sermo (Nipperdey, Quaest. Caes. pp. 13-30). Another example of what we may call the Latin of business life is supplied by See also:Vitruvius. Besides the obscurity of many of his technical expressions, there is a roughness and looseness in his language, far removed from a literary style; he shares the incorrect use of the pluperfect, and uses plebeian forms like calefaciuntur, faciliter, expertiones and such careless phrases as rogavit Archimedem uti in se sumeret See also:sibi de eo cogitationem. At a somewhat later stage we have, not merely plebeian, but also provincial Latin represented in the Satyricon of See also:Petronius. The narrative and the poems which are introduced into it are written in a style distinguished only by the ordinary peculiarities of See also:silver Latinity; but in the numerous conversations the distinctions of language appropriate to the various speakers are accurately preserved; and we have in the talk of the slaves and provincials a perfect storehouse of words and constructions of the greatest linguistic value. Among the unclassical forms and constructions may be noticed masculines like fetus, vinus, balneus, fericulus and lactem (for See also:lac), striga for strix, gaudimonium and tristimonium, sanguen, manducare, nutricare, melestare, nesapius (sapius = Fr. See also:sage), rostrum (= as), i psimus (= See also:master), scordalias, baro, and numerous diminutives like camella, audaculus, potiuncula. savunculum, offla, peduclus, corcillum, with constructions such as maledicere and persuadere with the accusative, and adiutare with the dative, and the deponent forms pudeatur and ridetur. Of especial interest for the Romance languages are astrum (desastre), berbex (brebis), botellus (boyau), improperare, muttus, naufragare. Suetonius (Aug. c. 87) gives an interesting selection of plebeian words employed in conversation by Augustus, who for the rest was something of a purist in his written utterances: ponit assidue et pro stulto baceolum, et pro pullo pulleiaceum, et pro cerrito vacerrosum, et vapide se habere pro male, et betizare pro languere, quod vulgo lachanizare dicitur. The inscriptions, especially those of See also:Pompeii, supply abundant evidence of the corruptions both of forms and of pronunciation common among the vulgar. It is not easy always to determine whether a mutilated form is evidence of a letter omitted in pronunciation, or only in writing; but it is clear that the ordinary See also:man habitually dropped final m, s, and t, omitted n before s, and pronounced i like e. There are already signs of the decay of ae to e, which later on became almost universal. The additions to our vocabulary are slight and unimportant (cf. Corpus Inscr. Lat. iv., with Zangemeister s Indices). 64. To turn to the language of literature. In the dark days of Tiberius and the two succeeding emperors a See also:paralysis seemed to have come upon prose and poetry alike. With the one exception of oratory, literature had long been the utterance of a narrow circle, not the expression of the energies of national life; and now, while all free speech in the popular assemblies was silenced, the nobles were living under a suspicious despotism, which, whatever the See also:advantage which it brought to the poorer classes and to the provincials, was to them a reign of terror. It is no wonder that the fifty years after the See also:accession of Tiberius are a See also:blank as regards all higher literature. Velleius Paterculus, See also:Valerius Maximus, See also:Celsus and See also:Phaedrus give specimens of the Latin of the time, but the style of no one of these, classical for the most part in vocabulary, but occasionally approaching the later usages in syntax, calls for special See also:analysis. The elder Seneca in his collection of suasoriae and controversiae supplies examples of the barren quibblings by which the See also:young Romans were trained in the rhetorical schools. A course of instruction, which may have been of service when its end was efficiency in active public life, though even then not without its serious draw-backs, as is shown by Cicero in his treatise De Oratore, became seriously injurious when its object was merely idle display. Prose came to be overloaded with See also:ornament, and borrowed too often the language, though not the genius, of poetry; while poetry in its turn, partly owing to the fashion of recitation, became a string of rhetorical points. 6s. Seneca, Persius and See also:Lucan.—In the writers of See also:Nero's age there are already plain indications of the evil effects of the rhetorical schools upon language as well as literature. The leading man of letters was undoubtedly Seneca the younger, " the Ovid of prose "; and his style set the model which it became the fashion to imitate. But it could not commend itself to the See also:judgment of sound critics like Quintilian, who held firmly to the great masters of an earlier time. He admits its brilliance, and the fertility of its pointed reflections, but charges the author justly with want of self-See also:restraint, jerkiness, frequent repetitions and See also:tawdry tricks of rhetoric. Seneca was the worst of models, and pleased by his very faults. In his tragedies the rhetorical elaboration of the style only serves to bring into prominence the frigidity and frequent See also:bad taste of the matter. But his diction is on the whole fairly classical; he is, in the words of See also:Muretus, vetusti sermonis diligentior quam quidam inepte fastidiosi suspicantur. In Persius there is a constant straining after rhetorical effect, which fills his verses with harsh and obscure expressions. The careful choice of diction by which his master Horace makes every word tell is exaggerated into an endeavour to gain force and freshness by the most contorted phrases. The sin of allusiveness is fostered by the fashion of the See also:day for See also:epigram, till his lines are barely intelligible after repeated reading. See also:Conington happily suggested that this style was assumed only for satiric purposes, and pointed out that when not writing See also:satire Persius was as simple and unaffected as Horace himself. This view, while it relieves Persius of much of the censure which has been directed against his want of judgment, makes him all the more typical a representative of this stage of silver Latinity. In his contemporary Lucan we have another example of the faults of a style especially attractive to the young, handled by a youth of brilliant but ill-disciplined powers. The Pharsalia abounds in spirited rhetoric, in striking epigram, in high See also:sounding declamation; but there are no flights of sustained See also:imagination, no ripe See also:wisdom, no self-control in avoiding the exaggerated or the repulsive, no mature See also:philosophy of life or human destiny. Of all the Latin poets he is the least Virgilian. It has been said of him that he corrupted the style of poetry, not less than Seneca that of prose. 66. See also:Pliny, Quintilian, See also:Frontinus.—In the elder Pliny the same tendencies are seen occasionally breaking out in the midst of the prosaic and inartistic form in which he gives out the stores of his cumbrous erudition. Wherever he attempts a loftier tone than that of the See also:mere compiler, he falls into the tricks of Seneca. The nature of his encyclopaedic subject matter naturally makes his vocabulary very extensive; but in syntax and general tone of language he does not differ materially from contemporary writers. Quintilian is of interest especially for the sound judgment which led him to a true appreciation of the writers of Rome's golden age. He set himself strenuously to resist the tawdry rhetoric fashionable in his owh time, and to hold up before his pupils purer and loftier models. His own criticisms are marked by excellent taste, and often by great happiness of expression, which is pointed without being unduly epigrammatic. But his own style did not escape, as indeed it hardly could, the influences of his time; and in many small points his language falls short of classical purity. There is more approach to the simplicity of the best models in Frontinus, who furnishes a striking proof that it was rather the corruption of literary taste than any serious change in the language of ordinary cultivated men to which the prevalent style was due. Writing on practical matters—the art of See also:war and the water-supply of Rome—he goes straight to the point without rhetorical flourishes; and the ornaments of style which he occasionally introduces serve to embellish but not to distort his thought. 67. The See also:Flavian Age.—The epic poets of the Flavian age present a striking contrast to the writers of the Claudian period. As a strained originality was the cardinal See also:fault of the one school, so a tame and slavish following of authority is the mark of the other. The general correctness of this period may perhaps be ascribed (with See also:Merivale) partly to the See also:political conditions, partly to the See also:establishment of professional schools. Teachers like Quintilian must have done much to repress extravagance of thought and language; but they could not kindle the spark of genius. Valerius See also:Flaccus, Silius Italicus and Papinius Statius are all correct in diction and in rhythm, and abound in learning; but their inspiration is drawn from books and not from nature or the See also:heart; details are elaborated to the injury of the impression of the whole; every line is laboured, and overcharged with epigrammatic rhetoric. Statius shows by far the greatest natural ability and freshness; but he attempts to fill a broad See also:canvas with See also:drawing and colouring suited only to a See also:miniature. Juvenal exemplifies the tendencies of the language of his time, as moulded by a singularly powerful mind. A careful study of the earlier poets, especially Virgil and Lucan, has kept his language up to a high standard of purity. His style is eminently rhetorical; but it is rhetoric of real power. The concise brevity by which it is marked seems to have been the result of a deliberate attempt to See also:mould his natural diffuseness into the form recognized as most appropriate for satire. In his verses we notice a few metrical peculiarities which represent the pronunciation of his age, especially the shortening of the final -o in verbs, but as a rule they conform to the Virgilian standard. In See also:Martial the tendency of this period to witty epigram finds its most perfect embodiment, combined with finished versification. . 68. Pliny the Younger and Tacitus.—The typical prose-writers of this time are Pliny the younger and Tacitus. Some features of the style of Tacitus are See also:peculiar to himself; but on the whole the following statement represents the tendencies shared in greater or less degree by all the writers of this period. The gains See also:lie mainly in the direction of a more varied and occasionally more effective syntax; its most striking defect is a lack of harmony in the periods, of arrangements in words, of variety in particles arising from the loose connexion of sentences The vocabulary is .extended, but there are losses as well as gains. Quintilian's remarks are fully See also:borne out by the evidence of extant authorities: on the one hand, quid quod nihil lam proprium placet, dum parum creditur disertum, quod et alius dixisset (viii. prooem. 24); a corruptissimo quoque poetarum ifguras seu translationes mutuamur; turn demum ingeniosi scilicet, si ad intelligendos nos See also:opus sit ingenio (ib. 25); sordet ovine quod nature dictavit (ib. 26); on the other hand, nunc utique, cum haec exercitatio procul a veritate seiuncta laboret incredibili verborum fastidio, ac sibi magnam partem sermonis absciderit (viii. 3, 23), multa cotidie ab antiquis *la moriuntur (ib. 6, 32). A writer like Suetonius therefore did good service in introducing into his writings terms and phrases borrowed, not from the rhetoricians, but from the usage of daily life. 69. In the vocabulary of Tacitus there are to be noted : i. Words borrowed (consciously or unconsciously) from the classical poets, especially Virgil, occurring for the most part also in contemporary prose. Of these Drager gives a list, of ninety-five (Syntax and Slil des Tacitus, p. 96). 2. Words occurring only, or for the first time, in Tacitus. These are for the most part new formations or compounds from stems already in use, especially verbal substantives in -tor and -sae, -tus and -sus, -tura and -mentum, with new frequentatives. 3. Words used with a meaning (a) not found in earlier prose, but sometimes borrowed from the poets, e.g. componere, " to See also:bury " scripture, " a writing "; ferratus " armed with a See also:sword "; (b) peculiar to later writers, e.g. numerosus, " numerous"; famosus, ' famous " decollate, " to behead " imputare, " to take See also:credit for," &c. ; (c) restricted to Tacitus himself, e.g. dispergere=divolgare. Generally speaking, Tacitus likes to use a simple verb instead of a See also:compound one, after the fashion of the poets, employs a pluperfect for a perfect, and (like Livy and sometimes Caesar) aims at vividness and variety by retaining the present and perfect subjunctive in indirect speech even after historical tenses. Collective words are followed by a plural far more commonly than in Cicero. The See also:ellipse of a verb is more frequent. The use of the cases approximates to that of the poets, and is even more free. The accusative of See also:limitation is common in Tacitus, though never found in Quintilian. Compound verbs are frequently followed by the accusative where the dative might have been expected; and the Virgilian construction of an accusative with middle and passive verbs is not unusual. The dative of purpose and the dative with a substantive in place of a genitive are more common with Tacitus than with any writer. The ablative of separation is used without a preposition, even with names of countries and with common nouns; the ablative of place is employed similarly without a preposition; the ablative of time has sometimes the force of duration; the instrumental ablative is employed even of persons. A large extension is given to the use of the quantitative genitive after neuter adjectives and pronouns, and even adverbs, and to the genitive with active participles; and the genitive of relation after adjectives is (probably by a Graecism) very freely employed. In regard to prepositions, there are special uses of cztra, erga, iuxta and tenus to be noted, and a frequent tendency to interchange the use of a preposition with that of a simple case in corresponding clauses. In subordinate sentences quod is used for " the fact that," and sometimes approaches the later use of "that"; the infinitive follows many verbs and adjectives that do not admit of this construction in classical prose; the accusative and infinitive are used after negative expressions of doubt, and even in modal and hypothetical clauses. Like Livy, the writers of this time freely employ the subjunctive of repeated action with a relative, and extend its use to relative conjunctions, which he does not. In clauses of comparison and proportion there is frequently an ellipse of a verb (with nihil aliud yuam, ut, tanquam) ; tanquam, quasi and velut are used to imply not comparison but alleged reason; quip and quominus are inter-changed at See also:pleasure. Quamquam and quamvis are commonly followed by the subjunctive, even when denoting facts. The free use of the genitive and dative of the gerundive to denote purpose is common in Tacitus, the former being almost limited to him. Livy's practice in the use of participles is extended even beyond the limits to which he restricts it. It has been calculated that where Caesar uses five participial clauses, Livy has sixteen. Tacitus twenty-four. In his compressed brevity Tacitus may be said to be individual; tat in the poetical colouring of his diction, in the rhetorical See also:cast of his sentences, and in his love for picturesqueness and variety he is a true representative of his time. 70. Suetonius.—The language of Suetonius is of interest as giving a specimen of silver Latinity almost entirely free from personal idiosyncrasies; his expressions are See also:regular and straight-forward, clear and business-like; and, while in grammar he xvL yldoes not attain to classical purity, he is comparatively free from rhetorical affectations. 71. The See also:African Latinity.'—A new era commences with the accession of See also:Hadrian (riq), As the preceding half century had been marked by the influence of See also:Spanish Latinity (the Senecas, Lucan, Martial, Quintilian), so in this the African style was See also:paramount. This is the period of affected archaisms and pedantic learning, combined at times with a reckless love of innovation and experiment, resulting in the creation of a large number of new formations and in the adoption of much of the plebeian dialect. See also:Fronto and See also:Apuleius mark a strong reaction against the culture of the preceding century, and for evil far more than for good the See also:chain of literary tradition was broken. The language which had been unduly refined and elaborated now relapsed into a tasteless and confused patch-work, without either harmony or brilliance of colouring. In the case of the former the subject matter is no set-off against the inferiority of the style. He deliberately attempts to go back to the obsolete diction of writers like Cato and Ennius. We find compounds like altipendulus, nudiustertianus, tolutiloquentia, diminutives such as matercella, anulla, passercula, studiolum, forms like congarrire, disconcinnus, pedetemptius, desiderantissimus (passive), conticinium; gaudeo, oboedio and perfungor are used with an accusative, modestus with a genitive. On the other hand he actually attempts to revive the form asa for are. In Apuleius the archaic See also:element is only one element in the queer mixture which constitutes his style, and it probably was not intended to give the tone to the whole. Poetical and prosaic phrases, Graecisms, solecisms, jingling assonances, quotations and coinages apparently on the See also:spur of the moment, all appear in this wonderful medley. There are found such extraordinary genitives as sitire beatitudinis, cenae pignerarer, incoram omnium, foras corporis, sometimes heaped one upon another as fluxos vestium Arsacidas et frugum pauperes Ityraeos et odorum divites Arabas. Diminutives are coined with reckless freedom, e.g. diutule, longule, mundule amicta et altiuscule sub ipsas papillas succinctula. He confesses himself that he is writing in a language not familiar to him. In urbe Latia advena studiorum Quiritium indigenam sernzonem aerumnabili labore, nullo magistro praeeunte, aggressus excolui; and the general impression of his style fully bears out his See also:confession. See also:Melanchthon is hardly too severe when he says that Apuleius brays like his own See also:ass. The language of Aulus See also:Gellius is much See also:superior in purity; but still it abounds in rare and archaic words, e.g. edulcare, recentari, aeruscator, and in meaningless frequentatives like solitavisse. He has some admirable remarks on the pedantry of those who delighted in obsolete expressions (xi. 7) such as apluda, See also:focus and bovinator; but his practice falls far short of his theory. 72. The Lawyers.—The style of the eminent lawyers of this period, foremost among whom is See also:Gaius, deserves especial notice as showing well one of the characteristic excellences of the Latin language. It is for the most part dry and unadorned, and in syntax departs occasionally from classical usages, but it is clear, terse and exact. Technical terms may cause difficulty to the ordinary reader, but their meaning is always precisely defined; new compounds are employed. whenever the subject requires them, but the capacities of the language rise to the demands made upon it; and the conceptions of See also:jurisprudence have never been more adequately expressed than by the great Romanist jurists. (A. S, W.; R. S. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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