The way in which vowels developed in prehistoric Latin suggests the possibility of a stress accent on the first syllable of each word in later times, however, the accent fell on the penultimate syllable or, when this had “light” quantity, on the antepenultimate. The most important of the ambiguities bears on Latin intonation and accentuation. Orthography is conventionalized, and grammarians’ comments lack clarity, so that to a considerable extent it is necessary to extrapolate from later developments in Romance in order to describe it. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.Įvidence for pronunciation of Classical Latin is often difficult to interpret. Second, the language continued in a more or less standardized form throughout the Middle Ages as the language of religion and scholarship in this form it had great influence on the development of the West European languages. First, the language developed on the basis of local spoken forms and evolved into the modern Romance languages and dialects. Subsequent development of Latin continued in two ways. Augustine, however, in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, wrote good literary Late Latin. During the Classical and immediate post-Classical periods, numerous inscriptions provide the major source for spoken Latin, but, after the 3rd century ce, many texts in a popular style, usually called Vulgar Latin, were written. Spoken Latin continued to change, and it diverged more and more from the Classical norms in grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Except for the i-stem and consonant stem declensional classes, which it combines into one group (listed in grammar books as the third declension), Latin kept distinct most of the declensional classes inherited from Indo-European.ĭuring the Classical period there were at least three types of Latin in use: Classical written Latin, Classical oratorical Latin, and the ordinary colloquial Latin used by the average speaker of the language. Latin of the Classical period had six regularly used cases in the declension of nouns and adjectives (nominative, vocative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative), with traces of a locative case in some declensional classes of nouns. Early Latin had a stress accent on the first syllable of a word, in contrast to the Latin of the republican and imperial periods, in which the accent fell on either the next or second to the last syllable of a word. It shows the preservation of full vowels in unstressed syllables-in contrast to the language in later times, which has reduced vowels. The oldest example of Latin extant, perhaps dating to the 7th century bce, consists of a four-word inscription in Greek characters on a fibula, or cloak pin. Parlez-vous français? ¿Habla usted español? See how M-U-C-H you know about your A-B-Cs in other languages. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find. Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.
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