Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/686

Rh 662 ROMANCE LANGUAGES which, in Modern South Italian, have lived through the levelling influence of the north dialect. Between the Umbrians and the Oscans lay the Sabellians, occupying linguistically as geographically a middle position, yet somewhat nearer to the north dialect than to the south. To the west of Umbria lay the mysterious Etruria, whose language, preserved in numerous inscriptions, has long been an unsolved riddle and is still a matter of dispute, some considering it as utterly unconnected with Italic or even Aryan, some, as Deecke and Sophus Bugge, thinking it Aryan, intermediate between Greek and Italic, but partly decayed. In the last respect it has much in common with Umbrian, but its tendency to a rapid and slovenly utter- ance is still more distinctly traceable than in Umbrian. Of the other languages spoken in old Italy, such as Messapian, Celtic, Venetian, and Ligurian, too little is known to enable us to form an estimate of their phonetic character ; but in general we see the peculiarities of North Latin penetrating more or less everywhere, in the north of Italy and in Spain (subjected at the end of the 3d century B.C.), as well as in Gaul, of which the southern part, Pro- vincia (later Provence), was subjected first, and the rest, by Caesar, in the 1st century B.C. All these countries were rapidly Latinized ; but the provincial dialects did not always follow the phonetic development of the mother speech, just as American does not always follow the changes of English. Old Popular Latin. A. Phonetics. 1. Final consonants, especially s^m, partly t, d, r, were feebly pronounced and often dropped in writing : s in nomina- tives, as Cornelia (T. Scip. ), 2 even Ennius wrote ccrtissimu' nuntiu' mortis ; gen. aedem Serapi (in a law) ; ace. viro' nostros (Plant. ). In verse s was not counted in the metre till the manhood of Cicero, who, though he had himself followed the earlier use in his youth, calls it " subrusticum, " which shows that it continued in the country. This agrees with Umbrian, where s was often dropped, as Iknvinu 3 Iguvini (nom. plur. ), ogre agri (gen.), &c. ; with North Latin, as matr&na Pisaurese (nom. plur. ; at Pisaurum); maxomo maximus, zenatuo (gen. at Falerii) = Old Lat. senatuos ; militare (nom. ; at Tusculum) looks quite Italian. M was often dropped, as in the well-known hone oino duonoro optumo fuise viro (T. Scip.). It was, by the express statement of Quintilian, obscurely pronounced (see LATIN), and must have been very loosely articu- lated, the lips probably only approaching, not closing, much like Polish Dabrowski (Dombrowski), which gives a sound between a feeble m and a nasal vowel. In Umbrian this dropping of the m is frequent, as poplo for populum, and in Faliscan sacru, datu. T, on the contrary, was generally retained in Old Latin, but frequently dropped in Umbrian, as dede dedit, habe habet, habia habeat ; likewise in North Latin, as dede dedit, dedro and dedrot for dederunt (T. Pis. ) ; dede (Tibur) ; cupa and cupat for cubat (Fal. ). Some- times d was used, as fecid (Prseneste), in Osc. fefacid, deded. In the perfects, however, d is perhaps the older sound. D is the final consonant that was first dropped, as in in altod marid (Col. Rostr.), a Gnaivod patre, but also longa vita (T. Scip)., later fre- quently. Pate(r), soro(r), colo(r), occur in Plautus with r dropped or slightly pronounced (not counted in the metre) ; in pate(r) venit (Terence ; see LATIN) ; in Fal. uxo, mate ; in ^quian uxo ; and in Ital. /rate, suora, moglic. N was dropped in tame(n) sus- picor (Ter. ) ; Umb. name and numem, pointing perhaps to a weak uasal vowel ; Ital. nome. 2. D after vowels sometimes became r, as ar ad, arvorsum adversum, arfuise, arger agger, rustic ar me advenias (Plaut., True., ii. 2) ; it was retained in classical Latin in arbiter, arccsso, meridies. In Old Umbrian d constantly changes to a peculiar sound, here transcribed d, in Later Umbrian spelt rs, as ad, ars ad, petur- pursus quadrupedibus, dupursus bipeaibus. This sound appears to be only a less trilled variety of the Roman sound. In some few instances this old r reappears later, as in Mediaeval Lat. armes- sarius (Lex Salica), in Roum. arm^sariu, Ital. drgine, Yen. drzare, Span. drcctt=Lat. arger (agger). In Modern South Italian r for d is quite common, as Neap, rurece, Sicil. efoma=ItaL d6dici, Lat. duodecim. 1 There is nothing to prove that this s was voiced, like Eng. z ; probably it was voiceless and weakly articulated, much the same as in Andalusian lo(h) padre, for Span, los pculres, "the parents." Rostrata ; Bncch., Epistola Consolum de Bacchanalibus ; T. Pis., Tituli Pisaur- enses ; L. Lat., Low or Late Latin ; * before a word means hypothetical. 3 Spaced letters signify the inscriptions in the national character, generally supposed to be older ; italics mean the inscriptions in Roman letters, supposed to be younger. 3. Zfor s is found in some unintelligible fragments of the Carmen Saliarc, mentioned by Varro (L.L., vii. 26), but in the text he says that the ancients used s for r. Coz(ano), but also Cosano, is found on two old coins from Cosa, though here z may be due to Oscan influence. On the other hand, vcler, quirquir, were found in the ancient augural books, perhaps Etruscan Latin(?). But the ordinary form of Old Latin was s, as in asa, honos, honosis, flosem, Loses, Fusius, Papisius, Valesius. Not z, but s or ss was used to render Greek f, Sagunlum, comissor, massa ; in this last word (Fr. masse) the present pronunciation still testifies to the old voiceless sound. Thus the whole theory of the ancient Latin z becomes somewhat doubtful ; yet it is probable that it existed in the oldest prehistoric Latin, and that forms like *easum rcsum were pronounced with z, like the Osc. eizazunc egmazum (same meaning). Later on s (z) passed into r, folloAving in this the Umb. urnasiaru, pracatarum, &c. In most words Latin now got r, even in some where Umbrian retained s ; comp. Lat. ara with Umb. asa, Lat. plenarius, ordinarius with Umb. plenasier, urnasier. In Lat. nasus nares the relation must be somewhat like that in A.S. cedsan, ceds curon, gccoren (choose, chose, chosen), probably owing to an original difference of accent. In many cases where Latin retained s it was originally double, as in caussa, cassits ( = cad- tus), thus spelt by Cicero and Virgil (Quint., i. 7, 20) ; formonsus and formossus ; this is the reason why Italian has always s hard (voiceless) in cosa (Yen. cossa), doloroso, &c., as Ascoli has shown. Thus, every 2 or voiced s having passed into r, the sound z must have disappeared from the language, and it was only much later that it was reintroduced. The sound of z seems to be especially at home on Celtic ground ; the voiceless sound still exists in the south of Italy (Rome, Naples, Sicily) and of Spain. The English pronunciation of Latin words like morose, jocose, and of Greek words like dosis, crisis, is probably due to ancient tradition. 4. N was often dropped before s, as cosol consol, ccsor censor, coscntiont (T. Scip.), iiw(n)strare, Mostcllaria (Plaut. ) ; even fes- tram for fenestram (feristram ; Ennius) ; Alliesis dies dicebatur (Fest.); mescs (inscr. Neap.), &c. ; nearly always formossus, for- mosus for formonsus (see 3). This agrees with Umb. Eikvctscsc and N. Lat. Pisaurese, Pomp, castresis, peso, and reappears in Ital. Milanese, Genovcse, mese, pesare, Fr. mots, peser. In Latin n generally did not quite disappear, but was feebly pronounced, very like French n in penscr, or probably still more like the Polish nasal vowel in mie_so, "flesh," g$6, "goose," half vowel, half consonant. By this partial absorption of n the preceding vowel was lengthened, co n sol. Cicero expressly mentions Insanus, Gellius pensito, the grammarians mons, mens, gens. The same was the case before /, as Infelix mentioned by Cicero ; n sometimes dropped before r, coventionid (Bacch., 187 B.C.) ; comp. Umb. kuveitu convehito, kuvertu convertito, Fr. convent, Eng. covcnt, covenant. N is rarely dropped before t and d except in N. Lat. dedro(t] (T. Pis.) ; but this does not count, as the t was mute. Cicero testifies to Indoctus, which proves the full sound of n. The spellings tamlae, sentemtiam, damda, tuemdam, &c., of the Lex Julia (45 B.C.) are probably only analogical from eumdem, camdcm, &c., pronounced n. M disappears in Poponi, Seproni, but perhaps only apparently, as Priscian tells us that medial m, as in umbra, had a middling force, not the obscure sound of final m. In most old spellings, as in the Scandinavian Runes, we frequently find nasals dropped before corresponding "mutes" or stops, where there is no suspicion of an obscured sound, e.g., in Run. LAT for land the nasal is simply understood. Likewise in Umbrian the older ustetu is shown by the Latin spelling to mean ostendu, &c. In Modern Romance only Celtic districts have produced nasal vowels. 6. If is sometimes dropped from the 2d century B.C. downwards " Parcissime ea [H littera] veteres usi etiatn in vocalibus, quum oedos [read acdos] ircosque dicebant " (Quint., i. 5, 20); "iu Latio rure cdus, in urbe aedus" (Varro), for haedi(s=Goih. gaits, "goat"; likewise olera, asta (Varro) ; in Marsian Lat. Irtius for Hirtius, Ostilius ; comp. Umb. ere iu = heritu "velit." H must have had a rather feeble sound, something like French h aspirte. 6. Us is found assimilated in russum (rusum), sussum (susum), &c., in MSS. of Plautus and Cato, and in some inscriptions, always inprosa (but prorsus) and cena, Umb. cersnatur "cenati," dos- suarius (Varro) ; "sic et dossum per duo s . . . quidam ut levius enuntiaverunt " (Vel. Long.). Comp. Umb. Tursce, Tuscom "Tus- cum"; Ligurian Lat. siiso (bronze tablet near Genoa, 117 B.C.). But this assimilation was never carried out consistently ; we have L. Lat. susum et jusum (sursum et deorsum), Ital. su c giii, older suso e giuso ; dosso, but corso, verso, orso (ursus), Fr. ours, Span. oso. 7. /was doubled between vowels, as in "antiqui maiius," which Priscian distinctly explains to have been pronounced with the sound of i consonant (Eng. y in you), and " Pompciii ut si dicas Pom- pelli." Cicero spelt aiio, Maiiam; "quod si est, etiam jungetur [i] ut consonans (Quint., i. 4, 11). Comp. also Osc. Pomjxtiians. Out of the older and popular majjus, pejjus grew Ital. maggio, peggio, whereas classical Latin had majus, pejus. orjilius=jiljus, see 23 below, p. 664. 8. V occurs in Old Lat. perplovere perpluere (comp. pluvia), Nasal,
 * Abbreviations r. Scip., Tituli (Elogia) Scipionum ; Col. Rostr., Columna