Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/687

Rh ROMANCE LANGUAGES 663 ccmflovvnt (comp. floviom ; flmridus, Lucretius), sovo, suvo, suo, ingenuvae, clovacas. Comp. Umb. tover and tuer, tui; Osc. suvad, &c. It reappears in Petronius, urceatim plovcbat, and in Ital. pibvere, rovina, ve"dova, Geneva, Mdntova, chidvica, Span. llovtr, Fr. pleuvoir. 9. In qu the u after q was only a lip glide, defined by the grammarians as "neither vowel nor consonant," as it did not count in the metre. It was therefore easily dropped altogether, as in Cinti for Quincti in an old inscription. This was especially peculiar to Etruscan Latin, as in the very old Aecetiai Aequitiae, Tarcna, Etrus. Tarxnas, Tarquinius. Instances occur later every- where, as cocus for coquus, cottidie (Lex Julia), &c. ; L. Lat. cinque, cinquaginta (Edict. Diocl., 301); Ital. chi qui, che quid, cubcere coquere, cucina = vi.g. Lat. coquina ( = culina), cinque, &c. But generally Italian retains qu with the old sound, quinto, quanto, Span, cuanlo, but que, quinto ( = k), Fr. qu = k. eek 10. The Old Romans, having no aspirates in their own speech, pirates, could not pronounce the Greek , x> # but generally turned them into p, c, t, as Pilippus $i nros, Prune Qptivr}, colapus, Baccmal. In some words the old popular pronunciation continued later, as class, ampulla, purpura ; Silver Age, percolopabant (Petron.) ; Mediaeval, colopus, colpus, Ital. colpo, Fr. coup ; spaera, Old Ital. spcra (Dante), Early Eng. spere (Chaucer), vulg. Eng. spear, "sphere"; Josepus, Ital. Giuseppe; Stepajnus, Span. Esteban, Slav. Stepan. 11. Greek initial IT was often rendered b, as Burrus H.vpp6s, also adj., "burrum antiqui quod nunc dicimus rufum" (Fest.) ; hence, through bur(r)eus, Ital. bujo, "dark"; likewise buxus irv%6s, Ital. busso, bosso, Fr. bids, "box tree"; from irvl-is, class, pyxis, popu- lar and L. Lat. buxis, buxida, Fr. botte. 12. Rafter vowels is rare in Latin, but frequent in Umbro-Oscan, as Umb. prufe probe, Osc. amprufid improbe, Safinim Samnium (*Sabinium), corresponding in cognate words to Greek aspirates where Latin commonly had b : Lat. vafer, "sly," orig. "varius"; comp. vabrum "varium" (Gloss. Isid. ), Umb. vufru. The re- lation between Lat. rufus, Umb. rofu and Lat. rubcr is very like that between nasus and nares, or that between veho and lingo, ligurio as representing Gr. x- We may suppose that /is the older and stronger common Italic form, sometimes retained in old popular Latin speech, partly by provincial influence. We find sifilare for sibilare mentioned as archaic by Nonius, as vulgar in the appendix to Probus, Ital. zufolare, Fr. siffler. F is preserved in many pro- vincial names, as Safinius (Petron. ) and Tifernum, Ital. Tiferno. We find this /again in the Italian tafdno tabanus, lufolo bubalus, Eng. buffalo. The Neapolitan attnife, " October," has a very Oscan appearance. iwels. 13. Old Latin often prefers short e, especially original and un- accented, to i, as in dcdet,fuet (T. Scip.), cepet, refecet (Col. Rostr. ), vdet (Bacch.), Condetios (inscr. ), acetare = agetare (Fest.), dubemis dominus (Fest.), componeto (Cato), gcnetrix, mcreto, calecare (inscr.), famelia, magester (Quint. ). It stands for radical i, mostly orig. e, as in en, endo = Gr. ev, semul (Plaut.) comp. Ital. insieme, Fr. en- semble; Menerva (inscr., and mentioned by Quintilian). Sometimes it stands even for original i, as tempestatebus, aidiles (T. Scip. ), navebos, navaled, but marid (Col. Rostr.), sei ques, si quis (Bacch.). This is quite Umbrian ; comp. kanetu canito, urfetam orbitam, fratreks "fratricus," fa$efele = ~L. Lat. facibilis, Old Fr. fesible feasible, famedias familiae (nom. plur.), kvestretie quaestura, formed like Lat. segnities. In North Latin we find Etrus. Lat. Aecetiai Aequitiae ; Umb. Lat. Publece, menesterium, (T. Pis.) Apolenei, dede, Nome(lia) ; Mars, dedet, mereto ; and rustic "rustici etiam nunc quoque viam vcham appellant " (Varro). E, being more subject to be obscured than i, is not unfrequently dropped, as in cante for *canete, class, canite (Carm. Sali.), Numtoriai (inscr. c. 290 B.C.), oinvorsei (Bacch.), unversum (Lucretius), caldus (Cato), ardiis, frigdaria (Lucilius) ; always fert, ferte Qtpere. Popular Latin here approached the North dialect, where such syncopes were constant : comp. Umb. nomne nomine, termnu termino, postro postero ; they were still more violent in Etruscan, as Elxsentre Alexander, Sehtmnal Septimiena nata, Tarxnas Tarquinius ; Pis. Lat. dedro(t) dederunt, Lebro Liberum ; Umb. Lat. cedre cedere, &c. South Latin, on the contrary, favoured i (see below). 14. Of long i Lucilius distinguishes two kinds close (i tenue), as in plla, " mortar," and open (i pingue), approaching to e, written ei, as in peilum, "spear," meilia, "thousands " ; he might have added feilius, "son," comp. felare, 6^. There was an original diph- thong ei, as in deicere, Osc. deicum, Gr. SeiKvfoai, which was early contracted into this middle sound, exactly like Eng. ey in money from Old Fr. moneie. This too is quite Umbrian, spelt ei and ee, c, as enetu inito, Arch. Lat. eneito, feliuf filios, screihtor, screhto scripti, preve privus, Ioveine= Ijovine, Iguvini; comp. the datives Jitve palre, meJie, tefe (tibi), Osc. Diuvei, patere* ; also Umb. Lat. /eZ = filius, and Pis. Lebro. In North Latin datives in e are gener- ally constant (Apolenei, Pis., uncontracted), as Junone matre, Jove, patre, Marie, &c. , extending sometimes even farther south ; and Gallo-Lat. nise (Lex Rubr. de Gall. Cisalp.). Livy used sibe and quase (originally -ei). This exactly agrees with the rustic pro- nunciation vella, speca recorded by Varro, leber by Festus "ab antiquis et ameci et amecae per e litteram efferebantur " (Fest.). And this again surprisingly agrees with the Modern Emilian (Romagnu61o) pronunciation, as Bolognese mega mica, deg dico, mill mille, plur. mela = lta.l. mila, vela vita, mare" marito, prim primo. Thus this old rustic sound seems to have extended north- wards, but later to have been driven from its old home by the classic close i, which penetrated everywhere else, and is generally represented in all the Romance languages. 15. Old Latin often prefers short o, especially original and un- accented, to u, as in consol (T. Scip.), tdbola (Bacch.), pocolom (many old inscr.), popolum (Tab. Bantina), epistola= tiriaToMi, Patricoles, Hercoles, colpa (Prise.), Volcanom (inscr. 3d century B.C.), volgo and volt, &c. (Plaut. ; o after v continued in the classical age), sont sunt, cosentiont (T. Scip. ), denontiari (Tab. Bant. ) ; in termina- tions Venos, opos, robose, filios, and Luciom, &c. (T. Scip.); in Umb ace. poplo, salvo, tertio ; even for orig. u aseriato eest, observa- tum ibit ; radical wioZtomulta, "fine," onse (h)umero, Ital. timero, Span, ombro, somo summo (orig. sup-mo), Ital. sdmmo ; in North Latin moltaticod (T. Piceu. ) ; in Fal. maxomo, zenatuo ; and in Ligurian Latin floviom, infumo, suso (bronze tablet near Genoa, 1 1 7 B. c. ). reappears in Late Latin and Italian m6lto, ddlce, &c. Medial o is often dropped before I, as in omni poplo (Plaut. Pseud.), teglarius (inscr.), Fostlus (Faustulus, 114 B.C.), Hercle (Plaut), singlariter (Lucr. ) comp. Fr. sanglier, Ital. cinghiale coplata (Lucr.) ; in some cases, as poclum, periclum, the contraction does not appear till the empire ; at Pompeii anglata, subla, &c. As Umbrian always has contraction, pihaclom, anglom, Treblanir, vithi, katlu, stiplo, whilst Oscan distinguishes diminutive forms like zicolom, zicelei, ziculud from such forms as sakaraklom, pestlom, the strongest impulse must have come from the north, although there must have been a pretty general tendency to syncope every- where. In Italian contraction is the rule in popular words, as vecchio for vet'lus, Late veclus, occhio oc'lus, &c. Inpbpolo, tdwla, isola, &c., and diminutives like rivolo and gdndola, the original vowel has remained throughout. South Latin favoured u (see below). 16. The use of o for e after v is shown by Old Lat. oinvorsei, vortere; in vostrum (Plaut., Ambrosian palimpsest), the original sound (from vos) occurs, which must have been universal in popular speech, since it reappears in Late Latin and all the Romance lan- guages Ital. vostro, Fr. votre, &c. There was a tradition that Scipio Africanus had been the first to spell these words with e (Quint., i. 7, 25). Here Umbrian distinguished between e and o, as in vestra, covertu (pres.), but covortus (perf.); Lat. vorsare is perhaps Span. vosar, bosar, "to vomit"; in other words e is now universal. 17. U occurred for i before labials ; but the old optumo has scarcely left any trace, yet Ital. has menomo besides minima. Later u was pronounced with the sound of ii, Gr. v, Fr. u, which at last was turned into i, as in optimus, Ital. ottimo. But in some few words the old popular form has survived stupula, Ital. stdppia, Fr. ttouble, " stubble, " dissupare, Ital. sciupare. 18. U stands for o " Frundes, funtes vetustissimi ; quae tamen a primoribus repudiata sunt, quasi rustico more dicta" (Prise.) contrary to the general rule (see 15). Spellings like muns, muntem, funtem abound in Late Latin, as puntifex (already in 98 A.D. ), SeirTo/xowTi'v (Plut., c. 100) ; whence Old Fr. and Old Eng. munt, "mount," Ital. m6nte, ponte, fdnte with close o. In Sieuese we have even pognere, ponto, Ital. and Florentine pugnere, punto (pungere, punctum) ; the connexion, however, of 6 with Old Latin u is doubtful. 19. Greek v was pronounced u, as in Bruges $pi/yes, Burrus, purpura, gubernum, gitbemare, cupressus, the last four also class- ical ; otherwise the classical age adopted the, Greek sound y, as in Cyprus. In popular Latin the old sound remained, and u was sometimes (before r, as in fore) even changed into o, as in storax (Ter. ), ancora (Nsevius). In Low Latin u is frequent : cuprum,, "copper," for which Pliny used Cypriiim (aes) ; comp. bursa, Ital. borsa, Fr. bourse, crupta, Ital. grotta, tumba, Ital. tomba, &c. In popular Latin there was a general tendency to contract the Diph- old diphthongs, in accordance with Umbrian and North Latin. thongs. 20. A u in North Latin began very early to be contracted into long open o, as Pola (inscr. Picen., 218 B.C.). In Umbrian this is a constant law ote aut, Ital. o, Umb. toru tauros, Ital. toro, &c. The only form of the oldest Roman Latin was au, as Taurasia, (P)aulla (T. Scip.), Claudi (Bacch.). When the Umbriau poet whose provincial name was Plot(u)s settled in Rome in the latter half of the 3d century B.C. his name was Latinized into Plautus. Meanwhile the North Latin b began to penetrate into Latium as rustic, vulgar, and familiar ; Cato and Varro often use it in their books De Re Rustica, as coles (Cato), colis, orata (Varro) : " Orata genus piscis appellatur a colore auri, quod rustici orum dicebant, ut auriculas, oriculas" (Fest.). But in the classical age there was a good deal of reaction against this vulgarism, and there is a well-known anecdote of Mestrius Florus warning the emperor Vespasian against saying plostra, and being next day facetiously greeted by the emperor as Flaurus (Suet., Vesp., 22). At Pompeii