Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/690

Rh 666 ROMANCE LANGUAGES (inscr. biling.), Sctutnt, Setimi, Septimius, Umb. scrdhtor, screhto, Ital. Scttimo, Ncttuno, otto aptus, catlivo, scritto. 8. Tt takes the place of ct, as in Sencditus (204), lattuca (Edict. Diocl., 301). This too came from the north ; mtoria occurs on an ancient mirror, probably Etruscan. Comp. Umb. subahtu and snbator, formally =subacti, rehte recte, where h, originally sounded, had become mute or nearly so, which is further proved by the spellings ajnbrehtu, ambretu, ambito, &c. ; comp. tettom^e), probably = Ital. tetto tectmn, just as Ital. retto rectus, atlo actus, otto octo, notte noctem. This change was restricted to Italy ; elsewhere ct became it, as Fr. fait factum, Port, feito, Span. Jiecho ( = *feitjo). Likewise cs (x) became in Italy ss, as in Lat. cossim, vissit, elsewhere i, as Span, and Port, seis, Fr. cuisse, laisser. 4. G before a single e, i becomes palatal (like the old-fashioned Eng. gyarden, &c.) or nearly j (Eng. y in you), so that both are confounded magestati (inscr. before 243) ; cogiugi, conjugi. The sign for J in the Gothic alphabet, taken from Latin 0, shows the pronunciation of the 4th century. 5. Ngn for gn, as congnato, singno, belongs perhaps to this period connato, &c., is also found E. Ital. sengno, now spelt segno, 'with palatal n, degno dignus, regno regnum, &c., Fr. dignc, &c. ; sometimes n(n), as in condscere, Fr. connaUre. There are traces of some other transitions that appear to have been completed only in the next period. 'ocabu- 6. Vocabulary. APULEIUS has sapidus, "savoury" (comp. in- ry. sipidus), Old Fr. sade, whence Fr. maussade (mal-sade) ; morsicare = Ital. ;fotticare, "breathe" (like a bellows), Port, folgar, j3pan. holgar, "rest," "lounge"; masticare, Ital. masticare, Fr. m&cher; minari (equum baculis), "threaten," hence "drive," Ital. menare, Fr. mener; cambiare (better than cambire), Ital. cambiare, Fr. changer; victualis adj., in the 6th century subst. victualia (nom. plur. ), Old Fr. and E. Eng. vitaille, Eng. vittles, spelt etymologically victuals ; aucilla, aucella for avicella, the existence of which had been denied by Varro, L. Lat. aucellus, Ital. uccello, poet, augello, Prov. auzels, Old Fr. oisel, Mod. Fr. oiscau. CJELIUS AURELIANUS (2d or 3d century) has testa, "skull," frequent in the 4th century, Ital. testa, "head," Fr. tete. LAMPRIDIUS (c. 250): papilio = pavilion, pullicenus, Ital. pulcino, Fr. poussin ; pipio, "pigeon"; platea, "place." TERTULLIAN, first Christian author : rememorare, "remember," aeternalis, "eternal," compassio, "compassion," and many other modernisms, such as plus miser = Ital. piu misero, Fr. plus miserable. DIOCLETIAN : fata, parca, Ital. fata, Fr. fee. SOLINUS (c. 3d century): repatriare, "to repair (to)." APICITJS (c. 3d century) : excaldare, Ital. scaldare, Fr. echauder ; spatula, Ital. spalla, Span, espalda, Fr. epaule. IV. Fourth Period : 300 (350) to 500 (550). ourth This period extends from the introduction of Christianity Kriod. to the Middle Ages and the great migrations. Christianity marks an important epoch in the history of the Romance languages. Pagan literature was abhorred, and classical traditions lost. Popular speech got the upper hand ; the gospel was preached to the people in the people's own language, and the New Testament translated into vulgar Latin. Several phonetic changes which formerly had been wavering and uncertain became rapidly fixed and decided. The whole language was revolutionized. 1. Palatal g or/ was developed into dj (like gy in Hung. Magyar = palatal d + Eng. y) or dzh (Eng. f), sometimes dz, and was con- founded with original di Zerax, Hierax (Cumse, 202); Zot/Xioe (pagan inscr.), comp. Diuliali (568), Madias (364), also Mazas= majas, Gianuaria (503), also Zanuari, &c. Italian still retains the sound of dzh in giungere jungere, Giove Jovem, genere, giacire, &c. Original di in Aziabenico (Afr., 195), tnedius, pronounced inedsius according to Servius (4th century) and Consentius (5th century), Ital. mezzo, pronounced med-zo (but giorno from diurnus). 2. Ti was assibilated before vowels ; there are no certain pre- Christian instances. In the 4th century the Gothic laiktjo= lectio shows that the change had only begun ; ci and ti were sometimes confounded, as in ncdXrios calceus (Plut., c. 100 ; Ed. Diocl., 301), oeio (Rome, 389) ; we have ti for si in aecletiae (early Christ, inscr.). In the 5th century the change appears as fully accomplished ; the grammarian Pompeius (probably a Maure- tanian) expressly teaches the pronunciation Titius as Titsius, and Consentius (a Gaul) etiam as eziam, i.e., etsiam. In the 6th century we have the Gothic kavtsjon, cautionem. It is probable that this change too originally came from the north, especially from Etruria, where it was very old : we have Etrus. Ventia Venza, ArnGia Arnza, Etrus. Lat. Vencsi, Vensius, Arnzius (while Umbrian has tertio, Martie, &c.), Mars. Lat. Martses, evidently the source of the Latin Marsi. At length this pronunciation reached the capital and became general, mostly expressed by c, as in eciam, ter- cius, milicia, justicia, stacio, nacionem, &c. The pronunciation ts is confirmed for Spain by Isidore in the 7th century. This sound is still preserved by Italian in words like piazza, gratia, nasivne, giustizia, likewise by Old French, as naciun, place, whereas in Spanish ts has coalesced into a lisped s, as in gracia, nation, and in Portuguese, Provencal, and Modern French it has been assimi- lated into a hard (voiceless) s, as in jrfaca, plassa, place. 3. Ci was assibilated before vowels. In the 4th century we have the Gothic faskja, which shows no change. Schuchardt is probably right in supposing that ci was assibilated a good deal later than ti, an inference from the comparative rarity of instances of change, and from the silence of the grammarians. From instances like ocio (see 2) it would appear that ci and ti had the same sound, but this cannot have been the case, as Italian still keeps up a differ- ence, as in piaccia placeat, piazza platea. Yet there may have been a beginning of a palatal affection, making the two sounds somewhat like each other. In the 6th century we have the Gothic unkjane (unciarum) and OWKIO. in the Ravenna charters, but on the other hand Trpficeiw=precio for pretio, Urbitcius (533, which, however, may be a miscorrection, c being added instead of substituted for t), Mauriscius on a Gaulish coin, from the same period, making it probable that the assibilation had been accomplished. In the 7th and 8th centuries spellings like onzia for uncia are quite common. 4. The most important change of all was the victory of stress Accent over quantity and tones. The popular songs of the classical period and show a decided prevalence of accent. In the soldiers' songs from quantit the end of the 3d century stress has quite superseded quantity and is the ruling principle of the metre : " Unus homo mille, inillc, mille decollavimus. Tantum vini nemo hcibet quantum fudit sangninis." This is just like the metre of early Christian hymns " Dies irae, dies ilia," and "0 Rex aeterne, Ddmine," &c. The old quantities had been levelled. St Augustine (354-430) says that in his time only a few grammarians had kept up the distinction between m&rae and more, and that the Africans confounded Ss and os. Servius (4th century) could only find out quantity from stress in words like impius, amtcus. Consentius says that some, especially Africans, said piper for piper and Srdtor for orator. This does not necessarily mean that all short accented vowels before single consonants had become long ; probably both short and long coalesced to a medial quantity, rather short than long, and there was no very marked difference of quantity between accented and unaccented vowels. This appears plainly from the nature of Romance poetry, where stress has only a moderate importance namely, in the most prominent parts of the verse while the chief principle is the number ef syllables. In Italian, especially in the Tuscan dialect, we may hear bambino with short accented i, the unaccented o being rather longer than the accented i, just as Eng. y in pity, when emphatic, is longer than i. In Spanish words like mdno, primero, scndra the accented vowel is generally as short as the unaccented or even shorter, which does not prevent the Spaniards from count- ing it as " dos tiempos " (duas moras) ; the unaccented final syllables are often rather longer, as in Eng. pity. In Italian the longest syllables are those containing two or more consonants after the accented vowel, as tempo, pazitnza, bdcca, gatto ; the chief difference between fdtto and fdto is the length of the t in the former. In Spanish and French even long consonants are shortened, as Span. boca, gato, Fr. chatte ; jette and achete are equally short ; vowels are generally short or medial, as une belle ville (not like veal, as the English make it), and are long only by compensation, as in dne, chante (where the nasal is absorbed by the vowel). The old distinction of tone necessarily disappeared with these, the acute or high even (Roma) and the circumflex or high falling tone (R6ma) being dependent on the quantities. 5. Vocabulary. AUSONIUS (Burdigala, 309-392) : burrae, nugae, Vocab Ital. burla, "joke." ARNOBIUS (Afr.,c. 330): coquina, Ital. cucma, lary. Fr. cuisine. FIRMICUS MATERNUS (c. 340 ?) : compittus, Ital. conto, Fr. compte. PALLADIUS (c. 350): catus, "cat"; species = r. epices. AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS (end of 4th century) : molina, Ital. molino, Fr. moulin; impedicare ernpecher ; ji7dre = expllare, Fr. piller, Ital. pigliare ; proba, preuve. VEGETIUS (end of 4th cen- tury): burgus, castellum parvum, Ital. borgo, Fr. bourg. JEROME (331-420) : camisia (Celtic), Ital. camicia, Span, camisa, Fr. chemise; carricare, Ital. caricare, Span, cargar, Fr. charger; impostor = Eng. ; rancor, "rancour." THE VULGATE: grossus, Ital. grosso, Fr. gros (see also LATIN). SERVIUS (c. 390) : falco, Ital. falcone, Fr. faucon. LACTANTIUS (d. c. 330) : meridionalis. AUGUSTINE (354-430) : com- binare ; vanitare vanter. CODEX THEODOS. (438) : exagium, Ital. saggio, Fr. essai ; paraveredus, L. Lat. palafredus, Ital. palafreno, Fr. palefroi ; acucula, aiguille. CASSIODORUS (beginning of 6th century) : modernus, "modern." CODEX JUSTINIAN. (527-565) : amicabilis, ' ' am iable. ' ' V. Fifth Period: 500 (550) to c. 900 (1000). This period, which extends from the migrations to the Fift first appearance of the modern Romance languages, is the period age of Low or barbarous Latin, as written especially in charters and laws. While Christianity had brought vulgar