Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/691

Rh ROMANCE LANGUAGES 667 Latin into the foreground, barbarism quite made away with literary Latin. Latin was not only dead but for- gotten. The old sounds and forms had been lost, and the scribes, ignorant of classical grammar, tried neverthe- less to make a show of learning by putting Latin forms at random. This makes the language look much more barbarous than it really was. It is sometimes very hard to find out the living popular form under the Latin varnish, and harder still to find out what is proper to each country, as Low Latin is very much the same everywhere. The following were some of the chief peculiarities. arac- 1. Old Latin forms reappeared, especially in Italy. Final con- istics sonants, especially m, t, s, were dropped or wrongly put. In Italy fifth the nom. annus (-os), the ace. annum (-om), the dat. abl. anno, iod. the ace. plur. annos, coalesced in anno ; as this was the real pro- nunciation, the scribes confounded the Latin forms. There being no longer any difference between in locum and in loco, both were confounded ; even in locus, per locus, &c., were written. The pre- valence of the type anno on the one hand and the growing use of the preposition de for the genitive on the other made the genitive anni disappear, and anni (with which annis coalesced) was used solely for the plural, likewise fiori, monti. Sometimes, as in Old French, the objective form anno, Old Fr. an, was used as a geni- tive, of which H6tel-Dieu is still a remnant. In the same way Ital. rosa became the common singular, rose the common plural form. Out of Italy, final s being retained, the plural form was annos, rosas, florcs, which is the Spanish (aiios] and Portuguese form, and partly the French, as roses, with flcurs and ans as accusatives. In Provencal and Old French s was kept in the nom. sing, masc., ans, but in the nom. plur. the oldest form was i, retained in some Old French monosyllables li illi, dui, trei, tuit from tutti, used in the Gloss, of Cassel ; in polysyllables this i was lost, and an remained, likewise flor (*flori; comp. sapienti, Gloss. Cass.), munt. The verbs canto, cantos, cantat in Spanish only lost t ; in Ital. cantas through cant is (caused by the affinity of s to z) became canti. In French both s and t were kept cJuintc, chantes ; chantet, later cJuinte ; est, vit, vient, and from the analogy of these Mod. Fr. aime-t-il, chante-t-il. Many old tenses were lost, as ama(ve)ram, which even in Latin sometimes had the sense of the simple past (see LATIN), only in the oldest Fr. roveret, roga(ve)rat = rogavit. Ama(v)i be- came Ital. amai, Fr. aimai, and was used as simple past (perfectum historicum) ; the praesens perfectum was expressed by a new tense, as habco amatum (of which early germs are found), Ital. ho amato, Span, he amado, Fr. fai aime". The old future was destroyed and a new future fonned out of amarc habco (of which early traces are found), Old Ital. ameraggio, Mod. Ital. amero, Span, amare, Fr. faimerai, &c. In consequence of the general loss of body, short words dwindled down so much that they became unfit for use, and were superseded by fuller words or reinforced by composition ; this is especially the case in pronouns and particles. As ad became a, Lat. a, ab could no longer keep its ground, and was replaced by de, likewise vis byfortia, &c. (see LATIN). Hie disappeared and was replaced by iste, which remained uucomposed in Span, este, and in the others was composed with ecce, cccum (see above). Abante, Mod. Ital. avanti, Fr. avant, occurs in a pagan inscription. Lat. unde became de undc, Ital. donde ; in Spanish this was further composed with ad, as adonde, and as this in time came to mean "where" a new de had to be added, de adonde, &c. 2. C became assibilated before single e, i. That during all the preceding periods c had the sound of k is proved by Old Latin spellings like dckem ; by Greek transcriptions, as Kuttpuv, Kaia-ap ; by the German renderings Kaiser (Old Eng. cdsere), Keller, " cellar," Kirsche, " cherry," &c., and by the use of c for k in Old English, as in cynne, "kin," cennan, "ken"; by late Latin spellings like ques- gucnti, quiescenti, paclw (Rome, 408), chingxit (Gaul, 676), vachis (Lucca, 722) in Italian still ch = k, as chi quis, che quid ; and lastly dulkisma (Pisaur., 410), ofikina (Gallic vase, end of 6th century; see Romania, xiii. 485). Yet c before e, i must early have had a more palatal sound than before a, o, u, something like the old- fashioned English pronunciation kyard for card. But it was not until very late that the difference became so marked as to be ex- pressed by different letters : the palatal sound began to be assibi- lated into something like Italian ce, ci, Eng. ch (as in child from Old Eng. did), about the 6th century, although perhaps not equally early everywhere. We find mrcwe and tzitane (Ravenna charter, 591), and paze (inscr. about the same time). Ital. c = Eng. ch in pace, died (in Central Italy mostly pronounced sh), dclo ; Span, paz, diez, cielo (lisping s from ts) ; Fr. del (Old ts, Mod. s).
 * cented 3. E for accented I became frequent. As original I and I were no

d un- longer different in quantity, they had to be distinguished by quality ; cented accordingly vlnum became Ital. vino, minus (minus, open i}, Ital. 1 meno, with the same vowel as in vtna from vena ; thus Latin I and e coalesced ; likewise we have scrivo scribo, bevo bibo, sevo sebum, fido fidus, fide fides, crede credit, scritto scriptum, detto dictum. We find traces of this in the Pomp, vcces, Ital. vece. In Low Latin menus, fcdes, &c., are constant. But many who had a little more learning retained the Latin spelling minus, pronouncing meno(s), and by this were induced to write constantly i for close e, especially accented, as habire, vedire, cridere = Ital. avere, vedere, credere; vindere, stilla = ven([ere, stella, Ital. vendere, stella, Piedm. esteila, Old Fr. esteile, Fr. etoile. In some few instances this may represent a provincial i, as in Sicil. aviri, or special cases like Fr. tenir, plaisir, merci. 4. Unaccented e for i, which is frequent in Old Latin and not unfrequent in the post-classical age, returns in Low Latin with re- doubled force. Thus we fmdfedelis (404), later Domenecus, septcmus, decemus, ancma, deposeta, genetor, capete, soledos ; in the Ravenna charters vecedomeno, vendecare, ordenata, &c. ; in Frankish charters decemo, Fr. dime, Domenecus, venerabelis, nobelis, lacrema, caretate, veretate, femcna, placetus, &c. This penetrated even into Central Italy, as in the Tuscan Latin of the 8th century, dedet, placctum, homenis, inviolavelis. In Middle Italian uomeni, in Modern Italian Domcneddio, ospedale, are rare remnants of the earlier form. Gener- ally classical i has prevailed in Florentine and Italian, as uomini, femmina, anima, asino, ordine, spirito. In the Sienese dialect e has remained, as ordendre, cardendle, and in North Italian Venet. bmeni, femena, menestra, brdene, dseno ; Lomb. omen, dsen, ordendri, &c. In Spanish it is not unfrequent drden, umedo, nove- ddd, corred&r ; comp. Prov. lagrema, semenar, conoissedor, and Old Fr. aneme, pronounced dnme (the spelling points to an older stage). 5. Unaccented medial e was often dropped, though less in Italian, except in the north, as in L. Lat. dulkisma, dulcissima (Pisaur., 410), answering to modern Romagnuolo forms like 'strissm illus- trissimo ; generally L. Lat. domnus, domna = Ital. donna, "lady," "woman." In French all proparoxy tones are contracted; for in- stance, Old Fr. (asinum, *as'no) asne cane, (anima, *an'ma) anme ame, (hominem, *hom'ne) homme, (femiua, *fem'na), femme. 6. Accented o for u, not unfrequent in the preceding period, was constant in Low Latin. While Lat. lucem became Ital. luce, Lat. crucem, nticcm (niicem, open u) became crdce, noce, like voce from voccm ; comp. Justus, Ital. giusto, Fr. juste, but augustus, Ital. agosto, Fr. aout. This caused many to write u for close o, as oxure uxore, gcneture genitorem, although this may partly represent a provincial u, as in Sicil. amuri. In Old Fr. we have honour, favour, and still amour, and in L. Lat. cz<rte=cohortem, *corte, Ital. corte, Fr. cour, Eng. court. 7. Unaccented o for u as in Old Latin is frequent, as in L. Lat. tabola, popolo, secolom, regola, volontate, Ital. tdvola, popolo, &c. ; even for original u, as mano, spirito. 8. Unaccented medial o was often dropped before I, in which case the unfamiliar group t'l was changed into cl, as in L. Lat. oclus oculus, Ital. bcchio, Span, ojo, Fr. ceil ; veclus vetulus, Ital. vecchio (Old Ital. vcglio), Span, viejo, Fr. vieil, vieux ; also L. Lat. tabla = Span, tabla, poplom = Span, pueblo. In French syncope is a law table, peuple, sangle cingulum, &c. 9. Final unaccented vowels in Italian on the whole obey the general laws. By the loss of the Latin final consonants all words end in a vowel, except such as per, con, non, in, un bel giorno, buon giorno. In South Italian i, u stand for e, o. In Spanish e is some- times dropped, as sed sitim, Ital. sete ; pared parietem, Ital. parete ; fdcil, 6rden. In Portuguese o is pronounced u, but often only whispered ; e is nearly always whispered or mute. In North Italian, Ladino, Catalan, Proven9al, and French all final vowels are generally dropped, except a, which remains in Proveii9al, as port, but porta (Mod. pbrto). In Catalan a is mostly pronounced as open e ; in French this becomes obscure e, which in modern French is mute except in such cases as table ronde. 10. Accented ie stands for 2, uo for S. As e and g, o and S were levelled in quantity, they were already distinguished in quality, as in Ital. bene bene, vene venae ; Portuguese has got no further than this. But generally this was not distinct enough for the wants of the speakers, and unconsciously e (in which e from Lat. ac was included) became ie, and b (in which it from Lat. au was not included) became ub, both diphthongs being generally accented on the last vowel Ital. and Span, viene, Fr. vient venit ; Ital. bubno, Span. bueno ; Ital. subno, Span, sueno (generally sonldo) sonus, different from Ital. sono sunt, Span. son. This change must be very old, as it is found in nearly all the Romance languages. In Spanish, Provensal, and French ub was changed into ue, and this in Modern French to cu, ceu, contracted into the sound of o. In Spanish the use of diphthongs is extended to position tiempo, siete septem, Ital. sette, hierro, Ital. ferro, cuerpo, Ital. c6rpo, muerte, Ital. morte. Mark the displacement of stress in popular Latin parietem for parietem, Ital. parete, Span, pared, Fr. paroi ; filibhis for filiolus, Ital. figliuolo, Span, hijuelo, Fr. filleul. 11. Of mediae (voiced stops) for tenues (voiceless stops), especially between vowels, we find some few earlier instances, as grassus for crassus, Ital. grasso, Fr. gras. This is generally rare in Italian Latin, as gubitus, cubitus, Ital. gomito, and is still compara- tively rare in Italian. Yet it occurs in some of the most familiar words, as ago acus, logo, luogo, segare, pagare (pacare, "to satisfy,"