Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/692

Rh 668 ROMANCE LANGUAGES "pay"), pregare, budcllo, parcntado, contado (comitatus), contrada, spada, strada ; p from b becomes v, as in riva, riviera, poycro, savio ; before r padre, madre, segreto, lebbra. This recalls similar changes in Umbrian, and was perhaps originally North Italian and from thence penetrated into Tuscany. In Spanish the voiced sounds are the general rule, as fuego, Ital. fu6co, amigo, Ital. amico, amado, finido, Ital. amato, finito, saber, Ital. sapere, &c., yet there are some exceptions, such as poco (paucum). In Old French the soft sound is the constant law, but this mostly disappears later, as in aimi, aimte (see FRANCE, vol. ix. p. 632 sq. ). A general Romance case is placitum, Old Ital. piaito, Ital. piato, Span, pleito, Old Fr. plaid, through *plagito, *plajeto, which is singularly like the Umbrian feitu, feetu for facitu. A limited case is that of such words as Fr. raison, Ital. ragione from rationem, probably first changed to ratsionc, *radsi6ne, thence to rasione, which sometimes occurs in Late Latin, and often in Early Italian, Span, razon ; comp. Ital. cagione occasionem. 12. / and e unaccented before vowels, especially post-tonic, be- came j, a&filjus (Plautus), olium pron. oljo. J coalesced with the preceding consonant, making it palatal, as in Ital. figlio, oglio, Jiglia, maraviglia (mirabilia), battaglia ; Span, maravilla, batalla ; Fr. fille, merveille, bataille (in North French the palatal sound is replaced by i or j), &c. N Ital. vigna vinea, Spagna Hispania, ingtgno, castagna, campagna, bagno balneum ; Span. Espana, cam- pana ; Fr. vigne, champagne. In some cases j was assibilated, as Span, granja, estranjero, Fr. songe, grange, etrange. 13. Sometimes attraction takes place, i being transposed to the radical syllable, especially in French, as huile, bain, Umoin, Antoine, gloire, histoire. Before and after r peculiar forms appear Ital. primaio (-jo); muojo morior; Ital. primiero, cavalicre, from primario, probably assimilated into *primer(i)o (Dr Thomson). Forms like paner, sorcerus are found as early as the 8th century. 14. Vocabulary. During this period the Roman world, after being conquered by the Germanic nations, adopted many words from their conquerors. The German influence was strongest in France ; hence we find Germanic expressions for many of the most common words except form-words, though the stock of the language remains Latin. A curious instance, characteristic of the Middle Ages, is rauba, which from "robbery," "prey," came to mean "property," Ital. roba (robba), "things in general," Span, ropa, "linen," "stuff," Fr. robe, "gown." In Rumonsch we have la rauba c'aud a mi, " the property that belongs to me." The German h, as in hair, old hadir = "hate," is peculiar to French, and is still sounded in Normandy. Some Germanic sounds had to be modified, as w to gu, for instance, guerra from wcrra, "war" ; guanto, Old Fr. guant, Fr. gant, from want, Dan. Vante ; in North French w remained, whence Eng. war, &c. Among the leges barbarae, the LEX SALICA is perhaps the most remarkable as a document of Low Latin. It has sentences and words like hoc sunt pariculas causas=ce sont pareilles choses ; si in dominica ambactia fuerit occupatus, Ital. ambasciata, Fr. ambassade ; si quis alterum voluerit occidere et colpus praetor fallierit, Ital. se il colpo fallisce ; si quis alterum de sagitta toxicata percutere voluerit et praeter sclupaverit (see stloppus, p. 665) ; si quis caballum extra consilium domini sui caballicaverit, Ital. caval- care, Fr. chevaucher ; si quis per male ingenio in curte (Ital. corte, Fr. cour) alteriusaut in casa (Ital. casa, "house") aliquid de furtwm miserit ; companium, Ital. compagnfa ; baro, baronis, "a free man," Old Fr. nom. ber, obj. barun, "hero," "baron"; di/acere, Ital. disfare, Fr. defaire ; cxcorticare, Ital. scorticare, Fr. ecorcher. From OTHER LAWS we have -fortia, Ital. forza, Fr. force ; hostis exercitus, Eng. host; vassus (Celtic), "a vassal"; auca, Ital. 6ca, Fr. oie (from avica) ; troppus, grex (from Germ, thorp), Ital. truppa, Fr. troupe, and also Ital. troppo, "too much," Fr. trap ; forestis (from foris), " foreign," Ital. forestiere ; marca (Germ.), "border," whence marchensis, Ital. marchese, Fr. marquis ; tornare (Greek ; also Dacian Latin 1 ). GREGORY OF TOURS (6th century) has pagensis, Ital. paese, Fr. pays. GREGORY THE GREAT has merces, "mercy " ; fiasco, Ital. fiasco, ' ' a flask." CORIPPUS ( Afr., c. 570) : cara, ' ' face " (Gr. Kdpa, "head"), Span, cara, Old Fr. chiere, whence bonne chere, "good cheer" (originally the kind, hospitable countenance of the entertainer). VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS (c. 580) : cofea, " coif " ; crema, "cream"; viaticum, Ital. viaggio, Fr. voyage. OTHER SOURCES : caminus, " road " (Spanish Latin, 7th centuiy ; probably Celtic), Ital. cammino, Fr. chemin ; directum, jus (Italian Latin, 551), Ital. diritto, Fr. droit. The late AGRIMENSORES : circarc, Ital. cercare, Fr. chercher. OLD GLOSSES (7th and 8th centuries) : aciarium, Ital. acciaio, Fr. acier ; cosinus, consobrinus, ItaJ. cugino, Fr. cousin ; gamba, Ital. gamba, Fr. jambe (Gloss. Cass.). ISIDORE : tructa, Fr. truite, Eng. trout ; cama, Span, cama, "bed"; ficatum, "liver" (properly jecur ficatum, liver of geese fed with figs), Ital. fegato, Span, higado, Fr. foie ; and cusire, consuere, Ital. cuscire, cucire, Span, coser, Fr. coudre (Gloss. Isid.); selvaticus, Ital. sel- vaggio, Fr. sauvage ; formaticum, Ital. formaggio, Fr. fromage. 1 Tlie Greek historians Theophylact (c. 600) and Theophanes relate that the Dacian soldiers said in their native tongue rbpva., rdpva, (j>pdrpe, pfrbpva. This has been called by some the earliest trace of Roumanian. VI. Sixth (Last} Period. For the sixth and last period that is, for the history and Moder distinctive traits of the great modern Romance languages Romai the reader is referred to the separate articles. 1. Italian is distinguished by its harmonious form, its gu vocalic endings, and the rich fulness of its tones. 2. Spanish is distinguished by its regularity, by its short, distinct sounds and its fixed tones, and by many Arabic words. Certain "thick" sounds, as the./ (like Dutch and South German ch, though in the south of Spain much weaker, almost 7t) and the lisping c, z seem to be rather modern developments than due to direct Arabic influence. 3. Portuguese is, with Gallego (the dialect of Galicia), the western dialect of Spanish, and has almost the same words, but a very different pronunciation ; in sound it approaches somewhat to French, as in the nasal vowels (which, however, are less purely vocalic than in French) and the voiced sounds of s, z, and j. It has partly retained the Old Spanish form, as infilho for Span, hijo, and partly it has a character of its own owing to its many obscured vowels and contractions, as boa for bona, dor for dolor. 4. Provencal in many respects represents the earliest form of French ; in others it has peculiar developments (see PROVENCAL). Catalan is the southern dialect of Provencal. 5. French makes up for the want of the full forms and tones of Italian by its grace and delicacy. It has more of a history than the other Romance languages, Old French being very different from Modern. 6. Ladino (Rumonsch^ Germ. Churwcilsch, from the town of Chur) or Central Romance extends from the Grisons to Friuli on the Adriatic. It is not uniform, being only an agglomeration of cognate dialects ; and it is scarcely more Latin than any other Romance language. It has chiefly been elucidated by Ascoli. 7. Roumanian has probably not survived from the old Roman colonists of Dacia, but been imported from Istria (which has a cognate dialect) or Northern Italy. It has been greatly mixed up with Slavonic words and sounds (such as the " mixed " vowels), and has some distinctive marks, such as the post-positive article, Romunul = Romanus ille ; compare the similar phenomenon in the Slavonic dia- lect of Bulgaria and in the Albanian language. Literature. The real founder of scientific Romance philology and linguistics is Friedrich Diez, in his Grammatik dcr romanischcn Sprachen, 3 vols. , Bonn, 1836-42, and Etymologischcs Worterbuch der romanischen Sprachen, 2 vols., 1852. He also published Allro- manische Sprachdenkmdler, 1846 ; Zwci altromaniscJic Gcdidde, 1852 ; and Altromanische Glossare, 1865. Pott contributed several articles on the Low Latin of the leges barbarae in the Zcitschriften of Hofer and Kuhn. Other authorities on various branches of the subject are Ducange, Glossarium mediae ct infimae lalinitatis, 7 vols. ; Marini, Papiri diplomatics ; Muratori, Antiquitates Italicse; Schuchardt, Der Vocalismus dcs Vulgarlatcins, 3 vols., 1866-68 (a valuable collection of materials), also several minor works by the same author ; and Gaston Paris, Etude sur le R6le de V Accent Latin dans la Langue Franc_aise, Paris, 1862, and La Vie de St Alexis (a poem of llth century), 1872. The principal magazines devoted to the subject are Jahrbuchfur romanische und cnglische Liter// f/tr (ed. "Wolff, Ebert, and Lembcke), later only/wr romanische Liter- atur ; Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen (ed. Herrig), of a more popular character ; Romania (a quarterly, cd. Gaston Paris and Paul Meyer, since 1872), contains articles of the most eminent Romanists ; Revue des Langues Romanes (Montpellier, from 1870 onwards), chiefly devoted to Provencal ; Romanische Studien (ed. Boehmer) ; Zeitschrift fur romaniscJie Philologie (ed. G nil XT, since 1877) ; and Romanische Forschungcn (ed. Vollmbller, since 1884). Mussafia has written many articles and treatises, chiefly hi the Transactions of the Vienna Academy of Sciences. Ascoli, author of Studi Critici, has edited since 1873 the Archivio Glotlologico, which has articles by Flecchia. The Rivista di Filologia Romanza (ed. Manzoni, Monaci, and Stengel, 1873) in 1878 became Giornaledi Filologia Romanza (ed. Monaci). For the etymological dictionaries of the separate languages see the special articles. (J. ST.*) 2 Rumonsch is properly the dialect of the upper Rhine valley, Ladino that of the Engadine. Ascoli includes all varieties under the common name of Ladino.