A Chronology of Vulgar Latin

184 Pages·1929·8.989 MB·English

by  H. F. Muller

BEIHEFTE
ZUR
ZEITSCHRIFT
FÜR
ROMANISCHE PHILOLOGIE
BEGRÜNDET VON PROF. DR. GUSTAV GRÖBER T
FORTGEFÜHRT UND HERAUSGEGEBEN
VON
DR. ALFONS HILKA
PROFESSOR AN DER UNIVERSITÄT DÖTTINGEN
LXXVHI. HEFT
H. F. MULLER
A CHRONOLOGY OF VULGAR LATIN
M AX N I E M E Y ER V E R L AG
HALLE (SAALE)
1929
A C H R O N O L O GY
OF
V U L G AR L A T IN
BY
H. F. MULLER
(BARNARD COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK)
MAX NIEMEYER V E R L AG
HALLE (SAALE)
1929
All rights reserved
Copyright by Max Niemeyer Verlag, Halle (Saale), 1929
Printed in Germany
Printed by Karras, Kröber & Nietschmann, Halle (Saale)
Table of Contents.
Peg«
Preface V
Introduction I
Chapter I. Intercourse between regions and cities during the
Merovingian period n
Chapter II. The State of Commerce 17
Chapter III. Colonization of Romania by Barbarians . . . . . 21
Chapter IV. Christianization 26
Chapter V. Pilgrimages 36
Chapter VI. Unity of Romania 39
Chapter VII. Breaking up of the Unity of Romania 47
Chapter VIII. Regional Characteristics of the Latin language . . 53
Chapter IX. Linguistic features evolved in common in the West 66
Chapter X. Recent origin of important linguistic features charac-
terizing French, Italian and Spanish 86
Chapter XI. Failure of all attempts at finding proofs of early
dialectalization 94
Chapter XII. Professor Mendndez Pidal's theory 105
Chapter XIII. Statement of the problem of Romance linguistics
and social reasons underlying it 122
Chapter XIV. Effects of the social conditions on French linguistics 132
Chapter XV. General considerations on the consequences of the
triumph of the so-called democratic spirit in France . . 137
Chapter XVI. The situation in Italy 143
Chapter XVII. The situation in Spain 159
Conclusion 169
Errata 172

Preface.
Philologists have more or less consciously held to the opinion
that the transition from Latin to Romance must have been a very
gradual one. As documents do not show anything of the kind, but
are, in the earlier period, of a Latin character with isolated Rom-
ance-like features, then later Romance with isolated Latin-like
features, it has been universally assumed that the former did not
represent the reality; that the gradual evolution took place in the
oral tongue without leaving any but scattered vestiges in the
writings of the time.
Yet, as we shall have occasion .to note, all the phenomena
contributory to the transformation of Latin into Romance appear
in the Merovingian documents: formation of the oblique case,
periphrastic future of various kinds, undermining of the Latin
passive and creation of an analytic form, of new personal pronouns
and articles out of the demonstrative, new Romance syntax, etc.
They are all there. Their varying frequency occurs in great part
according to chronological order, so that the more recent the
document, up to yjo, the more complex Romance features it
possesses. They are all there. But they are not alone, they are
immersed in a mass of more or less classical forms. These have
misled the philologists into the view that the documents represented
nothing real but a miserable attempt at writing classical Latin.
As a matter of fact, they simply show how linguistic phenomena
take place: in a fluctuating, vacillating manner in which the old
and the new live side by side, coexist in a constantly shifting pro-
portion, so that an observer would, very often, not be able to tell
what the direction is. This is especially true in times of great
transformation.
A period similar to this one, but not identical by any means, is
the XVIth century. It is the century when the old French rhythmical
system underwent that most remarkable change which puts French
in a class of its own among the important languages of western
Europe. The confused, erratic character of the pronunciation in
the XVth and XVIth centuries is bewildering1. Old medieval
1 Cf. Thurot: De la prononciation française ... Paris, 1881, passim.
VIII
pronunciation based on another rhythm was still heard side by side
with pronunciation anticipating the XIXth century. Around 1550
there is a very sharp turn. The modern rhythm (suppression of
real diphthongs, of the feminine e etc.), is practically accomplished.
Phonetically and especially rhythmically, the difference must have
been exceedingly great. Up to 1550, French still had a sense of
stressed and unstressed syllables. It practically lost it around
that date.
From that point of view French assumed a new nature.
Whatever was not in keeping with that new nature, being a relic
of the old system, was gradually and promptly eliminated. Up
to that time, heterogeneous features could coexist in an apparently
confused mass, they could now no longer do so. Although it had
taken centuries to prepare this transformation, it took probably
less than a generation to form the new being according to its
recently organized nature.
This is precisely the way the transformation of Latin into
Romance took place. The creation of new features making for a
new language went on for centuries; and all this while, the old
traditional features persisted along with the new. For instance,
while the passive infinitive was being gradually obliterated, a
profusion of deponent verbs were constantly being made out of
the old active, just as in the fourteenth century, on the eve of
the disappearance of the casual s, this very s was extended to a
number of nouns and adjectives which had never known it. In
the sixteenth century, at the time when the pronunciation of final
s was more and more falling into disuse, some people would add
it to every word: "Monsieur, ie me recommandes a vous de tous
mons cceur"1.
Then, in the fourth quarter of the eighth century, when the
essential features of the new language have been created, a rather
sudden shifting of the linguistic forces takes place: the new
speech is born. And now, whatever heterogeneous, outworn, un-
suitable material has been left, is rapidly eliminated. The new
being rejects it according to its instinctive standard.
We have, as we shall see in the course of this study, both
linguistic and historical evidence to bear out this view. Generally
speaking, phenomena of life always take place in this manner:
they assume the form of a revolution whether in the organic or
in the social world. But that revolution is nothing else than the
shifting of the center of forces. Yet that necessary revolution
does not create the new forces, the new organs: they have been
1 Thurot, op. cit., T. 2, p. 37, says : "Mais je soupçonne ici quelque
exagération." But why? At least the use of the J in liaison became
greatly exaggerated with some people.
IX
in the making for ages. Take for example the French Revolution
which is most illuminating in this respect. It had been preparing
for centuries: the new world organism was completed. But how-
ever, on the very eve of that Revolution, the most heterogeneous
features, medieval and even Merovingian, coexisted with regular
nineteenth century elements: then the shifting of forces sets in,
the Revolution breaks out. In less than a generation the new
society has discarded practically all the old material that seemed
to be so incorporated with France that it was felt to be eternal.
A consequence of this is that in these various avatars, we
have not to deal with a single language which we divide into
classes, Latin, lingua romana, Old French, Modern French, to make
the exposition of the facts easier, we are in the presence of new
linguistic systems, evolving from one another, in truth, through
the gradual and slow formation of new features, but also getting
into shape through a rapid organisation of these features into new
systems: a quick, in a way, revolutionary, process which marks
the various steps of every real evolution.
Also, when we find the formation of these new features
proceeding slowly along in the texts from the VIth to the VIIIth
centuries in a gradual development, we would have absolutely no
reason not to regard it as keeping close to the language of real life:
had these features existed before, they would not have appeared in
such a logical order; their manner of appearance is a sure sign of
their close connection with life. The fact that they are scattered
in a Latin mass does not weaken the force of their testimony, as
we have seen above, neither must they be made to tell more than
they actually signify.