Contents

List of Illustrations

Figures

Tables

Notes on Contributors

Abbreviations of Ancient Authors and Works

Abbreviations of Modern Sources

Symbols Used

Linguistic and Other Abbreviations

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

PART I Sources

CHAPTER 2 The Latin Alphabet and Orthography

Introduction

Arrival of the Alphabet in Italy

Etruscan Origins

Date of Borrowing and Other Considerations

Innovations and Changes

Old Latin Orthography

Letterforms

Direction of Writing and Punctuation

Abbreviations

Letter Names

Diffusion of the Latin Alphabet

CHAPTER 3 Latin Inscriptions and Documents

Introduction

The Pitfalls of Interpretation

Collecting and Interpreting Ancient Documents

The Writer of a Latin Text

Conclusion

CHAPTER 4 Latin Manuscripts and Textual Traditions

Introduction

The Processes of Transmission

Standardisation

A Sample of Manuscript Evidence

Traces of the Unusual

Punctuation

Conclusion

CHAPTER 5 Romance Languages as a Source for Spoken Latin

Latin and Romance

Phonology and Phonetics: Vowels

Phonology and Phonetics: Consonants

Nominal Morphology

Verbal Morphology

Syntax

Semantic and Lexical Changes

Conclusion

PART II The Language

CHAPTER 6 The Sounds of Latin: Phonology

Reconstructing Latin Phonology

The Latin Writing System

Consonants

Vowels

Syllable Structure

Accent

CHAPTER 7 Latin Prosody and Metrics

Italic Background, Carmina, Saturnian

Comic Meters

Stress, Ictus, Recitation

Conclusion

CHAPTER 8 The Forms of Latin: Inflectional Morphology

Introduction

Nominal Morphology

Pronouns

Verbal Morphology

CHAPTER 9 Latin Syntax

Introduction

Meaning and Sentence Structure

Constituency and Discontinuity

Phrases: Heads, Complements and Adjuncts

Constituent Order in Clauses

Clause Structure: Main and Subordinate Clauses

Conclusion

CHAPTER 10 Latin Vocabulary

The Fundamental Latin Vocabulary

The Internal Structure of the Latin Lexicon

Main Semantic Phenomena

Lexical Innovations

Conclusion

CHAPTER 11 Word-Formation in Classical Latin

Suffixation

Nominal Compounding

Verbal Compounding

Preverbation

Agglutination

Recategorisation

Conclusion

CHAPTER 12 Latin Particles and the Grammar of Discourse

Introduction: Aims and Key Concepts

Particles as Pragmatic Markers

From Sentence Grammar to Discourse Grammar: The Location of Particles in a Grammar of Discourse

Connective Particles

Conversation Management Particles

Conclusion

PART III Latin Through Time

CHAPTER 13 The Historical Background to Latin within the Indo-European Language Family

Proto-Indo-European: Who, When, and What?

The History of the Sounds of Latin

The Prehistory of Latin Nouns and Adjectives

The Prehistory of Latin Pronouns, Numerals, Adverbs, and Adpositions

The Prehistory of Latin Verbs

Syntax

Lexicon

CHAPTER 14 Archaic and Old Latin

Sources

Orthography and Phonology

Selected Morphological Features

Lexicon

Some Syntactic Patterns

Archaic Latin

Samples of Inscriptions

Old Latin: On the Threshold of the Classical Language

CHAPTER 15 Classical Latin

Introduction

The Creation of a Standard

Latin Orthography and Pronunciation

Morphology

Syntax and Textual Structure

Vocabulary

Conclusion

CHAPTER 16 Late Latin

Introduction: The Term “Late Latin”

A Specimen of Late Latin

Some Important Developments, and the Notion of “Vulgar Latin”

Gender

Phonology

Future Tense

Reported Speech

General Conclusions

CHAPTER 17 Medieval Latin

Introduction

Tools for Learning Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin and Its Characteristics

CHAPTER 18 Neo-Latin

Introduction

A New Dawn: Latin and the Italian Renaissance

Innovation through Imitation: The Case of Ciceronianism

The Linguistic Nature of Neo-Latin

Diffusion and Diversity: Neo-Latin after the Renaissance

Conclusion: The Difficult Path Ahead

PART IV Literary Registers of Latin

CHAPTER 19 The Language of Roman Comedy

Introduction

Spelling, Phonology and Metre

Morphology

Syntax

Lexicon

CHAPTER 20 The Language of Latin Epic and Lyric Poetry

Theories of “Poetic Language” in Greek and Roman Critics

The Sounds of Poetry. Prosody and Recitation

Phonetics, Spelling, and Morphology

The Lexicon

Syntax (Nominal, Verbal, Periodic)

Cohesion and Word-Order

CHAPTER 21 The Language of Latin Verse Satire

Introduction

Satura and Sermo

Discourse Organization: Subjectivity

Lexicon: Informality and Stylization

Conclusions

CHAPTER 22 The Language of Roman Oratory and Rhetoric

Oratory, Rhetoric and Real Life

The Unrepresentativeness of the Sample

Oratory in the Roman Republic

Cato and Gaius Gracchus

From Cato to Cicero

The Evidence of the ad Herennium

Oratory and Ordinary Language in Cicero’s Time

The Early Empire and the Rhetorical Schools

The Reign of Trajan and Later

CHAPTER 23 The Language of Latin Historiography

History and Poetry

History and Oratory

Antiquarianism

Military Narrative

The Historian’s Voice

CHAPTER 24 Epistolary Latin

Introduction

Letters as Colloquial and Informal Language

Letters as Literature: Rhetorical and Elaborate Language

Formal Letters

Conclusion

CHAPTER 25 Latin as a Technical and Scientific Language

Introduction

Modern Definitions of “Technical” Texts and Languages

The Characteristics of Ancient “Technical” Texts and Languages

The Role of Greek in the Formation of Latin Technical Languages

Conclusion

CHAPTER 26 Legal Latin

Introduction

Legal Terminology

Legal Drafting

Legal Latin in Post-Classical Europe

CHAPTER 27 Christian Latin

Christian Latin, Biblical Latin, “Vulgar Latin”

The Lexicon of Christian Latin

Further Lexical Phenomena

Conclusions

PART V Latin in Social and Political Contexts

CHAPTER 28 The Social Dialects of Latin

Introduction

Male and Female Speech

Age-Related Variation in Speech

Class-Based Variation

Phonology

Morphology

Vocabulary and Word-Formation

Conclusion

CHAPTER 29 Latin and Other Languages: Societal and Individual Bilingualism

Introduction

Societal and Individual Bilingualism

The Ancient Evidence

Latin and Societal Bilingualism

Latin and Individual Bilingualism

Conclusions

CHAPTER 30 Language Policies in the Roman Republic and Empire

Introduction

The Republic and Early Principate

The Dominate

Theodosius II

Justinian

Conclusion

CHAPTER 31 Latin Inside and Outside of Rome

Introduction

The Republic

The Empire

References

Index Locorum

Literary Texts

Inscriptions and Papyri

Index

BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO THE ANCIENT WORLD

This series provides sophisticated and authoritative overviews of periods of ancient history, genres of classical literature, and the most important themes in ancient culture. Each volume comprises between twenty-five and forty concise essays written by individual scholars within their area of specialization. The essays are written in a clear, provocative, and lively manner, designed for an international audience of scholars, students, and general readers.

ANCIENT HISTORY

Published

A Companion to the Roman Army
Edited by Paul Erdkamp

A Companion to the Roman Republic
Edited by Nathan Rosenstein and Robert Morstein-Marx

A Companion to the Roman Empire
Edited by David S. Potter

A Companion to the Classical Greek World
Edited by Konrad H. Kinzl

A Companion to the Ancient Near East
Edited by Daniel C. Snell

A Companion to the Hellenistic World
Edited by Andrew Erskine

A Companion to Late Antiquity
Edited by Philip Rousseau

A Companion to Archaic Greece
Edited by Kurt A. Raaflaub and Hans van Wees

A Companion to Julius Caesar
Edited by Miriam Griffin

A Companion to Ancient History
Edited by Andrew Erskine

A Companion to Byzantium
Edited by Liz James

A Companion to Ancient Egypt
Edited by Alan B. Lloyd

A Companion to Ancient Macedonia
Edited by Joseph Roisman and Ian Worthington

A Companion to the Punic Wars
Edited by Dexter Hoyos

LITERATURE AND CULTURE

Published

A Companion to Classical Receptions
Edited by Lorna Hardwick and Christopher Stray

A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography
Edited by John Marincola

A Companion to Catullus
Edited by Marilyn B. Skinner

A Companion to Roman Religion
Edited by Jörg Rüpke

A Companion to Greek Religion
Edited by Daniel Ogden

A Companion to the Classical Tradition
Edited by Craig W. Kallendorf

A Companion to Roman Rhetoric
Edited by William Dominik and Jon Hall

A Companion to Greek Rhetoric
Edited by Ian Worthington

A Companion to Ancient Epic
Edited by John Miles Foley

A Companion to Greek Tragedy
Edited by Justina Gregory

A Companion to Latin Literature
Edited by Stephen Harrison

A Companion to Ovid
Edited by Peter E. Knox

A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought
Edited by Ryan K. Balot

A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language
Edited by Egbert Bakker

A Companion to Hellenistic Literature
Edited by Martine Cuypers and James J. Clauss

A Companion to Vergil’s Aeneid and Its Tradition
Edited by Joseph Farrell and Michael C.J. Putnam

A Companion to Horace
Edited by Gregson Davis

A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds
Edited by Beryl Rawson

A Companion to Greek Mythology
Edited by Ken Dowden and Niall Livingstone

This edition first published 2011
© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A companion to the Latin language / edited by James Clackson.
p. cm. – (Blackwell companions to the ancient world)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-1-4051-8605-6 (alk. paper)
1. Latin language–History. 2. Latin philology. I. Clackson, James.
PA2057.C66 2011
470–dc22

2011009293

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is published in the following electronic formats: ePDFs [ISBN 9781444343366]; Wiley Online Library [ISBN 9781444343397]; ePub [ISBN 9781444343373]; Mobi [ISBN 9781444343380]

List of Illustrations

Figures

Tables

Notes on Contributors

J.N. Adams was Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, from 1998 to 2010. His numerous publications on Latin include The Regional Diversification of Latin 200 BC–AD 600 (2007), Bilingualism and the Latin Language (2003), Wackernagel’s Law and the Placement of the Copula esse in Classical Latin (1994), The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (1982) and The Vulgar Latin of the Letters of Claudius Terentianus (1977). In 2009 he was awarded the Kenyon Medal for Classical Studies and Archaeology by the British Academy.

Philip Burton is Reader in Latin and Early Christian Studies at the University of Birmingham. His previous publications include The Old Latin Gospels (2000) and Language in the Confessions of Augustine (2007), as well as articles on Latin linguistics and on the reception of Classical Antiquity. He is currently working on an edition on the Old Latin traditions of John (www.iohannes.org) for the Vetus Latina series.

David Butterfield is the W.H.D. Rouse Research Fellow and Lector in Classics at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and works primarily upon the textual criticism and transmission of Latin literature. He has co-edited The Penguin Latin Dictionary (London, 2007) and A.E. Housman: Classical Scholar (London, 2009), and has written various articles on Latin poets (particularly Lucretius) and the history of Classical scholarship.

Anna Chahoud is Professor of Latin at Trinity College Dublin. She is the author of C. Lucilii Reliquiarum Concordantiae (1998), of articles on Republican Latin and the grammatical tradition, and co-editor of Colloquial and Literary Latin (2010). She is currently finalising a commentary on the fragments of Lucilius for Cambridge University Press.

James Clackson is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Classics at the University of Cambridge. His books include The Blackwell History of the Latin Language (2007, with Geoff Horrocks), and Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction (Cambridge, 2007). His research interests include historical and comparative linguistics, the sociolinguistics of the ancient world, and the Armenian language.

Greti Dinkova-Bruun is Associate Fellow at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto. She has published widely on a range of topics within the field of Medieval Studies. A noted palaeographer, she is responsible for a number of critical editions and translations of medieval texts including the poetry of Alexander of Ashby, Alexandri Essebiensis Opera Poetica (2004) and The Ancestry of Jesus (2005). Since January 2010 she has been the Editor-in-Chief for the Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum (CTC).

Rolando Ferri is Professor of Latin at the University of Pisa. He studied at Pisa, Princeton and London, where he was Momigliano Student in the Arts in the years 1993–1996. He has published books on Horace (I dispiaceri di un epicureo, 1993) and Senecan tragedy (Octavia attributed to Seneca, 2003), and he has edited books devoted to the Roman school (F. Bellandi and R. Ferri, ed., Aspetti della scuola nel mondo romano, 2008) and to Latin lexicography (R. Ferri, ed., The Latin of Roman Lexicography, 2010). He now works on the bilingual Greek–Latin glossaries and their value as evidence for the study of Late and Vulgar Latin.

Thorsten Fögen teaches Classics at Durham University and the Humboldt University of Berlin. Among his research interests are the history of linguistic ideas, ancient rhetoric, literary criticism, non-verbal communication and semiotics, ancient technical writers, women in antiquity, animals in antiquity and ancient epistolography. He is the author of “Patrii sermonis egestas”: Einstellungen lateinischer Autoren zu ihrer Muttersprache (2000), “Utraque lingua”: A Bibliography of Bi- and Multilingualism in Graeco-Roman Antiquity and in Modern Times (2003), and Wissen, Kommunikation und Selbstdarstellung. Zur Struktur und Charakteristik römischer Fachtexte der frühen Kaiserzeit (2009).

Benjamin W. Fortson IV teaches Classical languages and Indo-European philology at the University of Michigan. His publications include articles and reviews on Indo-European and historical linguistics, as well as an introductory textbook in Indo-European (Indo-European Language and Culture, 2nd edn, 2010) and a monograph on Plautine metrics and linguistics (Language and Rhythm in Plautus, 2008).

Michèle Fruyt is Professor of Latin Linguistics at the University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) and Director of the Centre Alfred Ernout for Latin linguistics. Her research mainly concerns the following: a description of the Latin lexicon from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspective, focusing on the way elements of the language were perceived by Latin speakers (motivation, de-motivation, re-analysis); semantic issues in the functioning of the language; the structural organization of the Latin lexicon; word-formation; the morphosyntactic evolution of Latin, including grammaticalization, deixis and endophor, verbal periphrases, etc.

Giovanbattista Galdi holds a PhD in Classical Philology from the University of Bologna (2002). He was scientific co-worker at the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae in Munich from 2001 to 2003 and wrote his Habilitation at the University of Trier from 2003 to 2007. Currently, he is Assistant Professor of Latin Language at the University of Cyprus (Nicosia). His main areas of interest lie in the field of Late and Vulgar Latin, epigraphic language and Greek–Latin bilingualism. He is the author of Grammatica delle iscrizioni latine dell’impero (province orientali). Morfosintassi nominale (2004) and of numerous articles on Latin language.

Bruce Gibson is Professor of Latin at the University of Liverpool. His principal research is concerned with the literature of the Roman Empire, with significant connections with various aspects of Roman history and culture. His work also engages with the transmission of Latin texts in manuscripts and with Renaissance scholarship. His publications include an edition and commentary of Statius, Silvae 5 (Oxford, 2006).

Hilla Halla-aho works as a researcher at the Department of World Cultures, University of Helsinki. Her main interests are the language of Latin non-literary texts as well as variation and change in Latin syntax. Her publications include the monograph The Non-Literary Latin Letters: A Study of Their Syntax and Pragmatics (2009).

Geoffrey Horrocks is Professor of Comparative Philology in the University of Cambridge. His publications include The Blackwell History of the Latin Language (2007, with James Clackson), and Greek: A History of the Language and Its Speakers (2nd edn, 2010). His research interests include the history and structure of the Greek and Latin languages (including Medieval and Modern as well as Ancient Greek), linguistic theory, and historical linguistics.

Christina Shuttleworth Kraus is Thomas A. Thacher Professor of Latin at Yale University. She works on Latin historiography, primarily on Livy and Tacitus, and is currently preparing a commentary (together with A.J. Woodman) on Tacitus’ Agricola.

Caroline Kroon is Professor of Latin at the VU University Amsterdam. She is the author of Discourse Particles in Latin: A Study of nam, enim, autem, vero and at (1995), and co-editor of Theory and Description in Latin Linguistics (2002). Her main research interests lie in the fields of pragmatics, discourse linguistics, and, especially, the linguistic articulation of narrative. She is currently supervising a linguistic-narratological research programme on ancient war narrative.

Matthew McCullagh teaches at St Paul’s School in London. He received his doctorate in Classics from Cambridge University, and he has taught both at Cambridge University and at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is currently preparing a monograph on the prehistory of the Greek aorist passive.

Wolfgang de Melo teaches in the Department of Latin and Greek at the University of Ghent and is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. His book The Early Latin Verb System: Archaic Forms in Plautus, Terence, and Beyond was published in 2007. His main scholarly interests are the linguistic aspects of Early Latin; the development from Indo-European to Latin, and from Early to Classical Latin; and the closest relatives of Latin (Faliscan, Oscan, Umbrian, Venetic).

Alex Mullen is Lumley Research Fellow in Classics at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge. She has published on linguistic and cultural contacts in Roman Britain and southern Gaul and is currently co-editing a multi-authored volume on multilingualism in antiquity.

John Penney is University Lecturer in Classical Philology at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. His research interests include Indo-European phonology and morphology, the languages of pre-Roman Italy, and Tocharian. He has also published articles on historical aspects of the language of Latin verse and prose.

J.G.F. Powell is Professor of Latin at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has published editions of Cicero’s Cato Maior de Senectute (Cambridge, 1988), of Laelius de Amicitia (Warminster, 1990), and of De Re Publica and De Legibus (Oxford Classical Text, 2006), has edited Cicero the Philosopher (Oxford, 1995), and Logos: Rational Argument in Classical Rhetoric (BICS Supplement 2007), and co-edited Author and Audience in Latin Literature (Cambridge, 1992), Cicero’s Republic (BICS Supplement 2001) and Cicero the Advocate (Oxford, 2004). He is working on, among other things, a new Latin grammar for Wiley-Blackwell.

Bruno Rochette is Professor of Greek and Latin Language and Literature at the University of Liège, Belgium. He is the author of Le latin dans le monde grec. Recherches sur la diffusion de la langue et des lettres latines dans les provinces hellénophones de l’empire romain (1997) and of articles on various aspects of Greco-Latin bilingualism.

Rex Wallace is Professor of Classics and Associate Dean of Personnel and Research for the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research interests are the languages of ancient Italy and historical/comparative linguistics. He is the author of The Sabellic Languages of Ancient Italy (2007), Zikh Rasna: A Manual of Etruscan Language and Inscriptions (2009), and numerous articles on Etruscan and Italic linguistics.

Roger Wright is Emeritus Professor of Spanish at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of (inter alia) Late Latin and Early Romance in Spain and Carolingian France (1982), Early Ibero-Romance (1995), and A Sociophilological Study of Late Latin (2003). His research interests centre on both the linguistic and the historical aspects of the transitional period between Latin, Romance and the Romance languages.

Abbreviations of Ancient Authors and Works

Note: Where translations are credited to authors but no further source is given, the translation is taken from the Loeb Classical Library.

Abbreviations of Modern Sources

Symbols Used

Linguistic and Other Abbreviations