A perspective on the vocabulary common to Classical and Vulgar Latin

George Bogdan Țâra

doi:10.17684/i7a98en

Abstract

This paper stems from two different perspectives—that of the Latinists, and that of the Romanists—upon the concept of ‘Vulgar Latin’, perspectives that have given rise to a friendly debate between Pierre Flobert and Eugeniu Coșeriu. We try to highlight a number of lexical elements that are common to Classical and Vulgar Latin. Our approach leans upon the idea (found also with Maria Iliescu) that the diachronic vision upon language must take into consideration the sum of the histories of the words that belong to that language. Observing several lexical items excerpted from texts belonging to various epochs of the Latin culture (Archaic, Classical, Late), to various authors (Cicero, Vergilius, etc.), and to authors whose works contain elements of spoken language (Plautus, Petronius, etc.), from works of a high level language (epics, discourse, dissertation), and from texts with strong marks of orality (comedies, letters, sermons), we were able to see the semantic evolution of several Latin words preserved in the Romance languages. Our conclusion endorses the notion of a “common language”, which explains the parallel existence of words like casa, pauimentum, caballus, formosus, uetulus, auricula, gula, bucca, manducare, incendere, draco both in the Classical and Vulgar Latin, without notable differences.

Highlights

The concept of ‘Vulgar Latin’ or ‘a people’s Latin’, present at the core of Romance linguistics, has risen contradictory discussions even before the establishment of linguistics as science, in the 19th century
Our article stems from two different perspectives upon this concept: one held by Latinists, such as Pierre Flobert, the other, by Romanists, such as Eugeniu Coșeriu and Maria Iliescu
To a lexical stock common to the concept of ‘Vulgar Latin’ and to that of ‘Classical Latin’. We believe that this approach ought to be thoroughly considered nowadays, when the researcher avails himself of digital tools that can operate the fast identification of occurrences and assist in understanding the contexts in which any Latin word has been once used

Summary

Introduction

The concept of ‘Vulgar Latin’ or ‘a people’s Latin’, present at the core of Romance linguistics, has risen contradictory discussions even before the establishment of linguistics as science, in the 19th century. Our article stems from two different perspectives upon this concept: one held by Latinists, such as Pierre Flobert, the other, by Romanists, such as Eugeniu Coșeriu and Maria Iliescu. It follows that, at least up to the 6th century—when, from the Romanistic perspective, the isoglosses common to the Classical and Vulgar Latin lessen, while new subsystems develop5 —the socalled ‘Vulgar Latin’ and ‘Classical Latin’ count more common elements than differentiating ones. At least up to the 6th century—when, from the Romanistic perspective, the isoglosses common to the Classical and Vulgar Latin lessen, while new subsystems develop5 —the socalled ‘Vulgar Latin’ and ‘Classical Latin’ count more common elements than differentiating ones This extremely vast period (of approximately seven centuries) covers the conquest of new Roman provinces, but the process of their Romanization as well.

Periodization

The relation between the lexicon of Vulgar Latin and that of Classical Latin

PAVIMENTUM 16

MANDUCARE

Conclusions

Sources