Potential Greek influence on the Vulgar Latin sound change [b] > [β]: Dialectological evidence from inscriptions

Abstract

This paper intends to investigate Greek influence on the Latin sound change [b] > [β] suggested occasionally in the literature by surveying not only the relevant linguistic data of Latin/Romance and Koine/Modern Greek but also the relevant literature and by involving and analyzing data sets recorded from 18 Roman provinces and the city of Rome in the Computerized Historical Linguistic Database of the Latin Inscriptions of the Imperial Age (cf. http://lldb.elte.hu/) by a more differentiated phonological approach considering external sandhi rules and in a chronological distribution more detailed than any applied before. In the end, the influence of Greek has been evidenced at least for some areas and especially for the early period (1st–3rd century AD), which is more important in this respect than the late period (4th–6th century AD), since then the merger can also be explained by developments in Latin itself beside a supposed external influence.