This book investigates the syntactic and semantic development of a selection of indefinite pronouns and determiners between Latin and the Romance languages. It uses data from Classical and Late Latin texts and from electronic corpora of early Romance to propose a new account of the similarities in the grammar of indefinites across Romance.

This book investigates the syntactic and semantic development of a selection of indefinite pronouns and determiners between Latin and the Romance languages. It uses data from Classical and Late Latin texts and from electronic corpora of early Romance to propose a new account of the similarities in the grammar of indefinites across Romance.

From Latin through the Romance languages, which types of past participle survived? Which older, "irregular" types disappeared and which older, "regular" types proliferated? Which new types of past participles emerged, which proved popular in standard Romance languages, and which exist in a wide range of dialects? The author explores reasons for the expansion or contraction of each type, in each area.

This book examines the semantics and pragmatics of determiners or pronouns that signal ignorance on the part of the speaker, such as Spanish algun. It offers novel empirical observations and important theoretical insights on epistemic indefinites and related topics such as modal free relatives, modified numerals, and epistemic modals.

Late Latin and Early Romance presents a theory of the relationship between Latin and Romance during the period 400-1250. The central hypothesis is that what we now call 'Medieval Latin' was invented around 800 AD when Carolingian scholars standardised the pronunciation of liturgical texts, and that otherwise what was spoken was simply the local variety of Old French, Old Spanish, etc. Thus, the view generally held before the publication of this work, that 'Latin' and 'Romance' existed alongside each other in earlier centuries, is anachronistic. Before 800, Late Latin was Early Romance. This hypothesis is examined first from the viewpoint of historical linguistics, with particular attention paid to the idea of lexical diffusion (ch. 1), and then (ch. 2) through detailed study of pre-Carolingian texts. Chapter 3 deals with the impact in France of the introduction of standardised Latin by Carolingian scholars, and shows how the earliest texts written in the vernacular resulted from it. The final two chapters turn to the situation in Spain from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries. Ch. 4 suggests, on the evidence of a large variety of texts, that before 1080 the new Latin pronunciation (i.e. Medieval Latin) was not used; Ch. 5 charts the slow spread, as a result of Europeanising reforms, of a distinction between Latin and vernacular Romance between 1080 and 1250. There is an extensive bibliography and full indexes. Wright's controversial book presents a wide range of detailed evidence, with extensive quotation of relevant texts and documents. When it was published in 1982 it challenged established ideas in the fields of Romance linguistics and Medieval Latin. The collectively established facts are however explained better by his theory that Medieval Latin was a revolutionary innovation consequent upon liturgical reform, than by the view that it was a miraculous conservative survival that lasted unchanged for a millennium. Late Latin and Early Romance draws on philological, historical and literary evidence from the medieval period, and on historical linguistics, and is a seminal work in these areas of scholarship.

How many times have you heard someone say 'Latin is a dead language'? More often than not they are referring to Classical Latin, a formal and literary style of Latin that existed at a finite period of time, accounting for about 30% of the language's timeline as a whole. A dead language is one that no longer has any native speakers, even if the language is still in use. However, Latin is not dead because it lives on in the Romance Languages, which are its continuation. In previous centuries, education traditionally focused heavily on Classical Latin because of what was written in that time, building on what the Romans had achieved in the same way that the Romans had built on the achievements of the Ancient Greeks. In the midst of this focus, some Latin teachers even went so far as to tell their students 'There is no such thing as Medieval Latin, there is only Classical Latin, and mistakes'. Is someone speaking Latin incorrectly if they are not following the style of its golden age like one of Cicero's speeches? Transposing that same question to English, is someone speaking English incorrectly because they are not following the style of Charles Dickens? or William Shakespeare? or Chaucer? or Beowulf? Of course not. These so-called 'mistakes' or 'vulgarisms' are a reflection of how people actually spoke across the Roman world in their day to day lives, and how that changed over time. It was Vulgar Latin that evolved into the Romance Languages, which are spoken around the world to this day. This book explores the history of Latin, both in literature and in every day speech, from the Roman Empire to its collapse, linguistic and political reinvention, and the flourishing of literature in the vernacular during the Medieval Period. With texts along the way fully translated with word lists for easy reference. This book is designed to be of use and interest to anyone with a passion for Latin, Romance Languages, or languages and history in general.