Cover not available
Part of
Historical Linguistics 2015: Selected papers from the 22nd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Naples, 27-31 July 2015
Edited by Michela Cennamo and Claudia Fabrizio
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 348] 2019
► pp. 27–56

Chapter 2
The use of the past to explain the past

Roman grammarians and the collapse of vowel quantity

This paper aims to demonstrate the caveats called for in the reconstruction of the so-called quantity collapse from Late Latin to Pre-Romance. The Uniformitarian Principle does not necessarily require the inspection and explanation of “bad data”. The past, in other words, is not always aligned with our predictive synchronic paradigms. As a matter of fact, a rather significant number of passages by the ancient grammarians shed light on the mechanisms which led to the neutralization of prosodic feature [±long] in spoken Latin stressed syllables. The testimonia of Consentius, Pompeius, and Sacerdos all hint at an interesting and unexpected solution for the reconstruction of the aforementioned phonological process. Ultimately, the overall picture emerging from the metalinguistic testimonies allows us to formulate an alternative hypothesis to the macro-structural thesis on Romance Quantity currently considered part of mainstream Romance Linguistics. This work demonstrates that the very first outcome of the collapse of vowel quantity in spoken Latin was a neutralization, which surfaced as a general lengthening of stressed vowels, both in heavy and light syllables.

Keywords: historical phonology, Late Latin, vocalic isochrony, Roman grammarians, anti-uniformitarian principle
Article outline
  • 1.Historical linguistics and the anti-uniformitarian principle
  • 2.The Quantitätskollaps in Late Latin
  • 3.The Quantitätskollaps in the Roman grammarians
  • 4.The mainstream positions in the Quantitätskollaps controversy
  • 5.An alternative interpretation of the testimonia: Lengthening and shortening both in closed and open syllables
  • 6.Vocalic isochrony in Late Latin
  • 7.Augustine’s De musica and the stressed syllables
  • 8.Epilogue: Robin G. Collingwood and the historical “bad data”
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 September 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.348.02man
References
Abbot, Frank F.
1909 Vulgar Latin in the Ars Consentii de Barbarismis. Classical Philology 4. 233–247. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Acquati, Anna
1971 Il vocalismo latino-volgare nelle iscrizioni africane. ACME 24. 155–184.Google Scholar
Adams, James A.
1999 The Poets of Bu Njem: Language, Culture and the Centurionate. The Journal of Roman Studies 89. 109–134. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 The Regional Diversification of Latin, 200 BC-AD 600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 Social Variation and the Latin Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Andersen, Henning
2006 Synchrony, Diachrony, and Evolution. In Ole Nedergaard Thomsen (ed.), Competing Models of Linguistic Change, 59–90. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Anttila, Raimo
1992 Historical Explanation and Historical Linguistics. In Garry W. Davis & Gregory K. Iverson (eds.), Explanation in Historical Linguistics, 17–39. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Banniard, Michel
1995 La cité de la Parole: Saint Augustin entre la théorie et la pratique de la communication latinophone. Journal des savants 2. 283–306. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baratin, Marc & Françoise Desbordes
1986 La «troisième partie» de l’ ars grammatica. Historiographia Linguistica 13. 215–240. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bertinetto, Pier Marco
1981 Strutture prosodiche dell’italiano. Firenze: Accademia della Crusca.Google Scholar
Bertinetto, Pier Marco, Monica Dell’Aglio & Maddalena Agonigi
2008 Quali fattori influenzano maggiormente la durata vocalica e consonantica in italiano? Un’indagine mediante l’algoritmo di decisione C&RT. In Massimo Pettorino, Antonella Giannini, Marianna Vallone, Renata Savy (eds.), La comunicazione parlata. Vol. I., 13–38. Napoli: Liguori.Google Scholar
Bonfante, Giuliano
1956 Il sardo kenápura e la quantità latina. La Parola del Passato 50. 347–358.Google Scholar
1987 Il latino d’Àfrica. In Renato Gendre (ed.), Giuliano Bonfante. Scritti scelti. II. Latino e romanzo, 631–646. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso. Google Scholar
1999 The Origin of the Romance Languages. Stages in the Development of Latin. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Bonioli, Maria
1962 La pronuncia del latino nelle scuole dall’antichità al Rinascimento I. Torino: Giappichelli.Google Scholar
Brüch, Josef
1921 Zur Entwicklung der betonte Vokale im Volkslatein. Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 41. 574–582.Google Scholar
Calamai, Silvia
2004 Il vocalismo tonico dell’area pisana e livornese. Aspetti storici, percettivi e acustici. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso.Google Scholar
Castellani, Arrigo
1991 Sulla scomparsa dell’opposizione di quantità vocalica in latino volgare. In Dieter Kremer (ed.), Actes du XVIIIe Congrès International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romane. Vol. III, 10–21. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Catesby Taliaferro, Robert
2002 Saint Augustine, On Music, Translated by R. C. T. In Hermigild Dressler (ed.), The Fathers of the Church. A New Translation, 169–380. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press.Google Scholar
Cocchia, Enrico
1919 Preteso oblio della quantità nei grammatici latini. RFIC 47. 216–222.Google Scholar
Collingwood, Robin G.
1939 An Autobiography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
1946 The Idea of History. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Coseriu, Eugenio
1973 Lezioni di linguistica generale. Torino: Boringhieri.Google Scholar
Crevatin, Franco
1992 Intorno al vocalismo ‘protoromanzo’. In Max Pfister (ed.), LEI. Etymologie und Wortgeschichte des Italienischen, Genesi e dimensioni di un vocabolario etimologico, 26–31. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar
Dell’Aglio, Monica, Pier Marco Bertinetto & Maddalena Agonigi
2002 Le durate dei foni vocalici in rapporto al contesto nel parlato dei locutori pisani: primi risultati. In Agostino Regnicoli (ed.), La fonetica acustica come strumento di analisi della variazione linguistica in Italia. Atti delle XII Giornate di studio del gruppo di Fonetica Sperimentale, 53–58. Roma: Il Calamo.Google Scholar
De Nonno, Mario
1983 Frammenti misconosciuti di Plozio Sacerdote. Con osservazioni sul testo dei Catholica Probi. RFIC 111. 385–421.Google Scholar
De Paolis, Paolo
2010a L’insegnamento dell’ortografia latina fra Tardoantico e alto Medioevo: teorie e manuali. In Lucio Del Corso & Oronzo Pecere (eds.), Libri di scuola e pratiche didattiche. Dall’Antichità al Rinascimento. Vol. I, 229–291. Cassino: Edizioni Università di Cassino.Google Scholar
2010b  Problemi di grafia e pronunzia del latino nella trattatistica ortografica tardoantica . In Peter Anreiter & Manfred Kienpointner (eds.), Latin Linguistics Today, 57–74. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität.Google Scholar
Dixon, Robert. M. W.
1997 The Rise and Fall of Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fanciullo, Franco
1992 Un capitolo della Romania submersa: il latino africano. In Dieter Kremer (ed.), Actes du XVIIIe Congrès International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romane. Vol. I, 162–187. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Farnetani, Edda & Kori, Shiro
1982 Lexical Stress in Spoken Sentences. A Study on Duration and Vowel Formant Pattern. Quaderni del Centro di Studio per le Ricerche di Fonetica 1. 104–133.Google Scholar
Filipponio, Lorenzo
2006 Simpliciter sonat: a proposito di una didascalia di Pompeo Grammatico. In Renato Oniga & Luigi Zennaro (eds.), Atti della Giornata di Linguistica Latina, 41–70. Venezia: Cafoscarina.Google Scholar
Giannini, Stefania & Giovanna Marotta
1989 Fra grammatica e pragmatica: la geminazione consonantica in latino. Pisa: Giardini.Google Scholar
Haadsma, Rivse A. & Jan Nuchelmans
1963 Précis de latin vulgaire. Wolters: Groningen.Google Scholar
Herbart, Johann Friedrich
1813 Lehrbuch zur Einleitung in die Philosophie. Königsberg: August Wilhelm Unzer.Google Scholar
Herman, Joseph
1970 Le latin vulgaire. IIe éd. Paris: P.U.F.Google Scholar
1982 Un vieux dossier réouvert: les transformations du système latin des quantités vocalique. Bull. Soc. de Ling. 77. 285–302. In Herman 1990: 217–231.Google Scholar
1990 Du latin aux langues romanes. Études de linguistique historique. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
1997 Varietäten des Lateins. Les variétés du latin. In Günter Holtus, Michael Metzeltin & Christian Schmitt (eds.), Lexikon der romanistischen Linguistik. Band II, 1. Latein und Romanisch. Historisch-vergleichende Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen. 44–61. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Hock, Hans Henrich
1991 Principles of Historical Linguistics. Berlin-New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holtz, Louis
1981 Donat et la tradition de l’enseignement grammatical. Étude et édition critique. Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar
Itkonen, Esa
2011 On Coseriu’s Legacy. Energeia 3. 1–29.Google Scholar
Janda, Richard D. & Brian D. Joseph
2005 On Language, Change, and Language Change – Or, Of History, Linguistics, and Historical Linguistics. In Brian D. Joseph & Richard D. Janda (eds.), The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, 3–180. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kiss, Sándor
1971 Les transformations de la structure syllabique en latin tardif. Debrecen: Kossuth Lajos Tudományegyetem.Google Scholar
Koller, Herman
1981 Die Silbenquantitäten in Augustinus’ Büchern De musica , Museum Helveticum 38. 262–267.Google Scholar
Kracauer, Siegfried
1995 History. The Last Things Before the Last. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers.Google Scholar
Kramer, Johannes
2007 Vulgärlateinische Alltagsdokumente auf Papyri, Ostraka, Täfelchen und Inschriften. Berlin-New York: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, William
1994 Principles of Linguistic Change. Vol. 1: Internal factors. Oxford UK-Cambridge USA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lass, Roger
1997 Historical Linguistics and Language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lausberg, Heinrich
1976 Linguistica romanza. I. Fonetica. It. transl.. Milano: Feltrinelli.Google Scholar
Leumann, Manu
1977 Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre. München: Beck.Google Scholar
Lindsay, Wallace M.
1894 The Latin Language. An Historical Account of Latin Sounds, Stems, and Flexions. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Loporcaro, Michele
1997 L’origine del raddoppiamento fonosintattico. Saggio di fonologia diacronica romanza. Basel-Tübingen: Francke.Google Scholar
2011a Syllable, Segment and Prosody. In Martin Maiden, John C. Smith & Adam Ledgeway (eds.), The Cambridge History of Romance Languages. Volume I. Structures, 50–108. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2011b Phonological Processes. In Martin Maiden, John C. Smith & Adam Ledgeway (eds.), The Cambridge History of Romance Languages. Volume I. Structures, 109–154. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(2015) Vowel Length from Latin to Romance. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lüdtke, Helmut
2005 Der Ursprung der romanischen Sprachen. Eine Geschichte der sprachlichen Kommunikation. Kiel: Westensee.Google Scholar
Lupinu, Giovanni
2000 Latino epigrafico della Sardegna. Aspetti fonetici, Ilisso, Nuoro: Centro “Max L. Wagner” per la documentazione e ricerca linguistica.Google Scholar
Maltby, Robert
2012 The de barbarismis et metaplasmis of Consentius as Evidence for Late and Vulgar Latin. In Frédérique Biville, Marie-Karine Lhommé, & Daniel Vallat (eds.), Actes du IXe colloque international sur le latin vulgaire et tardif, 727–737. Lyon: Coll. de la Maison de l’Orient et de la Medit.Google Scholar
Mancini, Marco
1994 Un passo del grammatico Pompeo e la dittongazione protoromanza. In Palmira Cipriano, Paolo Di Giovine & Marco Mancini (eds.), Miscellanea di studi linguistici in onore di Walter Belardi, 609–627. Il Calamo: Roma.Google Scholar
2001 Agostino, i grammatici e il vocalismo del latino d’Africa, Rivista di Linguistica 13. 309–338.Google Scholar
2005 La formazione del neostandard latino: il caso delle differentiae uerborum . In Sándor Kiss, Luca Mondin & Giampaolo Salvi (eds.), Latin et langues romanes, Etudes linguistiques offertes à József Herman à l’occasion de son 80ème anniversaire, 137–155. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
2012 Su alcune questioni di metodo in sociolinguistica storica: le defixiones sannite. In Vincenzo Orioles (ed.), Per Roberto Gusmani. Linguistica storica e teorica, Studi in ricordo. Vol. 2/1, 239–271. Udine: Forum.Google Scholar
2013 La Storia linguistica dell’Italia unita e la sociolinguistica storica. In Federico Albano Leoni, Stefano Gensini & Maria Emanuela Piemontese (eds.). Tra linguistica e filosofia del linguaggio. La lezione di Tullio De Mauro, 74–102. Roma-Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
2015 Ricerche sulla prosodia del latino d’Africa. In Giovanna Marotta & Francesco Rovai (eds.), Ancient Languages between Variation and Norm. Special Issue of Studi e Saggi Linguistici 53. 355–397.Google Scholar
2016 Ars grammatica e latino parlato nelle Noctes Atticae. Archivio Glottologico Italiano 100. 19–50.Google Scholar
Marotta, Giovanna
2017 Tra fonologia e sociofonetica: il tratto di lunghezza in latino. In Giovanna Marotta & Francesca Strik Lievers (eds.), Strutture linguistiche e dati empirici in diacronia e sincronia, 57–81. Pisa: Pisa University Press.Google Scholar
Marotta, Giovanna & Irene De Felice
Forthcoming. Patterns of Prosodic Distribution of Latin Long Vowels. In Proceedings of the International Conference of Latin Linguistics, Munich, April 2017.
Muljačić, Žarko
1972 Fonologia della lingua italiana. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Nicolau, Mathieu G.
1930 L’origine du «cursus» rythmique et les débuts de l’accent d’intensité en latin. Paris: Soc. d’éd. “Les Belles Letters”.Google Scholar
Pisani, Vittore
1960 Testi latini arcaici e volgari con commento glottologico. II ed. Torino: Rosenberg e Sellier.Google Scholar
Prosdocimi, Aldo L.
2004 Scritti inediti e sparsi. Lingua, testi, storia. Vol. I. Padova: Unipress.Google Scholar
Nevalainen, Terttu & Helena Raumolin-Brunberg Helena
2003 Historical Sociolinguistics. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Reichenkron, Günter
1965 Historische Latein-Altromanische Grammatik, I Teil, Einleitung. Das sogenannte Vulgärlatein und das Wesen der Romanisierung. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Rolfe, John C.
1927 Aulus Gellius Attic Nights Books VI-XIII, with an English Translation, Cambridge, Mass. & London: The Loeb Classical Library-Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schürr, Friedrich
1970 La diphtongaison romane. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
1980 La dittongazione romanza e la riorganizzazione dei sistemi vocalici, It. transl. of Schürr 1970. Ravenna: Girasole.Google Scholar
Schuchardt, Hugo
1868 Der Vokalismus des Vulgärlateins. III. Leipzig: Teubner.Google Scholar
Seelmann, Emil Paul
1885 Die Aussprache des Latein nach physiologisch-historischen Grundsätzen. Heilbronn: Gebr. Henninger.Google Scholar
Sommer, Ferdinand & Raimund Pfister
1977 Handbuch der lateinischen Laut- und Formenlehre. Eine Einführung in das sprachwissenschaftliche Studium des Lateins. 4. bearb. Aufl., Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Straka, Georges
1979 Les sons et les mots. Choix d’études de phonétique et de linguistique. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Tekavčić, Pavao
1980 Grammatica storica dell’italiano. Vol. I Fonematica . Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Vainio, Raija
1999 Latinitas and Barbarisms according to the Roman Grammarians. Attitudes towards Language in the Light of Grammatical Examples. Turku: Department of Classics, University of Turku.Google Scholar
Varvaro, Alberto
2014 Il latino e la formazione delle lingue romanze. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Wartburg, Walther von
1950 Die Ausgliederung der romanischen Sprachen. Berne: A. FranckeGoogle Scholar
Weinrich, Harald
1958 Phonologische Studien zur romanische Sprachgeschichte. Münster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung.Google Scholar
Zago, Anna
2013 Pompeo grammatico e le vocali «barbare», Eruditio Antiqua 5. 3–19.Google Scholar
2017 Pompeii Commentum in Artis Donati partem tertiam, 2 voll.. Hildesheim: Weidmann.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Clackson, James
2024. Latin Literature and Linguistics. In The Cambridge Critical Guide to Latin Literature, ► pp. 563 ff. DOI logo
Fedriani, Chiara & Maria Napoli
2023. The Missing Dative Alternation in Romance: Explaining Stability and Change in the Argument Structure of Latin Ditransitives. Transactions of the Philological Society 121:1 ► pp. 33 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.