Poll |
Poll Question: Which language most resembles what Latin would've been if it had survived? |
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| Spanish |
   0 (0%) |
| French |
0 (0%) |
| Italian |
1 (25%) |
| Portuguese |
0 (0%) |
| Romanian |
2 (50%) |
| Catalan |
0 (0%) |
| Occitan/Provencal |
0 (0%) |
| other language or dialect (specify) |
1 (25%) |
| Total votes: 4 |
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Author |
Topic: What Latin Could've Been (Read 379 times) |
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Gregorius
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Loqui anglice, hispanice, gallice, italice, et latine possum.
  
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What Latin Could've Been
« Thread started on: Aug 20th, 2005, 3:33pm » |
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If Latin (presumably Vulgar) had survived intact as a single language without its various dialects evolving into entirely separate languages, which Romance language do you think most resembles what Latin would've been like in its modern form?
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Is quin linguam externam cognoscit non linguam ipsius cognoscit.
"He who doesn't know a foreign language doesn't know his own language."
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emysimo
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Re: What Latin Could've Been
« Reply #1 on: Aug 27th, 2005, 4:19pm » |
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Italian (or better: florenitne dialect) has a 1:1 ratio with vulgar latin:
it changes only the accusativ endings of the declension:
can-em > can-e (dog)
ros-am > ros-a (rose)
caball-um > cavall-o (horse)
cameram > camer-a
anim-am > anim-a
debit-us > debit-o
Sometimes, there's a simple and completly regular changement of the vowels or of the consonants
au > o (taurum > toro) (bull)
ae > ie, e (caelum > celo) (heaven)
ple > pie (plaenum - pieno, full) (general rules: occlusive + L + vowel > occlusiv + i +vowel)
long "o" > uò (homines > uòmini)
French or spanish have more and more changement of vowels, consonants, and in the endings, and in the word (sometimes regular, sometimes irregular):
canem > chien (dog) (fr)
caballus > cheval (fr)
camera > chambre (fr)
debitus > dètte
anima > alma (sp)
homines > hombres (sp)
An other reason that italian is the "most latin language" is that i'm italian, and proud to be Latino  and to have Rome as capital city 
Ciao belli
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Gregorius
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Loqui anglice, hispanice, gallice, italice, et latine possum.
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Re: What Latin Could've Been
« Reply #2 on: Aug 27th, 2005, 6:54pm » |
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You make some excellent points, emysimo! I love your analysis of the different sound changes! Another good reason is that Italy and especially Rome was the political center of the Roman Empire. It only makes sense that the region would also be the empire's lingual center.
Isn't Italian considered Latin's closest living relative anyway?
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| « Last Edit: Aug 27th, 2005, 6:55pm by Gregorius » |
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Is quin linguam externam cognoscit non linguam ipsius cognoscit.
"He who doesn't know a foreign language doesn't know his own language."
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George
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Re: What Latin Could've Been
« Reply #3 on: Nov 21st, 2005, 06:29am » |
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I just wanted to write down the Romanian translation, so you can compare them... I don't claim anything 
canem > câine
caballus > cal
camera > cameră
debitus > debit
anima > inimă
homines > oameni
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reject
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Re: What Latin Could've Been
« Reply #4 on: Aug 17th, 2009, 11:42pm » |
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I've read in a few places that Sardinian is considered to be the most conservative of the Romance languages because of its isolation from other languages for a long time. I don't know too much about it, though, so I can't say for certain (won't stop me from voting for it though  ).
If I remember correctly, Italian was closest to Latin in terms of vocabulary, Romanian in terms of grammar and Spanish in terms of phonology.
Anyway, here are some random words to compare:
Latin - Italian - Sardinian - Romanian
sagittam - saetta - fretza* - săgeată
florem - fiore - frore - floare
nivem - neve - nie - nea
pirum - pera - pira - pară
galbinum - giallo - grogu - galben
digitum - dito - didu - deget
vetulum - vecchio - vedústus** - vechi
pectum - petto - pettus - piept
*fretza actually comes form Frankish, not Latin. Most Romance languages have the Frankish form as well or exclusively.
**actually from Latin vetustus, not vetulum, but the two words are related anyway.
From these words it seems that Italian is heavy on elision while Romanian is heavy on sound changes. Sardinian tends to have both, though, so I'm not sure what I intended to prove by adding it in there.
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