FROM LATIN TO ITALIAN

John Whelpton Hong Kong 25/3/2022

Hosted on-line by Dante Alighieri

Society di Hong Kong
 The Latin language: stereotypes
and a corrective
• `Words like `yes’ and `no’ aren’t important. Memorize these 3000 different
ways to talk about killing people, though, because you will use them.’
(https://thoodleoo.tumblr.com/)

• `Latin is a language as dead as dead can be, it killed the ancient Romans
and now it’s killing me’
(traditional British schoolchildren’s rhyme)

• `Every bum and prostitute in Rome spoke Latin.’

(Fr. Reginald Foster, for many years the Vatican’s chief Latinist)
 Linguistic terrorism on the streets
of Rome
• Luke Ranieri, a native speaker of American English who also
speaks Italian, pretends to know neither language and uses
classical Latin to ask for directions to the amphitheatrum Flavium
(Colosseo) and the Basilica Sancti Iohannis (Basilica di San
Giovanni).

• The Colosseum got its present name from the giant statue
(Colossus) that stood beside it until destroyed in an earthquake. It
is only when Luke mentions the statue that his question is
understood.

• Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYYpTfx1ey8
 After the end of the Western
Roman Empire (5th cent. A.D.)
• Latin remains the main spoken language in most of western Europe but
regional varieties diverge further into many dialects, some of which eventually
emerged as standard Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and Romanian.
• Until about 1100 A.D., people mostly continued writing in Latin but
pronounced in their local way – just as written Chinese can be read aloud in
Putonghua or Cantonese pronunciation
• After around 1100, ordinary documents are often written in the local language
but Latin is still used for many government records (even in countries in
northern and eastern Europe that were never part of the Roman Empire), for
scholarly writing, for international communication and as the official language
of the Catholic Church.
• From around 1600 vernacular languages are increasingly used for these more
prestigious purposes and by 1700 in Italy more books were being published in
Italian than in Latin. However, Latin retained an auxiliary role much longer: in
1849 schoolchildren in Milan were still learning to read in Italian and Latin
simultaneously and Latin was both the language of public worship in the
Catholic Church and the medium of instruction in the Vatican’s university until
the mid-1960s.
The Romance dialect continuum
 The degree of differentiation from
Latin as estimated by Mario Pei (1949)
• Sardinian 8%
• Italian 12%
• Spanish 20%
• Romanian 23.5%
• Occitan (a dialect, or dialect group, in the south
of France) 25%
• Portuguese 31%
• French 44%.
 The 10th century recognition of
Italian as distinct from Latin
• A song commemorating the coronation of Berengar I as Holy
Roman Emperor in 915 refers to the senate hailing him `patrio
ore’ (`in the language of our fathers’, i.e. Latin) and the common
people `nativa voce’ (`in native speech’, i.e. Italian)
• The Italian grammarian Gunzo, ridiculed by a monk at the Abbey
of St. Gall in Switzerland for a small mistake in Latin, admitted in
965 that aliquando retarder usu nostrae vulgaris linguae, quae
Latinitati vicina est (`sometimes I am hampered by the use of
our vernacular language, which is similar to Latin’)
• The Epitaph of Pope Gregory V (died 999) refers to his fluency in
French, Italian and Latin: usus francisca, vulgari et voce Latina
instituit populos
 THE STRUCTURE OF LATIN
• Changes to the ending of words indicate their grammatical
relationship to each other.
• Word order is therefore more variable than in Italian, Chinese or
English but the standard pattern is subject-object-verb – as in
modern Japanese, Nepali or Hindi.
• Different words use different endings to express the same
grammatical function – e.g. –am, -um, -em and –im all function
as markers of a singular direct object. A similar system is found
in many languages but this contrasts with the use of a single
suffix for a single grammatical function (e.g. -`s and-no ( の )for
the possessive form in English and Japanese respectively, or -lai
(-लाई)for a personal object of the verb in Nepali
DOG BITES MAN
MAN BITES DOG
CANIS HOMINEM MORDET
HOMO CANEM MORDET
Changing word order usually alters the emphasis
rather than the basic meaning

• Homo canem mordet (NORMAL ORDER)

– The man bites the dog
• Canem homo mordet
– The man bites the dog
• Mordet homo canem
– The man bites the dog
 The coding of person and tense withing
the verb
• surgimus we get up
• amabant they were loving
• sedemus we sit
• venimus we come
• veniebam I was coming
• regebatis you were ruling
• viceramus we had won
Romance as corrupted Latin!
 The process of change - I
• The starting point is not the literary Latin which is studied in schools but the
everyday language of the common people – Vulgar Latin

• Any living language changes continuously so it is difficult to say at precisely

what point a regional dialect of Latin becomes a dialect of Italian, Spanish,
French, etc.

• Simplification of word forms is accelerated when a language has to be learned

as a second language by adults, who cannot handle complexity of form as
easily as children acquiring their native tongue. Pressure of this kind on Latin
was operating from early on and increased with the influx of Germanic
peoples towards and after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West. A
similar process is probably behind the loss of many distinctive endings of Old
English after the Scandinavian influx from the 8 th century onwards.
 The process of change - II
• The loss of most noun endings necessitated a fixed word order instead of
the previous situation of an order which was flexible but had subject-object-
verb as the default option. The choice of subject-verb-object was probably
made in Vulgar Latin quite early on, perhaps also because it was simpler for
second language learners to process. Verb endings remained complex and
agreement of the verb with the subject was probably easier to maintain if
the verb came immediately after the subject (Bentz and Christiansen 2010)

• The final emergence of a standard Italian language, taught to everybody in

schools, was a much later development, involving the choice and promotion
of one variety of speech: `A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.’ In
Italy the crucial period was the 19 th century, when a single national language
was seen as essential for national unity. The choice of the Florentine dialect
followed from its literary prestige and especially its association with Dante,
 Examples of changes in the sound
•
system
Loss of final /m/ (already not pronounced fully in Classical Latin) and of /h/
• Simplification of consonant clusters (e.g. factum > fatto, scriptum > scritto)
• Loss of final /t/ (already seen in graffiti on the walls of Pompeii, destroyed in 79
A.D. – e.g. vivi for vivit (`he lives’))
• Palatalisation (i.e. change of /k/ and /g/ to the `ch’ sound in `church’ and the `g’
of `gentle’ respectively when followed by /e/ or /i/
• /w/ and /b/ between vowels becoming /β/, like English `v’ using both lips
instead of lips and teeth. Modern Italian, however, now uses the same
pronunciation as English for `v’, which the Romans originally pronounced as /w/
• Loss of contrast between long and short vowels
• Some of these changes are seen also in the `Italianate’ or `Ecclesiastical’
pronunciation of Latin (which probably emerged in the 9th century). This
pronunciation is used by celebrated Latin teacher Luigi Miraglia at
https://linguae.weebly.com/in-conclavi-scholari.html
 The loss of case endings in nouns
(in Romance generally the accusative (object case) is the form that survives but
often in Italian derivation appears to be from the nominative (subject case))

homo (human being)

SINGULAR PLURAL

Nominative (Subject) homo homines

Accusative (Direct object) hominem homines

Genitive (Possessive) hominis hominum

Dative (Indirect object) homini hominibus

Ablative (`by, with, from’) homine hominibus

Italian (no case markings) (l’)uomo (gli) uomini

LATIN   SPANISH        PORTUG..E    ITALIAN            FRENCH         
(Present) ​
AMO AMO AMO AMO AIME/eim/ 
AMAS AMAS AMI AMI AIMES/eim/
AMAT AMA AMA AMA AIME/eim/
AMAMUS AMAMOS AMAMOS AMIAMO AIMONS/eimõ/
AMATIS AMÁIS AMAIS AMATE AIMEZ/eimei/ 
AMANT  AMAN  AMAM AMANO    ​AIMENT /eim/ 

(Imperfect)

AMABAM AMABA AMAVA AMAVO AIMAIS/eimei/

AMABAS ANABAS AMAVAS AMAVI AIMAIS/eimei/
AMABAT AMABA AMAVA AMAVA AIMAIT/eimei/
AMABAMUS AMABAMOS AMÁVAMOS AMAVAMO AIMIONS/eimiõ/
AMABATIS AMABAIS AMÁVEIS   AMAVATE  AIMIEZ/eimiei/
AMABANT AMABAN AMÁVAM             AMAVANO      AIMAIENT/eimei/
                        

Note: Many French endings are distinguished in spelling but not in pronunciation and
subject pronouns are therefore required as in English or Chinese

The present and imperfect (roughly equivalent to the

English past continuous) of amare (`to love’) in Romance,
showing the retention of complex verb endings
 A new future tense
• Changes in pronunciation in Vulgar Latin made
forms like amabit (`he/she will love’) identical
to amavit (`he/she (has) loved’). A paraphrase,
using the verb for `have’ with an infinitive, took
over the future’s job: amare (h)abet > modern
Italian amerà
• This development, first found in the 7th century,
survives also into the other Romance
languages: French il aimera, Spanish el amará
 Non-classical vocabulary
Much of Italian vocabulary derives directly from the basic words common
to Literary and Vulgar Latin and used in the same way in both but there
are many exceptions, including words used differently in Vulgar Latin
and also loan words from Germanic and other languages
– cavallo (from caballus rather than equus – the former meant a work-
horse in classical Latin but became the general word for horse in
everyday speech.)
– bocca (from bucca (originally `cheek’) which replaced ōs for mouth in
Vulgar
– cervisia (Celtic loan word for `beer’) was replaced by a Germanic loan-
birra (here loans were, of course, needed because only barbarians drink
beer instead of wine!)
– bianco (from German blank) for some unknown reason replaced albo as
the principal word for `white’
 The Veronese Riddle (c.800?)

A text added to a Spanish manuscript by a scribe in Verona and once

regarded as the first example of writing in Italian but perhaps better seen as
late Latin with some north Italian dialect forms inserted. The last line (`We
give thanks to you almighty eternal God’) is purely Latin. The lines were most
likely intended to amuse fellow scribes and relieve the boredom of their long
hours copying out texts.

Se pareba boves
alba pratalia araba
albo versorio teneba
negro semen seminaba
Gratias tibi agimus omnipotens sempiterne deus
The Indovinello veronese with classical
Latin and English versions
• se pareba boves
– sibi parabat boves he was driving oxen in front of him
• alba pratalia araba
– alba pratalia arabat he was ploughing white fields
• albo versorio teneba
– album versorium tenebat he was holding a white plough
• negro semen seminaba
– nigrum semen seminabat he was sowing black seed
• In classical Latin parabat meant `was preparing’ but parar still means `push’ or `drive’ in the
Veronese dialect (standard Italian is spingere or guidare). Veronese also still retains versorio for
`plough’
• The answer to the riddle is the writer himself: his fingers (the oxen) pull his quill pen (the plough)
over the paper (the fields) spreading ink (the black seed) across it.
Late Vulgar Latin Inscription on the tomb of the martyrs Felix and Adauctus in the
catacombs of Commodilla in Rome (early 9th century?): Non dicere ille secrita a
bboce, perhaps corresponding to (almost) standard Latin non dicere illa secreta a
voce (`not to say the secret things out loud’). The reference is to the practice of
praying silently which became established around this time. Ille is a
demonstrative used as a definite article, the forerunner of italian le. The spelling
bboce perhaps indicated the merged pronunciation of /b/ and /v/ and is also
evidence for `syntactic doubling’ – pronouncing an initial consonant twice after a
preposition ending in a vowel. The latter is still characteristic of modern italian,
in which, for example, a destra (on the right) is actually pronounced addestra.
A deposition made in March 960 in a land dispute involving the Benedictine
monastery of Monte Cassino, one of the four`Placiti Cassinessi’, now
considered the earliest examples of written Italian. They are presumably the
words actually spoken by the witness, a local farmer.

• Original: Sao ko kelle terre, per kelle fini que ki contene, trenta anni le possette
parte sancti Benedicti
• Latin: Sapio quod eccelle terre, per eccellas fines quas eccic continet, triginta annis
illas possedit pars Sancti Benedicti.
• Modern Italian: So che quelle terre per quei confini che qui sono contenuti
trent'anni le possedette la parte di San Benedetto
• Literal English translation: I know that these lands, within the boundaries which
this [i.e. the map shown during the proceedings] contains, the portion of Saint
Benedict possesses them for thirty years
• Note the pronoun `le’, derived from the Latin demonstrative form illae (these),
and, like other Romance object pronouns, retaining its original position before the
verb despite the general shift to SVO order. The Latin eccelle, eccellas and eccic
are post-classical compounds of ecce (look!) with demonstratives illae, illas, hic
Late 11th century inscription from a fresco in the crypt of the Basilica di San Clemente
al Laterano in Rome, with the overseer speaking in the Romanesco central Italian
dialect. Sisinnius and his men believe they are dragging Clement himself away but in
fact the saint has been miraculously rescued and they are pulling a stone column. The
dialogue was perhaps added because people were forgetting the details of the story,
and the placing of the words next to the characters is a very early anticipation of the
modern comic strip.
 Clement and Sisinnius’ dialogue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Clement_and_Sisinnius_Inscription
• Sisinnium: "Fili[filii] de le [illae] pute [putae], traite[trahite]! Gosmari,
Albertel, traite! Falite [fac illi te] dereto [directo] colo [cum illum] palo
[palum], Carvoncelle!“
`Sons of bitches, pull! Gosmario, Albertello, pull! Get yourself
onto-him directly with the pole, Carvoncelle’
• Sanctus Clemens: "Duritiam [duritia] cordis vestris [vestri], saxa traere
[trahere] meruistis `From the hardness of your heart you have deserved
to pull rocks’

• The glosses to Sisinnius words in the vernacular are the Latin forms they
probably derive directly from but these are often not the forms that would
have been employed in standard Latin in this context
• Clement’s reply is supposed to be in standard Latin (indicating his higher
moral status!) but there are three mistakes, which the glossing corrects.
 We love our mother
(in Latin and modern Romance)
• Latin: nostram matrem amamus

• Italian: Amiamo la nostra madre

• Spanish: Amamos a nuestra madre

• French: Nous aimons notre mère

 Two more examples of modern Italian and its
classical Latin equivalents
• Come si dice in Italiano? - Quomodo dicitur Itālicē?
The literal English translation of the two sentences are `How
does it say itself in Italian?’ and `How is it said Italianly?’

• Anche [Hanc hodie] se [si] sono barbaro di [de] settentrione

[septentrionem], la [illa]Dante mi a impiegnato [me implicatum
habet] come [quomodo] insegnante [insignantem] di Latino
The glossing shows the Latin words from which the
Italian ones directly derive. A more idiomatic Latin sentence
would be Quamquam sum barbarus septentrionalis, Danteia me
magistrum Latinitatis conduxit [Although I am a northern
barbarian, Dante employed me as a Latin teacher]
 Back to Luke Ranieri
• In this final video
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=fDhEzP0b-Wo ) Luke finds his victims in the
Vatican but is more merciful as he uses the
Italianate rather than the classical
pronunciation.
• Strangely enough, only non-Italians agreed to
be interviewed!
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• I am grateful to Nicole Musto, who suggested
the topic and provided insightful advice on the
old Italian texts, and to Ivor Roberts for
supplying information on the Indovinello
veronese.
 FOR FURTHER REFERENCE
• Alkire, Ti and Carol Rosen. 2010. Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
• Bentz, Christian & Morten H. Christiansen. 2010. `Linguistic adaptation at work: the change of word
order and case system from Latin to the Romance Languages.’ In Smith, Andrew D.M, Marieke
Schouwstra, Bart de Boer and Kenny Smith (eds.,)The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 8th
International Conference pp. 26-33 (2010) http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?
doi=10.1.1.378.8907&rep=rep1&type=pdf
• C. Dionisotti , C. Grayson. 1949. Early Italian Texts. Oxford: Basil Blackwell
• Grotans, Anna A. 2007. Reading in Medieval St. Gall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Latin Stack Exchange. Discussion at https://latin.stackexchange.com/questions/1926/what-is-the-
first-text-considered-italian-instead-of-latin (accessed 20/3/22)
• L'iscrizione di san Clemente (1090). http://www.luzappy.eu/testi_volgare/iscr_clemente.htm
(accessed 23/23/22)
• Migliorini, B. 1960. Storia della lingua Italiana. Firenze (source for text of the Placiti cassinesi at
http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/italica/Cronologia/secolo10/Placiti/pla_cass.html )
• Miraglia, Luigi. 2008. `La vía de los humanistas (LLPSI) capitulum XXXIII’. Video with transcript at
https://linguae.weebly.com/in-conclavi-scholari.html (accessed 23/3/22)
• Nelson, Max. 2008. The Barbarian’s Beverage: a History of Beer in Ancient Europe. London:
Routledge.
• Norberg, Dag. 1980. Manuel pratique de latin médiéval . Paris: Picard. Translation by R.H. Johnson at
https://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Latin_Medieval/Dag_Norberg/index.html
• Ostler, Nicholas. 2007. Ad Infinitum: a Biography of Latin. New York: Walker.
• Ranieri, Luke. 2021. `American speaks Latin to Italians in Rome – Watch their reaction!’
Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYYpTfx1ey8 (accessed 23/3/22)
• Ranieri, Luke. 2021. `American speaks Latin at the Vatican with priests.’ Video at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDhEzP0b-Wo (accessed 23/3/22)
• Waquet, Françoise. 1998. Le latin ou l’empire d’une signe. Paris: Albin Michel.
• Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodilla_catacomb_inscription (accessed
24/3/22)
• Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placiti_Cassinesi (accessed 23/3/22)
• Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Clement_and_Sisinnius_Inscription
(accessed 24/3/22)
• Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardinian_language (accessed 20/3/22)
• Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronese_Riddle (accessed 23/3/22)