Medieval Latin: Observations and Reflections Part One Man muß das Mittellatein historisch zu verstehen suchen (K. Strecker) In this series of essays we intend to examine some aspects of the history of the Latin language in the Middle Ages. The first essay is devoted to the book “Introduction to Medieval Latin” by Karl Strecker. We used the second edition of this manual, published in 1929.1 Based on the observations of a German historian and source specialist, we will reflect on specific issues of medieval Latin orthography, morphology, and syntax. Note that one of Strecker’s main goals was to provide a bibliography on various issues of medieval Latin philology that was current at the time of the book’s publication. We do not touch on this bibliography here, referring interested readers to the original source, as well as to one of the subsequent essays in our series, which will focus specifically on the history of the study of medieval Latin in late XIX - XX centuries. Our order of consideration of the departments of the history of language will be somewhat different than Strecker’s, more appropriate to our tasks. It is planned to devote a separate essay to vocabulary, in which, as a starting point, in addition to Strecker’s manual, it is intended to involve the works of some other researchers. First of all, let us turn to spelling, which seems extremely important for medieval Latin, but to which Strecker devoted only one page. Most medieval texts are documents and manuscripts. Being a specialist in 1 Strecker K. Einführung in das Mittellatein. Berlin, 1929. The last one is a German historian and writes exclusively about the spelling of manuscripts. The author’s first remark is that it varies greatly depending on the chronological and geographical location of the manuscript under study, just as, let us generalize for him, all phenomena of medieval Latin vary greatly. However, Strecker rightly clarifies, universal mechanisms of orthographic variation can also be discovered, common, for example, to Spanish and Irish manuscripts. In Italy, since the early Middle Ages, the influence of the folk language on the literary language has been noted. The author does not ask why this is so, but the main reason was the proximity of languages. That is why in the Romance world we will much more often find the influence of the morphology and syntax of folk dialects on the Latin substratum. This phenomenon widely affected spelling, as well as pronunciation, as evidenced by some rhymes allowed in medieval Latin poetry2. Using observations of the figured verses of the Carolingian period, Strecker concludes that their orthography did not differ much from the restored orthography of the Latin classics of the Golden Age that is familiar to us. Forms with contracted diphthongs and the opposite phenomenon of hypercorrection, observed, say, in Rabanus the Maurus (que instead of quae, Egyptus instead of Aegyptus and, conversely, aecclesia instead of ecclesia or praessus instead of pressus) are harbingers of a widely spread in the manuscripts of the 11th-13th centuries . mixing diphthongs and monophthongs corresponding to them in timbre. Only humanists restored the true state of affairs. Strecker's observation is pure truth, but the noted fact cannot be considered in isolation, taking into account only commonly used texts. In the vernacular, as is known, in the language 2 Strecker's examples: abscondi-profundi, amicus-antiquus, dimis-sum-ipsum, intus-cinctus, amnis-annis. 2 inscriptions on tombstones, in peripheral manuscripts of Latin classics, a mixture of vowels in the sequence: (eu) = e = ae = oe = / i = y = u = (au) = o, that is, all diphthongs and all vowel sounds, dol - short and short, except for a, is a common phenomenon covering all eras, almost as universal as the doubling of single consonants between vowels or, conversely, the use of one consonant instead of a double one. In this light, the observation that spellings like Talia instead of Thalia in the same Rabanus the Maurus reflects a later tendency towards complete mutual confusion of t and th, f and ph, p and ph, ti and ci also appears somewhat limited in this light. Strecker then gives numerous examples of such mixtures from later literature. IN in this case The German historian clearly connects together a number of phonetic and purely orthographic phenomena that have different origins. Let's talk about this in more detail, using Strecker's examples. In the phonological system of the ancient Greek language, there was a contrast between aspirated and voiceless stop consonant phonemes, which formed pairs π-φ (p-ph), κ-χ (c-ch), τ-θ (t-th), smooth ρ (r) always was aspirated (rh). The hardening of aspirates is a characteristic phenomenon in the history of many languages, therefore the cases of writing p instead of ph, s instead of ch, t instead of th and vice versa are the result of mixing stop and aspirated phonemes Greek language in Latin, mainly medieval. The transfer of this process to the actual Latin words is a secondary phenomenon; the spelling r instead of rh is also a secondary phenomenon, which became a logical continuation of the above. These include the cases cited by Strecker of writing Talia instead of Thalia, choruscare instead of coruscare (proper Latin), pasca instead of pascha, crisma instead of chrisma, scisma instead of schisma, Phitagoras instead of Pythagoras (here there are also 3 aspiration-occlusion metatheses), Protheus instead of Proteus, thaurus instead of taurus, eptathecus instead of heptateuchus (again metathesis of aspiration-occlusion), spera instead of sphaera, emisperium instead of hemisphaerium, antleta instead of athleta. As you can see, all examples are Greek, except for coruscare, which in highest degree is typical and confirms our thesis. In contrast to the listed cases, writing f instead of ph and vice versa is a phenomenon of a different order. In the Greek language there was no sound analogous to the Latin [f], if we exclude the sound [w], which was designated in the Eastern alphabets by the digamma (Ϝ). Therefore, the transition of the aspirate (φ) into the fricative voiceless [f] is actually a Latin innovation, the manifestation of which relates to late period history of the Latin language (180-600 AD). Initially, it also covered only Greek words, because, of course, the letter combination ph was found only in them, but subsequently the opposite phenomenon of hypercorrection also captured the Latin words themselves. In Strecker we find the following medieval examples: Feton = Phaeton, cifus = scyphus, fantasma = phantasma, filomena = philomela, fisica = physica, prophanus = profanus. Another late Latin innovation was the funny ti and ci before a vowel. The transition of a voiceless stop [t] before a front one into an affricate corresponding in position is as typical a phonetic process as the hardening of aspirates. In Latin, this happened before the subsequent vowel, that is, in positions where [i] was obviously short according to the rule that the vowel before the vowel was shortened. It is possible that the short [i] was more anterior in articulation than the corresponding long one, which is the root of the phenomenon. This phenomenon did not cover words where ti was preceded by [t] or [s], that is, one of the two elements of a potential affricate, which prevented its formation according to the principle of dissimilation. In addition, in Gothic the confusion of c and t was facilitated by their similar style. Strecker's examples: precium = pretium, accio = actio, Gretia = Graecia, fatio = facio. The German historian’s general list of spelling irregularities also includes cases where spelling variation is explained by metathesis, although he does not use such a concept. These are antestis instead of antistes (obviously under the influence of the word ante), hanelare instead of anhelare, the above Phitagoras instead of Pythagoras, eptathecus instead of heptateuchus, spalmus instead of psalmus, fragrare and fraglare instead of flagrare, neupma instead of pneuma. The most frequent and known from inscriptions from the second century BC remain on Strecker’s list. new era writing e instead of ae, oe and vice versa, as well as interchange of vowels and diphthongs i/y, a/au, i/e and others, in accordance with the above sequence of spelling variation: tropeum = tropaeum, Pheton = Phaeton, Danem = Danaem (here at the junction of morphemes), mestus = maestus; cenobium = coenobium, cęmens = coemens (here at the junction of morphemes, as the spelling with cedilla reminds us); limpha = lympha, sidera = sidera; agurium = augurium, agustus = augustus, ascultare = auscultare (restoration internal form words also gives bizarre morphological variants: abscultare, obscultare); analetica = analytica (through the analitica stage), yconomus, iconomus = oeconomus (through the economus stage), Ysopus = Aesopus (through the Esopus, Isopus stages), emunitas = immunitas. Interchanges between labiovelar qu and velar c have been known since ancient times, so one should not follow Strecker in seeing something specifically medieval in the spellings scalores instead of squalores, doctilocus instead of doctiloquus and the like. Likewise, the phenomenon of the disappearance or, conversely, of a hypercorrectional insertion [h] at the beginning of a word before a vowel or in the middle of a word between two vowels was still ancient, although in the Middle Ages this phenomenon became widespread, becoming more complicated by purely orthographic by varying the spellings h = ch = c, for example, habundare instead of abundare, veit instead of vehit, hortus instead of ortus, abhominari instead of abominari (here, obviously, the meaning of the word played a role, forcing it to be associated not with omen, but with homo), agiographus instead hagiographus; michi = mihi, nichil, nicil = nihil. Finally, a purely medieval phenomenon was the mixing of final voiced and voiceless stops, especially [d] and [t], this manifested itself in spellings like capud instead of caput, inquid instead of inquit, adque instead of atque. The few remaining examples of Strecker relate, rather, to the peculiarities of vocabulary and morphology, rather than to spelling itself, so we omit them here and move on to the section on prosody, stress and pronunciation in medieval Latin, also very briefly outlined by the German historian. ke. Since prosody in the Middle Ages was studied according to classical models, primarily from poetry, it remained quite conservative. Although there are many deviations from the norms of the classics, they are difficult to generalize and should be studied in relation to each specific author, because they are very different in different texts. Typical examples Strecker gives the following errors in longitudes: fortuĭto, bĭduum, gentĭlis, rēnuo, gratĭs, crědulus, laudăbilis, iŭgis, fluěbat. In general, the author of the manual notes, in the XII-XIII centuries. lengths and brevities were observed significantly better than in earlier eras, which, we assume, was due to the so-called. Renaissance of the 12th century. The stresses in biblical proper names were interpreted in a very diverse manner, and this is not surprising due to their foreignness to both the Latin and Greek languages, and folk languages. Poor knowledge of the Greek language in medieval Western Europe led to the fact that brevity and length, as well as the associated stress in words Greek origin were often violated. The same words were emphasized either according to the Greek original, or according to the Latin borrowing, or contrary to all the rules. This is evidenced by cases such as éremus, ídolum, paráclitus, comedía, sophía and sophia, poetría and poétria, parádisus and paradísus, Égyptus and Egýptus. In poetry there is often a very free use of longitudes and shortnesses in Greek words: anathēma, bibliothěca, cātholicus, ecclěsia, erěmīta, mōnachus, phīlosophīa, prŏto-plastus, Theōphilus and Thēophilus. Let us add that stress transfer is sporadically observed in Latin words, especially those containing the muta cum liquida group: muliéris, tenébrae, cathédra (of course, Greek), intégrum. In the early Middle Ages, Strecker notes, the diphthongs au, eu were often chanted in two syllables, which, we add, was a continuation of the ancient trend, according to which eu in poetry and when it was a junction of morphemes was also chanted in two syllables. Let's move on to morphology. Late antique and medieval Latin morphology is usually described as a set of deviations from classical morphology; Strecker follows this path, noting the uneven distribution of morphological variability across eras: before 800 it is very large, starting from the 12th century. decreases significantly, in the interval it is moderately distributed. Avoiding wording general patterns, the German historian gives individual examples. Let's look at them in groups, trying to trace general trends. There is some confusion in declension various types. Third instead of second: dia- 7 conem, diaconibus. Second instead of pronominal: Dat. illo, nullo. Confusion of neuter pronoun endings –um and –d: ipsud. Universal for medieval Latin was the ending of the ablative singular of the comparative degree of adjectives according to the vowel type –i: maiori. Analytical comparative forms are becoming widespread instead of synthetic ones: magis regulares, plus communem, they are combined: magis incensior, formed irregular shapes instead of suppletives: bonissimus. comparative used instead of the superlative: de omnibus meliores, especially often also instead of the positive: devotius orare. Violations of ancient grammar are manifested in the transition of nouns to another gender (locellum instead of loquela, frons - m instead of f), the use of the singular in pluralia tantum (cuna instead of cunae [this is still ancient], insidia instead of insidiae). Among verbs, Strecker points out, deviations from the classical norm are more frequent. Fugio passes from the third conjugation to the fourth, odi from the defective also becomes a verb of the fourth conjugation: odio, odire. Third instead of second: resplendit. Replacing the basis of the perfect with the basis of the infect: linquerat, cernisti. Original tultus instead of ablatus. Future by type I-II conjugations for the verb of the third conjugation: faciebo. Regular formation of forms in irregular verbs: exiebant instead of exibant, iuvavi instead of iuvi. There are depositional forms instead of non-deferential ones and vice versa, active participles instead of passive ones and vice versa. Descriptive constructions became favorite in the medieval period, which reflects the general movement of Latin from synthetism to analyticism. Moreover, as auxiliary verb they can include not only sum, as was the case in the classics, but also others, for example fio, evenio. As a result, one can find the following constructions: utens sum, locutus fui, assatus fieret, fit sepultus, interfectus evenerit, cenaturi erunt, refecturus fuero. It is interesting to note Strecker’s observation that the present participle is often replaced by the ablative gerund: gratulando rediit, and the gerund is finally interpreted as a passive participle of the future, sometimes being mixed in meaning with the active one. Impersonal verbs occasionally used as personal: penites, pigeamus. To summarize, we can say that Strecker’s heterogeneous observations generally indicate a mixture of various grammatical types in medieval Latin, a phenomenon characteristic of the history of many living languages, which, however, did not give rise to a stable trend in medieval Latin that would force change the entire language system, as happened, for example, in the Romance languages inherited from Latin. Strecker collected very different phenomena under the heading “Syntax.” Some, on the contrary, ended up in other sections from syntax. According to our observations, the use of the infinitive of a verb in the meaning of an indeclinable noun (vestrum velle meum est, pro posse et nosse, sine mandere), mentioned among morphological irregularities, is a feature that is sporadically found in classical authors, lived through the entire Middle Ages and remained among humanists and later, the verb volo was especially often used in this way. Strecker's "Syntax" includes a number of observations on the functions and meaning of pronouns in medieval Latin. Firstly, the difference in the use of demonstrative pronouns is, ea, id and hic, haec, hoc is lost, the first of which meant in the classical language “this, that”, and the second - “last mentioned”. Let us add that this was only part of the general tendency of medieval Latin to mix up all demonstrative pronouns, and with them the relative qui. As Strecker himself rightly writes, ille = iste = ipse = idem = is. In addition, in oblique cases the interchange his = hiis = iis = eis is due to the orthographic reasons outlined above. Secondly, instead of demonstrative pronouns, clericalisms with the meaning “above mentioned” are often used: praesens, praedictus, praefatus, supranominatus, memoratus and the like. As is known from the literature, this feature was borrowed by medieval Latin from the language of the late Roman imperial office. Thirdly, the system of possessive pronouns is destroyed. The adjective proprius can be used instead of any of them. “My”, “yours”, “his” are replaced by “yours”, and also vice versa: milites se prodiderunt, pater suus. Instead of a possessive pronoun, it is used Genitive personal (to be fair, we note that this happened periodically in antiquity): ira tui, nostri deliciae. Fourthly, indefinite pronouns are mixed: quis-que = quisquis, quivis. Fifthly, pseudo-articles appear: definite: ille, iste, indefinite: quidam, unus (note that this phenomenon is especially characteristic of the Romance world and is associated with the influence of folk languages). When forming a comparison, quam (also quantum) is often used in the meaning of “very”, “more”, as well as the prefix per- and the words nimis, nimium: quam cito, quam strennuiter, quam latenter, quantum religiosius, quam plures = quam plurimi , perplures, perplurimus, per-maximus, nimis magnus. Similar constructions: satis firmus, bene felix, multum terribilis, infinitum altus, praepulcher, tam lucidissimus. In general, medieval Latin treated degrees of comparison and comparative constructions very freely, as well as prepositions, which we will consider when talking about innovations in the field of vocabulary. As is well known, already the early Middle Ages introduced great confusion in the use of conjunctions, especially double ones. The main tendency was to identify the meaning of various conjunctions, as the examples cited by Strecker demonstrate. In the meaning of the conjunction “and”, in addition to et, ac / atque and postpositive -que, vel, seu / sive, quin, quoque, etiam, nihilominus, pariter, pariterque, simul, necnon, necne, as well as -que are also used , but not postpositive, but like et; aut-aut = et-et. Much more often than in antiquity, coordinating conjunctions are used at the beginning of a sentence to connect two adjacent phrases or periods. According to Wackernagel’s law, formulated primarily for classical languages, they, as a rule, are placed in second place in the sentence and represent clitics. So they used nam, namque, enim, etenim, autem, vero, itaque, igitur, siquidem. Use sed and at at the beginning of a sentence. The replacement of the temporary conjunction cum with the conjunction dum, used with both the indicative and the conjunctive of the verb, is becoming widespread. New ones are emerging subordinating conjunctions, for example, noted by Strecker “immediately as”: mox ut, mox ubi, statim ubi. Under the influence of the language of the Bible (see the second essay in our series), the replacement of the classical accusativus cum in-finitivo with subordinate clauses with conjunctions quod, quia, quoniam, qualiter becomes universal. The desire to diversify conjunctions of the same meaning is also manifested in the fact that to indicate the goal, in addition to the classical ut (finale), quo, quatenus (quatinus), quod, quoad, qualiter are also widely used. Having begun this essay, containing a brief commented retelling classic manual on medieval Latin, as well as the generalization and clarification of Strecker’s observations accessible to us, with a quote from his manual, I would like to end it with a very revealing quote from the same: “So, it is impossible to write a unified grammar of the medieval Latin language, and it is impossible V general view answer the often heard question “Is such and such a phenomenon Central Latin?” On the other hand, the opinion that medieval Latin had no rules at all must disappear.”3 3 Ibid., S. 27. 12
The Middle Ages is a vast era of European history, formally occupying a whole thousand years - from the 5th to the 15th centuries. It is clear that such a significant period of time cannot be homogeneous in culturally, as well as in relation to the development of national languages and literature. However, this period can still be considered as a whole due to several main features; first of all, thanks to the unconditional primacy of Christian religious culture in all areas of life. An important feature of this era is also the fact that Latin in the Middle Ages served as a universal language of communication between the peoples of the new Europe that arose from the ruins of the Western Roman Empire. In addition, it is the language of communication of certain cultural groups of the population - clergy catholic church, people of science and literature. Cultured people of that time were united by their spiritual affiliation with the highest achievements of ancient culture. New artistic, scientific and philosophical literature of medieval Europe for a long time was written in Latin. Without knowing Latin, it was impossible to enter the circle of cultured and educated people.
Accordingly, the Latin language served as an indispensable element and basis of the foundations of medieval education. In the 9th century education system has already taken shape. The school education cycle consisted of two related standards - the trivium (travium) and the quadrivium (quadrivium). The trivium included three main disciplines - grammar, dialectics and rhetoric - which were taught in primary school. Quadrivium - arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music - studied in high school. Together, both parts made up the “seven liberal arts” (artes liberales). Graduates of Latin schools joined the ranks of educated people of the Middle Ages.
The main centers of medieval learning were monasteries and universities. Monasteries were natural centers of cultural life of that time. Here educated people sought security and academic leisure; here the works of ancient and Christian authors were written and copied, repositories of precious manuscripts and libraries were created, thanks to which most of them have reached us cultural heritage antiquity and early Middle Ages. Many outstanding scientific and cultural figures of the Middle Ages were monks. There were schools at the monasteries primary education, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that during a certain period monasteries were the only disseminators of literacy, and before the emergence of universities, the only guardians of high knowledge.
Universities were a new organization, unknown to the ancient world, designed to unite within its walls the teaching of all types of theoretical knowledge that existed at that time. The first universities arose in the 12th century. The true center of medieval education was the University of Paris, which united the best minds of its time. In the 12th and 13th centuries, universities also appeared in Spain, Italy, and England. Over time, the intellectual and spiritual life of the era centered around universities. The general growth of the level of European culture predetermined its flourishing during the Renaissance.
And in the era of the earliest Middle Ages (6-7 centuries), the cultural decline was very significant. A new rise in culture began only at the end of the 8th century. Famous era is the so-called The Carolingian Renaissance was a cultural upsurge under the Frankish Carolingian dynasty founded by Charlemagne. Charlemagne issued a special decree on the opening of schools at the monasteries. For training purposes, special manuals were created, often written in the form of a dialogue between a mentor and a student. An Academy was created at court, where liberal sciences and theology were taught. The main representatives of the Carolingian Renaissance are Alcuin, Einhard and the philosopher Eriugena, who studied the classical heritage.
The Carolingian Renaissance gave a powerful impetus to the development of medieval learning, which flourished in the 12th-14th centuries. Medieval culture was a religious culture and, moreover, a church culture. Therefore, the pinnacle of medieval scholarship was theology - the doctrine of God and the world, based on abstract philosophical reasoning, and the main form of theorizing was scholasticism, religious philosophy that used the Latin language to express complex abstract meanings. The largest representative of scholasticism was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274).
However, Latin was not only the language of priests and theologians. At the end of the 18th century, medieval poetic manuscripts were discovered, the content of which differed sharply from the learned theological texts of the time. The main feature of these verses was their secular, anti-church character. Here, following the example of ancient Roman poets, they talked about love joys, wine drinking, the delights of the surrounding mortal world, human vices and weaknesses, etc. The creators of these poems were itinerant schoolchildren, clergy and students who moved from city to city in search of a new place of service or study and therefore were called vagants (from the Latin vagari - “to wander”, “to wander”).
The heyday of Vagant poetry occurred in the 12th and 13th centuries. In the poems of the Vagants, ancient images and subjects are mixed with biblical motifs and folklore, and love lyrics- with parody and satire. The Vagantes are rightly considered the predecessors of later secular and love poetry - the French Trouvères and the German Minnesingers, who already wrote in national languages. The Latin of the Vagants is guided by the best examples of Roman poetry; At the same time, the vagantes drew many motifs, meters and composition from folk poetry. The most famous vagantes are Hugh of Orleans, Archipita of Cologne and Walter of Chatillon.
For the people of the Middle Ages, the Latin language was, first of all, a sacred language: the Bible was written in it, and the church fathers practiced religious worship. In addition, it remained the language of science (until the 18th century) and literary creativity until 1100. Being a living language, it constantly developed, and although it retained the syntax (in a simplified form) and rhetorical turns of classical Latin, its vocabulary was enriched, expressing the realities medieval period. The first Christian authors, unaware of the linguistic purism of the Latin writers of the Empire, sought to make Latin accessible to the understanding of the general public. And whatever language they used - low Latin, which Augustine spoke and wrote, or rural Latin, which was used by ordinary residents, for example Arles - it had to correspond to the goals of introducing the people to religion and culture. In the Carolingian era, Charlemagne unified and corrected the language, by legislative act distinguishing in it scientific Latin and the language of the illiterate population or common Latin (romana lingua rustica), in which he advised preaching sermons (capitulary of 813). After the unrest that swept Europe in the 10th century (raids of the Hungarians, Saracens and Normans) literary creativity in Latin developed until the 12th and 13th centuries. The revival of the 12th century was also facilitated by translations into Latin (between 1120 and 1180) of works by Greek and Arabic authors. These were mainly scientific works on philosophy and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy), supplemented by works on astrology and medicine. The Iberian Peninsula was a center, a hotbed of translation activity, where English and French intellectuals commissioned translations. The translated works circulated throughout the Christian world. During this period, in imitation of ancient models, “Alexandria” by Gautier de Chatillon (about 1176) and “Polycraticus” by his friend John of Salisbury were created. But the spirit of the Middle Ages was already established in the romantic mood of the works of Gautier Map (in “Fables of a Courtesan” - De nugis curialium) and in the wealth of lyrical and satirical images of goliards (“Estuans intresecus”, “Dives eram”). Their critical views on contemporary society, on the licentiousness of their lifestyle and depraved morals were many times condemned by the church. In 1227, the Council of Treves banned the performance of their songs, parodying the prayers Sanctus and Agnus Dei, holy for Christians, and church cathedral in Rouen in 1241 they were deprived of the right to wear a tonsure, the highest distinctive sign of the clergy.
In the 13th century, the development of the Latin language continued in theological speculation, legal compilations and scientific treatises. In theology and philosophy, scholastic Latin provided a wide field of activity; while maintaining a strict syntactic structure and the use of suffixes and prefixes, it created neologisms that expressed abstract concepts in logical and speculative conclusions. Subsequently, scholastic Latin would be ridiculed by humanists who advocated strict imitation of ancient models.
In the medieval period there appeared new type literati (litteratus) who had a good command of the Latin language, although it should be recognized that they used different forms of Latin, varying depending on the degree of education of the authors and influenced by regional linguistic substrates. The richness of the Latin language lay in the ability to express any ideas and concepts in it. According to J. -I. Tiye-ta, every Latin word “sounded harmoniously in the verses of Virgil, the maxims of Seneca and the prayers of St. Augustine,” which explains the “survival” of this language during the medieval millennium and its claims to universality.
But it should be noted that literary fiction and poetic lyricism were perfectly expressed in “vulgar” languages or local dialects.
Medieval, or Christianized Latin is, first of all, liturgical (liturgical) texts - hymns, chants, prayers. At the end of the 4th century, Saint Jerome translated the entire Bible into Latin. This translation, known as the Vulgate (that is, the People's Bible), was recognized as equivalent to the original by the Catholic Council of Trent in the 16th century. Since then, Latin, along with Hebrew and Greek, has been considered one of the sacred languages of the Bible. The Renaissance left us with a huge amount scientific works in Latin. These are medical treatises by physicians of the Italian school of the 16th century: “On the Structure of the Human Body” by Andreas Vesalius (1543), “Anatomical Observations” by Gabriel Fallopius (1561), “Anatomical Works” by Bartolomeo Eustachio (1552), “On Contagious Diseases and Their Treatment” by Girolamo Fracastoro (1546) and others. The teacher Jan Amos Comenius (1658) created his book “The World of Sensual Things in Pictures” (“Orbis Sensualium Pictus. Omnium rerum pictura et nomenclatura”) in Latin, in which the whole world is described with illustrations, from inanimate nature to the structure of society. Many generations of children from different countries of the world studied from this book. Its last Russian edition was published in Moscow in 1957.
2.3.5. Influence on other languages
The Latin language in its folk (colloquial) variety - the so-called vulgar Latin (meaning folk) - was the basis language for new national languages, united under the general name Romance. These include the Italian language, which was created on the territory of the Apennine Peninsula as a result of a historical change in the Latin language, French and Provençal languages, which developed in the former Gaul, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese - on the Iberian Peninsula, Romansh - on the territory of the Roman colony of Raetia (in part of present-day Switzerland and in northeastern Italy), Romanian - in the territory of the Roman province of Dacia (present-day Romania), Moldavian and some others, of which the Sardinian language should be especially noted as the closest to classical Latin of all modern Romance languages.
2.3.6. Latin – the language of terminology
Throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, Latin was the language of the Catholic Church. At the same time, Latin was the language of science and university teaching and the main subject of school teaching. Finally, Latin was the language of jurisprudence, and even in those countries where legislation was transferred to national languages already in the Middle Ages (such as in France), the study of Roman law and reception from it was the most important integral part jurisprudence. Hence the widespread penetration of Latin vocabulary into modern European languages, primarily as scientific, theological, legal and generally abstract terminology. Latin vocabulary is international because all scientific and technical terminology is built on the basis of Latin and Greek [Astapenko P.N., 2001: 31 p.].
In the history of the development of the Latin language, several stages of development are distinguished, which are characterized in terms of its internal evolution and interaction with other languages. Let's look at each of them in more detail.
Archaic Latin.
The emergence of Latin as a language dates back to approximately the middle of the second millennium BC. The earliest written monuments This language dates back to the late 6th - early 5th centuries BC. This is a dedicatory inscription found in 1978 from the ancient city of Satrica, and a fragment of a sacred inscription on a piece of black stone, found in 1899 during excavations of the Roman forum. The largest monument of this period in the field of literary language is the ancient Roman comedian Plautus, from whom 20 comedies have come down to us in their entirety and one in fragments.
Classical Latin.
Classical Latin means literary language, who achieved the greatest expressiveness and syntactic harmony in the prose works of Cicero and Caesar, and in the works of Virgil, Horace and Ovid. The Latin language reached its greatest flourishing and perfection during the “Golden Age” - during the reign of Emperor Augustus (1st century BC). “Golden” Latin received its grammatical, syntactic and stylistic completeness. The “Golden Age” is the age of greatest flowering of Roman literature.
The period of formation and flourishing of the classical Latin language was associated with the transformation of Rome into the largest slave-owning state in the Mediterranean. However, in the eastern provinces of the Roman state the Latin language did not receive widespread. Things were different in the western Mediterranean. By the end of the second century BC, Latin dominates not only in Italy, but also as the official state language penetrates into the conquered regions of the Iberian Peninsula and what is now southern France. Through Roman soldiers and merchants, spoken Latin was actively reaching the masses. local population. Among the most prominent authors of this era are Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Titus Lucretius and others.
Postclassical Latin.
This period dates back to the time frame of the first - second centuries AD. The difference from classical Latin is that the literary language of the most famous poets and writers of this time - mainly historians and theologians - is very original, but at the same time the developed norms of the grammatical structure are not violated in any way. Therefore, the division into classical and post-classical stages has more literary than linguistic significance. Among the most famous figures of this era can be noted such as Apuleius, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, Marcus Valerius Martial, Decimus Junius Juvenal.
Late Latin.
Late Latin is also distinguished as a separate stage in the development of the Latin language. Chronological framework of this period- third-fourth centuries AD, era late empire, when after its fall barbarian states begin to arise. Previous traditions in the work of authors are beginning to fade away. Also at this stage, Christianity spread and spiritual literature appeared in Latin (Jerome, Augustine, etc.). Significant changes are already visible in the works of later times. They are the ones preparing the transition to new Romance languages.
Medieval Latin.
Medieval (or Christianized Latin) is primarily liturgical texts - hymns, chants, prayers. Since the translation of the Bible into Latin, along with Hebrew and Ancient Greek, it has been considered one of the sacred languages of the Bible. During the era of medieval Latin, it was taught in schools and universities Western Europe; in this territory it begins to function as a common written language.
