Early Latin
Constructs, Diversity, Reception

The first critical definition of 'early Latin' through studies of Republican Latin and its reception from the antiquity to modernity.

J. N. Adams (Edited by), Anna Chahoud (Edited by), Giuseppe Pezzini (Edited by)

9781108476584, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 August 2023

900 pages
23.7 x 15.8 x 3.9 cm, 1.07 kg

This is the most detailed and comprehensive study to date of early Latin language, literary and non-literary, featuring twenty-nine chapters by an international team of scholars. 'Early Latin' is interpreted liberally as extending from the period of early inscriptions through to the first quarter of the first century BC. Classical Latin features significantly in the volume, although in a restricted sense. In the classical period there were writers who imitated the Latin of an earlier age, and there were also interpreters of early Latin. Later authors and views on early Latin language are also examined as some of these are relevant to the establishment of the text of earlier writers. A major aim of the book is to define linguistic features of different literary genres, and to address problems such as the limits of periodisation and the definition of the very concept of 'early Latin'.

1. Introduction: What is early Latin? Giuseppe Pezzini and Anna Chahoud
Part I. General (Morphology, Syntax, Lexicon and Metre): 2. Alphabet, epigraphy, and literacy in central Italy in the 7th /5th c. BC Rex Wallace
3. Identifying Latin in early inscriptions Simona Marchesini
4. The Egadi Rostra, a linguistic analysis Wolfgang D. C. de Melo
5. Morphology and syntax in early Latin Wolfgang D. C. de Melo
6. Early Latin metre Wolfgang D. C. de Melo and Giuseppe Pezzini
7. Greek Loanwords in early Latin James Clackson
8. Latin edepol 'by Pollux': background of a Latin aduerbium iuratiuum Brent Vine
9. Indirect questions in early Latin Peter Barrios-Lech
10. Ecquis in early Latin: aspects of questions Colette Bodelot
Part II. Authors and Genres: 11. Support verb constructions in Plautus and Terence José Miguel Baños
12. Early Latin prayers and aspects of coordination James Adams and Veronika Nikitina
13. 'Early Latin' lexicon in Terence (and Plautus) Giuseppe Pezzini
14. Early Latin and the fragments of Atellana Comedy Costas Panayotakis
15. A comparison of the language of comedy and tragedy in early Latin drama Robert Maltby
16. The language of early Latin epic Sander Goldberg
17. How 'early Latin' is Lucilius? Anna Chahoud
18. Repetition in the fragmentary orators: from Cato to C. Gracchus Christa Gray
19. Greek influences on Cato's Latin Neil O'Sullivan
20. Some syntactic features of Latin legal texts Olga Spevak
Part III. Reception: 21. Lucretius and early Latin Barnaby Taylor
22. Cicero and early dramatic Latin Gesine Manuwald
23. Early Latin texts in Livy John Briscoe
24. Pliny rewrites Cato Cynthia Damon
25. Gellius' appreciation and understanding of early Latin Leofranc Holford-Strevens
26. Views on early Latin in grammatical texts Alessandro Garcea
27. Nonius Marcellus and the shape of early Latin Jarrett Welsh
28. Early Latin to Neo-Latin: Festus and Scaliger Anna Chahoud
Conclusions: 29. Early Latin as a Concept James Adams.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1]