Romance Languages
A Historical Introduction

This book describes the changes which led from colloquial Latin to the five major Romance languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian.

Ti Alkire (Author), Carol Rosen (Author)

9780521889155, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 June 2010

392 pages, 2 b/w illus. 32 tables
25.3 x 17.9 x 2.1 cm, 0.92 kg

'A user-friendly and straightforward approach to the topic, which cuts through much of the excessive and dense detail of traditional treatments.' Adam Ledgeway, University of Cambridge

Ti Alkire and Carol Rosen trace the changes that led from colloquial Latin to five major Romance languages, those which ultimately became national or transnational languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. Trends in spoken Latin altered or dismantled older categories in phonology and morphology, while the regional varieties of speech, evolving under diverse influences, formed new grammatical patterns, each creating its own internal regularities. Documentary sources for spoken Latin show the beginnings of this process, which comes to full fruition in the medieval emergence of written Romance languages. This book newly distills the facts into an appealing program of study, including exercises, and makes the difficult issues clear, taking well motivated and sometimes innovative stands. It provides not only an essential guide for those new to the topic, but also a reliable compendium for the specialist.

Introduction
1. The evolution of stressed vowels
2. Early changes in syllable structure and consonants
3. Consonant weakening and strengthening
4. New palatal consonants
5. More about vowels: raising, yod effects, and nasalization
6. Verb morphology: the present indicative
7. Verb morphology: systemic reorganization
8. Noun and adjective morphology
9. History and structure of Portuguese: an overview
10. History and structure of Romanian: an overview
11. Formation of the Romance lexicon
12. Emergence of the Romance vernaculars
Suggestions for further reading
Works cited
Index of topics.

Subject Areas: Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF], Language: history & general works [CBX]