The Regional Diversification of Latin 200 BC - AD 600

This book, first published in 2007, is a comprehensive examination of regional diversification in Latin from the earliest beginnings to late antiquity.

J. N. Adams (Author)

9781107684584, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 October 2014

850 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 4.8 cm, 1.22 kg

'Without doubt, this book will have a wide-ranging relevance and impact. … [Adams] has produced a rare book of outstanding scope and insight, combining all the best aspects of modern criticism with unrivalled traditional scholarship.' Britannia

Classical Latin appears to be without regional dialects, yet Latin evolved in little more than a millennium into a variety of different languages (the Romance languages: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese etc.). Was regional diversity apparent from the earliest times, obscured perhaps by the standardisation of writing, or did some catastrophic event in late antiquity cause the language to vary? These questions have long intrigued Latinists and Romance philologists, struck by the apparent uniformity of Latin alongside the variety of Romance. This book, first published in 2007, establishes that Latin was never geographically uniform. The changing patterns of diversity and the determinants of variation are examined from the time of the early inscriptions of Italy, through to late antiquity and the beginnings of the Romance dialects in the western Roman provinces. This is the most comprehensive treatment ever undertaken of the regional diversification of Latin throughout its history in the Roman period.

Part I. Introduction
Part II. The Republic
Part III. Explicit Evidence for Regional Variation
Part IV. Explicit Evidence
Part V. Regionalisms in Provincial Texts
Part VI. Spain
Part VII. Italy
Part VIII. Africa
Part IX. Britain
Part X. Inscriptions
Part XI. Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF]