Medieval Latin was the form of Latin Latin or sometimes Roman is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although often considered a dead language, in view of the fact that it has no native, fluent speakers, Latin continues to be taught in schools and has been, and currently is, used in the process of new word production in modern languages from many used in the Middle Ages The Middle Ages is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern. The term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) was coined in, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language A sacred language, "holy language" , or liturgical language, is a language that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life of the medieval Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. The Church's leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. A communion of the Western church and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches (called, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors, medieval Latin should not be confused with Ecclesiastical Latin Ecclesiastical Latin is the Latin used by the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in all periods for ecclesiastical purposes. Having developed as a style of Late Latin called sermo humilis, used to preach and otherwise communicate to the people in ordinary language, it can be distinguished from Classical Latin by some lexical variations, a. There is no real consensus on the exact boundary where Late Latin Late Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD. extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin. Although there is no scholarly certainty when ends and medieval Latin begins. Some scholarly surveys begin with the rise of early Christian Latin Ecclesiastical Latin is the Latin used by the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in all periods for ecclesiastical purposes. Having developed as a style of Late Latin called sermo humilis, used to preach and otherwise communicate to the people in ordinary language, it can be distinguished from Classical Latin by some lexical variations, a in the middle of the 4th century, others around the year 500,^[1] and still others with the replacement of written Late Latin by written Romance languages extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkan (Dacian, starting around the year 900 (see under Late Latin Late Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD. extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin. Although there is no scholarly certainty when).

Influences

Influence of Christian Latin

Medieval Latin was characterized by an enlarged vocabulary, which freely borrowed from other sources. It was heavily influenced by the language of the Vulgate The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin version of the Bible, and largely the result of the labors of Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations. By the 13th century this revision had come to be called the versio vulgata, that is, the "commonly used translation", and ultimately, which contained many peculiarities alien to Classical Latin that were the consequence of more or less direct translation from Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of and Hebrew Extinct as a regularly spoken language by the 4th century CE, but survived as a liturgical and literary language; revived in the 1880s; these peculiarities were mirrored not only in its vocabulary, but also in its grammar and syntax. Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of provided much of the technical vocabulary of Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. Christianity comprises three major branches: Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy (which parted ways with Catholicism in 1054 A.D.) and Protestantism (which came into existence during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th. The various Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a spoken by the Germanic tribes, who invaded western Europe, were also major sources of new words. Germanic leaders became the rulers of western Europe, and words from their languages were freely imported into the vocabulary of law. Other more ordinary words were replaced by coinages from Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin was the nonstandard form of the Latin language; because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography, and only Classical Latin was used in writing. It is sometimes called colloquial Latin or Germanic sources because the classical words had fallen into disuse.

Latin was also spread to areas such as Ireland Ireland (pronounced [ˈaɾlənd],; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen); Ulster Scots: Airlann) is the third largest island in Europe and the twentieth largest island in the world. It lies to the northwest of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland is Great Britain, separated from and Germany A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, has been known and documented before AD 100. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. During the 16th century, northern Germany became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. As a modern nation-state,, where Romance languages extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkans (Dacian, were not spoken and which had never known Roman The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor, Augustus rule. Works written in these lands where Latin was a learned language with no relation to the local vernacular also influenced the vocabulary and syntax of medieval Latin.

Since abstract subjects like science and philosophy were communicated in Latin, the Latin vocabulary developed for them is the source of a great many technical words in modern languages. English words like abstract, subject, communicate, matter, probable and their cognates An example of cognates within the same language would be English shirt and skirt, the former from Old English sċyrte, the latter loaned from Old Norse skyrta, both from the same Common Germanic *skurtjōn-. Words with this type of relationship within a single language are called doublets. Further cognates of the same word in other Germanic in other European languages generally have the meanings given to them in medieval Latin.

Influence of Vulgar Latin

The influence of Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin was the nonstandard form of the Latin language; because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography, and only Classical Latin was used in writing. It is sometimes called colloquial Latin was also apparent in the syntax In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages of some medieval Latin writers, although Classical Latin continued to be held in high esteem and studied as models for literary compositions. The high point of development of medieval Latin as a literary language came with the Carolingian renaissance The Carolingian Renaissance was a period of intellectual and cultural revival occurring in the late eighth and ninth centuries, with the peak of the activities occurring during the reigns of the Carolingian rulers Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. During this period there was an increase of literature, writing, the arts, architecture, jurisprudence,, a rebirth of learning kindled under the patronage of Charlemagne Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans (Imperator Romanorum) from 800 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800. This temporarily made, king of the Franks The Franks were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the third century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a kingdom on Roman-held soil that was acknowledged by the. Alcuin Alcuin of York or Ealhwine, nicknamed Albinus or Flaccus (730s or 740s – May 19, 804) was a scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Ecgbert at York. At the invitation of Charlemagne, he became a leading scholar and teacher at the Carolingian court, where he remained a was Charlemagne's Latin secretary and an important writer in his own right; his influence led to a rebirth of Latin literature and learning after the depressed period following the final disintegration of Roman authority in Western Europe.

Although it was simultaneously developing into the Romance languages, Latin itself remained very conservative, as it was no longer a native language and there were many ancient and medieval grammar books to give one standard form. On the other hand, strictly speaking there was no single form of "medieval Latin". Every Latin author in the medieval period spoke Latin as a second language, to varying degrees of fluency, and syntax, grammar, and vocabulary were often influenced by an author's native language. This was especially true beginning around the 12th century, after which the language became increasingly adulterated: late-medieval Latin documents written by French speakers tend to show similarities to medieval French grammar and vocabulary; those written by Germans tend to show similarities to German, etc. For instance, rather than following the classical Latin practice of generally placing the verb at the end, medieval writers would often follow the conventions of their own native language instead. Whereas Latin had no definite or indefinite articles, medieval writers sometimes used forms of unus as an indefinite article, and forms of ille (reflecting usage in the Romance languages) or even quidam (meaning "a certain one/thing" in Classical Latin) as something like a definite article. Unlike in classical Latin, where esse ("to be") was used as the only auxiliary verb, medieval Latin writers might use habere ("to have"), as Germanic and Romance languages do. The accusative infinitive construction in classical Latin was often ignored, in favour of introducing a subordinate clause with the word quod or quia. This is almost identical, for example, to the use of que in similar constructions in French.

In every age from the late eighth century onwards, there were learned writers (especially within the Church) who were familiar enough with classical syntax In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages to be aware that these forms and usages were 'wrong' and able to resist their use. Thus the Latin of a theologian like St. Thomas Aquinas Saint Thomas Aquinas, O.P. was an Italian priest of the Catholic Church in the Dominican Order, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis. He is frequently referred to as Thomas because "Aquinas" refers to his residence rather than his surname or an erudite clerical historian such as William of Tyre William of Tyre was archbishop of Tyre and a chronicler of the Crusades and the Middle Ages. He is also known as William II to distinguish him from William of Malines, the first archbishop of Tyre by that name tends to avoid most of the characteristics described above, showing its period in vocabulary and spelling alone; the features listed are much more prominent in the language of lawyers (e.g. the 11th-century English Domesday Book The Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England, or William the Conqueror. "While spending the Christmas of 1085 in Gloucester, William had deep speech with his counsellors and sent men all over England to each shire to find out what or how much each landholder had in land), physicians, technical writers and secular chroniclers. However, the last-mentioned point — the indirect-statement construction with quod — was especially pervasive and is found at all levels.

Changes in vocabulary, syntax, grammar and orthography

Orthography

The most striking differences between classical and medieval Latin are found in orthography The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur or Serbian, there can be more than one orthography. Orthography is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós ("correct") and γράφειν. Some of the most frequently occurring differences are:

• The diphthong ae is usually collapsed and simply written as e (or e caudata The e caudata is a modified form of the letter E that can be graphically represented as E with ogonek (ę) but which has a distinct history of usage. It was used in Latin from as early as the twelfth century to represent the vowel also written ae or æ, ę); for example, puellae might be written puelle (or puellę). The same happens with the diphthong oe, for example in pena, Edipus, from poena, Oedipus. This feature is already found on coin-inscriptions of the fourth century (e.g. reipublice for reipublicae). Conversely an original "e" in Classical Latin was often represented by "ae" or "oe" (e.g. "aecclesia" and "coena" )
• Because of a severe decline of the knowledge of Greek, in loanwords and foreign names from or transmitted through Greek, y and i might be used more or less interchangeably: Ysidorus, Egiptus, from Isidorus, Aegyptus. This is also found in pure Latin words: ocius ('more swiftly') appears as ocyus and silva as sylva, this last being a form which survived into the eighteenth century and so became embedded in modern botanical Latin The formal system of naming species is called binominal nomenclature , binary nomenclature (especially in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system[citation needed]. The essence of it is that each species name is in (modern scientific) Latin and has two parts, so that it is popularly known as the Latin name of the species, although.
• h might be lost, so that habere becomes abere, or mihi becomes mi (the latter also occurred in Classical Latin); or, mihi may be written michi, indicating the h came to be pronounced as k, which is its pronunciation even today in Ecclesiastical Latin Ecclesiastical Latin is the Latin used by the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in all periods for ecclesiastical purposes. Having developed as a style of Late Latin called sermo humilis, used to preach and otherwise communicate to the people in ordinary language, it can be distinguished from Classical Latin by some lexical variations, a^{[citation needed]} (this pronunciation is not found in Classical Latin).
• The loss of h in pronunciation also led to the addition of h in writing where it did not previously belong, especially in the vicinity of r, such as chorona for corona, a tendency also sometimes seen in Classical Latin.
• -ti- before a vowel is often written as -ci- [tsi], so that divitiae becomes diviciae (or divicie), tertius becomes tercius, vitium vicium.
• The combination mn might have another plosive inserted, so that alumnus becomes alumpnus, somnus sompnus.
• Single consonants were often doubled, or vice versa, so that tranquillitas becomes tranquilitas and Africa becomes Affrica.
• vi, especially in verbs in the perfect tense, might be lost, so that novisse becomes nosse (this occurred in Classical Latin as well but was more frequent in medieval Latin).

These orthographical differences were often due to changes in pronunciation or, as in the previous example, morphology, which authors reflected in their writing. By the 16th century, Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus , sometimes known as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist and a Catholic priest and theologian. His scholarly name Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus comprises the following three elements: the Latin noun desiderium ("longing" or "desire"; the name being a genuine Late complained that speakers from different countries were unable to understand each other's form of Latin.^[2]

The gradual change of Latin did not escape the notice of contemporaries. Petrarch Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism". In the 16th century, Pietro Bembo created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarch's works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio and,, writing in the 14th century, complained about this linguistic "decline", which helped fuel his general dissatisfaction with his own era.

Medieval Latin literature

The corpus of medieval Latin literature encompasses a wide range of texts, including such diverse works as sermons A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts. Elements of preaching include exposition, exhortation and practical application, hymns A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek ὕμνος , "a song of praise". Collections of hymns are known as hymnals or hymnbooks, hagiographical Hagiography is the study of saints. A hagiography, from the Greek (h)ağios (ἅγιος, "holy" or "saint") and graphē (γραφή, "writing"), refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of ecclesiastical and secular leaders. The term hagiology, the study of texts, travel literature Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or may involve travel to different regions within, histories A novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century, epics An epic (from the Ancient Greek adjective ἐπικός , from ἔπος (epos) "word, story, poem") is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that, and lyric poetry Lyric poetry is usually a form of poetry with rhyming schemes that express personal feelings. It does not need to, but can, be set to music. Aristotle, in Poetics 1447a, merely mentions lyric poetry along with drama, epic poetry, dancing, painting and other forms of mimesis. The lyric poem, dating from the Romantic era, does have some thematic.

Early period

The first half of the 5th century saw the literary activities of the great Christian authors Jerome Saint Jerome (formerly Saint Hierom) (Latin: Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; Greek: Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος) was an Illyrian Christian priest and apologist. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia (and was overthrown by the Goths). He is best known for (c. 347–420) and Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430), also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, or St. Austin was Bishop of Hippo Regius. He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province. His writings were very influential in the development of Western Christianity (354–430), whose texts had an enormous influence on theological thought of the Middle Ages, and of the latter's disciple Prosper of Aquitaine Saint Prosper of Aquitaine , a Christian writer and disciple of Saint Augustine of Hippo, was the first continuator of Jerome's Universal Chronicle (c. 390-455). Of the later 400s and early 500s, Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 430 – after 489) and Ennodius (474–521), both from Gaul, are well-known for their poems, as is Venantius Fortunatus (c. 530–600). This was also a period of transmission: the Roman patrician Boethius (c. 480–524) translated part of Aristotle's logical corpus, thus preserving it for the Latin West, and wrote the influential literary and philosophical treatise De consolatione Philosophiae; Cassiodorus (c. 485–585) founded an important library at the monastery of Vivarium near Squillace where many texts from Antiquity were to be preserved. Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636) collected all scientifical knowledge still available in his time into what might be called the first encyclopedia, the Etymologiae.

Gregory of Tours (c. 538–594) wrote a lengthy history of the Frankish kings. Gregory came from a Gallo-Roman aristocratic family, and his Latin, which shows many aberrations from the classical forms, testifies to the declining significance of classical education in Gaul. At the same time, good knowledge of Latin and even of Greek was being preserved in monastic culture in Ireland and was brought to England and the European mainland by missionaries in the course of the 6th and 7th centuries, such as Columbanus (543–615), who founded the monastery of Bobbio in Northern Italy. Ireland was also the birthplace of a strange poetic style known as Hisperic Latin. Other important Insular authors include the historian Gildas (c. 500–570) and the poet Aldhelm (c. 640–709). Benedict Biscop (c. 628–690) founded the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow and furnished it with books which he had taken home from a journey to Rome and which were later used by Bede (c. 672–735) to write his Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Many medieval Latin works have been published in the series Patrologia Latina, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum and Corpus Christianorum.

Important medieval Latin authors

4th–5th centuries

• Aetheria (fl. 385)
• Jerome (c. 347–420)
• Augustine (354-430)

6th–8th centuries

• Gildas (d. c. 570)
• Venantius Fortunatus (c. 530 – c. 600)
• Gregory of Tours (c. 538–594)
• Pope Gregory I (c. 540 – 604)
• Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636)
• Bede (c. 672–735)
• St. Boniface (c. 672 - 754)
• Chrodegang of Metz (d. 766)
• Paul the Deacon (720s - c.799)
• Peter of Pisa (d. 799)
• Paulinus of Aquileia (730s - 802)
• Alcuin (c. 735–804)

9th century

• Einhard (775-840)
• Rabanus Maurus (780-856)
• Paschasius Radbertus (790-865)
• Rudolf of Fulda (d. 865)
• Dhuoda
• Lupus of Ferrieres (805-862)
• Andreas Agnellus (Agnellus of Ravenna) (c. 805-846?)
• Hincmar (806-882)
• Walafrid Strabo (808-849)
• Florus of Lyon (d. 860?)
• Gottschalk (theologian) (808-867)
• Sedulius Scottus (fl. 840-860)
• Anastasius Bibliothecarius (810-878)
• Johannes Scotus Eriugena (815-877)
• Notker Balbulus (840-912)

10th century

• Ratherius (890–974)
• Thietmar of Merseburg (975–1018)

11th century

• Marianus Scotus (1028–1082)
• Adam of Bremen (fl. 1060–1080)
• Marbodius of Rennes (c. 1035-1123)

12th century

• Pierre Abélard (1079–1142)
• Suger of St Denis (c. 1081–1151)
• Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 – c. 1155)
• Ailred of Rievaulx (1110–1167)
• Otto of Freising (c. 1114–1158)
• William of Tyre (c. 1130-1185)
• Peter of Blois (c. 1135 – c. 1203)
• Walter of Châtillon (fl. c. 1200)
• The Archpoet (fl. 1159–1167)
• Adam of St. Victor

13th century

• Giraldus Cambrensis (c. 1146 – c. 1223)
• Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220)
• Thomas of Celano (c. 1200 – c. 1265)
• Albertus Magnus (c. 1200–1280)
• Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1294)
• St Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274)
• Siger of Brabant (c. 1240–1280s)
• Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308)

14th century

For 14th century authors that are no longer medieval in outlook (practically all of them Italian) see Renaissance Latin

• Ranulf Higdon (c. 1280 - c. 1363)
• William of Ockham (c. 1288 - c. 1347)
• Jean Buridan (1300–1358)

Medieval Latin literary movements

• Goliards
• Hiberno-Latin

Important medieval Latin works

• Carmina Burana
• Pange Lingua
• Summa Theologiae
• Etymologiae
• Dies Irae
• Decretum Gratiani
• De Ortu Waluuanii Nepotis Arturi

Notes

1. ^ Ziolkowski, Jan M. (1996), "Towards a History of Medieval Latin Literature", in Mantello, F. A. C.; Rigg, A. G., Medieval Latin: An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide, pp. 505-536 (pp. 510-511)
2. ^ See Desiderius Erasmus, De recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronunciatione dialogus, Basel (Frobenius), 1528.

References

• K. P. Harrington, J. Pucci, and A. G. Elliott, Medieval Latin (2nd ed.), (Univ. Chicago Pres, 1997) ISBN 0-226-31712-9

External links

• Glossarium Ad Scriptores Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis
• Wright, Thomas, ed. A Selection of Latin Stories, from Manuscripts of the Thirteenth and Founteenth Centuries: A Contribution to the History of Fiction During the Middle Ages. (London: The Percy Society. 1842.)
• Mental furniture from the philosophers, article on the influence of medieval Latin on modern technical vocabulary.

Categories: Latin language | Medieval languages | Medieval Latin literature

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