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<p>[QUOTE="octavius, post: 3525814, member: 100777"]I think we sometimes get the impression that Latin was universally spoken the same way throughout the empire. This was most certainly not the case and we do know this from the Roman writers themselves. Also we have accounts from Latin grammarians themselves - especially about pronunciation. We know that Romans in rural areas had certain accents that differed from the city of Rome. We know this because of accounts where country farmers were made fun of. Claudius tried to have 2 new letters introduced into the Latin language in order to keep certain sounds pure - with little success. Vespasian's Latin accent was ridiculed and he hailed from nearby Rieti. </p><p>To complicate matters of pronunciation, we are often taught classical Latin pronounced V's like W's and the diphthong AE was pronounced like "eye". This is an oversimplification, since we know that the AE "eye" sound coexisted with an AY sound by early imperial times. we know this from some of the Romans themselves. Some coins show this as well - there is a small minority of Judaea Capta sestert. spelled IVDEA - with the AY sound. The name Caesar may have been pronounced "K-eye-sar , by some and Kaysar by others. Anyone who drives around Italy today can still experience this language diversity.</p><p>Vulgar Latin was not some later version, but was the common street language which gave rise to the romance languages. It is as old as classical Latin. Its grammatical structures are different (and most people will argue simpler as well).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="octavius, post: 3525814, member: 100777"]I think we sometimes get the impression that Latin was universally spoken the same way throughout the empire. This was most certainly not the case and we do know this from the Roman writers themselves. Also we have accounts from Latin grammarians themselves - especially about pronunciation. We know that Romans in rural areas had certain accents that differed from the city of Rome. We know this because of accounts where country farmers were made fun of. Claudius tried to have 2 new letters introduced into the Latin language in order to keep certain sounds pure - with little success. Vespasian's Latin accent was ridiculed and he hailed from nearby Rieti. To complicate matters of pronunciation, we are often taught classical Latin pronounced V's like W's and the diphthong AE was pronounced like "eye". This is an oversimplification, since we know that the AE "eye" sound coexisted with an AY sound by early imperial times. we know this from some of the Romans themselves. Some coins show this as well - there is a small minority of Judaea Capta sestert. spelled IVDEA - with the AY sound. The name Caesar may have been pronounced "K-eye-sar , by some and Kaysar by others. Anyone who drives around Italy today can still experience this language diversity. Vulgar Latin was not some later version, but was the common street language which gave rise to the romance languages. It is as old as classical Latin. Its grammatical structures are different (and most people will argue simpler as well).[/QUOTE]
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