Vulgar Latin

Proper noun

Meaning

Vulgar Latin

(linguistics, historical) The Latin language as spoken by the Roman people, as opposed to Classical Latin as written in formal literature. Developed into Proto-Romance and descendant languages in the Early Middle Ages.

Synonyms

Hypernyms

Examples

Apocope There was a tendency to eliminate final consonants in Vulgar Latin, either by dropping them ( apocope ) or adding a vowel after them ( epenthesis ). Source: Internet

Already in Vulgar Latin intertonic vowels between a single consonant and a following /r/ or /l/ tended to drop: vétulum "old" > veclum > Dalmatian vieklo, Sicilian vecchiu, Portuguese velho. Source: Internet

Consonant cluster simplification In general, many clusters were simplified in Vulgar Latin. Source: Internet

Bark "small ship" is attested from 1420, from Old French barque, from Vulgar Latin barca (400 AD). Source: Internet

If it was not preferred in Classical Latin, then it most likely came from the invisible contemporaneous Vulgar Latin. Source: Internet

Hence, it is possible to speak of, for example, the loss of initial /j/ in unstressed syllables in the Vulgar Latin of Cantabria (an area in northern Spain), whereas it is meaningless to speak of a similar change in the "Proto-Romance of Cantabria". Source: Internet

Close letter words and terms