Social Variation and the Latin Language - Softcover

Adams, J. N.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 131662949X ISBN 13: 9781316629499

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Languages show variations according to the social class of speakers and Latin was no exception, as readers of Petronius are aware. The Romance languages have traditionally been regarded as developing out of a 'language of the common people' (Vulgar Latin), but studies of modern languages demonstrate that linguistic change does not merely come, in the social sense, 'from below'. There is change from above, as prestige usages work their way down the social scale, and change may also occur across the social classes. This book is a history of many of the developments undergone by the Latin language as it changed into Romance, demonstrating the varying social levels at which change was initiated. About thirty topics are dealt with, many of them more systematically than ever before. Discussions often start in the early Republic with Plautus, and the book is as much about the literary language as about informal varieties.

About this title

About the Author

J. N. Adams is an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. He was previously a Professor of Latin at the Universities of Manchester and Reading. He is the author of many books on the Latin language, including most recently The Regional Diversification of Latin, 200 BC–AD 600 (Cambridge, 2007) and Bilingualism and the Latin Language (Cambridge, 2003).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 131662949X
• ISBN 13: 9781316629499
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 956