Latin and the protolanguage
Latin is traditionally grouped with Faliscan among the Italic languages, of which the other main member is the Osco-Umbrian group. Oscan was the name given by the Romans to a group of dialects spoken by Samnite tribes to the south of Rome. It is well attested in inscriptions and texts for about five centuries before the Common Era and was used in official documents until approximately 90–89 bce. The absence of great dialectal variations in the texts suggests that they are written in a standardized form, though three alphabets are evident—the local one (derived from Etruscan), the Greek (in the southern cities), and the Latin (in more-recent inscriptions). In early times, Umbrian was spoken northeast of Rome, to the east of the Etruscan region, and possibly as far west as the Adriatic Sea at one period. It is attested mainly in one series of texts, the Iguvine Tables (Tabulae Iguvinae), dated from 400 to 90 bce, and it is similar to Oscan. Probably Latin and Osco-Umbrian were not mutually intelligible; some claim they are not closely related genetically but that their common features arose from convergence as a result of contact.
The Roman dialect was originally one of a number of Latinian dialects, of which the most important was Faliscan, the language of Falerii (modern Civita Castellana), the most-important Faliscan city, located 32 miles (51 kilometres) north of Rome. The Faliscans were probably a Sabine tribe that early fell under Etruscan domination. The dialect is known mainly from short inscriptions dating to the 3rd and 2nd centuries bce and probably survived until well after the conquest of Falerii by the Romans in 241 bce.
The earliest Latinian text is an inscription on a cloak pin (fibula) of the 6th century bce, from Palestrina (Praeneste). Other Latinian inscriptions show marked differences from Roman Latin, for which there is, however, little evidence before the end of the 3rd century bce. What is certain is that the language changed so rapidly between the 5th century (the date of a mutilated inscription, probably a religious prescription, found in the Roman Forum and of the Twelve Tables, the contents of which are known from later evidence) and the 3rd century bce that older texts were no longer intelligible.
During that period the Romans subjugated their Latin neighbours (by 335 bce), and their language began to establish itself as a standard form, absorbing features from other dialects. The first author of any note was the comic dramatist Plautus (c. 254–184 bce), whose language is thought to reflect a spoken idiom, some features of which appear to have survived into Romance.
By 265 Rome had conquered Magna Graecia, in the south of the Italian Peninsula, and had begun to absorb Greek literary and cultural ideals. Poetic language was especially influenced by Greek until Latin poetry reached its zenith with Virgil. In the 1st century bce a literary prose developed; it emphasized elegance and clarity and rejected vulgarity and rusticity. Grammatical rules were codified and tightened and vocabulary pruned, and the cult of the harmonious balanced period held sway in rhetorical circles. With Cicero the prose style of the Golden Age attained its highest point; for the linguist, the distinction Cicero makes between the style of his letters and that of his speeches is especially interesting in that it provides evidence that even educated speech differed from written language. When Cicero uses the sermo plebeius (“plebeian speech”), his language is more elliptical, with shorter, less-complex sentences and more-colourful vocabulary (including plentiful diminutives). It seems obvious that truly popular language differed even more from the elaborate sophisticated classical literary idiom. There is evidence that archaic features, banned from literary style, survived in common speech right through to the Romance stage of the language. It is sometimes claimed that the language of the Roman historian and politician Sallust (c. 86–35/34 bce) approximated popular usage, but it is more probable that his archaizing style derives more from conscious imitation of old Roman poetry. The Roman “judge of elegance” Petronius Arbiter (died 66 ce) is thought to be imitating vulgar speech in the language of the character Trimalchio in the Cena Trimalchionis (“Banquet of Trimalchio”) section (chapters 26–78) of his Satyricon.
The postclassical period
The emergence of Romance
In the European lands in which Romance languages are still spoken, it is of course certain that, at some point, Latin in some form was the normal language of most strata. Whether, however, the Romance languages continue rough peasant dialects of Latin or the usage of more cultured urban communities is open to question. There are those who maintain that the Latin used in each area differentiated as soon as local populations adopted the conqueror’s language for any purpose. According to this belief, dialects of Latin result from divergent developments, either through innovations in restricted areas or through the geographically restricted preservation of some features. It is obvious that Latin usage must have differed over a wide area, but the differences may have been merely phonetic and lexical variations—regional accents and usage—not affecting mutual intelligibility; on the other hand, they may have been profound enough to form the basis of further differentiation when administrative unity was lost. The latter hypothesis would suggest a long period of bilingualism (up to perhaps 500 years), as linguistic interference between languages in contact rarely outlives the bilingual stage. Virtually nothing is known about the status of the indigenous languages during the imperial period, and only vague contemporary references can be found to linguistic differences within the empire. It seems odd that not one of the numerous Latin grammarians should have referred to well-known linguistic facts, but the absence of evidence does not justify the assertion that there was no real diversification during the imperial era. Historical parallels are lacking—although the British Empire, for example, did export English to widely different lands, it lasted a comparatively short time, and its linguistic contribution was backed by modern communications media, besides being to some extent negated by nationalist feeling.
What is certain is that, even if popular usage within the Roman Empire showed great diversification, it was overlaid by a standard written language that preserved a good degree of uniformity until well after the administrative collapse of the empire. As far as the speakers were concerned, they apparently thought they were using Latin, though they were often conscious that their language was, through sheer ignorance, not quite as it should be. Not until about the 8th or 9th century—later in some parts—did it strike them that Classical Latin was perceptibly a different language, rather than merely a more polished, cultured version of their own.