Early Latin
As early Latin is called the earliest, occupied only by a few inscriptions phase of Latin , which in 7./6. Century BC Began and until the middle of the 3rd century BC. Lasted.
Early Latin inscriptions
On the 7th century BC Fibula Praenestina originating in the 4th century BC does contain a text, but for a long time this was viewed by some scientists as a forgery from the 19th century. In the meantime, however, doubts about its authenticity have been dispelled.
Apart from this (and the Vetusia inscription), the DUENOS inscription on a vase is from the first half of the 6th century BC. The oldest known early Latin text today.
Other early Latin texts:
- The Lapis Satricanus
- The lapis Niger
- The Twelve Tables Act (approx. 450 BC, but not known in the original, but only through later, verbally modernized quotations)
Further development
The early Latin is followed by the Old Latin phase, the beginning of which marks the oldest known literary work in Latin that has survived in only a few small fragments, the Latin translation of the Odyssey with the title " Odusia " composed by Livius Andronicus .
literature
- Markus Hartmann: The early Latin inscriptions and their dating. A linguistic-archaeological-paleographic investigation . Hempen, Bremen 2005, ISBN 978-3-934106-47-5 ( review ).
- Martin Kümmel : Early and Old Latin inscriptions, course script
- Gerhard Meiser : Historical phonetics and forms of the Latin language , Darmstadt 1998, ISBN 3-534-09210-4 , p. 2ff.
- Rudolf Wachter : Old Latin inscriptions. Linguistic and epigraphic studies of the documents up to around 150 BC Chr. Peter Lang, Bern 1987.
