Quantity collapse
The linguistic term “ quantity collapse ” describes the development of the quantities (length or shortness) of vowels in ancient languages. This development in Latin on the way to the Romance languages and in Greek is described below.
Quantities
In the Latin of the classical period (late republic and early principate ) a distinction was made between short and long vowels (the vowel quantities ); For each of the five vowels there was a long and a short variant, whereby the length was different:
l ī ber (free) - l i ber (book)
l ē vis (smooth) - l e vis (easy)
m ā lum (apple) - m a lum (evil)
ō s (mouth) - o s (bone)
l ū tum (yellow cabbage) - l u tum (mud)
Description of the collapse
The change in the pronunciation of these vowels in Vulgar Latin presumably started from a different emphasis: in stressed syllables the vowels generally tended to be longer pronounced, in the other syllables, however, to shorter ones. As a result, the original short and long vowels became more similar in terms of quantity, so that the following scheme resulted initially:
| Letter | Classic | Vulgar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| short A | ă | / a / | / a / |
| long A | - | / aː / | / a / |
| short E | ĕ | / ɛ / | / ɛ / |
| long E | ē | / eː / | / e / |
| short I | ĭ | / ɪ / | / ɪ / |
| long i | ī | / iː / | / i / |
| short O | O | / ɔ / | / ɔ / |
| long O | O | /O/ | /O/ |
| short v | ŭ | / ʊ / | / ʊ / |
| long v | ū | / uː / | / u / |
| AE | æ | / aj / / aɛ / | / ɛ / |
| OE | œ | / oj / / oe / | / ø / / e / |
| AV | ouch | / aw / | / aw /, / ɔ / |
In the stressed syllables, the distinction between the closely related short vowels was omitted
/ ɪ / and / e /,
/ ʊ / and / o /,
with correspondingly changing spelling in the sources received ("i" / "e" or "u" / "o").
In the unstressed syllables the reduction of the vowels went even further; here each fell
/ ɪ /, / e / and / ɛ / to / e / and
/ ʊ /, / o / and / ɔ / to / o / together.
It should be noted that this is a simplified representation of the quantity collapse, which does not take into account some special developments due to different linguistic requirements in the Romanized areas (influence from pre-Romanic languages, etc.).
Documentary evidence
One of the oldest evidence is a letter that was found during excavations in Egypt (1924–1934) and written in the early 2nd century AD - probably in 133 - by a Roman soldier (Claudius Terentianus). This includes the following examples of the quantity collapse:
- "l acu e nt i aminaque" instead acum l i nt e aminaque ( acc. , Sewing)
- "s o pera" (about, regarding) instead of s u pra ( prep .; about)
The list of words Appendix Probi , u. a .:
- "tolonium non toloneum"
- "columna non colomna"
- "ostium non osteum"
- "puella non poella"
Examples of the effects of the quantity collapse
In lent i amina- the beginning hiatus deletion is recognizable : / e / and / i / in front of another vowel first coincided with / ɪ / before they became / j /. In the later 2nd century this sound brought about the palatalization of a preceding / t / and thus the further development of / tj / to a sibilant: "Vincen tz a" instead of Vincentia , "ter si u" instead of tertiu (m) etc .; thereby created u. a. In today's Italian and French the words pia zz a (place) from platea and grâ c e (grace) from gratia .
While different cases could still be marked with the help of the long and short vowels in classical Latin , this was no longer possible in Vulgar Latin, as the two forms were now the same. So one had to use prepositions more often in order to clearly distinguish the cases from one another. This is why today in almost all Romance languages (with the exception of the Balkan languages) all cases are expressed using prepositions.
The development in Greek
Like Latin, ancient Greek also knew long and short vowels. In contrast to the development in Vulgar Latin, in Greek, with the exception of [ eː ], which was raised to [ i ], the qualities were preserved, while the system of quantities has completely collapsed.
swell
- ↑ Reinhard Kiesler, Introduction to the Problem of Vulgar Latin , Tübingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-484-54048-4 , p. 42
- ↑ Johannes Kramer, Vulgar Latin everyday documents on papyri, ostracas, tablets and inscriptions , Berlin and New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-020224-3 , pp. 24-26, 63-71
- ↑ Johannes Kramer, Vulgar Latin everyday documents on papyri, ostracas, tablets and inscriptions , Berlin and New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-020224-3 , pp. 63–71
- ↑ Johannes Kramer, Vulgar Latin everyday documents on papyri, ostracas, tablets and inscriptions , Berlin and New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-020224-3 , p. 68
- ^ Leonard R. Palmer, Die Latinische Sprache , Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-87548-220-4 , p. 181
- ^ Josef G. Mitterer: Lautwandel: 157 phonetic fates with examples, interpretation and explanations. KDP 2019, ISBN 978-1797576749 , p. 86.