Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1863 edition. Excerpt: ... ELEMENTS AND JURISDICTIONS OF THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES. I. Latin Elements. Our attention is claimed by six Romance languages on account of either their grammatical peculiarities, or their literary importance; two towards the east, the Italian and the Walachian; two towards the southwest, the Spanish and the Portuguese; and two towards the northwest, the Provencal and the French. The principal and most conspicuous source of all these languages is [Latin.'! They were derived however, as it has already been often and legitimately maintained, not from the classical Latin of literature, but from a popular Roman language which had been used by the side of the classical. Some care has been taken to prove, from the testimonies of the ancients themselves, that a popular language of this kind was actually in existence; but the fact is so far from needing demonstration, that we should much rather have been entitled to demand evidences for a contrary hypothesis, which alone would have involved an exception to general laws. We must only be cautious not to take this form of speech for anything else than it is usually conceived to have been, that is to say, for a vulgar usage of the common language, recognisable by a comparatively slovenly pronunciation of words, by a tendency to the elimination of grammatical forms, by the use of numerous expressions which are avoided in literature, and by sundry peculiar idioms and constructions. Such conclusions, and no others, are we justified in drawing from the evidences and testimonies which we find in the writings of the ancients; or at the very utmost it may be conceded, that the antagonism between the popular and the literary language had reached an unusually high pitch at that period when the latter sank into a...