A Companion to the Latin Language

by James Clackson (Editor)

A Companion to the Latin Language presents a collection oforiginal essays from international scholars that track thedevelopment and use of the Latin language from its origins to itsmodern day usage.


Brings together contributions from internationally renownedclassicists, linguists and Latin language specialists
Offers, in a single volume, a detailed account of differentliterary registers of the Latin language
Explores the social and political contexts of Latin
Includes new accounts of the Latin language in light of modernlinguistic theory
Supplemented with illustrations covering the development of theLatin alphabet

Genres: Linguistics

666 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

I have wide interests in the history of the Latin and Greek languages, ancient sociolinguistics and bilingualism, the languages and epigraphy of the ancient Mediterranean and comparative Indo-European studies. I have particular interests in the historical sociolinguistics of Latin; the other ancient Languages of the Italian peninsula especially Sabellian and Etruscan; and the history of the Armenian language. I am currently Principal Investigator of the AHRC funded project ‘Greek in Italy’. I am editor of the oldest scholarly journal devoted to the general study of language and languages that has an unbroken tradition,Transactions of the Philological Society.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blackwell's A COMPANION TO THE LATIN LANGUAGE, edited by James Clackson, consists of 31 chapters by a number of authors that examine Latin from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective. It covers the entire history of the Latin, from Proto-Indo-European to Neo-Latin. There's so much specialist focus here that we even get individual chapters on Epistolary Latin, Christian Latin, Legal Latin and the language of Latin historiography.

The strong point of this compendium is that it represents recent studies of Latin in the light of modern sociolinguistic theory. Many authors seek to find the diversity between the artificial unity of Classical Latin norms. J.N. Adams's work on geographical variation in Latin is taken into account, as are studies of social registers in the tradition of William Labov. Anyone interested in Latin would profit from this book. While it seems meant for those of a linguistics bent, I think this book would be important to all classicists in showing them that behind the classical canon was a real spoken language like any language today.

My only major quibble is a general disregard for Balkan Romance in Roger Wright's contribution on the Romance languages as a source for Latin. Even when that significant branch of Romance has something to contribute, he overlooks it, and Romanian gets only two brief and inconsequential mentions.