From Latin to Romance in Sound Charts

By Peter Boyd-Bowman

Book Overview

This handbook offers a synopsis of the regular changes that Latin words underwent in the course of their evolution into modern Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French, with their English cognates). Although it is intended for the nonspecialist, students of Romance philology will find it useful as a ready reference and as a source of abundant examples of Latin sound changes.

The synopsis is presented in the form of separate alphabetical charts for each major sound change. The rules, stated as simply as possible, do not generally explain the evolution of the changes, but only the end results. For those desiring further information, there are notes after most rules outlining exceptions to or modifications of that rule and often sketching successive stages in the development of the sound. Several minor or sporadic sound changes are also treated in note form. Each chart is supplemented by a list of additional words illustrating the same sound change.

From Latin to Roman in Sound Charts has been used successfully as a graduate level text for such courses as History of Spanish, History of French, and Romance Linguistics.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087840077X
• ISBN13: 9780878400775
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Georgetown University Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 8.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

a pleasure to browse

What a neat book, and what a neat price!This midsized paperback illustrates the regular sound changes that occurred as Late Latin developed into the major Romance languages. After an introductory section about the development of Classical Latin into Vulgar Latin, the author lists 43 'rules', or regular phonological changes. He devotes about 2 to 3 pages to each rule, giving examples and explanations. For example, rule 9 treats the consonant cluster 'CT'Latin nocte, Italian notte, Spanish noche, Port. noite, French nuit, English cognate nocturnal.Latin lacte, Italian latte, Spanish leche, Port. leite, French lait, English cognate lactate.Latin factu, Italian fatto, Spanish hecho, Port. feito, French fait, English cognate fact, featFor each rule, there are a dozen or so examples. Each rule ends up with an exercise asking the reader to match up vocabulary. (The author thoughtfully gives the answers to these exercises.)A definite help for those learning Latin or a Romance language. Heck, even if you're not learning a Romance language, it will increase your English vocabulary. And it's just plain fun to browse through it. Hoya Saxa!