Vulgar Latin, derived from
Classical Latin, was the
language of the Roman
middle classes of both
Rome and the Roman
provinces. It varied according to
education,
links with Rome, and the original
local languages. Upon
disintegration of the Roman Empire, the
Roman Catholic Church became the
glue that held southern and western
Europe together. Still, with the
recession of
communication and
education,
regional variations in
pronunciation and
grammar gradually
developed until, after about 600 AD,
local forms of Vulgar Latin were no longer
mutually
intelligible and became
separate Romance languages.
Written texts in Latin almost always make use of
Classical Latin forms so that
sources of
documentation of Vulgar Latin can be found primarily in:
Other than these, early texts in
Romance languages, beginning in the 9th century contain evidence of earlier usage.
Among the most useful texts in or containing Vulgar Latin are the
Peregrinatio Etheriae ( = Pilgrimage of Etheria) , apparently written in the 4th century by an
uneducated Spanish nun, and the
Appendix Probi ( = Appendix of Probus), which contains a a
list of correct and incorrect word forms. dating possibly from as early as the 3rd century.
Phonology
The classical opposition between short and long vowels was replaced by the
opposition of
opened and
closed vowels. The classical
diphthongs almost disappeared while new diphthongs appeared from the stressed short (i.e. opened) vowels (the so called pan-Romance diphthongization). The process of palatalization brought about the existense of sounds like
ts,
t and
d. Final
consonants dropped practically everywhere.
Grammar
Such radical
phonetic changes led to
grammar changes. The loss of the final -m and -s blurred the difference between the
nominative,
accusative and
ablative; the
genitive and
dative cases were replaced by
prepositional
constructions with
de ( = of) and
a(d) ( = to). The
definite article evolved from the Lat.
ille ( = this) and the indefinite from the Lat.
unus ( = one) The 3rd person personal pronouns, lacking in Classical Latin, were formed from demonstrative pronouns.
The
verb system developed
analytical features. The
passive voice was constructed by the auxiliary
esse ( = to be) +
past passive participle. The
perfect,
pluperfect and perfect anterior ( =
past action in the past) were formed with the auxiiliary
habere ( = to have) and the past passive participle. A new
future was formed with the infinitive followed by the auxiiliary
habere ( = to have).
The infected verbal endings of the simple tenses were, however, preserved.
Vocabulary
The spoken language used many
slang words for the Classical Latin. For instance, the classical word
caput ( = head) was replaced by
testa originally meaning earthenware jar. A lot of foreign words, from the local languages, but mainly from
Greek and Germanic, entered the daily speech.
Reference: http://www.orbilat.com/Vulgar_Latin/Vulgar_Latin.html