Evolution of the Romance Languages - Essay Example

What factors appear to have contributed most to language contact, and with what results, in the history of the Romance languages? The Romance languages are derived from Vulgar Latin or Popular Latin. This was an ancient language of the Indo European family. Latin was the language of the Roman Empire, spoken by the soldiers, settlers and merchants. Vulgar or Popular Latin was different from the Classical Latin. As the Empire expanded, Latin also expanded its base and became a dominant language covering a widespread area from the Iberian Peninsula to the Western coast of the Black Sea. In the 5th century there was a decline in the Empire and finally it collapsed and was divided into fragments. In each local area Latin evolved in a distinct way and today we see them as various languages. It is From Latin only all these languages have descended. There are about 700 million people for whom these are their native language. They are scattered in 50 countries, all over the world. They are mainly based in Americas, Europe and Africa. As there was a growth in the empires set up overseas by Spain, Portugal and France, the Romance Languages also spread to other continents. Today majority of the Romance language speaking population is outside Europe. Since all these languages have Latin as their original source, they have certain distinguishing characteristics that sets them apart from other Indo European languages. Spanish is the most widely spoken Romance language. Then come Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian and Catalan. Excepting Catalan, all others are the main official languages of their country as well as some other countries. Some Romance languages have the status of a regional language like- Friulian, Sardinian and Vadotain are recognized as regional languages in Italy. Catalan is an official language of Andorra but it is also recognized as a regional language in Spain along with Galician, Occitan and Aranese. French, Spanish and Portuguese have been officially recognized outside Europe in other countries where they had their colonies. Although Italy had its colonies but Italian could not get established as an official language once the colony collapsed. On the other hand, Romania did not establish any colony but due to emigration, its language went outside Europe. It has found home in Israel and is mother tongue of 5% of the population. After World War II, many Romanian born Jews moved out of Israel and they still have Romanian as their second language. All this intermingling of people lead to language contact. Which gave rise to the evolution of the Romance Languages. Language Contact When speakers of different languages interact with each other, language contact occurs. Language contact has been prevalent since ancient times. It was there even in the hunter-gatherer age. In present day also it is quite common to see one person knowing more than one language as they have to deal with people from different areas and language keeps changing from one area to the other. Language contact has lot to do with the development of romance language. As the parent language came in contact with other languages it gradually developed into other languages. The Growth of the Empire The Growth of the Empire was the first factor that took Latin with it to various countries and even overseas. Since it was the language of the ruling party, it was used for most of the official and commercial communications. Thus the people of those countries got introduced to this language and were influenced by it. The Fall of the Empire As much as the growth of the Empire is responsible for taking Latin to various places, the Fall of the Empire is equally, in fact more important factor for growth of the Romance Languages. In 5th Century there was a significant decline in the Roman Empire. This period also saw large-scale migrations. Whenever large chunks of population move from one place to another due to political or economical reasons, they also take along with them their language. This period was a period that saw the Germanic incursions. All this led to a fragmentation of the Empire into several independent states. This brought about language contact in a more impacting manner. Germanic and Slavic tribes, along with Huns and Turks. occupied the Central Europe and the Balkans This isolated Romania from Europe. Latin disappeared from England but the Germanic tribes in Italy, France and Iberian Peninsula adopted it. Divergent Evolution There was divergent evolution in Latin between the fifth and tenth century. This lead to the growth of many distinct languages. During this time some local vernacular languages had developed into a written language. The growth of these vernacular languages was induced in some countries by the force of law and in some countries, the poets patronized it and writers who chose to express themselves in these languages. Industrial development The industrial revolution in the 16th century saw the invention of the Printing Press. This had a dual effect on the romance language. Some romance languages were promoted where they were the language of the rulers. And some other vernacular languages were hit adversely that did not belong to the ruling parties. For example, the dialect spoken in and around Paris- Francien, slowly spread all over in France, but the other two dialects spoken the southern part of France- Langue d’oc and Franco-Provencal were wiped out. Literary interactions Literary interactions also affect language contact. Latin had an impact on other language literatures. Many other languages in their literature absorbed its characteristics. Other Romance languages to represent the same also adopted the influential value associated with Rome. Social groups Social groups are also a factor in language contact. Lawyers and Catholics borrowed heavily from Latin to distinguish themselves from non-professionals and Protestants. (Hayens, K. 2007, English Literature and Ancient Languages). The socio cultural setting has lot to do with the language contact. There are differences when two languages are used. One of it is normally used for everyday situations like in the market place or in a neighbourly chat. The importance attached to the native language affects the evolution of the new language. Language Convergence Language Convergence is an important factor in language contact. When the speakers get familiar with more than one language, they adapt both the languages. Both these languages affect the speaking patterns and over a period of time both these languages come more and more closer to each other. This process is known as Convergence of languages. The Romance languages are born out of this process of convergence. When one language converges into the other, it borrows more and more in form of structure and vocabulary from the other language. Sometimes there is contact induced structural change where the forms may not be replicated but it is they are manifested through shift in meaning of the word. Substrates Hypothesis The Substrates Hypothesis can also explain language contact. A substrate language is the inferior language of two interacting languages. The languages spoken before the growth of Roman Empire to the other countries were the substrate languages. This hypothesis says that when the speakers of substrates learned Latin, then the new Romance Language was born. In some cases it could have been the other way round also where the Latin was substrate to the other language. Features inherited from other languages Romance languages have inherited many features from other Indo European languages like Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, Persian, Armenian, Albanian, Greek etc. These languages have many common features. But there are some non-Indo European languages also from which the Romance Languages have derived influence like Arabic, Tamil, Hungarian and Basque. These languages have some unique features like- They have classification of words as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Word Infection is used to indicate syntactic relationship between words and also to derive more words in the same category or other. Suffix is a distinct feature of these languages. The sentences are verb centered. The verb indicates the time, completeness or continuation of the action. The verb can be modified using adverbs or other nouns preceded by prepositions. Nouns are divided into genders and numbers. Adjectives normally get modified according to the gender and number. Verbs are usually not modified by gender or number. Change of tone or pitch only indicated the mood and does not change the meaning like it does in Chinese and Yoruba. The Romance languages share many features from Classical Latin also. These are the distinguishing features between the Romance Languages and the Indo-European languages. They have personal pronouns that get modified according to their grammatical function in a sentence. Some personal pronouns are used after prepositions or in stressed positions. They share three Latin verbal Tenses- present, preterit and past perfect. There are six possible modifications of the verbs depending on the persons (first, second or third) and numbers- singular or plural. A special imperative form is used for the Second person. Generally they are null-subject languages that are clearly noticeable in French. Numbers are singular and plural. There is no concept of dual numbers. They all use the same or similar Roman alphabets. K and W are scarcely used in the Roman languages. Conclusion The Roman Languages evolved due to various factors like political and economical that caused the environment for language contact. They have all grown from Vulgar Latin that traveled with the Roman Empire to many countries. As there was a decline of the Roman Empire, Latin stayed back in those countries and was impacted by language contact. This gave rise to mutual borrowing of the two languages. The Invention of Press became the base for standardization of the languages. Convergence, divergence, social, cultural factors and political factors has affected language contact in a great way. With this and many other factors discussed above, these languages took a shape that we see today. References 1. Comparative Studies, retrieved on May 2, 2007, http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk 2. Romance Language, retrieved on May 2, 2007, 3. History of Romance Languages, retrieved on May 2, 2007, http://www.dowling.edu/ 4. The romance Languages, retrieved on May 2, 2007, 5. Romance Languages and Literature, Retrieved on May 2, 2007, http://rll.buffalo.edu/ 6. Hayens, K. 2007, English Literature and Ancient Languages Read More