Everything about Medieval Latin totally explained
Medieval Latin was the form of
Latin used in the
Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the
liturgical language of the medieval
Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors, Medieval Latin shouldn't be confused with
Ecclesiastical Latin. There is no real consensus on the exact boundary where
Late Latin ends and Medieval Latin begins. Some scholarly surveys begin with the rise of early
Christian Latin in the middle of the
4th century, others around the year
500.
Changes in vocabulary, syntax, grammar and orthography
Influences
Medieval Latin was characterized by an enlarged vocabulary, which freely borrowed from other sources. It was heavily influenced by the language of the
Vulgate, which contained many peculiarities alien to Classical Latin that were the consequence of more or less direct translation from
Greek and
Hebrew; these peculiarities were mirrored not only in its vocabulary, but also in its grammar and syntax.
Greek provided much of the technical vocabulary of
Christianity. The various
Germanic languages spoken by the Germanic tribes, who invaded western Europe, were also major sources of new words. Germanic leaders became the rulers of western Europe, and words from their languages were freely imported into the vocabulary of law. Other more ordinary words were replaced by coinages from
Vulgar Latin or Germanic sources because the classical words had fallen into disuse.
Latin was also spread to areas such as
Ireland and
Germany, where
Romance languages were not spoken and which had never known
Roman rule. Works written in these lands where Latin was a learned language with no relation to the local vernacular also influenced the vocabulary and syntax of medieval Latin.
Since abstract subjects like science and philosophy were communicated in Latin, the Latin vocabulary developed for them is the source of a great many technical words in modern languages. English words like
abstract,
subject,
communicate,
matter,
probable and their
cognates in other European languages generally have the meanings given to them in medieval Latin.
Influence of Vulgar Latin
The influence of
Vulgar Latin was also apparent in the
syntax of some Medieval Latin writers, although Classical Latin continued to be held in high esteem and studied as models for literary compositions. The high point of development of medieval Latin as a literary language came with the
Carolingian renaissance, a rebirth of learning kindled under the patronage of
Charlemagne, king of the
Franks.
Alcuin was Charlemagne's Latin secretary and an important writer in his own right; his influence led to a rebirth of Latin literature and learning after the depressed period following the final disintegration of Roman authority in Western Europe.
Although it was simultaneously developing into the Romance languages, Latin itself remained very conservative, as it was no longer a native language and there were many ancient and medieval grammar books to give one standard form. On the other hand, strictly speaking there was no single form of "Medieval Latin". Every Latin author in the medieval period spoke Latin as a second language, to varying degrees of fluency, and syntax, grammar, and vocabulary were often influenced by an author's native language. This was especially true beginning around the 12th century, after which the language became increasingly adulterated: late-medieval Latin documents written by French speakers tend to show similarities to medieval French grammar and vocabulary; those written by Germans tend to show similarities to German, etc. For instance, rather than following the classical Latin practice of generally placing the verb at the end, medieval writers would often follow the conventions of their own native language instead. Whereas Latin had no definite or indefinite articles, medieval writers sometimes used forms of
unus as an indefinite article, and forms of
ille (reflecting usage in the Romance languages) or even
quidam (meaning "a certain one/thing" in Classical Latin) as something like a definite article. Unlike in classical Latin, where
esse ("to be") was used as the only auxiliary verb, Medieval Latin writers might use
habere ("to have"), as Germanic and Romance languages do. The accusative infinitive construction in classical Latin was sometimes ignored, in favour of introducing a subordinate clause with the word
quod (or occasionally
quia). This is almost identical, for example, to the use of
que in similar constructions in French.
In every age from the late eighth century onwards, there were learned writers (especially within the Church) who were familiar enough with classical
syntax to be aware that these forms and usages were 'wrong' and able to resist their use. Thus the Latin of a theologian like St.
Thomas Aquinas or an erudite clerical historian such as
William of Tyre tends to avoid most of the characteristics described above, showing its period in vocabulary and spelling alone; the features listed are much more prominent in the language of lawyers (for example the 11th-century English
Domesday Book), physicians, technical writers and secular chroniclers. However, the last-mentioned point — the indirect-statement construction with
quod — was especially pervasive and is found at all levels.
Changes in orthography
The most striking differences between classical and medieval Latin are found in orthography. Some of the most frequently occurring differences are:
- The diphthong ae is usually collapsed and simply written as e (or e caudata, ę); for example, puellae might be written puelle (or puellę). The same happens with the diphthong oe, for example in pena, Edipus, from poena, Oedipus. This feature is already found on coin-inscriptions of the fourth century (for example reipublice for reipublicae).
- Because of a severe decline of the knowledge of Greek, in loanwords and foreign names from, or transmitted through Greek, y and i might be used more or less interchangeably: Ysidorus, Egiptus, from Isidorus, Aegyptus. This is also found in pure Latin words: ocius ('more swiftly') appears as ocyus and silva as sylva, this last being a form which survived into the eighteenth century and so became embedded in modern botanical Latin.
- h might be lost, so that habere becomes abere, or mihi becomes mi (the latter also occurred in Classical Latin); or, mihi may be written michi, indicating the h came to be pronounced as k, which is its pronunciation even today in Ecclesiastical Latin (this pronunciation isn't found in Classical Latin).
- The loss of h in pronunciation also led to the addition of h in writing where it didn't previously belong, especially in the vicinity of r, such as chorona for corona, a tendency also sometimes seen in Classical Latin.
- -ti- before a vowel is often written as -ci-, so that divitiae becomes diviciae (or divicie), tertius becomes tercius, vitium vicium.
- The combination mn might have another plosive inserted, so that alumnus becomes alumpnus, somnus sompnus.
- Single consonants were often doubled, or vice versa, so that tranquillitas becomes tranquilitas and Africa becomes Affrica.
- vi, especially in verbs in the perfect tense, might be lost, so that novisse becomes nosse (this occurred in Classical Latin as well but was more frequent in Medieval Latin).
These orthographical differences were often due to changes in pronunciation or, as in the last example, morphology, which authors reflected in their writing. By the 16th century,
Erasmus complained that speakers from different countries were unable to understand each other's form of Latin.
The gradual change of Latin didn't escape the notice of contemporaries.
Petrarch, writing in the 14th century, complained about this linguistic "decline", which helped fuel his general dissatisfaction with his own era.
Medieval Latin literature
The corpus of Medieval Latin literature encompasses a wide range of texts, including such diverse works as
sermons,
hymns,
hagiographical texts,
travel literature,
histories,
epics, and
lyric poetry.
Early period
The first half of the
5th century saw the literary activities of the great Christian authors
Jerome (c. 347–420) and
Augustine of Hippo (354–430), whose texts had an enormous influence on theological thought of the Middle Ages, and of the latter's disciple
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455). Of the later
400s and early
500s,
Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 430 – after 489) and
Ennodius (474–521), both from Gaul, are well-known for their poems, as is
Venantius Fortunatus (c. 530–600). This was also a period of transmission: the
Roman patrician
Boethius (c. 480–524) translated part of
Aristotle's
logical corpus, thus preserving it for the Latin West, and wrote the influential literary and philosophical treatise
De consolatione Philosophiae;
Cassiodorus (c. 485–585) founded an important library at the monastery of Vivarium near
Squillace where many texts from Antiquity were to be preserved.
Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636) collected all scientifical knowledge still available in his time into what might be called the first
encyclopedia, the
Etymologiae.
Gregory of Tours (c. 538–594) wrote a lengthy history of the
Frankish kings. Gregory came from a Gallo-Roman aristocratic family, and his Latin, which shows many aberrations from the classical forms, testifies to the declining significance of classical education in Gaul. At the same time, good knowledge of Latin and even of
Greek was being preserved in
monastic culture in
Ireland and was brought to
England and the European mainland by
missionaries in the course of the
6th and
7th centuries, such as
Columbanus (543–615), who founded the monastery of
Bobbio in Northern Italy. Ireland was also the birthplace of a strange poetic style known as
Hisperic Latin. Other important Insular authors include the historian
Gildas (c. 500–570) and the poet
Aldhelm (c. 640–709).
Benedict Biscop (c. 628–690) founded the monastery of
Wearmouth-Jarrow and furnished it with books which he'd taken home from a journey to
Rome and which were later used by
Bede (c. 672–735) to write his
Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
Many medieval Latin works have been published in the series
Patrologia Latina,
Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum and
Corpus Christianorum.
Important medieval Latin authors
4th–5th centuries
Aetheria (fl. 385)
St Jerome (c. 347–420)
6th–8th centuries
Gildas (d. c. 570)
Venantius Fortunatus (c. 530 – c. 600)
Gregory of Tours (c. 538–594)
Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636)
Bede (c. 672–735)
9th–10th centuries
Ratherius (890–974)
Thietmar of Merseburg (975–1018)
11th century
Marianus Scotus (1028–1082)
Adam of Bremen (fl. 1060–1080)
Marbodius of Rennes (c. 1035-1123)
12th century
Pierre Abélard (1079–1142)
Suger of St Denis (c. 1081 – 1151)
Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 – c. 1155)
Ailred of Rievaulx (1110-1167)
Otto of Freising (c. 1114–1158)
William of Tyre (c. 1130-1185)
Peter of Blois (c. 1135 – c. 1203)
Walter of Châtillon (fl. c. 1200)
The Archpoet (fl. 1159–1167)
13th century
Giraldus Cambrensis (c. 1146 – c. 1223)
Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220)
Thomas of Celano (c. 1200 – c. 1265)
Albertus Magnus (c. 1200–1280)
Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1294)
St Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274)
Siger of Brabant (c. 1240–1280s)
Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308)
14th century
Ranulf Higdon (c. 1280 - c. 1363)
William of Ockham (c. 1288 - c. 1347)
Medieval Latin literary movements
Goliards
Hiberno-Latin
Important medieval Latin works
Carmina Burana
Pange Lingua
Summa Theologiae
Etymologiae
Dies Irae
Decretum GratianiFurther Information
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