Ancient Roman Latin

**Ancient Roman Latin** also known as **Old Latin**, **Early Latin** or **Archaic Latin** was the Latin language in the period before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. (In New and Contemporary Latin, this language is called prisca Latinitas ("ancient Latin") rather than vetus Latina ("old Latin"), as vetus Latina is used to refer to a set of Biblical texts written in Late Latin.) It is ultimately descended from the Proto-Italic language.

The use of "old", "early" and "archaic" has been standard in publications of Old Latin writings since at least the 18th century. The definition is not arbitrary, but the terms refer to writings with spelling conventions and word forms not generally found in works written under the Roman Empire. This article presents some of the major differences.

The earliest known specimen of the Latin language appears on the Praeneste fibula. A new analysis performed in 2011 declared it to be genuine "beyond any reasonable doubt" and dating from the Orientalizing period, in the first half of the seventh century BC.

## Phonology

### Stress

Old Latin is thought to have had a strong stress on the first syllable of a word until about 250 BC. All syllables other than the first were unstressed and were subjected to greater amounts of phonological weakening. Starting around that year, the Classical Latin stress system began to develop. It passed through at least one intermediate stage, found in Plautus, in which the stress occurred on the fourth last syllable in four-syllable words with all short syllables.

### Vowels and diphthongs

Most original PIE (Proto-Indo-European) diphthongs were preserved in stressed syllables, including Template:IPA (later *ae*); Template:IPA (later *ī*); Template:IPA (later *ū*, or sometimes *oe*); Template:IPA (from PIE Template:IPA and Template:IPA; later *ū*).

The Old Latin diphthong *ei* evolves in stages: *ei* > *ẹ̄* > *ī*. The intermediate sound *ẹ̄* was simply written *e* but must have been distinct from the normal long vowel *ē* because *ẹ̄* subsequently merged with *ī* while *ē* did not. It is generally thought that *ẹ̄* was a higher sound than *e* (e.g. perhaps Template:IPA vs. Template:IPA during the time when both sounds existed). Even after the original vowel Template:IPA had merged with *ī*, the old spelling *ei* continued to be used for a while, with the result that *ei* came to stand for *ī* and began to be used in the spelling of original occurrences of *ī* that did not evolve from *ei* (e.g. in the genitive singular *-ī*, which is always spelled *-i* in the oldest inscriptions but later on can be spelled either *-i* or *-ei*).

In unstressed syllables, \*oi and \*ai had already merged into *ei* by historic times (except for one possible occurrence of *poploe* for *populī* "people" in a late manuscript of one of the early songs). This eventually evolved to *ī* according to the process described above.

Old Latin often had different short vowels from Classical Latin, reflecting sound changes that had not yet taken place. For example, the very early Duenos inscription has the form *duenos* "good", later found as *duonos* and still later *bonus*. A countervailing change *wo* > *we* occurred around 150 BC in certain contexts, and many earlier forms are found (e.g. earlier *votō, voster, vorsus* vs. later *vetō, vester, versus*).

Old Latin frequently preserves original PIE thematic case endings *-os* and *-om* (later *-us* and *-um*).

### Consonants

Intervocalic Template:IPA (pronounced Template:IPA) was preserved up through 350 BC or so, at which point it changed into Template:IPA (called rhotacism). This rhotacism had implications for declension: early classical Latin, *honos*, *honoris* (from *honos*, *honoses*); later Classical (by analogy) *honor*, *honoris* ("honor"). Some Old Latin texts preserve Template:IPA in this position, such as the Carmen Arvale's *lases* for *lares*. Later instances of single Template:IPA between vowels are mostly due either to reduction of early Template:IPA after long vowels or diphthongs; borrowings; or late reconstructions.

There are many unreduced clusters, e.g. *iouxmentom* (later *iūmentum*, "beast of burden"); *losna* (later *lūna*, "moon") < \**lousna* < \*/leuksnā/; *cosmis* (later *cōmis*, "courteous"); *stlocum*, acc. (later *locum*, "place").

Early *du* Template:IPA becomes later *b*: *duenos* > *duonos* > *bonus* "good"; *duis* > *bis* "twice"; *duellom* > *bellum* "war".

Final Template:IPA occurred in ablatives, such as *puellād* "from the girl" or *campōd* "from the field", later *puellā* and *campō*. In verb conjugation, the third-person ending -*d* later became -*t*, e.g. Old Latin *faced* > Classical *facit.*