Course Information

Paper CS 1

The Romance Languages

This paper deals with the evolution and structure of a major group of languages, descended from Latin and spoken extensively in Europe and the New World; their role as vehicles of western civilisation scarcely needs stressing. The value and importance of the subject is reflected in the fact that it complements and throws light on a wide range of other Tripos papers:

• General Linguistics
• The Language of Italy
• Historical Linguistics
• Hispanic Languages
• History of the French Language

The Romance languages are among the best documented historically, and the most accessible geographically and politically, in the world. This makes them an ideal empirical testing ground, and source of data, for issues in general and historical linguistic theory. The integration of linguistic theory with the detailed structural analysis of the Romance languages is one of the central aims of this paper. The comparative overview provided by this paper also furnishes essential background and context for the study of the histories of individual Romance languages.

Essential requirements

You need a good knowledge of more than one Romance language (this does not mean that you are currently studying more than one). Knowledge of Latin, however elementary, is self-evidently very helpful. The most important requirement is a keen interest. If you have that interest, but you are unsure whether you have the right background knowledge, please contact Dr Adam Ledgeway at Downing College, e-mail: anl21@cam.ac.uk or Dr Ioanna Sitaridou at Queens' College, e-mail:is269@cam.ac.uk.

Elements of the course

The following are some of the issues that may be addressed in lectures and supervisions:

Structural evolution of Romance

Why are irregular verbs irregular? Why do two perfective past tense forms (e.g. j'ai fait and je fis) exist side by side in Romance? Why are there so many different ways of expressing future time in Romance, none of them continuing the Latin system? Where do the definite and indefinite articles come from? Why is the use of the subjunctive so different from Romance language to Romance language? Why does French need a pronoun in je fais, while Spanish needs none in hago? Why do Romance languages contain so many words that are not of Latin origin, and where do they come from? Answers to these and many other questions about the differences between Romance languages, and between Romance and Latin, are approached by a detailed and rigorous analysis of the structural evolution of Romance phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon. This is the backbone of the course.

Linguistic analysis of texts

For obvious reasons, the most direct form of evidence we have for the development of Romance before the present century is in written texts. The rigorous linguistic analysis of Vulgar Latin and/or early Romance texts is therefore an essential part of the discipline. Paper CS.1 contains an obligatory question requiring translation and analysis of prescribed texts.

Dialectal fragmentation of Romance

What factors (ethnolinguistic, social, political, geographical) favoured the linguistic fragmentation of Latin? What kinds of variation exist between Romance dialects, and how can they be described?

Rise of standard languages

The modern standard Romance languages were originally regional dialects like any other. What factors account for the rise to fame and fortune of the standard Romance languages, such as French, Italian and Spanish? Is there any fundamental difference between a standard language and a dialect?

Other Romance languages

A Romance linguist should be interested in ALL the Romance languages. If you already know two Romance languages, you are in a good position to attain at least an outline knowledge of some other, possibly less familiar, members of the family. We look at the structures of some of these 'other' languages (e.g., Catalan, Romanian, Sardinian, Occitan, Dalmatian), and examine their relationship to the languages you already know. Incidentally, while this part of the course does not claim to furnish you with an active knowledge of the relevant languages, it provides you with a useful basis from which to learn them.

Pidgins and creoles

While we focus principally on the emergence of the Romance languages in Europe, a new and rapidly developing field of study is the Romance-based pidgin and creole languages. These arose as a consequence of Portuguese, Spanish and French colonial expansion and are, largely, the linguistic result of the catastrophic social upheavals involved in uprooting slaves in such a way that they were obliged to adopt a modified variety of the language of their masters as a medium of communication and, for subsequent generations, as a first language. How are Caribbean, West African, Indian Ocean and Easy East Asian Romance creoles different from their Romance progenitors? What have they in common? Are they really Romance at all?

Paper CS 1 is ideally suited to those who know some Romance languages and are inquisitive about the nature of language change, the other members of the Romance family, the historical reasons behind the characteristic structures of Romance, and the causes of the diversification of the Romance languages. It develops and demands powers of rigorous linguistic analysis, and rewards them with new and often surprising insights not only into Romance, but into the nature of language in general.

Suggested preliminary reading

• Elcock, W.D., The Romance Languages (Faber, 1975)
• Harris, M. and Vincent, N., (eds.), The Romance Languages (Routledge, 1988), especially chapter 1

Reading List

This wide-ranging reading list is intended for those taking Paper CS 1 (The Romance Languages) and related papers (e.g., History of the French, Italian or Peninsular languages). Within the sections pertaining to general background and the 'major' Romance languages, works deemed essential, or of particular usefulness, are marked with an asterisk. Reference works are marked REF. Dr Ledgeway and Dr Sitaridou will advise during lectures and supervisions on the relevance and importance of other works listed. More detailed reading lists are, of course, available for papers in the history of individual Romance languages.

On language and language change

• Anderson, J., Structural Aspects of Language Change (Longman, 1973)
• *Bynon, T., Historical Linguistics (CUP, 1978)
• Holm, J., Pidgins and Creoles (2 vols) (CUP, 1988)
• *Lyons, J., Language and Linguistics (CUP, 1981)
• *McMahon, A., Understanding Language Change (CUP, 1994)

General works on Romance

• Agard, F., A Course in Romance Linguistics. I A synchronic view. 2 A diachronic view (1984)
• Bourciez, E., Eléments de linguistique romane (Paris, 1967)
• Boyd-Bowman, P., From Latin to Romance in Sound Charts (Washington, 1954)
• *Elcock, W., The Romance Languages (Faber, 1975)
• Hall, R., External History of the Romance Languages (New York, 1974)
• Harris, M., The Evolution of French Syntax (Longman, 1978)
• *Harris, M. and Vincent, N., The Romance Languages (Routledge, 1990)
• REF Holtus, G., Metzeltin, M. and Schmitt, C., eds., Lexikon der romanistischen Linguistik (Tübingen, 1988—)
• Iordan, I. and Manoliu, M., Linguistica romanza (Padova, 1974)
• Iordan, I., An Introduction to Romance Linguistics. Its schools and scholars (transl. by J. Orr, revised with supplement by R. Posner) (Oxford, 1970)
• Lausberg, H., Lingüística románica (Madrid, 1965). (This work may also be read in the German original Romanische Sprachwissenschaft, and in Italian translation.)
• REF Meyer-Lübke, W., Romanisches etymologische Wörterbuch (Winter)
• Palmer, L., The Latin Language (Faber)
• Renzi, L., Introduzione alla filologia romanza (1976) (also available in Spanish)
• Rohlfs, G., La diferenciación léxica de las lenguas románicas, trs. M. Alvar (Madrid, 1960) (see also original German version)
• Rohlfs, G., Romanische Sprachgeographie (Munich, 1971)
• Saltarelli, M. and Wanner, D., eds., Diachronic Studies in Romance Linguistics (Mouton, 1975)
• Tagliavini, C., Le origini delle lingue neolatine (Bologna, 1969)
• Vidos, B., Manual de linguúítica románica (Madrid, 1963) (also available in Italian)
• Vincent, N. and Harris, M., Studies in the Romance Verb (Croom Helm, 1982)

Vulgar and Late Latin

• Cairns, F., Late Latin and Early Romance in Spain and Carolingian France, ed. R. Wright (1982)
• Calboli, G., Latin vulgaire ­ latin tardif II. Actes du deuxième Colloque international de latin vulgaire et tardif (Niemeyer, 1989)
• Herman, J., ed., Latin vulgaire ­ latin tardif. Actes du 1er Colloque international de latin vulgaire et tardif (Niemeyer, 1987)
• Janson, T., Mechanisms of language change in Latin (Almqvist and Wiksell, 1979)
• Robson, L.C., 'L'Appendix probi et la philologie latine', Le moyen âge. Livre jubilaire 39-54 (1963)
• *Väänänen, V., Introduction au latin vulgaire (Paris, 1967)
• Väänänen, V., 'Algunos rasgos lingüísticos y estilísticos del "Itinerarium Egeriae" ', Verba 13:5-14 (1986)

Portuguese and Spanish

• Corominas, J., Diccionario crítico-etimológico de la lengua castellana (1954)
• Corominas, J. and Pascual, J., Diccionario crítico etimológico castellana e hispánico (Gredos, 1986)
• *Lapesa, R., Historia de la lengua española (Gredos, 1980)
• Lloyd, P., From Latin to Spanish (APS, 1987)
Spanish Phonology descriptive and historical
• *Mattoso Câmara, J., The Portuguese Language (Chicago, 1972)
• *Menéndez Pidal, R., Manual de gramática histórica española (Madrid, 1966)
• Spaulding, R., How Spanish Grew (Berkeley, 1971)
• Sten, H., Les particularités de la langue portugaise (Copenhagen, 1944)
• Teyssier, P., Manuel de langue portugaise (Portugal-Brésil) (Paris, 1984)
• Teyssier, P., Histoire de la langue portugaise (PUF, 1980)

Catalan and Occitan

• Alibèrt, I.L., La gramatica occitana (C.E.O., 1976)
• Badia i Margarit, A., Gramática histórica catalana (Noguer, 1951)
• Bec, P., La langue occitane (PUF, 1973)
• Grandgent, C., An Outline of the Phonology and Morphology of Old Provençal (Boston, 1905)
• Hualde, J.I., Catalan (Routledge, 1992)
• Yates, A., Catalan (London, 1975)

French

• REF Dauzat, A, Dubois and Mitterand, H., Nouveau dictionnaire historique et étymologique (Paris, 1964)
• Désirat, C. and Hordé, T., La langue française au 20è siècle
• *Ewert, A., The French Language (Faber, 1978)
• REF Gamillscheg, E., Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache (Heidelberg, 1966—)
• Pope, M., From Latin to Modern French (MUP, 1952)
• *Price, G., The French Language Present and Past (Arnold, 1971)
• *Rickard, P., A History of the French Language (Hutchinson, 1974)
• Wartburg, W. von, Evolution et structure de la langue française (Berne, 1950)

Rhaeto-Romance

• Arquint, J., Vierv ladin (Lia rumantscha, 1964)
• *Haiman, J. and Benincà, P., Rhaeto-Romance (Routledge, 1992)
• REF Holtus, G., Metzeltin, M. and Schmitt, C., eds., Lexikon der romanistischen Linguistik (Vol. 3)
• Rohlfs, G., Rätoromanisch (Beck, 1975)

Italian and Sardinian

• Blasco-Ferrer, E., Storia linguistica della Sardegna (Niemeyer, 1984)
• Chapallaz, M., The Pronunciation of Italian (Bell and Hyman, 1981)
• Devoto, G., Il linguaggio d'Italia (Rizzoli, 1974)
• Devoto, G., Avviamento alla etimologia italiana (1979)
• Gensini, S., Italiana: elementi di storia linguistico-letteraria (Minerva Italica, 1988)
• REF Holtus, G., Metzeltin, M. and Schmitt, C., eds., Lexikon der romanistischen Linguistik (Vol. 4) (1988)
• Lepschy, A. and G., The Italian Language Today (Hutchinson, 1988)
• Maiden, M., A Linguistic History of Italian (Longman, 1995)
• Maiden, M. and Parry, M., eds., The Dialects of Italy (Routledge, 1997)
• Migliorini, B. and Griffith, T.G., The Italian Language (Faber, 1984)
• *Rohlfs, G., Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti (3 vols.) (Einaudi, 1966—)
• Tekavi, P., Grammatica storica del italiano (3 vols.) (Mulino, 1972—)
• Wagner, M., La lingua sarda (Beme, 1951)

Dalmatian

Romanian

• Agard, F., Structural Sketch of Romanian (Baltimore, 1958)
• REF Holtus, G., Metzeltin, M. and Schmitt, C., eds., Lexikon der romanistischen Linguistik (Vol. 3)
• Lombard, A., La langue roumaine ­ une présentation (Paris, 1974)
• Mallinson, G., Rumanian (Croom Helm, 1986)
• REF Rosetti, A., Istoria limbii române de la origine pînîn secolul al XVII-lea (Bucureti, 1968)