ANST - RE: Latin Pronunciation In Period & The SCA

[Jennifer Carlson]

Good day, Brother Galen, and any who are interested in this topic!

Here's my attempt to answer the good friar's good questions:
(intro snipped)

> I have only found references to classical and church Latin, and have 
clung to
>the classical version as being more correct.

One is "more correct" than the other only in context.  Since the SCA 
context is the Middle Ages, Medieval Latin would be the "more correct," 
unless you have either a Republican Roman or a later Renaissance persona.

>Do you, perchance, have a book that discusses Medieval
>pronunciation that you could copy the relevant pages for me?  I would be
>very much in your debt, and would certainly repay copy and mail expenses.

Try these titles.  If you do not have access to them, I can make copies.

Dillon, Janette, 1953- Language and stage in medieval and Renaissance 
England
Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Sidwell, Keith C. Reading medieval Latin. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge
University Press, 1995.

Harrington, Karl Pomeroy 1861-1953 ed. Mediaeval Latin. [Chicago]
University of Chicago Press [1969, c1925]

Beeson, Charles Henry 1870- A primer of medieval Latin an anthology of 
prose
and poetry by Charles H. Beeson ... Chicago New York [etc.] Scott, Foresman 
and company [c1925]

>Could you also confirm/deny something?  I found a web page a couple of 
years
>ago that stated that "modern" church Latin came about when Pope Pius X 
felt
>that Latin was daying from the Church and pushed to bring back Latin, but
>did so with essentially Italian pronunciation.  I have tried many searches
>to find this page again, but is has so far eluded me.

I haven't run across this story about Pope Pius X  [Saint (born Giuseppe 
Sarto) 1835-1914] being the source of modern Church Latin pronunciation. 
 Latin was firmly THE language of the Roman Church until the Second Vatican 
Council in the 1960's, and even though the mass and offices are today 
celebrated in the vernacular, official documents such as encyclicals are 
still recorded in Latin.  In fact, an updated Vatican Latin dictionary came 
out a few years ago that caused some tittering with its efforts to produce 
Latin terms for "washing machine", "e-mail" and "juke box."

My own take on church pronunciation is this (warning: linguistics lesson 
approaching!):

Languages evolve or they ossify and die - this is why Classical Latin and 
Attic Greek are considered "dead" languages.  Over the course of a thousand 
years, a certain amount of vocabulary will disappear, new vocabulary will 
appear, and, in accordance with the law of entropy, the grammar will 
simplify itself.  A recent example of entropy in English is that, outside 
of a few cultural pockets such as the Amish, the second person familiar, 
Thee, has been replaced with the second person formal, You, for all 
purposes.  The average American only runs into Thee and Thou via the King 
James Bible and the movies.

Rome expanded, becoming an empire and absorbing the cultures that it 
conquered.  When Rome finally overran Greece, Greece influenced Roman 
culture in many ways, notably in the language.  Greek nurses taught their 
little Roman charges to speak Greek, and so the young Romans had to learn 
as a second language what would otherwise have been their native tongue. 
 This also affected how and in what contexts Latin came to be used.  The 
Christian Church was born into a time when Classical Latin was beginning to 
pass out of general use in the Empire.

Classical Latin is different structurally from Medieval Latin.  The major 
differences between the Classical and Medieval forms are grammar and 
sentence structure.  If you look at some of the differences between 
Elizabethan English, which is technically Modern English, and the 
vernacular in Ansteorra, you'll get the idea.  Structural differences are 
also evident in the poetic forms, which can be seen in comparing the poetry 
of Catullus (1st c. b.c.) and the lyrics of the Carmina Burana.

For much of the medieval period, Italy was the center of culture in Europe. 
 The Italian language, which evolved out of Latin, changed its 
pronunciation of certain letters and letter combinations over the 
centuries, and these phonics moved over and were applied to church use of 
Latin, and this pronunciation spread.  This spread was bolstered by the 
fact that the other Romance Languages (those based on Latin) -- Provencal, 
early French, Spanish, etc. -- were also evolving.  In the French 
languages, particularly, you can see that the general use of harder 
consonants smoothed out over time, leading to the more "liquid" sounding 
language of Modern French.  Take a look at The Song of Roland in the 
original versus in the works of Voltaire (17th c.).  Spanish retained more 
of its original consonantal character than did the other Romance languages, 
but Spanish vocabulary was influenced by the Moorish occupation.  So, the 
Italianate pronunciation of Church Latin may not have anything to do with 
the Sainted Pope Pius X.

>My searches also seem to indicate that Medieval Latin isn't taught until
>the student has had about 2 years of classical Latin. Do you know of an
>introductory text that starts with Medieval? Is there a reason that
>classical is the jumping off point, or have my searches just been too 
narrow?

Classical Latin as the introductory form of the language is a legacy from 
the Renaissance.  Classical Latin was rediscovered during the Renaissance, 
and became the preferred form of study for the literary and scholarly 
elite.  The works of Cicero, in particular, are held up as the paragon of 
Classical form and grammar.  The concepts of "liberal arts education" and 
"classical education", also legacies of Renaissance humanism, are allegedly 
the precepts upon which modern education is based.  Hence, Classical Latin 
is taught first.  Most students do not progress far enough in their studies 
of the humanities to have a need for Medieval Latin - indeed, most students 
do not study Latin at all.  All of the beginning Latin textbooks I am aware 
of are geared towards Medieval Latin.  Perhaps someone else out there can 
suggest a text.


In servicio,

Dunstana Talana Viola
Arc Septemtrionis (Northkeepensis)
Or should it be
Arcis Septemtrionis (Northkeepensi)?
Nominative or ablative? Nominative or ablative? Aagh! Salve me! Salve me!

I swear, Your Honor, I was just polishing my Liberal Arts degree when it 
went off!


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