63 Colloquial and Li.. - Ganino.com

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attested in the spoken Latin of all parts of the Roman empire. For example,
the mergers of /e:/ and /i/ and of /o:/ and /u/, represented graphically by the
interchange of i and e and of o and u (Grandgent 1907: 83–7;Adams1977a:
11; Herman 2000: 30–3), are well represented in British Latin (Mann 1971:
220–1; C.Smith1983: 901–3; Adams1992a: 7), not least in the Latin writings
of St Patrick (Mras 1953: 102). The same mergers are also represented
in DRF in forms such as imbicillitas and absidis, orinaccepturium and
sapuna. 17 So, too, the voicing of intervocalic stops (Adams 1977a: 30–1),
represented in DRF by a form such as cubis for cupis. On the other hand,
some of the sound changes which are most characteristic of spoken Latin
are rarely found in DRF. The loss of final -m, for example, is well attested
in British Latin (Mann 1971: 222;C.Smith1983: 925;Adams1992a: 7), but
is represented by a sole example in DRF (7.27: super foco [for focum] vel
super ignem). 18 And some of the sound changes represented in DRF, such
as t for s before i, as in a spelling such as mantionem, are apparently first
attested in Hiberno-Latin texts from the sixth century onwards. In short,
the phonology of DRF is at best a doubtful witness to spoken Latin in late
Roman (or sub-Roman) Britain. 19
2.3 Morphology
2.3.1 Nouns
On the whole, nouns in DRF are declined according to their correct classical
declensions and genders, with only rare exceptions. 20 The neuter noun
balneum, which by the time of Petronius (41.11) had become masculine in
colloquial Latin (Grandgent 1907: 145–6; Herman 2000: 65), is treated as
neuter by the author of DRF – correctly, by classical standards – although
he fails consistently to master its orthography: ballenum (7.1)andballneum
(7.12). But there is one development which affected the declension of nouns
in colloquial Latin that is represented in DRF, namely that nominative and
accusative plural forms of neuter nouns ending in -a were misunderstood as
feminine terminations, and the noun correspondingly treated as feminine
17 The interchange of i and e in Greek loan words such as biblioteca is probably not relevant to
the question of colloquial Latin pronunciation. In medieval Latin, in Greek loan words was
characteristically represented as i (Stotz 1996: 20–1).
18 A second example is perhaps the form ballenio (7.21), if it is to be understood as a spelling of
balleneum [correctly balneum].
19 Cf. Adams (2007: 594), commenting on the form soltum [for solidum](6.17), to the effect that DRF
(which he refers to as ‘Oxon. post’) ‘cannot be used as evidence for a form of British Latin in the
Roman period’.
20 The noun compes (f.), for example, is construed as neuter: compes de ferro factum (5.6).