Proto-Romance is the comparativelyreconstructed ancestor of all Romance languages. It reflects a late variety of Latin, one of the Italic languages in the broader Indo-European family. Exceptionally in comparative linguistics, specialists in Proto-Romance can refer to an abundant corpus of texts written in a rough equivalent of their proto-language, namely Latin. This has however had the drawback of leading many to rely excessively on the written record in lieu of reconstructing Proto-Romance proper. Proto-Romance is an abstraction and should not be taken as equivalent to Latin as it was actually spoken in any particular time or place. The version reconstructed in the Dictionnaire Étymologique Romanappears to most closely reflect the spoken Latin of the sixth century AD.
Phonology
Monophthongs
The open-mid vowels /ɛ, ɔ/ merge with /e, o/ in all unstressed contexts.
A further reduction is observed in intertonic syllables where /i, u/ merge with /ɪ, ʊ/.
Vowels are lengthened allophonically in stressed open syllables, although perhaps not /ɪ/ or /ʊ/.
/i, u/ become between a consonant and following vowel. then triggers palatalization, e.g. /basiáre/ .
Diphthong
Only one diphthong can be reconstructed for Proto-Romance, namely /au̯/. It can be found in both stressed and unstressed positions. Its phonemic status is however debatable, as it could also be simply regarded as a sequence of /a/ and /u/.
Consonants
When palatalized /t, k, n, l/ become .
Intervocalic regularly geminate. does so only sporadically.
Words beginning with /sC/ undergo prosthesis, e.g. /stáre/ , unless preceded by a vowel.
It is debated whether /kʷ/ is its own phoneme or merely an allophone of /ku/ before vowels.
There is some evidence that /f/ could have been bilabial, but a labiodental is more likely.
/b, d, g/ represent the fricatives between vowels or in contact with /r/ and /l/.
Intervocalic /di, gi/ do not occur, these having previously reduced to /j/.
/j/ represents in word-initial position, intervocalically.
The rhotic may have been , as in Spanish or Catalan.
/ll/ had a retroflex realization: .
/gn/ fricativizes to .
Morphology
Nouns
Proto-Romance nouns had three cases: nominative, accusative, and a combined genitive-dative which was only used in reference to humans. Several Class III nouns had inflections that differed by syllable count or stress position.
Nominative
ɔ́mo
pástor
sɔ́ror
Accusative
ɔ́mɪne
pastóre
soróre
Translation
man
pastor
sister
A few Class II nouns were pluralized with -a or -ora, these originally having been neuter in Classical Latin. Though their singular was masculine, the plural was treated as feminine. The plural was often reanalyzed as a feminine singular, resulting in gender shifts. Such a trend had already begun in Classical Latin; for example the feminine nounopera was formed from the plural of neuter opus.
Adjectives
Absolute
These inflect the same way as nouns.
Comparative
While the original Latin ending -or still existed, it was only used in a limited number of adjectives.
Adjective
mɛ́ʎʎor
pɛ́jor
májor
mɪ́nor
Translation
better
worse
larger
smaller
Otherwise, the typical way to form a comparative was to add either plús or máis to an absolute adjective. This had been done in Classical Latin as well, albeit sporadically.
Superlative
No dedicated ending existed to express the superlative. A variety of alternatives were used instead, such as an intensifying adverb or a simple comparative.
Possessive
Shown here in the feminine singular.
First person
Second person
Third person
singular
mɛ́a
tʊ́a
sʊ́a
plural
nɔ́stra
βɔ́stra
-
Pronouns
Personal
These are the equivalents of "you, me" etc. Asterisks indicate unstressed variants.
Interrogative
These are the equivalents of 'who' and 'what'.
Verbs
Proto Romance verbs belong to three main classes, each of which is characterized by a different thematic vowel. Their conjugations are built on three stems and involve various combinations of mood, aspect, and tense. For the sake of brevity, only one chart will be shown below.
Of these there were only two: a present active and a preterite passive. They declined like adjectives.
Relation to written Latin
At first there was no distinction between Latin and Romance, the former being the archaic written form of the latter. For instance in early medievalSpainthe word 'century' was routinely spelled ⟨saeculum⟩. The writer would not actually read it aloud as /sɛkulum/ any more than an English speaker today would pronounce ⟨knight⟩ as */knɪxt/. The spoken version of Ecclesiastical Latin was created later during the Carolingian Renaissance by the British scholar Alcuin, who ordered the French clergy to read aloud Latin precisely as it was spelled. This represented a radical break from the traditional system; for instance the word ⟨viridiarium⟩, which had until then been pronounced */verdʒjær/, now had to be read aloud as /viridiarium/. Officials soon found it necessary to instruct priests to read Latin sermons in the old way so that they might be understood by the general public. Since this left French without a dedicated orthography, various attempts were soon made to devise one, as can be seen in the Oaths of Strasbourg and Sequence of Saint Eulalia. As the Carolingian reforms brought Church Latin to other lands where Romance was spoken, local scholars devised spelling systems for their own dialects as well.
