Carol Rosen

Romance Languages: The evolution of stressed vowels

The languages of the Romance family are descended from Latin, but what kind of Latin? Just as Modern English exists in many varieties and registers, so also Latin came to be a socially complex language, extending over a vast territory and serving the needs of diverse speech communities. Among the educated, a codified literary Latin existed, enshrined in the classics and in treatises on grammar. But Latin also lived on as an evolving spoken language among the far-flung populations of the Roman Empire. The basic vocabulary of the Romance languages bears the imprint of a casual, spoken style of Latin, always open to change. In conservative social contexts, in the domain of religion and high culture, the frozen classical language remained an influential presence in the minds of the literate few, and became in later centuries a source of new layers of vocabulary. Syllables and word stress in Latin In this overview of the sound changes leading from Latin to the major Romance languages, we begin with the stressed vowels. Since the first requisite is knowing how to identify the stressed vowel, this lesson explains vowel quantity, syllable weight, and the rule that assigns stress in Latin. Why word stress matters Stress position in a Latin word ( etymon ) has a crucial effect on its Romance outcomes ( reflexes ).