Vulgar Latin Grammar: the basics
The following guide picks out a few key features of Vulgar Latin grammar. The Vulgar Latin examples here are
reconstructed from common features of the
Romance languages, so they represent general historical trends rather than documented speech. The guide simplifies features,
explores no feature in depth and provides no comparisons to the
modern Romance lanugages. Such details are offered in the rest of this comparative Romance grammar.
Nouns
Every noun in Classical Latin belonged to the masculine, feminine or neuter gender. Vulgar Latin combined the masculine and neuter genders. It
distinguished masculine nouns and feminine nouns.
| gender |
Romance |
translation |
| feminine |
*casa |
house |
| feminine |
*veritate |
truth |
| masculine |
*pop(u)lu |
people |
| masculine |
*omine |
man |
Unlike speakers of Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin speakers used definite and indefinite articles with the noun.
| *una casa |
a house |
| *illa veritate |
the truth |
Vulgar Latin formed a basic noun from the Classical Latin accusative case.
| Latin |
Romance |
| veritas |
*illa veritate |
| veritatem |
*illa veritate |
Vulgar Latin formed plural nouns from the classical accusative plural in the West but the nominative plural in the East.
| case |
Latin |
Romance |
translation |
notes |
| nominative |
casae |
*illi populi |
the peoples |
(Corsica, Italy, Dalmatia, Romania) |
| accusative |
populos |
*illos pop(u)los |
the peoples |
(Iberia, France, Switzerland, Sardinia) |
Speakers employed prepositional phrases where Classical Latin had accusative, dative, genitive and ablative noun cases.
| *in illa casa |
in the house |
| *de illa veritate |
of the truth |
The use of cases versus analytic phrases varied between eras, regions, speakers and situations.
As a rule of thumb, more popular registers erased the distinction between cases, while more refined registers continued to use noun cases.
| Vulgar Latin |
*illa porta de illa casa |
the door of the house |
| Late Latin |
porta casae |
[the] house's door |
Adjectives
Adjectives normally followed the modified noun.
| *illa porta magna |
the big door |
Adjectives matched the gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) of the described noun.
| *illu omine magnu |
the big man |
| *illos omines magnos |
the big men |
| *illa casa magna |
the big house |
| *illas casas magnas |
the big houses |
Vulgar Latin speakers formed the comparative and superlative with words for more
instead of the traditional adjective endings.
| *plus magnu |
bigger |
| *mais magnu |
bigger |
Pronouns
Vulgar Latin had nominative (subject), accusative (direct object) and dative (indirect object) forms of six personal pronouns.
Vulgar Latin also had personal possessives, which worked like adjectives or articles.
| *mea casa |
my house |
| *meu poplu |
my people |
Vulgar Latin employed a variety of interrogative, demonstrative and relative pronouns.
| *istu |
this |
demonstrative; works like pronoun or article |
| *quale |
which |
interrogative; works like article |
| *qui |
who |
interrogative; works like subject pronoun |
| *illu quale / *illu quid |
that which |
relative |
| *quod |
that / because |
relative |
Verbs
Like Classical Latin verbs before them, Vulgar Latin verbs had finite forms that took one of six personal endings.
| *ego scribo |
I write |
| *tu scribes |
you write |
| *ille scribet |
he writes |
| *nos scribemus |
we write |
| *vos scribetis |
you all write |
| *illi scribent |
they write |
The verb endings clearly indicated the subject of the verb. As in Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin regularly dropped the subject pronoun.
| *scribo |
I write |
| *scribes |
you write |
| *scribent |
they write |
| *amo |
I love |
| *amas |
you love |
| *amant |
they love |
Verb endings changed between tenses, such as the present or the past.
| *amo |
I love |
| *amai |
I loved |
| *amas |
you love |
| *amasti |
you loved |
Verb endings changed between moods, such as the indicative (factual) or the subjunctive (contrary to fact).
| *dicet quod scribes |
he says that you are writing |
| *dicet quod scribas |
he says that you should write (he tells you to write) |
Vulgar Latin verbs also took nonfinite endings that did not inherently refer to a subject.
| infinitive |
*scribere |
to write |
| past participle |
*scriptu |
written |
| gerund |
*scribendu |
writing |
Speakers reduced the four vowel classes of Latin verbs to three or even two thematic vowels.
| *am-are |
to love |
(thematic a) |
| *am-as |
you love |
|
| *scrib-ere |
to write |
(thematic e) |
| *scrib-es |
you write |
|
| *fin-ire |
to finish |
(thematic i) |
| *fin-is |
you finish |
|
Some verbs, including modal verbs, were followed by an infinitive.
| *potes |
you can |
| *potes scribere |
you can write |
Sentences
Vulgar Latin placed subjects before the verb and objects after the verb, but also allowed flexibility in this word order.
| *Anna scribet illa littera. |
Anna writes the letter. |
| *Anna abet (una) casa. |
Anna has a house. |
| *Anna casa abet. |
Anna has a house. |
| *casa abet Anna. |
Anna has a house. |
Eventually, Vulgar Latin speakers relied on basic (historically accusative) forms for both subject and object nouns.
| *illu omine dicet illa veritate |
the man tells the truth |
Vulgar: accusative subject, accusative object |
| *ille omo dicet illa veritate |
the man tells the truth |
Vulgar: nominative subject, accusative object |
| homo dicit veritatem |
[the] man tells [the] truth |
Classical: nominative subject, accusative object |
| *hominem dicit veritatem |
[the] man tells [the] truth |
Classical: accusative subject, accusative object (avoided) |
With object pronouns, the pronoun preceded the verb.
| *tu amas Anna |
you love Anna |
| *Anna amat Paulu |
Anna loves Paul |
| *Anna te amat |
Anna loves you |
Speakers initially distinguished indirect object (dative case) pronouns from direct object (accusative case) pronouns.
| *mi dices illa veritate |
you tell the truth to me |
| *me vides |
you see me |
Vulgar Latin passivized verbs with a reflexive pronoun or with *essere be. These constructions allowed speakers to avoid the passive endings
of Classical Latin.
| Latin |
translation |
literally |
| *se scribet illa littera |
the letter is written |
the letter writes itself |
| *illa littera est scripta |
the letter is written |
| *littera scribitur |
the letter write-PASSIVE |
Examples of negations and questions.
| *Illu amas? |
Do you love him? |
| *Illa casa est magna? |
Is the house big? |
| *Non illu amas. |
You do not love him. |
| *Illa casa non est magna. |
The house is not big. |
Examples of combining multiple verbs with conjunctions and relatives.
| *Scribet et cantat. |
She writes and she sings. |
| *Scio quod scribes illa littera. |
I know that you are writing the letter. |
