| Late Latin | |
|---|---|
 Augustine of Hippo (354–430), Late Latin author | |
| Native to | (Western) Roman Empire, Ostrogothic Kingdom, Gallic Empire |
| Region | Mare Nostrum region |
| Era | 3rd–6th centuries; developed into Medieval Latin |
Indo-European
| |
Early forms | |
| Latin | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Both Roman Empires (Later replaced with Koine Greek in the East) |
| Regulated by | Schools of grammar and rhetoric |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | late1252 |
 The Late-Latin speaking world, 271 CE | |
Late Latin is the scholarly name for the form of Literary[citation needed] Latin of late antiquity.[1] English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the 3rd to 6th centuries AD,[2][3] and continuing into the 7th century in the Iberian Peninsula.[1] This somewhat ambiguously defined version of Latin was used between the eras of Classical Latin and Medieval Latin. Scholars do not agree exactly when Classical Latin should end or Medieval Latin should begin.[citation needed]
Being a written language, Late Latin is not the same as Vulgar Latin, or more specifically, the spoken Latin of the post Imperial period. The latter served as ancestor of the Romance languages. Although Late Latin reflects an upsurge of the use of Vulgar Latin vocabulary and constructs, it remains largely classical in its overall features, depending on the author who uses it. Some Late Latin writings are more literary and classical, but others are more inclined to the vernacular. As such it is an important source of information about changes in the spoken language, while not being a simple replication of the state of the oral language at the time.[4] Also, Late Latin is not identical to Christian patristic Latin, used in the theological writings of the early Christian fathers. While Christian writings used a subset of Late Latin, pagans, such as Ammianus Marcellinus or Macrobius, also wrote extensively in Late Latin, especially in the early part of the period.
Late Latin formed when large numbers of non-Latin-speaking peoples on the borders of the empire were being subsumed and assimilated, and the rise of Christianity was introducing a heightened divisiveness in Roman society, creating a greater need for a standard language for communicating between different socioeconomic registers and widely separated regions of the sprawling empire. A new and more universal speech evolved from the main elements: Classical Latin, Christian Latin, which featured sermo humilis (ordinary speech) in which the people were to be addressed,[5] and all the various dialects of Vulgar Latin.[6]
The linguist Antoine Meillet wrote:
"Without the exterior appearance of the language being much modified, Latin became in the course of the imperial epoch a new language... Serving as some sort of lingua franca to a large empire, Latin tended to become simpler, to keep above all what it had of the ordinary."[7][8]
- ^ a b Roberts (1996), p. 537.
- ^ "Late Latin". Webster's Third New International Dictionary. Vol. II, H to R. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1961.
- ^ "Late Latin". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (3rd ed.). Boston, New York, London: Houghton Mifflin Company.
- ^ Herman 2000, pp. 25–26
- ^ Auerbach (1958), Chapter 1, Sermo Humilis.
- ^ Harrington, Karl Pomeroy; Pucci, Joseph Michael (1997). Mediaeval Latin (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 67. ISBN 0-226-31713-7.
The combination of features specific to Vulgar Latin and Ecclesiastical Latin had the effect, then, of transforming the language by the fourth century into something of extraordinary vigor.
- ^ Meillet (1928), p. 270: "Sans que l'aspect extérieur de la langue se soit beaucoup modifié, le Latin est devenu au cours de l'epoque impériale une langue nouvelle."
- ^ Meillet (1928), p. 273: "Servant en quelque sorte de lingua franca à un grand empire, le Latin a tendu à se simplifier, à garder surtout ce qu'il avait de banal."