Late Latin
- noun
- /leɪt ˈlætɪn/
- Specialized
:
latín tardío
- Many words we use in English can be traced back to Late Latin, showcasing its influence on the language.
- Late Latin phonological merger
Examples
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We propose that the shifts in complement types in the history of Spanish find their roots in a simple Late Latin morphological merger.
Academic text (1995) -
We have provided a motivation for this basic shift in complement types, which is based on a simple morphological merger in Late Latin, and the subsequent effect that this had on the presence or absence of a lower clause subject.
Academic text (1995) -
The word passion springs from Middle English by way of Old French and Late Latin (Ecclesiastic).
Fiction book (1991) -
While observing that it was not unusual for a word common in Archaic and Late Latin to endure in Hispano-Romance.
Academic text (2000) -
During that time, I studied classes in Late Latin, History of the Spanish Language, and various offerings in Romance Philology, all of which were fascinating and most enjoyable.
Academic text (1999) -
The Greeks called them "curses that bind tight," and the late Latin term for them meant "curses that fix or fasten someone."
Academic text (2003) -
As Muller and others have noted, a Late Latin phonological merger of final /e/ and /i/ reduced the active and passive infinitives to just one form.
Academic text (1995) -
Research by Chamberlain shows that already by Late Latin, nearly 70% of the nonfinite S2 with causatives lacked subjects, and that figure may in fact be much higher.
Academic text (1995) -
The study of Late Latin reveals many features that differentiate it from Classical Latin.
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Scholars often analyze grammatical changes that occurred during the Late Latin period to better understand the evolution of Romance languages.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'Late Latin' is a straightforward adjective + noun composition: 'late' (occurring near the end) modifies 'Latin', yielding 'the later form/period of Latin', which is directly derivable from the constituents. This temporal compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the intended historical/period sense.
Etymology
Late Latin names the form of Latin used from about the 3rd to the 8th century, the 'late' stage when Classical Latin began to change. Think of Classical Latin 'growing older' and shifting its words and grammar into the speech that later became languages like French and Spanish, so Late Latin means the later, changed form of Latin.
