the meaning of "genetic relationship"

[John Hewson]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
On Tue, 23 Jun 1998, Ed Robertson wrote:
 
> The case of dead languages is less clear. They can exert influence
> after death, particularly if there is still a community of fluent
> (but non-native) speakers, as in e.g. Medieval Latin. However, here
> the continued existence of a non-native linguistic community (e.g.
> the Catholic priesthood) did not give rise at that time to
> genetically related daughter languages, but simply to 'influence'
> on other languages.
 
For the sake of its amusement value, I want to comment that the above
statement is not quite true.
 
Dialects of Medieval Latin developed early because of influence and
interference from the substrate. Linguistic evolution of the substrates
also affected the regional pronunciations, so that _caelum_ was pronounced
with ch by the Italians, ts by the Germans, and s by the French and the
English. Having said that, please try to imagine what the pronunciation of
English Medieval Latin became after the Great Vowel Shift...  Where the
Anglicans maintained Latin titles, you can still hear Venite to rhyme with
nighty, and Te Deum to rhyme with tedium.
 
The eventual result was a Babel that prompted a major international
reform in the teaching of Latin pronunciation earlier in this century.
Instead of picking one of the national versions of medieval Latin, a
return was made in the schools to Ist C BC and the pronunciation of Cicero
(Tsitsero in German, Siseron in French, and Chicherone in Italian, and now
Kikero of course). I doubt if there is anyone alive today who learned any
pronunciation other than the classical, except in the Roman Catholic
church, where the Italian medieval pronunciation has always prevailed.
(Since this latter pronunciation is the one surviving `dialect' of
ML, it is the one that should be learned by singers for the singing of
Medieval Latin texts).
 
 
John Hewson, FRSC                               tel: (709)737-8131
University Research Professor                   fax: (709)737-4000
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's NF, CANADA A1B 3X9