19
votes
Accepted
Can a text in Latin be understood by an educated Italian who never had any formal teaching of that language?
Interesting question. I'll go out on a limb and say that the answer is no.
Of course it is difficulty to find a definitive, evidence-based answer, but I'll give two reasons, the first more subjective ...
- 37.2k
8
votes
Accepted
Books on the evolution of Latin into Italian?
For the sake of completeness, let's separate the comparative grammar of Italian, explained in relation to Latin and/or English - as in the pamphlet you link to - and the historical transformation of ...
- 5,128
4
votes
Accepted
Origini della distinzione tra "o" ed "e" chiuse e aperte
In questa risposta riporto l'informazione al riguardo che si trova nel capitolo I del libro Italiano di Luca Serianni.
Nella sezione I.22 si spiega come il sistema vocalico latino, che distingueva ...
- 39.1k
3
votes
Is there a word meaning "Go" or "Go away!" in Italian languages or dialects that could explain the etymology of Romanian "Valea!"?
I hope this helps. As pointed out in the comment, the italian form "va là" is an expression used as "that's unbelievable" or "you're kidding me". The interesting thing is ...
- 51
3
votes
It's very uncommon for Italian words to end in consonants, but vast number of Latin words do. Why?
How did the same population who a few centuries ago used to speak
Latin with all its consonant-endings manage to lose not one or two but
all of them in the derived language?
I think there is a ...
- 31
3
votes
Books on the evolution of Latin into Italian?
Another interesting book is Manuale di linguistica e filologia romanza (Il Mulino, Bologna, 2003, 3rd edition from 2009 in the link) by Lorenzo Renzi and Alvise Andreose, which covers the evolution ...
- 39.1k
2
votes
Can a text in Latin be understood by an educated Italian who never had any formal teaching of that language?
Unlike what Quora says (or say?), I believe Italian is indeed closer to Latin than are most other modern Romance languages.
One reason is that, by the time the Western Empire fell, the proportion of ...
- 129
2
votes
Can a text in Latin be understood by an educated Italian who never had any formal teaching of that language?
I'm Italian. It is almost impossible to understand the true meaning of a Latin phrase if you didn't study Latin. Some words are equals or similars. Anyway you can try to understand the meaning but, in ...
2
votes
Is there an Italian word resembling Romanian "comoară" (treasure) - like "commare" in the film "I Soliti Ignoti"?
In the movie, Vittorio Gassman is a wannabe thief. He's in prison and concots a plan to make another thief telling him about a place where to rob: he pretends to have been sentenced to a long ...
- 18.1k
2
votes
Does the "si passivante" come from the Latin passive case?
There is a well-attested grammaticalisation path going:
Relexive > middle > anticausative > passive > impersonal
This means that, in the contest of grammaticalisation, there are many ...
- 577
1
vote
Is there an Italian word resembling Romanian "comoară" (treasure) - like "commare" in the film "I Soliti Ignoti"?
My main interest was in the etymology of the Romanian word. My intention was to check if there was an Italian parallel connection. I am sure now that a such Italian/Romanesco parallel can be excluded, ...
- 169
1
vote
Origini della distinzione tra "o" ed "e" chiuse e aperte
Come fai giustamente notare, il latino aveva dieci diverse vocali (cinque lunghe e cinque brevi), mentre l'italiano ne ha solo sette. Questo è l'esito finale di un fenomeno comune a tutte le lingue ...
- 12.2k
1
vote
Can a text in Latin be understood by an educated Italian who never had any formal teaching of that language?
Short answer: no. It's the same as you would read a French text. Same language origin, you'll find some words to be very similar, but you won't be able to understand the full text
German and dutch ...
- 111
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible