Editing Old Latin (section)

==Philological constructs==

===The old-time language===
The concept of Old Latin (''Prisca Latinitas'') is as old as the concept of Classical Latin – both labels date to at least as early as the late [[Roman Republic]]. In that period [[Cicero]], along with others, noted that the language he used every day, presumably upper-class city Latin, included lexical items and phrases that were heirlooms from a previous time, which he called ''verborum vetustas prisca'',<ref>''De Oratoribus'', I.193.</ref> translated as "the old age/time of language".

In the classical period, ''Prisca Latinitas'', ''Prisca Latina'' and other [[idiom]]s using the adjective always meant these remnants of a previous language, which, in Roman [[philology]], was taken to be much older in fact than it really was. ''Viri prisci'', "old-time men", meant the population of [[Latium]] before the [[founding of Rome]].

===The four Latins of Isidore===
In the [[Late Latin]] period, when Classical Latin was behind them, Latin- and Greek-speaking grammarians were faced with multiple phases, or styles, within the language. [[Isidore of Seville]] ({{circa}} 560–636) reports a classification scheme that had come into existence in or before his time: "the four Latins" ("Moreover, some people have said that there are four Latin languages"; ''"Latinas autem linguas quattuor esse quidam dixerunt"'').<ref>''[https://sfponline.org/Uploads/2002/st%20isidore%20in%20english.pdf Etymologiae]'', Book IX.1.6.</ref> They were:

* ''Prisca'', spoken before the founding of Rome, when [[Janus]] and [[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]] ruled [[Latium]], to which period Isidore dated the ''[[Carmen Saliare]]''
* ''Latina'', dated from the time of king [[Latinus]], in which period he placed the laws of the [[Twelve Tables]]
* ''Romana'', essentially equal to Classical Latin
* ''Mixta'', "mixed" Classical Latin and [[Vulgar Latin]], known today as [[Late Latin]].

This scheme persisted with little change for some thousand years after Isidore.

===Old Latin===
In 1874, [[John Wordsworth]] used this definition: "By Early Latin I understand Latin of the whole period of the Republic, which is separated very strikingly, both in tone and in outward form, from that of the Empire."{{sfn|Wordsworth|1874|p= v}}

Although the differences are striking and can be easily identified by Latin readers, they are not such as to cause a language barrier. Latin speakers of the empire had no reported trouble understanding Old Latin, except for the few texts that must date from the time of the [[King of Rome|kings]], mainly songs. Thus, the laws of the [[Twelve Tables]] (5th century BC) from the early Republic were comprehensible, but the ''[[Carmen Saliare]]'', probably written under [[Numa Pompilius]] (who according to tradition reigned from 715 to 673 BC), was not entirely clear (and remains so). On the other hand, [[Polybius]], a Greek historian of Rome who flourished in the late second century BC,<ref>''Histories'' III.22.</ref> commented on "the [[Treaties between Rome and Carthage#First treaty, 509 BC|first treaty between Rome and Carthage]]" (which he dated to 28 years before [[Xerxes I]] crossed into Greece; that is, in 508 BC), that "the ancient Roman language differs so much from the modern that it can only be partially made out, and that after much application by the most intelligent men".

There is no sharp distinction between Old Latin, as it was spoken for most of the Republic, and Classical Latin, but the earlier grades into the latter. The end of the republic was too late a termination for compilers after Wordsworth; [[Charles Edwin Bennett]] said, {{"'}}Early Latin' is necessarily a somewhat vague term… Bell, ''De locativi in prisca Latinitate vi et usu'', Breslau, 1889,<ref>{{cite book|title= De Locativi in prisca latinitate vi et usu, dissertatio inauguralis philologica|first= Andreas|last= Bell|publisher= typis Grassi, Barthi et soc (W. Friedrich)|location= Breslau|year= 1889}}</ref> sets the later limit at 75 BC. A definite date is really impossible, since archaic Latin does not terminate abruptly, but continues even down to imperial times."{{sfn|Bennett|1910|p= iii}} Bennett's own date of 100 BC did not prevail; rather Bell's 75 BC became the standard as expressed in the four-volume Loeb Library{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} and other major compendia. Over the 377 years from 452 to 75 BC, Old Latin evolved from texts partially comprehensible by classicists with study to being easily read by scholars.