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- Author or Editor: Lothar Willms x
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Abstract
This paper explores linguistic change and cultural integration (esp. Romanization and De-Romanization) as reflected in the non-standard Latin inscriptions from Mogontiacum (modern Mainz) (first cent. BC to eighth cent. AD). Since Mainz was pivotal for defence and operations against Germanic people east of the Rhine, Roman military and the Germanic element play a greater role than in Cologne and Trier. In the Early Empire, the military was the biggest factor of integration and mobility, for people and cults from both local, Celtic and Germanic, and remote, esp. eastern origin. The Early Empire inscriptions yield more archaic features than those from Cologne and Trier (ai) whereas curse tablets, found in the Isis and Mater Magna sanctuary, offer a copious corpus of substandard language, unique on the west bank of the Rhine (first attestation of aphaeresis, semivocalization of i). Christian funerary inscriptions document a more advanced phonetic stage (nearby merger, raisings ē > ī and ō > ū, first firm evidence for palatalization and semivocalization of u in the area) and a new pronominal paradigm (unisex nominative [qui] vs. oblique [hunc]) as well as the take-over, Christian conversion and entry into the clerical hierarchy by a Frankish warrior elite, reflected in Germanic spellings of appellatives and OHG devoicing of stops in names.
Summary
The copious corpus of deviations from standard Latin from Trier spans more than 800 years (50 BC–800 AD) and comprises both pagan and Christian inscriptions, the latter exclusively on tombstones. This paper points out the most salient non-standard features in the categories of phonetics, morphology, syntax and vocabulary. Most of them conform to standard Vulgar Latin, but some yield features of the inscriptions’ area, such as Western Romance (preservation of final -s, voicing intervocalic stops), Gallo-Romance (qui instead of quae, nasalisation), and the extinct Moselle Romance. A few features might reflect Gaulish substrate influence ([u] > [y], e before nasals > i, ē > ī, ō > ū, -m > -n). Clues for palatalisation and the raisings ē > ī, ō > ū are the most prominent phonetic features, the latter supporting, combined with the preservation of final -s, a renewed paradigm of nominal inflection. Morphosyntactic changes are driven by analogy and regularisations. Starting at the fringes, the erosion of case syntax ended up in a complete breakdown. Christianity fostered the recording of previously undocumented substandard features, completed the assimilation of Celtic (which pagan polytheism and the upwards mobility of Roman society had initiated) and supported the cultural integration of Germanic immigrants.
Piae memoriae Henrici Heinen, viri doctissimi
