How old is the archaic form of the Latin language?
Friday, September 18th, 2009 at
4:05 am
I have been wondering about it for some time now.
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Filed under: Latin Language
Plautus is probably the oldest author we have any complete works in, and though there are some strong differences between his writing and later Latin, it is noticably Latin. His plays were produced in the very beginning of the 2nd century BC. Obviously, people in Italy spoke something before him, and it probably held many resemblances to Latin. The earliest fragments of this earliest Latin date to around the 6th century BC, though even before that they must have spoken something similar. Beyond written records, there is very little way to know what they spoke or when it developed into particular forms.
Do you mean Latin, or do you want the predecessor to Latin? How far back should we go?