[Air-L] Internet research case study.

[Gerard Cheshire]

Fellow AIR list members,

Those of you interested in the power of the internet as a modern research resource may wish to read a couple of new papers.


Recently the writing system of a Medieval manuscript known as MS408 was revealed to be proto-Romance: i.e. the origin of the Romance languages. In addition, it is written with a proto-Italic alphabet. It is the only known document of this kind and therefore has considerable linguistic value.

Two papers have been issued, which explain the writing system and translate a number of excerpts as examples. They can be freely downloaded from the preprint website LingBuzz.
1.  Linguistic Missing Links: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003737

<http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003737>2.  Linguistically Dating and Locating: http:<http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003808>//ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003808<http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003808>

The internet proved vital in discovering the writing system of the manuscript, as it enabled the cross-referencing of millions of documents - old and new. Also, various dedicated linguistics websites enabled searches for obscure words and terms. The manuscript revealed that the language is a simplified form of spoken Latin, with various foreign and local words introduced to the mix. In addition, the alphabet is phonetically based, but uses symbols from various points of origin. To all intents and purposes, the writing system would appear to be a constructed language, as it seems to have been used only within the region of the Tyrrhenian Sea, west of Italy and subsequently became absorbed into the evolution of the modern Romance languages

It seems that the language came about rapidly due to trade, slavery, migration, royal marriage and exchange of ideas between many and various cultures, as a means of common communication: a lingua franca. Thus, it was collectively constructed due to socio-ecological pressures in the Mediterranean, which was the hub of Occidental civilisation at the time. Nearby Naples was the most important port city in the region. Having been constructed, it then became the template for the modern Romance languages, which evolved when the political map caused populations to become relatively isolated during the Renaissance.

Regards,
G. E. Cheshire.
University of Bristol.