Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T04:28:30.798Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - The sociology of the Romance languages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2013

By
Alberto Varvaro
Edited by
Martin Maiden ,
John Charles Smith  and
Adam Ledgeway
John Charles Smith
Affiliation:
St Catherine's College, Oxford
Adam Ledgeway
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

The process of formation of the Romance languages from the end of the ancient world to the age of Charlemagne has fundamental sociolinguistic implications, regardless of the preferred line of theoretical explanation. The Romance vernacular side is less easy to investigate, and here it is evident that diatopic variation was accompanied by typically sociolinguistic differences of status. In the Romance world there are few remaining cases of a degree of socio-cultural homogeneity so great that there is no need for some diastratic variation. The interplay of sociolinguistic relations between Romance and non-Romance varieties, which the authors have occasionally alluded to, is no less varied and wide-ranging than what happens within Romance. This chapter mentions two aspects: the historical side, which implies shifts in the external linguistic boundaries of the Romance linguistic family and the coexistence, particularly in modern times, of different types of language in the same area.

Keywords

linguistic variationlogographic systembilingualismchronological discrepancyLatinRoman EmpireSchuchardt-Gröber hypothesisRomance languages
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages , pp. 335 - 360
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×