Bryn Mawr Classical Review 1999.10.10 Giuliano Bonfante, The
Origin of the Romance Languages: Stages in the Development of
Latin. Bibliothek der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften 100.
Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter, 1999. Pp. xxxiv, 154.
ISBN 3-8253-0583-X. Reviewed by James J. O'Donnell, The
University of Pennsylvania Word count: 1029 words We used to
know a lot about the history of the Latin language. It began in
humble Latium, spread through the world, but divided between
"Latin" and "Vulgar Latin" -- the latter being what happened
when ordinary people were allowed to speak and even try to write
the pure essence of the language. Eventually, such was the
decline of civilization, Vulgar Latin proved incapable of
fidelity to Latin and so fell away, around the reign of
Charlemagne, to pursue a skulking existence -- an existence that
scarcely dared write its name for centuries -- as the nascent
Romance languages. Latin, meanwhile, marched serenely on through
middle age and into modernity, ending as