:: wikimiki.org ::
| Romanization |
Romanization:In Antiquity, Romanization describes the spread of Roman culture and language.
In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representing of a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language used a different writing system. Methods of romanization include transliteration, representing written text, and transcription, representing the spoken word. The latter can be subdivided into phonological transcription, which records the phonemes or units of semantic meaning in speech, and more strict phonetic transcription, which records speech sounds with precision. Each romanization has its own set of rules for pronunciation of the romanized words.
To romanize is to transliterate or transcribe a language into the Roman alphabet. This process is most commonly associated with the Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages (CJK). Cyrillization is the similar process of representing a language using the Cyrillic alphabet.
Also spelled romanisation and latinisation.
Methods of romanization
Transliteration
If the romanization attempts to transliterate the original script, the guiding principle is a one-to-one mapping of characters in the source language into the target script, with less emphasis on how the result sounds when pronounced according to the reader's language. For example, the Nihon-shiki romanization of Japanese allows the informed reader to reconstruct the original Japanese kana syllables with 100% accuracy, but is not readable without prior study.
Transcription
Phonological
However, most romanizations are intended for the casual reader, who is unfamiliar with the intricacies of the original script and is more interested in pronouncing the source language. Such romanizations follow the principle of phonological transcription and attempt to render the significant sounds (phonemes) of the original as faithfully as possible in the target language. The popular Hepburn romanization of Japanese is an example of a transcriptive romanization designed for English speakers.
Phonetic
A phonetic conversion goes one step further and attempts to depict all phones in the source language, sacrificing legibility if necessary by using characters or conventions not found in the target script. The International Phonetic Alphabet is the most common system of phonetic transcription.
Tradeoffs
For most language pairs, building a usable romanization involves tradeoffs between the two extremes. Pure transcriptions are generally not possible, as the source language usually contains sounds and distinctions not found in the target language, but which must be shown to for the romanized form to be comprehensible.
In general, outside a limited audience of scholars, romanizations tend to lean more towards transcription. As an example, consider the Japanese martial art 柔術: the Nihon-shiki romanization zyūzyutu may allow someone who knows Japanese to reconstruct the kana syllables じゅうじゅつ, but most people would find it easier to guess the pronunciation from the Hepburn version, jūjutsu.
Romanization of specific writing systems
Arabic
For more detail, see Arabic transliteration
The Arabic alphabet is used to write Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Romanization standards include:
- Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (1936): [http://www.dmg-web.de/] Adopted by the International Convention of Orientalist Scholars in Rome. It is the basis for the very influential Hans Wehr dictionary (ISBN 0879500034).
- BS 4280 (1968): Developed by the British Standards Institute [http://www.bsi-global.com/index.xalter]
- SATTS (1970s): Developed by US military
- UNGEGN (1972): [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom1_ar.pdf]
- DIN-31635 (1982): Developed by the Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standardization)
- ISO 233 (1984). Transliteration.
- Qalam (1985): A system that focuses upon preserving the spelling, rather than the pronunciation, and uses mixed case [http://eserver.org/langs/qalam.txt]
- ISO 233-2 (1993). Simplified transliteration.
- Buckwalter Transliteration (1990s): Developed at Xerox by Tim Buckwalter [http://www.qamus.org/transliteration.htm]; doesn't require unusual diacritics [http://www.xrce.xerox.com/competencies/content-analysis/arabic/info/buckwalter-about.html]
- ALA-LC (1997): [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/arabic.pdf]
- Arabic Chat Alphabet
Hebrew
For more details, see Hebrew alphabet and Romanization of Hebrew.
- ANSI Z39.25 (1975):
- UNGEGN (1977): [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom1_he.pdf]
- ISO 259 (1984): Transliteration.
- ISO 259-2 (1994): Simplified transliteration.
- ISO/DIS 259-3: Phonemic transcription.
- ALA-LC: [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/hebrew.pdf]
Brahmic scripts
The Brahmic family of abugidas is used for languages of the Indian subcontinent and south-east Asia. There is a long tradition in the west to study Sanskrit and other Indic texts in Latin transliteration. Various transliteration conventions have been used for Indic scripts since the time of Sir William Jones. A comparison of some of them is provided here: [http://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com.ar/english/sanskrit/sanskrit3part2.html]
- ISO 15919 (2001): A standard transliteration convention was codified in the ISO 15919 standard. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants and vowels to the Latin script. See also [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stone-catend/trind.htm Transliteration of Indic scripts: how to use ISO 15919]. The Devanagari-specific portion is identical to the academic standard, IAST: "International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration", and to the United States Library of Congress standard, ALA-LC: [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/hindi.pdf]
- Harvard-Kyoto: Uses upper and lower case and doubling of letters, to avoid the use of diacritics, and to restrict the range to 7-bit ASCII.
- ITRANS: a transliteration scheme into 7-bit ASCII created by Avinash Chopde that used to be prevalent on Usenet.
- ASTHA: "Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration for HTML", made in Argentina, also into 7-bit ASCII [http://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com.ar/english/sanskrit/sanskrit3.html]
- ISCII (1988)
- National Library at Calcutta romanization (?)
Chinese
Romanization of Chinese, in particular, has proved a very difficult problem, although the issue is further complicated by political considerations. Another complication is the fact that Mandarin is not written phonetically, but rather written as ideograms. Because of this, many romanization tables contain Chinese characters plus one or more romanizations or Zhuyin. See also: [http://www.pinyin.info] [http://www.romanization.com/]
- ALA-LC: Used to be similar to Wade-Giles [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/chinese.pdf], but converted to Hanyu Pinyin since 2000 [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pinyin/romcover.html]
- EFEO. Developed by Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient in 19th century, used mainly in France.
- Latinxua Sinwenz (1926): Omitted tone sounds. Used mainly in the Soviet Union and Xinjiang in the 30s. Predecessor of Hanyu Pinyin.
- Lessing-Othmer: Used mainly in Germany.
- Postal System Pinyin (1906): Early standard for international addresses
- Wade-Giles (1912): Transliteration. Very popular from 19th century until recently and continues to be used by some Western academics.
- Yale (1942): Created by the U.S. for battlefield communication and used in the influential Yale textbooks.
Mainland China
- Hanyu Pinyin (1958): In Mainland China, Hanyu Pinyin has been used officially to romanize Mandarin for decades, primarily as a linguistic tool for teaching Standard Mandarin (the standardized Chinese spoken language) to students whose mother tongue is not Standard Mandarin, and has been adopted by much of the international community as a standard for writing Chinese words and names in the Roman alphabet. The value of Hanyu Pinyin in education in China lies in the fact that China, like any other populated area with comparable area and population, has literally thousands of distinct dialects, though there is just one common written language and one common standardized spoken form. (These comments apply to Romanization in general)
- ISO 7098 (1991): Very similar to Hanyu Pinyin.
Taiwan
- Gwoyeu Romatzyh: (1926): Used in mainland China before the communist takeover in 1949. Primarily used in Taiwan. Replaced by MPS II and no longer commonly used.
- Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (1984): Primarily used in Taiwan. Not to be confused with MPS I which is Zhuyin. Replaced by Tongyong Pinyin and no longer commonly used.
- Tongyong Pinyin (2000): Primarily used in Taiwan. Literally means "Universal Spell Sound". Very similar to Hanyu Pinyin. Differences between the two are noted [http://research.chtsai.org/papers/pinyin-xref.html here].
- Barnett-Chao
- Guangdong (1960)
- Hong Kong Government
- Jyutping
- Meyer-Wempe
- Sidney Lau
- Yale (1942)
- Guangdong (1960)
- Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
Japanese
Romanization (or, more strictly, Roman letters) in Japanese is called "rōmaji". The most common systems are:
- Hepburn (1867): transcription
- Nihon-shiki (1885): transliteration. Also adopted as (ISO 3602 Strict) in 1989.
- Kunrei-shiki (1937): transliteration. Also adopted as (ISO 3602).
- JSL (1987)
- ALA-LC: Similar to Hepburn [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/japanese.pdf]
- Wāpuro
Korean
Main article: Korean romanization
While romanization is often been carried out irrespective of any system, there are some rulesets available to choose from:
- McCune-Reischauer (MR; 1937?), the first transcription to gain some acceptance. A slightly changed version of MR was the official system for Korean in South Korea from 1984 to 2000, and yet a different modification is still the official system in North Korea. Uses breves, apostrophes and diereses, the latter two indicating orthographic syllable boundaries in cases that would otherwise be ambiguous.
What is called MR may in many cases be any of a number of systems that differ from each other and from the original MR mostly in whether word endings are separated from the stem by a space, a hyphen or – according to McCune's and Reischauer's system – not at all; and if a hyphen or space is used, whether sound change is reflected in a stem's last and an ending's first consonant letter (e.g. pur-i vs. pul-i). Although mostly irrelevant when transcribing uninflected words, these aberrations are so widespread that any mention of "McCune-Reischauer romanization" may not necessarily refer to the original system as published in the 1930s.
- The ALA-LC / U.S. Library of Congress system is an example of these systems that are based on MR, from which it deviates it in some aspects. Word division is addressed in detail, with generous use of spaces to separate word endings from stems that is not seen in MR. Syllables of given names are always separated with a hyphen, which is expressly never done by MR. Sound changes are ignored more often than in MR. Distinguishes between ‘ and ’. [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/korean.pdf]
Several problems with MR led to the development of the newer systems:
- Yale (1942): This system has become the established standard romanization for Korean among linguists. Vowel length in old or dialectal pronunciation is indicated by a macron. In cases that would otherwise be ambiguous, orthographic syllable boundaries are indicated with a period. Indicates disappearance of consonants.
- Revised Romanization of Korean (RR; 2000): Includes rules both for transcription and for transliteration. South Korea now officially uses this system which was approved in 2000. Road signs and textbooks were required to follow these rules as soon as possible, at a cost estimated by the government to be at least US$20 million. All road signs, names of railway and subway stations on line maps and signs etc. have been changed. Romanization of surnames and existing companies' names has been left untouched; the government encourages using the new system for given names and new companies. Basically similar to MR, but uses no diacritics or apostrophes. In cases of ambiguity, orthographic syllable boundaries may be indicated with a hyphen, although state institutions never seem to make use of this option e.g. on street signs or linemaps.
- ISO/TR 11941 (1996): This actually is two different standards under one name: one for North Korea (DPRK) and the other for South Korea (ROK). The initial submission to the ISO was based heavily on Yale and was a joint effort between both states, but they could not agree on the final draft. A superficial comparison between the two is available here: [http://www.sori.org/hangul/romanizations.html#Roman_Intro]
- Lukoff romanization
- Joseon Gwahagwon (조선민주주의인민공화국 과학원) romanization
Thai
Thai, spoken in Thailand, is written with its own script, probably descended from Old Khmer, in the Brahmic family. Also see Thai alphabet.
- Royal Thai General System of Transcription:
- ALA-LC: [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/thai.pdf]
- ISO 11940 (1998): Transliteration
Cyrillic
In linguistics, scientific transliteration is used for both Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets. This applies to Old Church Slavonic, as well as modern Slavic languages which use these alphabets.
Belarusian
The Belarusian language has been written with both Cyrillic and Latin scripts. Today the Latin script (Łacinka, or Łacinica) is rarely used, although it has its advocates. Despite the existence of a native Latin alphabet, Belarusian names are usually transcribed similarly to the Russian language.
- Belarusian National System of Romanization
- ALA-LC: [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/beloruss.pdf]
- BGN/PCGN
- ISO9
External link: [http://transliteration.eki.ee/pdf/Belarusian.pdf Thomas T. Pederson's chart] (PDF).
Bulgarian
See transliteration of Bulgarian into English.
Russian
There is no single universally accepted system of writing Russian using the Latin script — in fact there are a huge number of such systems: some are adjusted for a particular target language (e.g. German or French), some are designed as a librarian's transliteration, some are prescribed for Russian traveller's passports; the transcription of some names is purely traditional. All this has resulted in great reduplication of names. E.g. the name of the great Russian composer Tchaikovsky may also be written as Tchaykovsky, Tchajkovskij, Tchaikowski, Tschaikowski, Czajkowski, Čajkovskij, Čajkovski, Chajkovskij, Chaykovsky, Chaykovskiy, Chaikovski, Tshaikovski, Tšaikovski etc. Systems include:
- BGN/PCGN (1947): Transliteration system (United States Board on Geographic Names & Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use). [http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/vy75/cyrillic.htm]
- GOST 16876-71 (1983): From the Main Administration of Geodesy and Cartography of the former Soviet Union. Russian abbreviation of GOsudarstvenny STandart, "the State Standard". [http://www.ccl.net/cca/software/SOURCES/C/translit/phg-koi8.shtml]
- United Nations standard (1987): Based on GOST. Used in the Russian Federation and increasingly in international cartographic products.
- ISO 9 (1995): Transliteration. From the International Organization for Standardization.
- ALA-LC (1997): [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/russian.pdf]
- "Volapuk" encoding (1990s): Slang term (it's not really Volapük) for a writing method that's not truly a transliteration, but used for similar goals (see article).
- Conventional English transliteration is based to BGN/PCGN, but doesn't follow a particular standard. Described in detail at transliteration of Russian into English.
Ukrainian
Ukrainian personal names are usually transcribed phonetically; see the main article section Conventional romanization of proper names. The Ukrainian National system is used for geographic names in Ukraine.
- ALA-LC: [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/ukrainia.pdf (PDF)].
- ISO 9
- Ukrainian National transliteration: [http://www.hostmaster.net.ua/docs/translit/tab_01.jpg (JPEG, in Ukrainian)].
- Ukrainian National and BGN/PCGN systems, at the UN Working Group on Romanization Systems: [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom2_uk.pdf (PDF)].
- Thomas T. Pederson's comparison of five systems: [http://transliteration.eki.ee/pdf/Ukrainian.pdf (PDF)].
Greek
Greek language includes the modern language spoken in Greece, as well as ancient Polytonic orthography. See also Greeklish.
- ISO 843 (1997): [http://www.biology.uoc.gr/gvd/contents/databases/01c.htm]
- ALA-LC: [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/greek.pdf]
Overview/Summary
The chart below shows the most common phonemic transcription romanization used for several different alphabets. While it is sufficient for many casual users, there are multiple alternatives used for each alphabet, and many exceptions. For details, consult each of the language sections below. (Because the number of Hangul characters are prohibitively large, only the first characters are provided in the following table.)
| ROMANIZED | Greek | Russian (Cyrillic) | Hebrew | Arabic | Katakana | Hangul
| | A | A | А | ַ, ֲ, ָ | دَ, دَ, ﺍ — ﺎ, دَىا | ア |
| | AI | | | י ַ | | |
| | B | | Б | בּ | ﺏ ﺑ ﺒ ﺐ | | ㅂ
| | CH | Χ | Ч | | | | ㅊ
| | CHI | | | | | チ |
| | D | Δ | Д | ד | ﺩ — ﺪ, ﺽ ﺿ ﻀ ﺾ | | ㄷ
| | DH | | | | ﺫ — ﺬ | |
| | E | Ε | Э | , ֱ, י ֵֶ, ֵ, י ֶ | | エ |
| | F | Φ | Ф | פ (final ף ) | ﻑ ﻓ ﻔ ﻒ | |
| | FU | | | | | フ |
| | G | Γ | Г | ג | | | ㄱ
| | GH | | | | ﻍ ﻏ ﻐ ﻎ | |
| | H | | | ח, ה | ﻩ ﻫ ﻬ ﻪ, ﺡ ﺣ ﺤ ﺢ | | ㅎ
| | HA | | | | | ハ |
| | HE | | | | | ヘ |
| | HI | | | | | ヒ |
| | HO | | | | | ホ |
| | I | Η, Ι, Υ | И | ִ, י ִ | دِ | イ |
| | IY | | | | دِي | |
| | J | | | | ﺝ ﺟ ﺠ ﺞ | | ㅈ
| | JJ | | | | | | ㅉ
| | K | Κ | К | כּ (final ךּ ), ק | ﻙ ﻛ ﻜ ﻚ | | ㅋ
| | KA | | | | | カ |
| | KE | | | | | ケ |
| | KH | | Х | כ (final ך ) | ﺥ ﺧ ﺨ ﺦ | |
| | KI | | | | | キ |
| | KK | | | | | | ㄲ
| | KO | | | | | コ |
| | KU | | | | | ク |
| | L | Λ | Л | ל | ﻝ ﻟ ﻠ ﻞ | |
| | M | Μ | М | מ (final ם ) | ﻡ ﻣ ﻤ ﻢ | | ㅁ
| | MA | | | | | マ |
| | ME | | | | | メ |
| | MI | | | | | ミ |
| | MO | | | | | モ |
| | MU | | | | | ム |
| | N | Ν | Н | נ (final ן ) | ﻥ ﻧ ﻨ ﻦ | | ㄴ
| | NA | | | | | ナ |
| | NE | | | | | ネ |
| | NI | | | | | ニ |
| | NO | | | | | ノ |
| | NU | | | | | ヌ |
| | O | Ο, Ω | О | , ֳ, וֹֹ | | オ |
| | P | Π | П | פּ (final ףּ ) | | | ㅍ
| | PP | | | | | | ㅃ
| | PS | Ψ | | | | |
| | Q | | | | ﻕ ﻗ ﻘ ﻖ | |
| | R | Ρ | Р | ר | ﺭ — ﺮ | | ㄹ
| | RA | | | | | ラ |
| | RE | | | | | レ |
| | RI | | | | | リ |
| | RO | | | | | ロ |
| | RU | | | | | ル |
| | S | Σ | С | ס, שֹ | ﺱ ﺳ ﺴ ﺲ, ﺹ ﺻ ﺼ ﺺ | | ㅅ
| | SA | | | | | サ |
| | SE | | | | | セ |
| | SH | | Ш | ש | ﺵ ﺷ ﺸ ﺶ | |
| | SHCH | | Щ | | | |
| | SHI | | | | | シ |
| | SO | | | | | ソ |
| | SS | | | | | | ㅆ
| | SU | | | | | ス |
| | T | Τ | Т | ט, תּ, ת | ﺕ ﺗ ﺘ ﺖ, ﻁ ﻃ ﻄ ﻂ | | ㅌ
| | TA | | | | | タ |
| | TE | | | | | テ |
| | TH | Θ | | | ﺙ ﺛ ﺜ ﺚ | |
| | TO | | | | | ト |
| | TS | | Ц | צ (final ץ ) | | |
| | TSU | | | | | ツ |
| | TT | | | | | | ㄸ
| | U | | У | , וֻּ | دُ | ウ |
| | UW | | | | دُو | |
| | V | B | В | ב, ו, וו | | |
| | W | | | | ﻭ — ﻮ | |
| | WA | | | | | ワ |
| | WE | | | | | ヱ |
| | WI | | | | | ヰ |
| | WO | | | | | ヲ |
| | X | Ξ | | | | |
| | Y | | Й, Ы | י | ﻱ ﻳ ﻴ ﻲ | |
| | YA | | Я | | | ヤ |
| | YE | | Е | | | |
| | YO | | Ё | | | ヨ |
| | YU | | Ю | | | ユ |
| | Z | Ζ | З | ז | ﺯ — ﺰ, ﻅ ﻇ ﻈ ﻆ | |
| | ZH | | Ж | | | |
|
See also
- Anglicisation
- Francization
External links
- [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/ UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems]
- [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html U.S. Library of Congress Romanization Tables] in PDF format
- [http://people.cornell.edu/pages/rc235/Transliteration/demo.html Java romanization app]
- One of the few printed books with lists of romanizations is ALA-LC Romanization Tables, Randall Barry (ed.), U.S. Library of Congress, 1997, ISBN 0844409405.
Culture of Ancient RomeAncient Roman culture evolved throughout the almost 1300-year history of that civilization. The term refers to the culture of the Roman Republic, later the Roman Empire, which, at peak, covered an area from Cumbria and Morocco to the Euphrates.
Euphrates)]]
Generalities of Roman culture
Life in ancient Rome revolved around the city of Rome, located on seven hills, and its monumental structures like the Colosseum, the Forum of Trajan and the Pantheon. The city also had several theaters and gymnasiums, and many taverns, baths and brothels. Throughout the territory under the control of ancient Rome, residential architecture ranged from very modest houses to country villas, and in the capital city of Rome, there were imperial residences on the elegant Palatine Hill, from which the word "palace" is derived. The poor lived in the city center, packed into apartments, which were almost like modern ghettos.
The city of Rome was the largest megapolis of that time, with a population well in excess of one million people, with some high end estimate of 3.5 million and low end estimate of 450,000. The public spaces in Rome resounded with such a din of hooves and clatter of iron chariot wheels that Julius Caesar had once proposed a ban on chariot traffic at night. Historical estimates indicate that around 30 percent of population under the jurisdiction of the ancient Rome lived in innumerable urban centers, with population of 10,000 and more and several military settlements. Most of these centers had a forum and temples and same type of buildings, on a smaller scale, as found in Rome.
The large urban population required an endless supply of food which was a complex logistical task, including acquiring, transporting, storing and distribution of food for Rome and other urban centers. Italian farms supplied vegetables and fruits, but fish and meat were luxuries. Aqueducts were built to bring water to urban centers and wine and oil were imported from Spain, Gaul and Africa. The volume of commerce in the Roman Empire is estimated to be only equaled in the XIX century.
Seventy percent of the population under the jurisdiction of ancient Rome lived in the countryside. Landlords generally resided in cities and their estates were left in the care of farm managers. The plight of rural slaves was
generally worse than their counterparts working in urban aristocratic households. To stimulate a higher labor productivity most landlords freed a large numbers of slaves and many received wages. Some records indicate that "as many as 42 people lived in one small farm hut in Egypt, while six families owned a single olive tree." The villagers were also devoid of certain diversions like games and religious festivals. Such a rural environment continued to induce migration of population to urban centers.
Starting in the middle of the second century BC, in every aspect of the private culture of the upper classes, Greek culture was increasingly in ascendancy, in spite of tirades against the "softening" effects of Hellenized culture from the conservative moralists. By the time of Augustus, cultured Greek household slaves taught the Roman young (sometimes even the girls), chefs, decorators, secretaries, doctors, and hairdressers—all came from the Greek East. Greek sculptures adorned Hellenistic landscape gardening on the Palatine or in the villas, or were imitated in Roman sculpture yards by Greek slaves. The Roman cuisine preserved in Apicius is essentially Greek. Roman writers disdained Latin for a cultured Greek style. Only in law and governance was the Italic nature of Rome's accretive culture supreme.
Against this human background, both the urban and rural setting, one of history's best-known civilizations took shape, leaving behind a cultural legacy that still survives today.
Historical and cultural context
Rome's cultural roots
Many aspects of the Roman culture were appropriated from the Ancient Greeks.
Ancient Greeks.]]
In architecture and sculpture, the continuity between Greek models and Roman imitations are apparent. The chief Roman contribution to architecture was the arch, and the dome it made possible. While much Roman sculpture was derivative of Greek models, and all deeply indebted to Greek techniques, the Roman character made portraiture the strongest and most original aspect of Roman sculpture. Strongly characterized portrait busts like the surviving portrait bust of Cato the Elder is a clearly envisioned, strongly individual character, not an idealized type such as are typically found in Greek sculptures.
Rome's cultural legacy
Its significance is perhaps best reflected in its endurance and influence, as is seen in the longevity and lasting importance of works of Virgil and Ovid. Additionally telling are the many aspects of Classical culture that have been incorporated into the cultures of those states rising from the ashes of the Roman Empire. Latin, the empire's primary language, remains used in religion, science, and law. Christianity, a religion adopted by the culture as the Roman Empire's downfall neared, has over two billion followers today. Its survival can be partly attributed to its promotion by Roman authorities.
Aspects of the Roman culture
Social structure
The center of the early social structure, dating from the time of the agricultural tribal city state, was the family, which was not only marked by blood relations but also by the legally constructed relation of patria potestas. The Pater familias was the absolute head of the family; he was the master over his wife, his children, the wives of his sons, the nephews, the slaves and the freedmen (liberated slaves, the first generation still legally inferior to the freeborn), disposing of them and of their goods at will, even putting them to death. Roman law recognized only patrician families as legal entities.
Slavery and slaves were part of the social order. The slaves were mostly prisoners of war. There were slave markets where they could be bought and sold. Roman law was not consistent about the status of slaves, except that they were considered like any other moveable property. Many slaves were freed by the masters for fine services rendered; some slaves could save money to buy their freedom. Generally mutilation and murder of slaves were considered outrageous[http://www.crystalinks.com/romeslavery.html].
Apart from these families (called gentes) and the slaves (legally objects, mancipia i.e. 'kept in the [master's] hand') there were Plebeians that did not exist from a legal perspective. They had no legal capacity and were not able to make contracts, even though they were not slaves. To deal with this problem, the so-called clientela was created. By this institution, a plebeian joined the family of a patrician (in a legal sense) and could close contracts by mediation of his patrician pater familias. Everything the plebeian possessed or acquired legally belonged to the gens. He was not allowed to form his own gens.
The authority of the pater familias was unlimited, be it in civil rights as well as in criminal law. The king's duty was to be head over the military, to deal with foreign politics and also to decide on controversies between the gentes. The patricians were divided into three tribes (Ramnenses, Titientes, Luceres).
During the time of the Roman Republic (founded in 509) Roman citizens were allowed to vote. These included patricians and plebeians. Women, slaves and children were not allowed to vote.
There were two assemblies, the assembly of centuries (comitia centuriata) and the assembly of tribes (comitia tributa), which were made up of all the citizens of Rome. In the comitia centuriata the Romans were divided according to age, wealth and residence. The citizens in each tribe were divided into five classes based on property and then each group was subdivided into two centuries by age. All in all, there were 373 centuries. Like the assembly of tribes, each century had one vote. The Comitia Centuriata elected the Praetors (judicial magistrates), the Censors, and the Consuls.
The comitia tributa comprised thirty-five tribes from Rome and the country. Each tribe had a single vote. The Comitia Tributa elected the Quaestores (financial magistrates) and the patrician Curule Aedile.
Over time, Roman law evolved considerably, as well as social views, emancipating (to increasing degrees) family members.
People & family
- Ancient Roman marriage
- Adoption in Ancient Rome
- Personal naming conventions
- List of Roman cognomina
- List of Roman praenomina
- List of Roman nomina
- Roman people
- Citizens
- List of ancient Romans
- Women in Rome
- Pater Patriae
- Social groups
- Equestrian
- Freedman
- Patrician
- Plebeians
- Slaves
- Roman funerals
Political and Legal Institutions
Almost at all times since its emergence as a power to reckon with, Rome was both a republic (it legally remained so after it was de facto crowned with an emperor who never was declared a monarch, even though he would even be deified) and an empire (about half of its conquests date before the establishment of the principate). Ancient Romans had no written constitution, but with the passage of lex Hortensia in 287 BC, an approximation of division of governance—executive, judicial and legislative wings—was achieved.
The executive branch of governance was managed by magistrates, who were elected. There was the principle of collegiality, which refers to the fact that any office was held by at least two persons of equal rank, each with an authority to veto acts of the other. A higher magistrate could similarly veto acts of lower magistrates. There were different categories and levels of magisterial offices for different functions.
The Republic
When a palace coup removed the Roman king Tarquin, Romans developed a pathological hatred for the word king, and a Roman Republic was proclaimed. In order to guard against any future autocratic ruler, the power was divided amongst a hierarchy of elected functionaries—the Senate, the Consuls and the Assemblies. Along with this, most of the earlier practices also continued in some form. The Roman Republic lasted for almost 500 years, from 510 BC (the year the last king, Tarquinius the Superb, was overthrowned and banned from the city) until around the time of the assassination of Julius Caesar.
This period was marked by a number of Roman conquests extending over several centuries and culminating (during the period of Julius Caesar), in an extension of the Roman World to the Atlantic Ocean by conquest of Gallia Comata, in the launching of the first invasion of the Britain and in the introduction of Roman influence into what has become modern France.
While the highly efficient Roman military forces conquered fresh territories, they left behind a trail of socioeconomic impacts – conquests brought an endless supply of fresh slave labor, reducing the productivity of the unskilled activities, creating unrest and unemployment among the poorer citizenry. To keep them fed and engaged was a daunting task for the administration. A number of measures, including land reforms, were attempted on the one hand; on the other hand, certain events were institutionalized like inducing the criminals, outlaws and debtors to enter arenas for gladiatorial combats resulting in death and mutilation. It is said that “the Roman Republic won an empire, and destroyed itself in doing so.”
See also
- Res publica
- Political legitimacy in Rome - Elections, ideology
- Roman Magistrates
- Senate
- Roman municipia
The Empire
Augustus (meaning the exalted or the holy one) was proclaimed Emperor by the Roman Senate in 27 BC. The Roman Empire, destined to last for 500 years, continued to expand by adding new territories. Among these were ancient Britain, Arabia, and Dacia, present day Romania. Augustus set into motion a process of political and social stability, resulting in the 200-year Pax Romana, the Roman peace[http://www.crystalinks.com/romanempire.html].
The Roman Empire assisted in the development of art, literature, and philosophy of subject nations, and also borrowed from of these civilizations and cultures – the religious and ethical aspects of Judaism, teachings of the new religion of Christianity, finer points of Babylonian astronomy and astrology, and elements from countless other nations like Persia, Egypt, and several eastern civilizations. In the process, they also spread architecture, Latin literature, the Roman style of governance and law. In this way, the Greco-Roman culture, with elements drawn from the experience of two millennia, took shape. It is still reflected in the Western tradition.
See also
- Imperium
- Roman Emperors
- Principate
- Dominate
- Colonies
- Military history
- Military
- Pax romana
- Roman provinces
Roman Law
Main article: Roman law
Roman law is one of Rome's most remarkable contributions to European culture. While many other important features of ancient culture were originally invented by the Greeks and merely (first) copied and (later) transmitted to posterity by the Romans, the development of a sophisticated legal system and of a legal science is a characteristically Roman achievement.
The history of Roman law spans almost a thousand years from the law of the twelve tables (449 BC) to Justinian's codes (around 530). The twelve tables still reflect a relatively primitive and pre-scientific legal system. However, from the 2nd century BC, the Romans began to apply the methods and categories of Greek philosophy to legal problems (which the Greeks themselves had never thought of). A legal profession began to emerge and the production of scholarly treatises on Roman law started.
Roman legal science reached its peak in the first two centuries AD when the economic and political conditions of the principate were favorable to the scholarly activity of Roman jurists. However, by the middle of the 3rd century this classical age of Roman law came to an abrupt (and not fully explainable) end. The following centuries saw a general decline of Roman legal culture, which was not stopped by the efforts of emperor Justinian to revive classical Roman law in the 6th century.
Justinian did manage, however, to preserve a great part of the literary legacy of the classical jurists by incorporating their writings in his codes. The Digest, which is the most important part of the codification and was published in 533, is a gigantic collection of fragments from classical text books and commentaries. While it was unknown in Western Europe in the early middle ages, it was rediscovered around 1070 in Italy. From that time onward, Roman law and especially the teachings of the classical jurists preserved in the Digest became the basis of continental European law. It has been said quite rightly, that the Digest is one of the most influential books in European history.
Religion in Rome
Main article: Roman religion
Roman religious beliefs date back to the founding of Rome, around 800 BC, but the Roman religion commonly associated with the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire did not start forming until around 500 BC when Romans came in contact with Greek culture and adopted many of the Greek’s religious beliefs including the representation of Greek gods in the form of humans.
Private and personal worship was an important aspect of religious practices of ancient Rome. In a sense, each household in ancient Rome was a temple to the gods. Each household had a an altar (lararium), at which the family members would offer prayers, perform rites, and interact with the household gods.
Many of the gods that Romans worshiped came from the Proto-Indo-European pantheon, others were based on Greek gods. The three central deities were Jupiter (who was the god of rain, thunder, and lightning, of Proto-Indo-European origin), Mars (the god of warfare), called Ares by the Greeks, and Quirinus (who watched over the senate house), one of the truly Roman gods who was associated with the people of Sabine and with the founder of Rome, Romulus.
From simplest form of such private worships and religious practices, religion in ancient Rome developed into an elaborate system, with temples, altars, rituals and ceremonies, priesthood, beliefs of traditional paganism and the cult of the Roman emperors. The power of Ancient Rome spread ever further across a vast geographical area and Romans met with other cults and religions, like cults of Cybele, Bacchus, and Isis, as well as Judaism.
With its cultural influence spreading over most of the Mediterranean, Romans began accepting foreign gods into their own culture, as well as and other religious traditions such as the Cynicism and Stoicism. There were even attempts by many Roman and Greek philosophers to accept other gods that countered their religion such as the Jewish deity Yahweh (viewed as the only Supreme god by the Israelites) by stating that the Jews merely worshiped Jupiter but just under a different name and therefore there should be an acceptance of the Jewish culture. With the fall of the Roman Republic and the reign of the emperors which created the Roman Empire in 31 BC the Roman emperors were considered to be gods incarnate.
Two major philosophical schools of thought that derived from Greek religion and philosophy that became prominent in Rome in the 1st and 2nd century AD was Cynicism and Stoicism which, according to Cora Lutz were “fairly well merged” in the early years of the Roman Empire. Cynicism taught that civilization was corrupt and people needed to break away from it and its trappings and Stoicism taught that one must give up all earthly goods by remaining detached from civilization and help others. Because of their negative views on civilization and of their way of life, in where many of them just wore a dirty cloak, carried a staff, and a coin purse, and slept outdoors, they were the targets of the Roman aristocracy and of the emperor and many were persecuted by the Roman government for being "subversive". The philosopher Lucian attacked the cynics in his book "The Philosophies for Sale" in which he mocked the cynics by stating "First...stripping you of your luxury...I will put a cloak on you...Next I will compel you to undergo pains and hardships, sleeping on the ground, drinking nothing but water...Leading this life you will say that your are happier than the Great King...Frequent the most crowded market place...and in [it] desire to be solitary and uncommunicative..."
Much of the Roman practices of their religion and philosophy began to dwindle after AD 312, when the Roman Emperor Galerius legalized Christianity, hitherto brutally suppressed. Soon after his death, Emperor Constantine switched allegiance from Apollo to Christus as his patron, and won the battle of Milvian Bridge in 313. Christianity became the official Roman religion in AD 325 with the Council of Nicea, although Constantine himself was not baptised until somewhat later. Through all this, a few pagans clung to the old Roman religion – even enjoying something of a brief Renaissance under Julian the Apostate (361–63) – and continued to be tolerated until the reign of Theodosius I, who finally outlawed paganism in 390.
Christianity had originally arisen in the Roman province of Judea, growing out of Judaism, and picking up influences from Greek philosophy as it spread throughout the Roman Empire.
Pagans in Rome
- Roman mythology
- Imperial cult
- Roman festivals
Christianity in Rome
- Christianity spreading in the Roman empire
- Christianity persecuted in Rome
- Christianity the new religion in Rome
- Ante-Nicene Fathers
Judaism in Rome
- Great Jewish Revolt
- Siege of Jerusalem
- Bar Kokhba's revolt
- Simon Bar Kokhba
Artistic & intellectual life
Generalities
The artistic and intellectual life of ancient Romans was rich in content and variety. A section of Roman citizens and the slaves imported from distant lands were highly talented and gave expression to their abilities in forms, which still survive, and tell a story of the high level of this facet of ancient Roman culture.
To cite an example, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeolog[http://www.umich.edu/~kelseydb/OutKaranis.html], University of Michigan, USA, houses a variety of objects recovered during excavations at Karanis from 1926 to 1935. This collection, like several others all across the world, indicates the depth and dimension of artistic and intellectual life of ancient Romans. Such collections include a variety of vessels with cut decorations, green glass, straw stopper and enclosed wicker; jugs and jars of clay; wall paintings; sculpture and figurines, and coins. The ancient Roman literature continues to be a common cultural heritage of human civilization.
The ground for development of artistic and intellectual faculties began early in childhood, and with a strict pattern of education and schooling.
Schooling
Before regular schooling system evolved in ancient Rome, home was the learning centre, where children were taught Roman law, customs, and physical training to prepare the boys to grow as Roman citizens and for eventual recruitment in the army. Conforming to discipline was a point of great emphasis. Girls generally received instructions from their mothers in the art of spinning, weaving and sewing.
Schooling in a more formal sense was begun around 200 BC. Education began at the age of around six, and by next six to seven years, boys and girls were expected to learn basics of reading, writing and counting. By the age of twelve or so, they would be learning Latin, Greek, grammar and literature, followed by training for public speaking. Oratory was an art to be practiced and learnt and good orators commanded respect, and to become an effective orator was one of the objectives of education and learning. Poor children could not afford education. In some cases, services of gifted slaves were utilized for imparting education.
See also
- Roman school
- Roman arithmetic
- Calendar
- Ab urbe condita
- Julian calendar
- Roman art
Latin
- Latin as Rome's living lingua franca
- Latin language
- Latin literature
- Latin and Greek : borrower and rival
- Rome's long-lasting Latin legacy
- List of Latin place names in Europe
- List of Latin proverbs
- Latin and the romance languages
- Latin in christian liturgy
- Living Latin
- [http://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagina_prima Wikipaedia Latina]
Material culture of Rome
Living Latin]
- Roman clothing
In ancient Rome, the cloth and the dress distinguished one class of people from the other class. The tunic worn by plebians (common people) like shepherds and slaves was made from coarse and dark material, whereas the tunic worn by patricians was of linen or white wool. A magistrate would wear the tunic augusticlavia; senators wore a tunic with broad strips, called tunica laticlavia. Military tunics were shorter than the ones worn by civilians.
Even footwear indicated a person’s social status. Patricians wore red sandals, senators had brown footwear, consuls had white shoes, and soldiers wore heavy boots. Women wore closed shoes of colors like white, yellow or green.
See also
- Bulla
- Toga - Men's wear
- Stola - Women's wear
- Roman eating and drinking
Since the period of the Republic until 200 BC, ancient Romans had very simple food habits. Staple food was simple, generally consumed at around 11 o’clock, and consisted of bread, salad, olives, cheese, fruits, nuts, and cold meat left over from the dinner the night before. A nap or rest followed this.
The family ate together, sitting on stools around a table. Later on, a separate dining room with dining couches was designed. Fingers were used to take foods. Spoons had come, but table knives and forks were yet to appear. Consuming alcoholic beverages by men were socially accepted, but women were not expected to consume drinks. By the time of the Roman Empire, women were also consuming drinks.
During the Imperial period, staple food of the lower class Romans (plebeians) was vegetable porridge and bread, and occasionally fish, meat, olives and fruits. Sometimes, subsidized or free foods were distributed in cities, and school children were generally served with lunch by the local authorities. The patrician's aristocracy had elaborate dinners, with parties and wines and a variety of eatables. Sometimes, dancing girls would entertain the diners. Their women and children ate separately, but in the later Empire period, with permissiveness creeping in, even decent women would attend such dinner parties.
See also
- Roman measures and weights
- Roman technology
Architecture & facilities
Main article: Roman architecture
In initial stages, the ancient Roman architecture reflected elements of architectural styles of the Etruscans and the Greeks. Over a period of time, the style was modified in tune with their urban requirements, and the civil engineering and building construction technology became developed and refined. The Roman concrete has remained a riddle[http://www.romanconcrete.com/docs/spillway/spillway.htm], and even after more than 2000 years some of ancient Roman structures still stand magnificently like the Pantheon (with one of the largest single span domes in the world) located in the business district of today’s Rome.
The architectural style of the capital city of ancient Rome was emulated by other urban centers under Roman control and influence [http://harpy.uccs.edu/roman/html/], like the Amphitheatre, Verona, Italy; Arch of Hadrian, Athens, Greece; Temple of Hadrian, Ephesos, Turkey; a Theatre at Orange, France; and at several other locations, for example, Lepcis Magna, located in Libya[http://www.alnpete.co.uk/lepcis/]. Roman cities were well planned, efficiently managed and neatly maintained. Palaces, private dwellings and villas, were elaborately designed and town planning was comprehensive with provisions for different activities by the urban resident population, and for countless migratory population of travelers, traders and visitors passing through their cities.
Marcus Vitruvius, a 1st century Roman architect’s treatise “De architectura”, with various sections, dealing with urban planning, building materials, temple construction, public and private buildings, and hydraulics, remained a classic text till Renaissance.
See also
- Amphitheatre
- Aqueduct
- Arch
- Basilica
- Colosseum
- Pantheon
- Thermae
- Roman road
- Roman villa
Roman economy
Main article: Roman commerce
The ancient Rome commanded vast geographical area, with natural and human resources. The economy remained focused on agriculture and trade[http://www.unrv.com/economy.php]. Cereals, olives and grapes were main agricultural produce, and olive oil and wine constituted main exports. Two-tier crop rotation was practiced but farm productivity was low, around 1 ton per hectare. In lieu of money, surplus farm output could be tendered as tax.
Annexation of Egypt, Sicily and Tunisia in North Africa provided a continuous supply of grains, which were moved from there to deficit zones of the ancient Rome. Production and transportation of grains and food related products dominated the trading activity, and generated huge profits for a class of people, and this prosperity resulted into indulgence of luxurious consumption by a particular class of aristocracy. The life of luxury entailed exotic imports, including spices from the Malabar coast of India, silk from China and the Far East, Ivory and wild animals from Africa, minerals from the Great Britain and Spain, precious stones, and an endless supply of slaves of all description and classification. The network of trading routes proved the saying that all roads “lead to Rome.” Sea routes were also developed and transportation of merchandise, particularly grains, were a big activity all along several ports across the Mediterranean coast.
Industrial and manufacturing activities constituted a relatively small proportion of total products. The single biggest such activity was mining and quarrying of stones, which provided basic construction materials for the magnificent monuments of that period.
The economy was largely dependent on slave labor and slaves constituted around 20 percent of the population. Many slaves were highly skilled and functioned as singers, jewelers, scribes, bartenders, and even physicians. A slave’s demand and price was dependent on his / her skill sets, thus a slave trained in medicine was equivalent to 50 agricultural slaves. In the later period, cheap labor started to replace slave labor, as hiring on a day-to-day basis became more economical than investing in slaves.
Ancient Rome had a very developed coinage system; brass, bronze, copper, silver and gold coins were in wide circulation. Roman currency was accepted even beyond the realm of the Empire, and Ancient Roman coins have been discovered in lands as far away as India. In some instances, the barter system was also practiced.
See also
- Roman currency
- Roman Agriculture
Sports and Entertainment
The ancient city of Rome had a place called Campus, a sort of drill ground for Roman soliders, which was located near the Tiber river. Later, the Campus became Rome’s track and field playground, which even Julius Caesar and Augustus were said to have frequented. Imitating the Campus in Rome, similar grounds were developed in several other urban centers and military settlements.
In the campus, the youth assembled to play and exercise, which included jumping, wrestling, boxing and racing. Riding, throwing, and swimming were also preferred physical activities. In the countryside, pastime also included fishing and hunting. Females did not participate in these activities. Ball playing was a popular sport and ancient Romans had several ball games, which included Handball (Expulsim Ludere), field hockey, catch, and some form of Soccer.
Board games played in ancient Rome included Dice (Tesserae), Roman Chess (Latrunculi), Roman Checkers (Calculi), Tic-tac-toe (Terni Lapilli), Roman and Egyptian Backgammon (Tabula).
There were several other activities to keep people engaged like chariot races, musical and theatrical performances, public executions and gladiatorial combat. In the Colosseum, Rome’s amphitheatre 50,000 persons could be accommodated.
See also
- Atellanæ Fabulæ
- Chariot racing
- Gladiators
- Triumphal parades
A Roman's day & other issues
Life in the ancient Roman cities revolved round the Forum, the central business district, where most of the Romans would go for marketing and shopping, trading and banking, and for participating in festivities and ceremonies. The Forum was also a place where orators would express themselves to mould public opinion, and elicit support for any particular issue of interest to him or others. Before sunrise, children would go to schools or tutoring them at home would commence. Elders would dress, take a breakfast by 11 o'clock, have a siesta and in the afternoon or evening would generally go to the Forum. Going to public bath at least once daily was a habit with most of Roman citizens. Children and slaves were not allowed to use these baths, and there were separate hours for men and women.
Different types of outdoor and indoor entertainment, free of cost, were available in the ancient Rome. Depending on the nature of the events, they were scheduled during daytime, afternoons, evenings or late night. Huge crowds gathered at the Collosseum to watch events like gladiators, combats between men, or fights between men and the wild animals. The Circus Maximus was used for chariot racing. Endless such activities were also conducted in other cities under the ancient Rome.
Life in the countryside was slow but lively, with numerous local festivals and social events. Farms were run by the farm managers, but estate owners would sometimes take a retreat to the country side for rest, enjoying the splendor of the nature and the sunshine, including activities like fishing, hunting, and riding. On the other hand, slave labor shall be slogging continuously, for long hours and all seven days, and ensuring comforts and creating wealth for their masters. The average farm owners were better off, spending evenings in economic and social interactions at the village markets. The day ended with a meal, generally left over from the noon time preparations.
See also
- Properties
- Latifundia
- Villa
- Roman travelling
- Salutes
- Roman Celebrations
- Festivals
Foreign cultural relations
- Romans and Greeks
- Romans and Etruscans
- Sino-Roman relations
- Romans and the Barbarians
- Rome and its Oriental neighbours
Places of special interest
- Ara Pacis
- Baiae - spa town and hedonistic holiday resort
- Pompeii
- Ostia
- Hadrian's Wall
- Roman place names
See also
- Classical antiquity
- Gallo-Roman culture
- Roman Britain
- Ancient Rome
Further Reading
- Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
- Tom Holland, The Last Years of the Roman Republic ISBN 038550313X
- Ramsay MacMullen, 2000. Romanization in the Time of Augustus (Yale University Press)
- Paul Veyne, editor, 1992. A History of Private Life: I From Pagan Rome to Byzantium (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press)
External links
- [http://www.crystalinks.com/romeculture.html Culture of Rome]
- [http://www.ghg.net/shetler/rome/ Ancient Rome]
- [http://www.iol.ie/~coolmine/typ/romans/intro.html The Roman Pages]
- [http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/maps/basicmap.html An interactive Roman map]
Category:Ancient Rome
Category:Western culture
Word
A word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together. Typically a word will consist of a root or stem and zero or more affixes. Words can be combined to create phrases, clauses and sentences. A word consisting of two or more stems joined together is called a compound.
compound]]
Difficulty in defining the term
The precise definition of what a word is depends on which language the definition is for, and the dividing line between words and phrases is not always clear. In most writing systems, a word is usually marked out in the text by interword separation such as spaces or word dividers used in some languages such as Amharic. In other languages such as Chinese and Japanese, and in many ancient languages such as Sanskrit, word boundaries are not shown.
Even in writing systems that use interword separation, word boundaries are not always clear; for example, even though ice cream is written like two words, it is a single compound because it cannot be separated by another morpheme or rephrased like iced cream or cream of ice. Likewise, a proper noun is a word, however long it is. A space may not be even the main morpheme boundary in a word; the word New Yorker is a compound of New York and -er, not of New and Yorker. In English, many common words have historically progressed from being written as two separate words (e.g. to day) to hyphenated (to-day) to a single word (today), a process which is still ongoing, as in the common spelling of all right as alright.
Words in different classes of languages
In synthetic languages, a single word stem (for example, love) may have a number of different forms (for example, loves, loving, and loved). However, these are not usually considered to be different words, but different forms of the same word. In these languages, words may be considered to be constructed from a number of morphemes (such as love and -s).
In polysynthetic languages, the number of morphemes per word can become so large that the word performs the same grammatical role as a phrase or clause in less synthetic languages (for example, in Yupik, angyaghllangyugtuq means "he wants to acquire a big boat"). These large-construction words are still single words, because they contain only one content word; the other morphemes are grammatical bound morphemes, which cannot stand alone.
Matters seem easier for analytic languages. For these languages, a word usually consists of only a root morpheme, which is often single-syllable. However, it is common even in those languages to combine roots into a compound stem.
Complexity of word boundaries in speech
In spoken language, the distinction of individual words is even more complex: short words are often run together, and long words are often broken up. Spoken French has some of the features of a polysynthetic language: je ne le sais pas ("I do not know it") tends towards //. As the majority of the world's languages are not written, the scientific determination of word boundaries becomes important.
Determining word boundaries
There are five ways to determine where the word boundaries of spoken language should be placed:
;Potential pause
:A speaker is told to repeat a given sentence slowly, allowing for pauses. The speaker will tend to insert pauses at the word boundaries. However, this method is not foolproof: the speaker could easily break up polysyllabic words.
;Indivisibility
:A speaker is told to say a sentence out loud, and then is told to say the sentence again with extra words added to it. Thus, I have lived in this village for ten years might become I and my family have lived in this little village for about ten or so years. These extra words will tend to be added in the word boundaries of the original sentence. However, some languages have infixes, which are put inside a word. Similarly, some have separable affixes; in the German sentence "Ich komme gut zu Hause an," the verb ankommen is separated.
;Minimal free forms
:This concept was proposed by Leonard Bloomfield. Words are thought of as the smallest meaningful unit of speech that can stand by themselves. This correlates phonemes (units of sound) to lexemes (units of meaning). However, some written words are not minimal free forms, as they make no sense by themselves (for example, the and of).
;Phonetic boundaries
:Some languages have particular rules of pronunciation that make it easy to spot where a word boundary should be. For example, in a language that regularly stresses the last syllable of a word (like Hebrew), a word boundary is likely to fall after each stressed syllable. Another example can be seen in a language that has vowel harmony (like Turkish): the vowels within a given word share the same quality, so a word boundary is likely to occur whenever the vowel quality changes. However, not all languages have such convenient phonetic rules, and even those that do present the occasional exceptions.
;Semantic units
:Much like the abovementioned minimal free forms, this method breaks down a sentence into its smallest semantic units. However, language often contains words that have little semantic value (and often play a more grammatical role), or semantic units that are compound words.
In practice, linguists apply a mixture of all these methods to determine the word boundaries of any given sentence. Even with the careful application of these methods, the exact definition of a word is often still elusive.
External links
- [http://www.sussex.ac.uk/linguistics/documents/essay_-_what_is_a_word.pdf What Is a Word?] (PDF)
- [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=word Urban Dictionary: word], used as a slang
Category:Linguistic morphology
Category:Syntax
ja:語
simple:Word
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It comprises 26 letters and is used, with some modification, for most of the languages of the European Union, the Americas, Subsaharan Africa, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, French, Turkish, German, Javanese, Vietnamese, Italian, Polish, Hausa, Swahili, Filipino, etc. In modern usage, the term Latin alphabet is used for any straightforward derivation of the alphabet used by the Romans. These variants may drop letters (Hawaiian) or add letters (Czech) to or from the classical Roman script, and of course many letter shapes have changed over the centuries — such as the lower-case letters which the Romans would not have recognized.
Overview
The default Latin alphabet is the Roman, supplemented with J, W, Z, K, and lower-case variants:
::A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
Additional letters may be formed
- as ligatures, as W was from VV, for example ash Æ from AE, oethel Œ from OE, eszett ß from SZ, engma ŋ from NG, ou Ȣ from OU, Ñ from NN, or Ç from CZ;
- by diacritics, such as Å, Č, Ų;
- as digraphs, such as IJ and LL;
- by modification, as J was from I, such as Ø, eth Ð, yogh Ȝ from G, and schwa Ə from either A or E; or
- may even be borrowed from another alphabet entirely, as thorn Þ and wynn Ƿ were from Futhark.
However, these glyphs are not always considered independent letters of the alphabet. For instance, in English æ is considered a graphic variant of ae rather than a separate letter, while in Danish and Norwegian it is a true letter, and is placed at the end of the alphabet along with ø and aa/å.
Letters of the alphabet
As used in modern English, the Latin alphabet consists of the following characters (cf. English alphabet):
Extensions
In the course of its history, the Latin alphabet was adapted for use for new languages, some of which had phonemes which were not used in languages previously written with this alphabet, and therefore extensions were created as needed. These take the form of modified symbols by changing the shape or adding diacritics, by joining several letters together as ligatures, or by completely new forms.
These new forms are given a place in the alphabet by defining a collating sequence. This is language dependent as shown in the pertinent section below.
Other letters
In Old English, eth ð and the Runic letters thorn þ, and wynn were added. Eth and thorn were replaced with 'th', and wynn with the new letter 'w'. In modern Icelandic, thorn and eth are still used. The letters Þþ (thorn), Ðð (eth), and (wynn) are no longer a part of the Latin alphabet as used in English.
For a short time in Roman history, the three Claudian letters were added to the alphabet, but they were not widely received and were eventually removed.
The African language Hausa uses three additional consonant letters: , and , which are variants of b, d and g employed by linguists to represent certain sounds similar to them.
Ligatures
A ligature is a fusion of two or more ordinary letters into a new glyph. Examples are Æ from AE, Œ from OE, ß from ſs, Dutch ij from i and j. The "ſs" pair is simply an archaic double s. The first glyph is the archaic medial form, and the second the final form. Note that ij is capitalised as IJ (never Ij).
Diacritics
Diacritics are marks that are added to specific letters to modify their pronunciation. The effect is language dependent.
- the cedilla in ç, originally a small z written below the c (once symbolized in Romance languages, now gives c a 'soft' sound before a, o, and u, for example, in French façade, Portuguese Caçar and in Catalan Barça).While in Albanian and Turkish the "ç" changes the quality of the sound " c " and is pronounced as the "ch" in the word "check" in english.
- the caron in č š ž (used in Baltic and Slavic languages to mark post-alveolar versions of the base phoneme).
- the tilde in Portuguese ã and õ, Estonian õ. In Portuguese, it was originally a small n written above the letter (once used to mark the elision of a former n, now marks nasalization of the base letter). In Estonian, õ is considered a separate letter of the alphabet. In Spanish ñ is considered a diferent letter from n and has the sound value of /ɲ/.
- the acute accent in á é í ó ú in French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and other languages. In addition, ý is also used in Faroese (though not é), Icelandic, Czech and Slovak. In Hungarian á é í ó ú are not used for accent but they represent long vowels as opposed to short a e i o u.
- the grave accent in à è ì ò ù in French, Italian, Portuguese and other languages.
- the circumflex in the vowels â ê î ô û in French, Portuguese, Romanian, and other languages, and in the consonants ĉ ĝ ĥ ĵ ŝ in Esperanto.
- the umlaut in ä ö ü in German and other languages, and ë in Albanian, which changes the quality (sound) of the vowel. In German, this mark was formerly written as a small e over the affected vowel. Modern German spelling accepts ae oe and ue as variants when the umlaut is unavailable.
- the diaeresis (same visual appearance as the umlaut above) in ä ë ï ö ü in several languages.
- the dot above in ċ ġ ż in Maltese and ż in Polish and ė in Lithuanian.
- the ogonek in ą ę į ų in Polish and Lithuanian.
- the macron in ā ē ī ō ū in Latvian, Māori, Lithuanian and romanized Japanese.
- the double acute accent in ő ű in Hungarian, representing long versions of the umlauted vowels ö and ü.
- the breve in ă in Romanian, ğ in Turkish and in ŭ in Esperanto and Belarusian Łacinka.
- the comma underneath, as used in ş and ţ in Romanian (often rendered less than optimally in fonts as a cedilla). Also used for ķ ļ ņ ŗ in Latvian.
- the dotless i (a "negative diacritic") in ı as used in Turkish.
There are other diacritics and other uses for the ones described here. Please see Alphabets derived from the Latin for a more complete list.
Evolution
:See History of alphabets for the history of alphabets leading up to the Roman alphabet.
It is generally held that the Latins adopted the western variant of the Greek alphabet in the 7th century BC from Cumae, a Greek colony in southern Italy. From the Cumae alphabet, the Etruscan alphabet was derived and the Latins finally adopted 21 of the original 26 Etruscan letters.
The original Latin alphabet was:
Image:Older Latin glyphs.png
- C stood for both g and k.
- I stood for both i and j.
- V stood for both u and v.
Later the Z was dropped and a new letter G was placed in its position. An attempt by the emperor Claudius to introduce three additional letters was short-lived, but after the conquest of Greece in the first century BC the letters Y and Z were, respectively, adopted and readopted from the Greek alphabet and placed at the end. Now the new Latin alphabet contained 23 letters:
first century BC, shows the earliest known forms of the Old Latin alphabet.]]
W is a letter made up from two V's or U's. It was added in late Roman times to represent a Germanic sound. The letters U and J, similarly, were originally not distinguished from V and I, respectively.
The Latin names of some of the letters are disputed. In general, however, the Romans did not use the traditional (Semitic-derived) names as in Greek: the names of the stop consonant letters were formed by adding to the sound (except for C, K, and Q which needed different vowels to distinguish them) and the names of the continuants consisted either of the bare sound, or the sound preceded by . The letter Y when introduced was probably called hy as in Greek (the name upsilon being not yet in use) but was changed to i Graeca ("Greek i") as the and sounds merged in Latin. Z was given its Greek name, zeta. For the Latin sounds represented by the various letters see Latin spelling and pronunciation; for the names of the letters in English see English alphabet.
Medieval and later developments
It was not until the Middle Ages that the letter J (representing non-syllabic I) and the letters U and W (to distinguish them from V) were added.
The alphabet used by the Romans consisted only of capital (upper case or majuscule) letters. The lower case (minuscule) letters developed in the Middle Ages from cursive writing, first as the uncial script, and later as minuscule script. The old Roman letters were retained for formal inscriptions and for emphasis in written documents. The languages that use the Latin alphabet generally use capital letters to begin paragraphs and sentences and for proper nouns. The rules for capitalization have changed over time, and different languages have varied in their rules for capitalization. Old English, for example, was rarely written with even proper nouns capitalised; whereas Modern English of the 18th century had frequently all nouns capitalised, in the same way that Modern German is today, e.g. "All the Sisters of the old Town had seen the Birds".
Spread of the Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet spread from Italy, along with the Latin language, to the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The eastern half of the Roman Empire, including Greece, Asia Minor, the Levant, and Egypt, continued to use Greek as a lingua franca, but Latin was widely spoken in the western half of the Empire, and as the western Romance languages, including Spanish, French, Catalan, Portuguese and Italian, evolved out of Latin they continued to use and adapt the Latin alphabet. With the spread of Western Christianity the Latin alphabet spread to the peoples of northern Europe who spoke Germanic languages, displacing their earlier Runic alphabets, as well as to the speakers of Baltic languages, such as Lithuanian and Latvian, and several (non-Indo-European) Finno-Ugric languages, most notably Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian language. During the Middle Ages the Latin alphabet also came into use among the peoples speaking West Slavic languages, including the ancestors of modern Poles, Czechs, Croats, Slovenes, and Slovaks, as these peoples adopted Roman Catholicism; the speakers of East Slavic languages generally adopted both Orthodox Christianity and the Cyrillic alphabet.
As late as 1492, the Latin alphabet was limited primarily to the languages spoken in western, northern and central Europe. The Orthodox Christian Slavs of eastern and southern Europe mostly used the Cyrillic alphabet, and the Greek alphabet was still in use by Greek-speakers around the eastern Mediterranean. The Arabic alphabet was widespread within Islam, both among Arabs and non-Arab nations like the Iranians, Indonesians, Malays, and Turkic peoples. Most of the rest of Asia used a variety of Brahmic alphabets or the Chinese script.
Over the past 500 years, the Latin alphabet has spread around the world. It spread to the Americas, Australia, and parts of | | |
