African Romance

Velar stops also remain unaffected in Latin loanwords in Berber. For example, tkilsit ("mulberry tree") < (morus) celsa in Latin,^[82] and i-kīkər ("chickpea") < cicer in Latin,^[83] or ig(e)r , ("field") < ager in Latin.^[84]

Inscriptions from Tripolitania, written as late as the 10th or 11th century are written with a ⟨k⟩, diverging from contemporary European Latin uses. Thus, there are forms such as dikite ("say", 2nd person plural imperative), iaket ("he/she lies down"), dekember ("December") and pake ("peace") with ⟨k⟩ such as dilektus ("beloved"), karus ("dear") and Afrikana ("African"), found in an inscriptional corpus.^[86]

Some evidence that Latin words with a "v" are often written with a "b" in African Romance, as reported by : birtus ("virtue") < virtus in Latin, boluntas ("will") < voluntas, and bita ("life") < vita.^[J] Adams and Adamik both observe frequent b/v confusions in inscriptions and non-literary documents from Africa Proconsularis.^[88][89] On the other hand, according to Adamik Mauretania Caesariensis shows a much lower rate of betacism, comparable to Hispania or Gaul.^[90]

The 5th century suggest high levels of phonetic errors and an uncertainty in the use of Latin cases.^[91]

In a study of errors on stressed vowels in a corpus of 279 inscriptions, scholars noted how African inscriptions confused between over-stressed and under-stressed vowels between the 1st and 4th century AD, with Rome reaching comparable error rates only by the late 4th to 6th centuries.

As aforementioned, there is strong evidence that the Latin/Romance of Africa Proconsularis shared an identical five-vowel system (probably /a, ɛ, i, ɔ, u/) with Sardinian. Augustine of Hippo's testimony on how ōs ("mouth") in Latin was to African ears indistinguishable from ŏs ("bone") indicates the merger of vowels and the loss of the original allophonic quality distinction in vowels.^[93][K]

Analysis of inscriptions and non-literary documents, including the 3rd century Bu Njem ostraca and demonstrate that, despite the presence of other common Vulgar Latin sound changes (such as loss of aspirate h, monophthongization of ae and loss of final m), confusion between ē and ǐ and ō and ŭ is almost nonexistent. Adams finds that inscriptions display a rate of ē/ǐ and ō/ŭ mistakes of only 0.7%, while in the Bu Njem ostraca ē/ǐ and ō/ŭ confusion is totally absent and in the Albertini Tablets there are fewer than two of each error.^[95] In contrast, by the 6th-7th c. inscriptions from Gaul show that misspellings of ē/ǐ had come to surpass instances of correct spellings, with an error rate of 51%^[96] Data by Adamik shows very slightly higher rates of confusion in Africa Proconsularis (5.3%), but still far lower than in Gaul (63.5%) or Hispania (21.3%), and he similarly concludes that "the later Latin of Africa Proconsularis undoubtedly belonged to the Sardinian Romance type of vocalism."^[97]

In Latin loanwords in Berber, Latin short ĭ, ŭ also result in i, u (instead of e, o) as in Sardinian. For example, pullus ("chicken") > afullus, cicer ("chickpea") > i-kīkər, pirus ("pear tree") > ti-firest. However, as Adams points out, assumptions about African Romance vocalism based solely on loanwords should be taken with caution due to the lack of vowels /e, o/ in Berber languages.^[99][100]

On the contrary, Adamik states that data from inscriptions show that the vowel system of the western province of Mauretania Caesariensis seemed to be developing differently from that of Africa Proconsularis/Sardinia. Due to a higher number of ē/ǐ confusions found than ō/ŭ confusions (at 4.6% vs. 1.3%), it is suggested that the vocalic system of Mauretanian Latin might possibly "have started to develop toward the eastern or Balkan (more exactly Rumanian) type of vocalism": e.g., merging ē with ĭ, ĭ with ī and ŭ with ū, potentially resulting in the six-vowel system /a, ɛ, e, i, o, u/. However, spelling error rates are still too low for a definite conclusion to be made on the classification of the dialect of Mauretania Caesariensis.

There is additional evidence both from commentary and metrical inscriptions for confusion over syllable length and stress resulting from the collapse of vowel length distinctions. In another passage, Augustine writes that a sound change which was criticized by grammarians was to lengthen formerly short stressed vowels in words like cano ("to sing'), e.g. as [ˈkaːnɔ] instead of [ˈkanoː]. Consentius makes a similar remark that Africans tended to mispronounce piper ("pepper") with the formerly short stressed syllable lengthened, e.g. [ˈpiːpɛr] instead of [ˈpɪpɛr],^[M] while also shortening formerly long unstressed syllables, as in orator with short o, e.g. [ɔˈraːtɔr] instead of [oːraːtɔr].^[N]

Herman also finds evidence metrical inscriptions from the 1st-4th centuries AD for the lengthening of short stressed vowels and shortening of long unstressed vowels, which could point to an earlier loss of contrastive vowel length than in Rome. Adams' analysis of 3rd century poems from Bu Njem written by Italian and African soldiers seem to reflect a dialectal contrast in the vowel systems of the two regions, with the Italian Avidius writer preserving Classical prosody and the African Iasucthan displaying vowel length distinction loss (given that Iasucthan is assumed to have been a native Latin speaker.)^[104]

Modern Berber and Arabic toponyms in the Maghreb inherited from their original Latin names display final /s/, appearing to suggest that African Latin preserved final /s/ as in Western Romance, Sardinian and certain . Examples include Cydamus > Ghadames, Gergis > Zarzis and Ad Badias > Bades.^[105]

Insertion of i is attested in African Latin, for example in iscire for scire in the Bu Njem ostraca, ^[106] or in iscripsi for scripsi in the above cited medieval Islamic-era African Psalter.^[107]

, a purported "style" of African Latin.

a proposed hypothetical Romance classification, including Sardinian and African Romance

a region of southern Italy covering Basilicata where the local Neapolitan dialects display variation between Sardinian, Sicilian and Romanian-like vowel systems

as stated above, theorized to be the closest surviving language to African Romance.

another extinct dialect of Latin.

another extinct dialect of Latin.

another extinct dialect of Latin.

Sayahi, Lotfi (2014). . Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521119368.