I was reading the "Appendix Probi" and got an idea... let's take some examples from modern languages showing words that "complied" with Mr. Probus listing:

Considering Portuguese:

=== "Way to go, Mr. Probus!" words: ===

masculus > másculo
vernaculus > vernáculo
angulus > ângulo
Hercules > Hércules
sobrius > sóbrio
bárbarus > bárbaro
frigida > frígida
umbilicus > umbigo*
meretrix > meretriz
terraemotus > terremoto
pavor > pavor
hostiae > hóstia

* The Appendix shows umbilicus non imbilicus. Nowadays, in colloquial language, many people still say "imbigo" instead of "umbigo". That means Probus must have been turning in his grave for centuries! :D

=== "Sorry, Mr. Probus" words: ===

musivum non museum > museu
mensa non mesa > mesa
auctor non autor > autor
socrus non socra > sogra
rivus non rius > rio

I believe there must be many other examples, even from modern English.

cheers

I was reading the "Appendix Probi" and got an idea... let's take some examples from modern languages showing words that "complied" with Mr. Probus listing:
Valerius Probus picked an arbitrary moment in the evolution of language (i.e. the moment in which he lived) and decided that the language he spoke (Latin) should be frozen in its current form.

So late into the Imperial Era, I wonder whether he himself spoke Classical Latin, with V as a semivowel in all positions, with G and C always hard, with T never palatialized? Weni, genus, skientia, not veni, jenus, siensia? If not, he would have been regarded as a debaser of the language, a speaker of "Vulgar Latin" by Virgil, Cicero and his other scholarly heroes. :)

Moreover, what but an accident of history gave him the right to choose Latin as the proper form of Indo-European words? Why not kmtom, penqwe instead of centum, quinque?
I believe there must be many other examples, even from modern English.Most words of Latin origin in Modern English come from one of two sources:1. Scientific, religious, legal or other scholarship. In these cases the words are generally written in proper Latin, but pronounced according to English phonetic rules. This means not only consonantal V, soft G and C, and rampant palatalization of T, S, J and other letters, but total collapse of the Latin vowels. Our national motto is written E pluribus unum, but pronouced ee pleribuss yoonumm. 2. Norman French. These words had already undergone the massive phonetic mangling of Latin into Old French in the mouths of the Germanic Franks, e.g. all those umlauted vowels and the collapse of inflections. But then the Anglo-Norman vocabulary of Middle English underwent another thousand years of phonetic shifting into Modern English. I daresay Probus would not recognize the oral forms of words such as science, use or jury.As for Portuguese, there are far worse examples than you cited. How about branco for blancus, cor for colorum, cerveja for cerevicia, ter for tenere or desejar for desiderare? :)

So late into the Imperial Era, I wonder whether he himself spoke Classical Latin, with V as a semivowel in all positions, with G and C always hard, with T never palatialized? Weni, genus, skientia, not veni, jenus, siensia? If not, he would have been regarded as a debaser of the language, a speaker of "Vulgar Latin" by Virgil, Cicero and his other scholarly heroes. :)

Moreover, what but an accident of history gave him the right to choose Latin as the proper form of Indo-European words? Why not kmtom, penqwe instead of centum, quinque?

I've always imagined Probus as kind of scholar, an expert in his language. However, having lived around centuries 3-4 AD, I much doubt he wasn't appart from the linguistic changes that were happening at that time. Perhaps he wanted to keep the original forms of writing as the list was mainly aimed to scribes (as far as I know).



Most words of Latin origin in Modern English come from one of two sources:1. Scientific, religious, legal or other scholarship. In these cases the words are generally written in proper Latin, but pronounced according to English phonetic rules. This means not only consonantal V, soft G and C, and rampant palatalization of T, S, J and other letters, but total collapse of the Latin vowels. Our national motto is written E pluribus unum, but pronouced ee pleribuss yoonumm. 2. Norman French. These words had already undergone the massive phonetic mangling of Latin into Old French in the mouths of the Germanic Franks, e.g. all those umlauted vowels and the collapse of inflections. But then the Anglo-Norman vocabulary of Middle English underwent another thousand years of phonetic shifting into Modern English. I daresay Probus would not recognize the oral forms of words such as science, use or jury.

That's what I like in modern English: "you" have borrowed words from many other languages without any change. So, if it's datum in Latin, let's keep datum in English; if it's Restaurant in French, let's keep it so.


As for Portuguese, there are far worse examples than you cited. How about branco for blancus, cor for colorum, cerveja for cerevicia, ter for tenere or desejar for desiderare? :)

The l > r change is quite common, mainly among illiterate people. For colorum and tenere, there was a syllable removal: colorum > *color > coor > cor, as well as tenere > *tener > teer > ter. For cerveja and desejar, I need some more research, but there's an interesting fact about desejar and it's variant forms: its root is {sid}, the same of sideral (sidereal).