Appendix Probi


The Appendix Probi is the conventional name for a series of five documents believed to have been copied in the seventh or eighth century in Bobbio, Italy. Its name derives from the fact that the documents were found attached to a copy of the Instituta Artium, a treatise named after the first-century grammarian Marcus Valerius Probus.
The Appendix was likely composed in Rome around the first half of the fourth century AD.
It is specifically the third of the five documents that has attracted scholarly attention, as it contains a list of 227 spelling mistakes, along with their corrections, which shed light on the phonological and grammatical changes that the local vernacular was experiencing in the early stages of its development into Romance.
The text survives only in a carelessly transcribed water-damaged manuscript of the 7th or 8th century which is kept at the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III as MS Lat. 1.

Phenomena visible in the spelling mistakes

Note that the format is ", not ". Scribal abbreviations have been expanded.

Syncope">Syncope (phonology)">Syncope

  • wiktionary:speculum#Latin
  • wiktionary:masculus#Latin
  • wiktionary:vernaculus#Latin
  • wiktionary:angulus#Latin
  • wiktionary:vetulus#Latin
  • wiktionary:vitulus#Latin
  • wiktionary:articulus#Latin
  • wiktionary:oculus#Latin
  • wiktionary:calida#Latin
  • wiktionary:viridis#Latin

Development of yod">Voiced palatal approximant">yod from front vowels in hiatus">Hiatus (linguistics)">hiatus

  • wiktionary:vinea#Latin
  • wiktionary:cavea#Latin
  • wiktionary:lancea#Latin
  • wiktionary:ostium#Latin
  • wiktionary:lilium#Latin
  • wiktionary:alium#Latin
  • tolonium non toloneum

Change of to

  • wiktionary:columna#Latin
  • wiktionary:turma#Latin
  • wiktionary:coluber#Latin

Reduction of pretonic to

  • wiktionary:auris#Latin

Loss of final

  • wiktionary:pridem#Latin
  • wiktionary:olim#Latin
  • wiktionary:idem#Latin
  • wiktionary:nunquam#Latin
  • wiktionary:passim#Latin

Loss of

  • wikt:adhuc#Latin
  • wiktionary:hostiae#Latin

Reduction of to

  • wiktionary:mensa#Latin
  • wiktionary:ansa#Latin
  • wiktionary:formosus#Latin
  • wiktionary:Hercules#Latin
  • wiktionary:occasio#Latin

Loss of intervocalic before a [back vowel]

  • wiktionary:rivus#Latin
  • wiktionary:flavus#Latin
  • wiktionary:avus#Latin
  • wiktionary:pavor#Latin

Confusion of and

  • wiktionary:baculus#Latin
  • wiktionary:bravium#Latin
  • wiktionary:alveus#Latin
  • wiktionary:plebes#Latin
  • wiktionary:vapulo#Latin

Confusion of singletons and geminates">Gemination">geminates

  • wiktionary:camera#Latin
  • wiktionary:garrulus#Latin
  • wiktionary:basilica#Latin
  • wiktionary:aqua#Latin
  • wiktionary:draco#Latin

Elimination of imparisyllabic nouns

  • wiktionary:grus#Latin
  • wiktionary:pecten#Latin
  • wiktionary:glis#Latin

Adaptation of 3rd-decl. adjectives">Latin grammar#Declension of adjectives">3rd-decl. adjectives to the 1st class

  • wiktionary:tristis#Latin
  • wiktionary:pauper#Latin
  • wiktionary:acre#Latin
  • wiktionary:ipse#Latin

Adaptation of 4th-decl.">Latin grammar#4th and 5th declension">4th-decl. feminine nouns to the 1st decl.

  • wiktionary:nurus#Latin
  • wiktionary:socrus#Latin

Adaptation of 3rd/4th decl. feminines to the 1st decl. via diminutive suffix

  • wiktionary:auris#Latin
  • wiktionary:fax#Latin
  • wiktionary:neptis#Latin
  • wiktionary:anus#Etymology 2 2

Adaptation of neuter plural to the first declension

  • wiktionary:vico#Latin

Elimination of the ablative

  • wiktionary:nobiscum#Latin
  • wiktionary:vobiscum#Latin

Alteration of nom">Nominative case">nom. (in the third declension) to

  • wiktionary:cautes#Latin
  • wiktionary:tabes#Latin
  • wiktionary:vates#Latin
  • wiktionary:vulpes#Latin
  • wiktionary:fames#Latin
  • wiktionary:sedes#Latin

Reduction of the endings and to

  • wiktionary:orbis#Latin
  • wiktionary:nubes#Latin

Loss of the masculine flexion -us

  • wiktionary:figulus#Latin
  • wiktionary:masculus#Latin
  • wiktionary:barbarus#Latin

Metathesis">Metathesis (linguistics)">Metathesis, assimilation">Assimilation (phonology)">assimilation, [dissimilation], etc.

  • wiktionary:persica#Latin
  • wiktionary:iuniperus#Latin
  • wiktionary:grundio#Latin
  • wiktionary:sibilus#Latin
  • wiktionary:pegma#Latin
  • wiktionary:coquus#Latin
  • wiktionary:coquens#Latin
  • wiktionary:coqui#Latin