THREAD: Latin names and Indo-European phonology

The praenōmen is in some ways the most interesting element of the tria nōmina ('three names') Latin naming system. Originally it was a true personal name given to a Roman child on the diēs lūstricus 'day of purification'.

Over the course of the Roman empire, however, the individualising aspect of this name declined, along with its corresponding stock. This led to a steady decrease in its usage. They eventually became rare in the late Roman empire.

Modern Westerners will generally recognise most of the rather limited stock of praenōmina. What is more, a good number them are transparently derived from ordinal numbers:

• Quīntus 'fifth'
• Sextus 'sixth'
• Septimus 'seventh'
• Octāvius 'eighth'
• Decimus 'tenth'

Scholars debate about what these originally meant. A prominent theory suggests this originally indicated the order of children born (e.g., Sextus = 'the sixth child'). Another suggestion is that they refer to the month in which the child was born.

Another fascinating element of praenōmina is the presence of some non-Latin elements in some of them. While we typically think of Latin as the only ancient language of the Italian peninsula, the ancient linguistic situation was in reality quite diverse.

The Romans and their city were located in ancient Latium, a rather small geographic area from which they derive the name of their language.

They eventually vanquished all other native languages with the rapid spread of their empire.

• Many of the surrounding languages were part of the Italic languague family (Oscan, Umbrian, Faliscan).
• Others were Indo-European, but not Italic (e.g., Messapic).
• Yet others were not even Indo-European (the primary example being Etruscan).

Naturally, these languages were all in contact with one another, and all aspects of their linguistic systems (including personal names) could undergo external influence.

One such praenōmen is likely Pontius, whose most famous bearer was Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea.

It turns out that Pontius is the Oscan equivalent of Quintus 'fifth'.

The reconstructed form of 'five' in Proto-Indo-European is *penkʷe (cf. Gk. πέντε, Lith. penki).

A famous phonological rule in Latin describes the assimilation of a p...kʷ sequence to qu...qu: quīnque (5)

The outcome of labiovelars in Oscan, however, was /p/ (a sound that is also labial in nature):

• Osc. paam 'whom' = Lat. quam
• Osc. -pe 'and' = Lat. -que
• Osc. pomp- 'five' = Lat. quīnque

The numeral looks strikingly like the Welsh number for 'five' (pump).

Bonus tweet:

Rūfus, mentioned in Mark 15:21 (possibly the same Ῥοῦφος as the one in Romans 16:13), is another likely non-Latin name.

His name means 'red (headed)'

The regular outcome of medial aspirates in Oscan was /f/ (cf. Latin ruber 'red' < h₁roudʰos).

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