Encore: How Latin Became the Romance Languages
Tides of History
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Alcowin's Pronunciation
Charlemagne imported learned monks from britain, especially a guy named alkuin. Alkoin was an anglo saxon. He grew up speaking old english, and he only learned latin as a second language. If you were going to be educated, according to alcowin's formula, you couldn't read texts with the old word for word pronunciation. You had to read every letter. According to that scholar, roger wright, this was the transformational moment that split latin from romance. That difference would have driven alcuin nuts. To him, what the native of gaul and iberia and italy were speaking wasn't latin.
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