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British Latin or British Vulgar Latin was the Vulgar Latin spoken in Great Britain in the Roman and sub-Roman periods. While Britain formed part of the Roman Empire, Latin became the principal language of the elite, especially in the more Romanized southern and eastern parts of the island. However, it never substantially replaced the Brittonic language of the indigenous Britons, especially in the less Romanized north and west. In recent years, scholars have debated the extent to which British Latin was distinguishable from its continental counterparts, which developed into the Romance languages. With the end of Roman rule, Latin was displaced as a spoken language by Old English in most of what became England during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of the fifth and sixth centuries. It survived in the remaining Celtic regions of western Britain until about 700, when it was replaced by the local Brittonic languages. ==Background== At the inception of Roman rule in AD 43, Great Britain was inhabited by the indigenous Britons, who spoke the Celtic language known as Brittonic. ''Britannia'' became a province of the Roman Empire and remained part of the empire for nearly four hundred years until 409, spanning at its height in 160 the southern three-quarters of the island of Britain.〔''The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization'' (1998) Hornblower, Spawforth eds. Oxford University Press pp.129–131.〕 Historians often refer to Roman Britain as comprising a "highland zone" to the north and west of the country and a "lowland zone" in the south and east, with the latter being more thoroughly Romanized and having a Romano-British culture. Particularly in the lowland zone, Latin became the language of most of the towns-people, of administration and the ruling class, the army, and, following the introduction of Christianity, the church; Brittonic remained the language of the peasantry, which was the bulk of the population; and the rural elite were probably bilingual. In the highland zone, there was only limited attempts at Romanization, and Brittonic always remained the dominant language. Throughout much of western Europe, from Late Antiquity, the Vulgar Latin of everyday speech developed into locally distinctive varieties which ultimately became the Romance languages. But in Britain, following the end of Roman rule in the early 5th century, Vulgar Latin died out as an everyday spoken language. The time by which Vulgar Latin died out as a vernacular in Britain, and the nature and distinctiveness of British Latin before it did so, have been points of scholarly debate in recent years. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「British Latin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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