Sermo in adventu Domini : qui comprend le latin au IXe siècle en Italie du nord ?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse an anonymous homily written in ninth century northern Italy. Linguistic analysis of the text strongly supports the hypothesis that this example and similar texts would have been understood by listeners of the era when read aloud. This comprehensibility is ensured above all by the fact that the Latin vocabulary and morpho-syntax of this text are based not only on the classical norm but on the late and patristic norms. Even if the listeners had only passive competence of the language, this proves that Latin was still widely understood in the ninth century.