The Monastic Rules of Visigothic Iberia - eTheses Repository ...

2008: 30-35; Burton 2010). Similarly, it is also apparent that ancient writers were fully
aware that there existed correct and incorrect ways of writing. This is attested by the
existence of texts such as the Appendix Probi, a list of correct and incorrect spellings, many
of which suggest the presence of Romance features already in the fourth century (Quirk
2005).
With regard to diachronic variation, Roman writers in the Imperial period had
commented that some texts written in Latin were incomprehensible to them centuries before
the supposed break between Latin and Romance advocated by the thèse unitaire (see below).
Typically, this was because those texts were written a substantial amount of time previously
and so the language had undergone substantial diachronic change. Polybius, for example,
admitted that he could not decipher a late-sixth-century BC treaty written between Rome and
Carthage, 432 whilst Varro had recognised such a change when he coined the maxim
“consuetudo loquendi est in motu”. 433
The sixth and seventh centuries also produced Visigothic writers who remained
concerned with issues of language, just as their Roman predecessors had done. Isidore of
Seville, as author of the Etymologies, is often cited as having an interest in linguistic issues.
Indeed, Isidore is the best source for Visigothic Hispanisms in this period, often noting
popular usage with phrases such as “quod uulgi dicunt” or “quod Spani uocant”. What
exactly these terms mean is a matter of debate, but they nevertheless show that Isidore was
aware of issues of language variation and professed an interest in the topic (Sofer 1930;
432 Histories 3.22.3.
433 De lingua latina 9.17.
171