Az afrikai latinság és a vetus Afra
The African Latin Language and the Vetus Afra

Summary/Abstract: Comments on the unique writing style of the North-African Latin writers can already be found in the ancient grammarians’ texts. The question of the African Latin language has been around for long and it also has a diverse scientific history. It was often the authors themselves - Apuleius or St. Augustine - who commented on their African ancestry, their multilingualism, and their own use of Latin. They often tried to excuse themselves for the accusations, which their (incorrect?) language use attracted. There was - already in Antiquity - a notion, that both the written and the spoken Latin of North Africa had some unique features, which set them apart from the language used in Rome. Obviously, we do not have any instruments to experience pronunciation and spoken language in antiquity, but through the study of texts written in the region, we can get a closer look on the specific features of Latin used in the region. One of the most important early Christian texts, which has been preserved in the so-called Codex Bob- biensis is a fourth century Latin translation of the gospel. This text is also the main representative of the african (vetus Afra) version of the Vetus Latina. In this article I am trying to investigate this text, to see if there are any linguistic features, which can be (based on the already existing notions we have of the language from studying the inscriptions of the region) called specifically african features („africanismus”).

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