Pannonian Romance
| Pannonian Romance | |
|---|---|
| Region | Pannonia |
| Era | ca. 500–700 CE |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
|
Linguist list
|
lat-pan |
| Glottolog | None |
Pannonian Romance was a Romance language that developed in Pannonia after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It seems to have lasted until the 10th century. The development of Pannonian Romance shows some similarities with that of British Romance, lasting only a few centuries.
In the north, a Roman population probably still lived in the former province of Pannonia at least in all the 6th century and the question whether the "dialect" spoken there belonged to East Latin or to the Occidental dialects has been discussed by scholars without a definite conclusion.
The Romanized population of Pannonia (for which the historian Theodor Mommsen calculated a population of about 200,000 around the 4th century) survived Barbarian invasions (by the Huns, Goths, Avars and others), although they were reduced to a few thousands by the 6th century, living mainly in fortified villages like Keszthely and Fenékpuszta.
There were other places in Pannonia where the local population continued to speak forms of Vulgar Latin after the 5th century: Pécs, Sopron, Szombathely, Dunaújváros. Many Christian relics with inscriptions in Latin have been found in these towns.
But it was on the western shore of Lake Balaton where a peculiar society of craftsmen formed, called the Keszthely culture, of which more than 6,000 artisan tombs and many products (including in gold) are left.
Romance dialects disappeared due to assimilation with German and Slavic invaders in borders areas of the Roman limes near the Danube river in Pannonia, Raetia (today Bavaria and Switzerland) and Noricum (today Austria), but in the area of Lake Balaton survived because the Avars needed a population of skilled artisans and craftsmen for their own needs.
After the Avars were defeated by Charlemagne and disappeared at the beginning of the 9th century, the Romanized craftsmen of the "Keszthely culture" were no longer needed and so quickly were assimilated: their language, Pannonian Romance, soon disappeared with them in the 10th century.
...
Wikipedia