[Piotr]
[...]consider Mediaeval Latin, the European
language of education and scholarly literature, coexisting in time and space
with the Romance languages that had developed from the sermo plebeius of the
late Roman period, and genetically connected but not identical with Classical
Latin. Mediaeval Latin had a strong influence on the vernaculars
contemporary with it; its grammar was simpler and more regular than that of
Classical Latin, new words were coined or adopted on a massive scale, and those
of Classical origin often developed new meanings. Doesn't that ring a
bell?
[Moeller] Piotr, do you see the possibility
that certain languages of the "sermo plebeius of late Roman period" could
be genetically connected ( at leas in Europe ) even _before_ the roman empire,
where latin acted in some cases just as a common denominator ( gemeinsamer
Nenner)?
regards
a. moeller