Spelling and language change

The previous entry, although very short, is rich with examples of how spelling can show us pronunciation from a vantage of almost 2000 years.

Agape:  This is the Latin transliteration of a Greek word which means 'love'.  This is probably a name, although it could also be an affectionate term of endearment.  The spelling shows us that the Greek letter Eta was pronounced like the Latin letter 'e'.

vibes:  in 'correct' Latin, this would be 'vives', the second person singular of the future indicative ("you will live").  The alternation of 'v' and 'b' here shows that, even in the first two centuries AD, the trend of pronouncing these letters as they are in Spanish today was already current.  We will see many more examples of this, and explore it further.

eternum:  usually spelled 'aeternum', this shows us another trend.  Historically, the 'ae' diphthong was originally spelled 'ai' and was pronounced as the English word 'eye'.  One of our oldest existing records of written Latin is a bronze tablet from the year 186 BC, which records a decree of the Roman Senate concerning the 'Bacchanalia'  ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senatus_consultum_de_Bacchanalibus ).  This decree changes from 'ai' to 'ae' in the same phrase ('apud aedem Bellonai').   Later, the pronunciation of 'ae' softened from 'eye' to English 'ay' as in 'hooray'.  Since this was roughly the same as the pronunciation of the Latin long 'e', we see that, as in this inscription, the spelling reflected that 'confusion'.