Appendix Probi

The Appendix Probi ("Probus' Appendix") is the conventional name for a series of five documents believed to have been copied in the seventh or eighth century in Bobbio, Italy. Its name derives from the fact that the documents were found attached to a copy of the Instituta Artium, a treatise named after (but probably not written by) the first-century grammarian Marcus Valerius Probus.

The Appendix was likely composed in Rome around the first half of the fourth century AD.

It is specifically the third of the five documents that has attracted scholarly attention, as it contains a list of 227 spelling mistakes, along with their corrections, which shed light on the phonological and grammatical changes that the local vernacular was experiencing in the early stages of its development into Romance.

The text survives only in a carelessly transcribed water-damaged manuscript of the 7th or 8th century which is kept at the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III as MS Lat. 1 (formerly Vindobonensis 17).

Note that the format is "[correct spelling], not [incorrect spelling]". Scribal abbreviations have been expanded.

• speculum non speclum
• masculus non masclus
• uernaculus non uernaclus
• angulus non anglus
• uetulus non ueclus
• uitulus non uiclus
• articulus non articlus
• oculus non oclus
• calida non calda
• uiridis non uirdis

• uinea non uinia
• cauea non cauia
• lancea non lancia
• ostium non osteum
• lilium non lileum
• alium non aleum
• tolonium non toloneum

• columna non colomna
• turma non torma
• coluber non colober

• auris non oricla

• pridem non pride
• olim non oli
• idem non ide
• nunquam non nunqua
• passim non passi

• adhuc non aduc
• hostiae non ostiae

• mensa non mesa
• ansa non asa
• formosus non formunsus
• Hercules non Herculens
• occasio non occansio

• riuus non rius
• flauus non flaus
• auus non aus
• pauor non paor

• baculus non uaclus
• brauium non brabium
• alueus non albeus
• plebes non pleuis
• uapulo non baplo

• camera non cammara
• garrulus non garulus
• basilica non bassilica
• aqua non acqua
• draco non dracco

• grus non gruis
• pecten non pectinis
• glis non glirus

• tristis non tristus
• pauper mulier non paupera mulier
• acre non acrum
• ipse non ipsus

• nurus non nura
• socrus non socra

• auris non oricla
• fax non facla
• neptis non nepticla
• anus non anucla

• uico castrorum non uico castrae

• nobiscum non noscum
• uobiscum non uoscum

• cautes non cautis
• tabes non tabis
• uates non uatis
• uulpes non uulpis
• fames non famis
• sedes non sedis

• orbis non orbs
• nubes non nubs

• figulus non figel
• masculus non mascel
• barbarus non barbar

• persica non pessica
• iuniperus non ieniperus
• grundio non grunnio
• sibilus non sifilus
• pegma non peuma
• coqus non cocus
• coquens non cocens
• coqui non coci

• Reichenau Glossary
• Proto-Romance language
• Palatalization in the Romance languages
• Phonological changes from Classical Latin to Proto-Romance

• Barnett, F. J. 2007. The sources of the "Appendix Probi": A new approach. The Classical Quarterly 57(2). 701–736. doi:10.1017/s000983880700064x.
• Elcock, William Dennis. 1960. The Romance Languages. London: Faber & Faber.
• Rohfls, Gerhard. 1969. Sermo Vulgaris Latinus: Vulgarlateinisches Lesebuch. 2nd edn. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
• Leppänen, V., & Alho, T. 2018. On The Mergers Of Latin Close-Mid Vowels. Transactions of the Philological Society. doi:10.1111/1467-968x.12130
• Powell, Jonathan G. F. 2007. A new text of the "Appendix Probi". The Classical Quarterly 57(2). 687–700. doi:10.1017/S0009838807000638.
• Quirk, Ronald J. 2005. The “Appendix Probi” as a compendium of Popular Latin: Description and bibliography. The Classical World 98(4). 397–409. doi:10.2307/4352974
• Quirk, Ronald J. 2006. The Appendix Probi: A scholar's guide to text and context. Newark: Juan de la Cuesta.
• Quirk, Ronald J. 2017. Hypercorrection in the Appendix Probi. Philologus 161(2). 350–353. doi:10.1515/phil-2016-0119

• Transcription of the Appendix Probi by Sean Crist, following W. A. Baehrens, 1922, Sprachlicher Kommentar zur vulgärlateinischen Appendix Probi.