A TRANSLATION OF BABRIUS

It was noted earlier that the acquisition of literacy in the script of a second language can be divided into stages (see 5.VII.3), several of which are identified through various types of errors. Learners also commit different categories of errors in the acquisition of a second language, whether they are learning that language by contact at the level of speech, or by formal instruction with the help of writing. Some research has been devoted to the question whether sequences can be identified in second-language acquisition. I would not wish to claim that I have any contribution to make on the general issue of whether such sequences may be detected across a broad spectrum of languages; indeed it seems to me that where formal instruction is involved, the sequence will be determined by the nature of the instruction. Nevertheless, there is one Latin text extant which is relevant to the matter. I refer to a Latin translation of parts of two fables of Babrius which is preserved at P. Amh. II.26. The document is dated by the editors (p. 26) to the late third or early fourth century. In this chapter I offer a discussion of the Latinity of the translation, paying attention not only to its substandard features, but also to its numerous errors, many of which cannot be explained merely as displaying typical substandard or vulgar usages. There can be no doubt that the author was a Greek learner of Latin as a second-language.