Editing Vulgar Latin (section)

=== Wider use of prepositions ===
The loss of a productive noun case system meant that the [[syntax|syntactic]] purposes it formerly served now had to be performed by [[preposition]]s and other paraphrases. These particles increased in number, and many new ones were formed by compounding old ones. The descendant Romance languages are full of grammatical particles such as Spanish {{wikt-lang|es|donde}}, "where", from Latin {{wikt-lang|la|de}} + {{wikt-lang|la|unde}} (which in Romanian literally means "from where"/"where from"), or French {{wikt-lang|fr|dès}}, "since", from {{wikt-lang|la|de}} + {{wikt-lang|la|ex}}, while the equivalent Spanish and Portuguese {{wikt-lang|pt|desde}} is ''de'' + ''ex'' + ''de''. Spanish {{wikt-lang|es|después}} and Portuguese {{wikt-lang|pt|depois}}, "after", represent ''de'' + ''ex'' + {{wikt-lang|la|post}}.

Some of these new compounds appear in literary texts during the late empire; French {{wikt-lang|fr|dehors}}, Spanish ''de'' {{wikt-lang|es|fuera}} and Portuguese ''de'' {{wikt-lang|pt|fora}} ("outside") all represent ''de'' + {{wikt-lang|la|foris}} (Romanian {{wikt-lang|ro|afară}} – ''ad'' + ''foris''), and we find [[Jerome]] writing ''stulti, nonne qui fecit, quod de foris est, etiam id, quod de intus est fecit?'' (Luke 11.40: "ye fools, did not he, that made which is without, make that which is within also?"). In some cases, compounds were created by combining a large number of particles, such as the Romanian {{wikt-lang|ro|adineauri}} ("just recently") from ''ad'' + ''de'' + ''in'' + ''illa'' + ''hora''.<ref>Romanian Explanatory Dictionary ([http://dexonline.ro/definitie/adineauri DEXOnline.ro])</ref>

'''Classical Latin:'''
:''Marcus patrī librum dat.'' "Marcus is giving [his] father [a/the] book."

'''Vulgar Latin:'''
:''*Marcos da libru a patre.'' "Marcus is giving [a/the] book to [his] father."{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Just as in the disappearing dative case, colloquial Latin sometimes replaced the disappearing genitive case with the preposition ''de'' followed by the ablative, then eventually the accusative (oblique).

'''Classical Latin:'''
:''Marcus mihi librum patris dat.'' "Marcus is giving me [his] father's book.

'''Vulgar Latin:'''
:''*Marcos mi da libru de patre.'' "Marcus is giving me [the] book of [his] father."{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}