Languages show variations according to the social class of speakers and Latin was no
exception, as readers of Petronius are aware. The Romance languages have traditionally
been regarded as developing out of a'language of the common people'(Vulgar Latin), but
studies of modern languages demonstrate that linguistic change does not merely come, in
the social sense,'from below'. There is change from above, as prestige usages work their
way down the social scale, and change may also occur across the social classes. This book …