The problem of the omission of word-final -s as evidenced in Latin inscriptions

Related to Herman (2000) and Herman (1987=2006), the present study deals with the problem of the deletion of word-final -s as evidenced in Latin inscriptions of the Empire. By reconsidering all items of the omission of -s recorded to date in the Computerized Historical Linguistic Database of Latin Inscriptions of the Imperial Age, the morphosyntactic explanation proposed by Herman (1987=2006) as for relevant omissions will be replaced by a phonetic and phonosyntactic approach which evidences the all-time prevalence of the consonantal environment in the omission of word final -s. Accordingly, the phonosyntactically determined deletion of word final -s before a subsequent consonant existed continuously but to various degrees from the Old Latin age onward all along the history of Latin. This situation might have been inherited by the Romance languages, where different and complex morphological innovations led either to the discontinuation of the phenomenon of phonosyntactically determined deletion and the stabilization of word final -s (as in Western Romance), or to the completion of the deletion process and the complete loss of word final -s (as in Eastern Romance).