Ennius <i>Alii rhetorica tongent</i>: towards the problem of early influence of rural dialects on Latin
The article deals with the origin of the Latin verb tongeō, its Oscan correspondences, and the relations with L. tondeō and spondeō, that have the similarity with tongeō (vocalism o of the root; the various possible causes of this fact are considered). The hypothesis is that tongeō (and possibly tondeō and spondeō) reflects the specific pronunciation of some rural areas near Rome.