that is to say, it was used by the Romans to form the names of the inhabitants of municipal towns, as for instance Foro-iulienses, the inhabitants of Forum Julii. There remain, therefore, the three suffixes -co-, -no-, and -ti-, and it will be seen from the table that the relative frequency of these suffixes in different dialect-areas varies very greatly. The suffix -no-, for example, has almost driven out any other in the district of the Hirpini, and it is greatly preponderant among the Campani, in the district of the Lucani, and among the Latini and Sabini themselves.
5. On the other hand, the -co- suffix, which is nowhere frequent, is practically confined to the central areas.
6. The -ti- suffix is comparatively frequent in the Volscian district and very frequent in the Umbrian; it is also fairly well represented in Latium and Etruria.
7. In the article Volsci it is shown that the addition of the -no- suffix is often a mark of the conquest of an original -co- folk by a Safine tribe. It is also fairly frequently added to names formed with the -ti- suffix: Ardea gave first Ardeates and then Ardeatini; the Picentes became Picentini, the Camertes Camertini; of such forms there are no fewer than 54.
8. The addition of the -ati- suffix to the -no- ethnicon, as in Iguvinates, is comparatively rare, and no doubt denotes the opposite process, namely, the absorption of a -no- tribe by a population to whom it was natural to use the suffix -ti-. The two opposite processes confirm the inference that both are due to some change of race, not merely to a change of custom in the same population in a later age; for in that case the change would have been in one direction only.
The assumption of the Safine origin of the -no- suffix is further confirmed by the practice of the Romans themselves. The folk of Latium after the Safine conquest were no longer Latiares but Latini; and over against the old name Quiritis was the new Populus Romanus. Just the same rough and ready nomenclature was applied to communities conquered on foreign soil; the Σπαρτιάται became Spartani, the Συρακόσιοι Syracusani, and the Άσιατικοί Asiani, and so on.
The assumption that Latin was properly the language of the Latian plain and of the Plebs at Rome, which the conquering patrician nobles learnt from their subjects, and substituted for their own kindred but different Safine idiom, renders easier to understand the borrowing of a number of words into Latin from some dialect (presumably Sabine) where the velars had been labialized; for example, the very common word bos, which in pure Latin should have been *vos. And in general it may be stated that the hypothesis of such an intermixture of forms from neighbouring dialects has been rendered in recent years far more credible by the striking evidence of such continual intermixture going on within quite modern periods of time afforded by the Atlas linguistique de la France, even in the portion which has already been published.
The conclusion, therefore, to which the evidence appears to lead us is that in, say, the 7th century, B.C., the Safines spoke a language not differing in any important particulars from that of the Samnites, generally known as Oscan; and that when this warlike tribe combined with the people of the Latian plain to found or fortify or enlarge the city of Rome, and at the end of the 6th century to drive out from it the Etruscans, who had in that century become its masters, they imposed upon the new community many of their own usages, especially within the sphere of politics, but in the end adopted the language of Latium henceforth known as lingua Latina, just as the Normans adopted the language of the conquered English.
The glosses and place-names of the ancient Sabine district are collected by R. S. Conway, the Italic Dialects (Cambridge, 1897), p. 351. For the history of the Sabine district see Mommsen, C.I.L. ix. p. 396; and Beloch, "Der italische Bund unter römischer Hegemonie" (Leipzig, 1880) and "La Conquista Romana della regione Sabina," in the Rivista di storia antica (1905), ix. p. 269. (R. S. C.)
SABINIANUS, pope from 604 to 606, successor of St Gregory the
Great. He incurred unpopularity by his unseasonable economies.
The erudite Italian Augustinian Onofrio Panvinio (1529–1568)
in his Epitome pontificum Romanorum (Venice, 1557) attributes
to this pope the introduction of the custom of ringing bells at the
canonical hours and for the celebration of the Eucharist.
SABLE, the name of a small quadruped, closely akin to the
martens, and known by the Zoological name of Mustela zibellina.
It is a native of Siberia and famous for its fur. The name
appears to be Slavonic in origin, cf. Russian sobol, whence it has
been adapted into various languages, cf. Ger. Zobel, Dutch
Sabel; the Mod. Fr. zibelline and Med. Lat. zibellina derive from
the Ital. form. The Eng. and Med. Lat. sabellum are from the
O. Fr. sable or saible (see Marten and Fur). “ Sable ” in
English is a rhetorical or poetical synonym for “ black.” This
comes from the usage in heraldry (first in French) for the colour
equivalent to black, represented conventionally by a crosshatching
of vertical and horizontal lines. It has usually been
assumed that this is an extension of the name of the fur, but
sable fur is brown.
SABLÉ, MADELEINE DE SOUVRÉ, Marquise de (1599-1678) French writer, was born in 1599, the daughter of Gilles de Souvré, marquis de Courtenvaux, tutor of Louis XIII., and marshal of France. In 1614 she married Philippe Emmanuel de Laval, marquis de Sablé, who died in 1640, leaving her in somewhat straitened circumstances. With her friend the comtesse de St Maur she took rooms in the Place Royale, Paris, and established a literary salon. Here originated that class of literature of which the Maximes of La Rochefoucauld
are the best-known example. The Maximes of the marquise
de Sablé were in fact composed before those of La Rochefoucauld, though not published till after her death. In 1655 she retired, with the comtesse de St Maur, to the Convent of Port Royal des Champs, near Marly, removing in 1661, when that establishment
was closed, to Auteuil. In 1669 she took up her residence in the Port Royal convent in Paris, where she died on the 16th of January 1678.
SABLÉ, a town of western France, in the department of Sarthe,
on the river Sarthe, 30 m. W.S.W. of Le Mans by rail. Pop.
(1906) 4952. Sablé has a château of the 18th century, a fortified
gateway, relic of a medieval stronghold, and a modern church
with fine stained glass of the early 15th century. Its importance,
however, is chiefly due to the marble quarries of the vicinity,
the products of which are worked in the town, where flour-milling,
the manufacture of farm-implements and trade in cattle are also
carried on. A communal college is among the public institutions.
From the 11th century Sablé was the seat of a powerful barony,
which in 1602 was made a duchy-peerage in favour of Urbain
de Laval, marshal of France. The place afterwards came into
the possession of Colbert de Torcy, nephew of the great Colbert
who built the château. In 1488 a treaty which resulted in the
union of France and Brittany was concluded at Sablé, between
Charles VIII. and Duke Francis II.
SABLE ANTELOPE, the English name for a large and handsome
South African antelope (Hippotragus niger), exhibiting
the rare feature of blackness or dark colour in both sexes. The
sable and the roan antelope (H. equinus) belong to a genus nearly
related to the oryxes, with which they form a group or sub-family.
In all these antelopes long cylindrical horns are present
in both sexes; the muzzle is hairy; there is no gland below
the eye; the tail is long and tufted; and in the breadth of their
tall crowns the upper molar-teeth resemble those of the oxen.
The sable and roan antelopes are distinguished from Oryx by
the stout and thickly ringed horns rising vertically from a ridge
over the eyes at an obtuse angle to the plane of the lower part
of the face, and then sweeping backwards in a bold curve. Sable
antelope are among the handsomest of South African antelopes,
and are endowed with great speed and staying power. They
are commonly met with in herds including from ten to twenty
individuals, but on rare occasions as many as fifty have been
seen together. Forest-clad highlands are their favourite resorts.
The roan antelope is a larger animal, with shorter horns, whose
general colour in both sexes is strawberry-roan. It is typically
a South African species, but is represented by a local race in the
eastern Sudan (H. equinus bakeri) distinguished by its redder
colour and different face-markings.
SABLE ISLAND, an island of Nova Scotia, Canada, 110 m.
S.E. of Cape Canso, in 43° 56' N. and 60° W. It is composed
of shifting sand, and is about 20 m. in length by 1 m. in breadth,
rising in places to a height of 85 ft. In the interior is a lake
about 10 m. in length. At either end dangerous sandbars run out
