On Correctness in Romance Languages

Q

Isn't it strange/funny that modern-day Romance languages have rigid usage rules considered somehow elitist yet they themselves grew in large part out of what was considered 'incorrect' Latin spoken mostly by the uneducated masses?
https://www.quora.com/Isnt-it-strange-funny-that-modern-day-Romance-languages-have-rigid-usage-rules-considered-somehow-elitist-yet-they-themselves-grew-in-large-part-out-of-what-was-considered-incorrect-Latin-spoken-mostly-by-the/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-2

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Studied Latin (language) at Lund University

20.XI.2023

Let's break this down a bit.

"Isn't it strange/funny that modern-day Romance languages have rigid usage rules"

Every language in the world, including your English, has rigid usage rules.

Sometimes the uneducated or half educated are most rigid about what they are or what they think they are.

When Tolkien wrote "Helms too they chose" some half educated man pretended this was too élitist against uneducated men to not rigidly follow their grammar. Probably same type of half educated man who pretends I scourch French grammar. In fact, some portions of the grammar I don't quite master (looking at you, passé simple: "je lus" with U, is it?) - but working my way round parts I am not familiar with is different from breaking parts I overestimated my familiarity with. To some, not speaking exactly as they equals "breaking the rules of grammar" ...

"considered somehow elitist"

Not by Italians themselves. See Giorgio Bellini's answer - perfectly correct, but doesn't begin to adress where you are coming from.

"yet they themselves grew in large part out of what was considered 'incorrect' Latin"

Every language change is a shift in what is considered correct, not a simple dissolution of the very concept of correctness.

Sometime between 1420 and 1470, English lost the infinitive ending -en (previously common with even modern German).

"spoken mostly by the uneducated masses?"

In fact not even true. The Middle Class outside formal rhetoric (like going to court) arguably contributed much more than the kind of people making the mistakes of Index Probi, some of which were later adopted by the Middle Class, some of which were on the other hand not adopted into the Romance languages.