In memory of József Herman (1924–2005) his widow Marianne Bakró-Nagy and the Comité international pour l’étude du latin vulgaire et tardif have established a prize for the best contribution by a young researcher at the biennial International Colloquium on Late and Vulgar Latin – Latin vulgaire – latin tardif. The prize consists of a diploma and €500.

The criteria for the prize are the following:

• The applicant is in the initial stage of their academic career, working on their dissertation or having finished it recently, participating in the International Colloquium on Late and Vulgar Latin – Latin vulgaire – latin tardif for the first or second time.
• The paper presented is of good quality, deals with linguistic problems of Late and Vulgar Latin (including the transition from Latin to Romance), and demonstrates originality and familiarity with relevant concepts and issues in contemporary research.
• The presentation is delivered in a clear and coherent fashion (taking into account that the audience is an international one).
• Co-authored contributions will not be considered.

The jury will consist of the members of the Comité international pour l’étude du latin vulgaire et tardif taking part in the Colloquium. They will compare notes during the closing session of the Colloquium. If they find that no presentation corresponds to the criteria above, there will be no winner.

Applicants for the prize have to indicate their interest after they got a notice of acceptance of their abstracts. To help the work of the jury, they will be asked to send a copy (or extended summary) of their paper and handouts at least one week before the opening of the Colloquium.

The 2018 (LVLT 13, Budapest) winner was Simon Aerts from Ghent for his paper "Latin tense and aspect in the writings of Gregory of Tours: a Systemic Functional analysis of tense usage in the Historia Francorum".

The 2022 (LVLT 14, Ghent) winner was Salvatore Cammisuli from Catania for his paper "Nomi di mestiere nel glossario latino-greco degli Hermeneumata Celtis".