The Language of the Papyri

by T. V. Evans, D. D. Obbink

Overview

The modern rediscovery of the Greek and Latin papyri from Egypt has transformed our knowledge of the ancient world. We cannot, however, make the same claim in the specific area of language study. Although important studies of the language of the papyri have appeared sporadically over the past century, we are still dealing today with a linguistic resource of extraordinary richness which has hardly begun to be explored. Every scrap of papyrus and every ostracon (potsherd) or tablet unearthed has the potential to change some aspect of the way we think about the Greek and Latin languages. This book demonstrate that potential, by gathering together essays from seventeen scholars who present a variety of perspectives and methodological approaches. The Language of the Papyri charts current directions of international research, and will also provide a stimulus for future work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199237081
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/28/2010
Pages:	386
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

T. V. Evans is Lecturer in the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University, Sydney. D. D. Obbink is Tutor in Greek Literature, Christ Church, and University Lecturer in Papyrology and Greek Literature, Oxford.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction, T. V. EvansI. Linguistic Change and Diversity2. Auxiliary thelo, J. A. L. Lee3. Linguistic Diversity in the Archive of the Engineers Kleon and Theodoros, W. Clarysse4. Identifying the Language of the Individual in the Zenon Archive, T. V. Evans5. Authorial Revision of Linguistic Style in Greek Papyrus Letters and Petitions (AD I-IV), R. Luiselli6. Imperatives and Other Directives in the Greek Letters from Mons Claudianus, M. Leiwo7. Do Mothers Matter? The Emergence of Matronymics in Early Roman Egypt, M. Depauw8. Variations in Complementation to Impersonal verba declarandi in Greek Papyri from the Roman and Byzantine Periods, P. James9. Romanes eunt domus! Linguistic Aspects of the Sub-Literary Latin in Pompeiian Wall Inscriptions, P. Kruschwitz10. Linguistic Varieties and Language Level in Latin Non-Literary Letters, H. Halla-ahoII. Language Content11. Language Change and Personal Names in Early Ptolemaic Egypt, B. Muhs12. Bilingualism in Roman Egypt: Exploring the Archive of Phatres of Narmuthis, I. Rutherford13. Latin Influence and Greek Request Formulae, E. Dickey14. Greek Papyri and the Coining of Greek-Latin Hybrid Compounds, P. Filos15. Vina fictitia from Latin into Greek: The Evidence of the Papyri, A. Maravela-Solbakk16. Lexical Translations in the Papyri: Koine Greek, Greek Dialects, and Foreign Languages, F. SchironiIII. General17. Building and Examining Linguistic Phenomena in a Corpus of Representative Papyri, S.E. Porter & M. O'Donnell