The Language of the Papyri

Edited by T. V. Evans and D. D. Obbink

Opens up a burgeoning sphere of research to a broad audience
Articulates a range of new methodological approaches to its subject
Indicates productive avenues for future investigation

The Language of the Papyri

Edited by T. V. Evans and D. D. Obbink

Description

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.

The Language of the Papyri

Edited by T. V. Evans and D. D. Obbink

1. Introduction, T. V. Evans
I. Linguistic Change and Diversity
2. Auxiliary thelo, J. A. L. Lee
3. Linguistic Diversity in the Archive of the Engineers Kleon and Theodoros, W. Clarysse
4. Identifying the Language of the Individual in the Zenon Archive, T. V. Evans
5. Authorial Revision of Linguistic Style in Greek Papyrus Letters and Petitions (AD I-IV), R. Luiselli
6. Imperatives and Other Directives in the Greek Letters from Mons Claudianus, M. Leiwo
7. Do Mothers Matter? The Emergence of Matronymics in Early Roman Egypt, M. Depauw
8. Variations in Complementation to Impersonal verba declarandi in Greek Papyri from the Roman and Byzantine Periods, P. James
9. Romanes eunt domus! Linguistic Aspects of the Sub-Literary Latin in Pompeiian Wall Inscriptions, P. Kruschwitz
10. Linguistic Varieties and Language Level in Latin Non-Literary Letters, H. Halla-aho
II. Language Content
11. Language Change and Personal Names in Early Ptolemaic Egypt, B. Muhs
12. Bilingualism in Roman Egypt: Exploring the Archive of Phatres of Narmuthis, I. Rutherford
13. Latin Influence and Greek Request Formulae, E. Dickey
14. Greek Papyri and the Coining of Greek-Latin Hybrid Compounds, P. Filos
15. Vina fictitia from Latin into Greek: The Evidence of the Papyri, A. Maravela-Solbakk
16. Lexical Translations in the Papyri: Koine Greek, Greek Dialects, and Foreign Languages, F. Schironi
III. General
17. Building and Examining Linguistic Phenomena in a Corpus of Representative Papyri, S.E. Porter & M. O'Donnell

The Language of the Papyri

Edited by T. V. Evans and D. D. Obbink

Author Information

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.

Contributors:

Willy Clarysse, K.U. Leuven
Mark Depauw, K.U. Leuven
Eleanor Dickey, University of Exeter
Trevor Evans, Macquarie University
Panagiotis Filos, University of Oxford
Hilla Halla-aho, University of Helsinki
Patrick James, Cambridge Greek Lexicon project
Peter Kruschwitz, University of Reading
John Lee, Macquarie University
Martti Leiwo, Finnish Institute at Athens, University of Helsinki & University of Turku
Raffaele Luiselli, University of Florence
Anastasia Maravela-Solbakk, University of Oslo
Brian Muhs, University of Leiden
Matthew O'Donnell, University of Liverpool & McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton
Stanley Porter, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton
Ian Rutherford, University of Reading
Francesca Schironi, Harvard University