Bilingualism in Ancient Society

Bilingualism in Ancient Society PDF Author: James Noel Adams
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199245062
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description
Bilingualism has seen an explosion of work in recent years. This volume introduces classicists, ancient historians and other scholars interested in sociolinguistic research into evidence of bilingualism in the ancient Mediterranean.

Bilingualism in Ancient Society

Bilingualism in Ancient Society PDF Author: James Noel Adams
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199245062
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description
Bilingualism has seen an explosion of work in recent years. This volume introduces classicists, ancient historians and other scholars interested in sociolinguistic research into evidence of bilingualism in the ancient Mediterranean.

Language and Society in the Greek and Roman Worlds

Language and Society in the Greek and Roman Worlds PDF Author: James Clackson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316297802
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
Texts written in Latin, Greek and other languages provide ancient historians with their primary evidence, but the role of language as a source for understanding the ancient world is often overlooked. Language played a key role in state-formation and the spread of Christianity, the construction of ethnicity, and negotiating positions of social status and group membership. Language could reinforce social norms and shed light on taboos. This book presents an accessible account of ways in which linguistic evidence can illuminate topics such as imperialism, ethnicity, social mobility, religion, gender and sexuality in the ancient world, without assuming the reader has any knowledge of Greek or Latin, or of linguistic jargon. It describes the rise of Greek and Latin at the expense of other languages spoken around the Mediterranean and details the social meanings of different styles, and the attitudes of ancient speakers towards linguistic differences.

Bilingualism and the Latin Language

Bilingualism and the Latin Language PDF Author: James Noel Adams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521817714
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 876

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Book Description
Since the 1980s, bilingualism has become one of the main themes of sociolinguistics - but there are as yet few large-scale treatments of the subject specific to the ancient world. This book is the first work to deal systematically with bilingualism during a period of antiquity (the Roman period, down to about the fourth century AD) in the light of sociolinguistic discussions of bilingual issues. The general theme of the work is the nature of the contact between Latin and numerous other languages spoken in the Roman world. Among the many issues discussed three are prominent: code-switching (the practice of switching between two languages in the course of a single utterance) and its motivation, language contact as a cause of change in one or both of the languages in contact, and the part played by language choice and language switching in the establishment of personal and group identities.

Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman Worlds

Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman Worlds PDF Author: Alex Mullen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 113956062X
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
Through words and images employed both by individuals and by a range of communities across the Graeco-Roman worlds, this book explores the complexity of multilingual representations of identity. Starting with the advent of literacy in the Mediterranean, it encompasses not just the Greek and Roman empires but also the transformation of the Graeco-Roman world under Islam and within the medieval mind. By treating a range of materials, contexts, languages, and temporal and political boundaries, the contributors consider points of cross-cultural similarity and difference and the changing linguistic landscape of East and West from antiquity into the medieval period. Insights from contemporary multilingualism theory and interdisciplinary perspectives are employed throughout to exploit the material fully.

A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages

A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages PDF Author: Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 111919329X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
Covers the major languages, language families, and writing systems attested in the Ancient Near East Filled with enlightening chapters by noted experts in the field, this book introduces Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) languages and language families used during the time period of roughly 3200 BCE to the second century CE in the areas of Egypt, the Levant, eastern Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Iran. In addition to providing grammatical sketches of the respective languages, the book focuses on socio-linguistic questions such as language contact, diglossia, the development of literary standard languages, and the development of diplomatic languages or “linguae francae.” It also addresses the interaction of Ancient Near Eastern languages with each other and their roles within the political and cultural systems of ANE societies. Presented in five parts, The Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages provides readers with in-depth chapter coverage of the writing systems of ANE, starting with their decipherment. It looks at the emergence of cuneiform writing; the development of Egyptian writing in the fourth and early third millennium BCI; and the emergence of alphabetic scripts. The book also covers many of the individual languages themselves, including Sumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Pre- and Post-Exilic Hebrew, Phoenician, Ancient South Arabian, and more. Provides an overview of all major language families and writing systems used in the Ancient Near East during the time period from the beginning of writing (approximately 3200 BCE) to the second century CE (end of cuneiform writing) Addresses how the individual languages interacted with each other and how they functioned in the societies that used them Written by leading experts on the languages and topics The Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages is an ideal book for undergraduate students and scholars interested in Ancient Near Eastern cultures and languages or certain aspects of these languages.

The Multilingual Experience in Egypt, from the Ptolemies to the Abbasids

The Multilingual Experience in Egypt, from the Ptolemies to the Abbasids PDF Author: Arietta Papaconstantinou
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351885375
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
For over a millennium and a half, Egypt was home to at least two commonly used languages of communication. Although this situation is by no means exceptional in the ancient and medieval worlds, the wealth of documentary sources preserved by Egypt's papyri makes the country a privileged observation ground for the study of ancient multilingualism. One of the greatest contributions of papyri to this subject is that they capture more linguistic registers than other ancient and medieval sources, since they range from very private documents not meant by their author to be read by future generations, to official documents produced by the administration, which are preserved in their original form. This collection of essays aims to make this wealth better known, as well as to give a diachronic view of multilingual practices in Egypt from the arrival of the Greeks as a political force in the country with Alexander the Great, to the beginnings of Abbasid rule when Greek, and slowly also Coptic, receded from the documentary record. The first section of the book gives an overview of the documentary sources for this subject, which for ancient history standards are very rich and as yet under-exploited. The second part contains several case studies from different periods that deal with language use in contexts of varying breadth and scope, from its the ritual use in magic or the liturgy to private letters and state administration.

Language and Linguistic Contact in Ancient Sicily

Language and Linguistic Contact in Ancient Sicily PDF Author: Olga Tribulato
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107029317
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
A comprehensive and up-to-date account of the languages of ancient Sicily by an international team of experts.

Bilingualism Across the Lifespan

Bilingualism Across the Lifespan PDF Author: Elena Nicoladis
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110341247
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
This book pioneers the study of bilingualism across the lifespan and in all its diverse forms. In framing the newest research within a lifespan perspective, the editors highlight the importance of considering an individual's age in researching how bilingualism affects language acquisition and cognitive development. A key theme is the variability among bilinguals, which may be due to a host of individual and sociocultural factors, including the degree to which bilingualism is valued within a particular context.Thus, this book is a call for language researchers, psychologists, and educators to pursue a better understanding of bilingualism in our increasingly global society.

Translation as Scholarship

Translation as Scholarship PDF Author: Jay Crisostomo
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501509756
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 775

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Book Description
In the first half of the 2d millennium BCE, translation occasionally depicted semantically incongruous correspondences. Such cases reflect ancient scribes substantiating their virtuosity with cuneiform writing by capitalizing on phonologic, graphemic, semantic, and other resemblances in the interlingual space. These scholar–scribes employed an essential scribal practice, analogical hermeneutics, an interpretative activity grounded in analogical reasoning and empowered by the potentiality of the cuneiform script. Scribal education systematized such practices, allowing scribes to utilize these habits in copying compositions and creating translations. In scribal education, analogical hermeneutics is exemplified in the word list "Izi", both in its structure and in its occasional bilingualism. By examining "Izi" as a product of the social field of scribal education, this book argues that scribes used analogical hermeneutics to cultivate their craft and establish themselves as knowledgeable scribes. Within a linguistic epistemology of cuneiform scribal culture, translation is a tool in the hands of a knowledgeable scholar.

The Language of Roman Letters

The Language of Roman Letters PDF Author: Olivia Elder
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108480160
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
Explores in depth how bilingualism in the correspondence of elite Romans illuminates their lives, relationships and identities.