Ancient European Languages And Writings

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Ancient European Languages And Writings

AELAW has been developed with the aim of co-ordinating a wide group of international researchers dedicated to the study of the different ancient European languages and writings with the objective of creating an ample work team capable of establishing the foundations for the creation, for the first time, of a large online databank which will permit the cataloguing of all the currently known documents in this type of languages, thus introducing this important part of the European cultural heritage into the 21st century.

The construction of the Roman Empire generated a complex dialectic between local and global tendencies which presents more than a few points of contact with the world today. In the field of languages and written culture it supposed, on one hand, the affirmation of a society with an elevated literacy rate, a noteworthy literary culture and a growing use of public writing as an instrument of communications, social affirmation and commemoration; and, on the other, a long process of coexistence between languages of general use (Latin and Greek) and many other local ones which gave rise to phenomena of bilingualism and multilingualism in a context in which the language did not play the identifying role it has developed in the Europe of nations. The result of this coexistence in western Europe was the triumph of the Latin language and alphabet with varied results for the local languages: in some cases extinct at the begininning of our Era (Etruscan or Iberian) and in other cases conserved until the end of the Ancient period (Gallic or Punic) or, exceptionally until today (Basque).