Avainsanat:
Linguistic variation, Scribes, Language, Literature, Orthography, syntax, Graeco-Roman World, History, Scribal, Ancient, Latin, Greek, Greece, Egypt, LinguisticsTiivistelmä
This volume examines the interface between individuals who plan and compose various documentary texts and the language used in those texts by analysing the complex processes of document creation and finalisation. It highlights the
importance of variation across multiple linguistic dimensions—such as language choice, script, orthography, syntax, and document format—demonstrating how these factors interact to convey different social and functional meanings in nonliterary writing.The contributors focus particularly on scribes and their influence on the linguistic outcomes of documentary texts: What kind of language is written, and why? Who authored the text, and who physically wrote it? It is argued that research on the language of ancient and medieval non-literary texts must consider the scribal level alongside the edited text. By ‘scribal level’, we refer to (1) the design of the text itself and (2) its actual writing, i.e. the practical skills involved in a specific context. This approach also considers the choice of language and writing system, as the scribe’s linguistic competence could significantly influence language selection. In addition to detailed linguistic analyses, an important outcome of this volume is its exploration of the varied ways in which the term ‘scribe’ is and can be used. A scribe might be an official tasked with writing documents according to authoritative requirements or someone who records a document or letter based on another’s dictation—whether a professional scribe, a semi-literate individual, or a member of the same household. Thus, a scribe could encompass anyone who records information. Here, the term ‘scribe’ is not restricted to writers of highstatus texts but includes a broader spectrum. Most contributors pay special attention to papyri and ostraka from Egypt due to their importance as source material, although other contexts are also considered. The data include the language use of notaries in the acts of the Council of Chalcedon and Late Latin charters from Tuscany. Cross-cultural effects on language use play a prominent role, especially the transfer of linguistic elements and scribal practices between languages. Greek papyri from Egypt exhibit significant variation. Some variants are classified by modern editors as nonstandard, substandard, or even mistakes. Consequently, editors often ‘regularise’ these deviations to conform to a ‘standard’ Greek or Latin.1 However, both languages underwent considerable change between the third century BCE and the seventh century CE.
Avainsanat:
Roman onomastics, Cognomina, ancient Rome, Roman women's names, Rome, Latin Female Cognomina, Latin, FemaleTiivistelmä
This book is about cognomina, more specifically the cognomina used by Roman women. Chronologically speaking, the cognomen was the latest component of the Roman onomastic system. Eventually, it was also the last component that survived in the nomenclature of most Romans. The use of individual cognomina started to spread throughout the Roman society in the late Republican period and, during the early Imperial period, the cognomen became the primary individual name of Roman men and women. For women, this development was of particular significance. Throughout the Republican period, most of them seem to have borne only one name, i.e. the feminine form of their father’s nomen gentilicium. In a sense, women in this period were, from an onomastic point of view, seen as members of their patrilineal family or gens rather than as real individuals. This apparent lack of women’s individual names has often baffled scholars, even if it is, by now, clear that women sometimes did have praenomina, i.e. first names of more personal nature. The use of female praenomina, however, was never a universal practice. It was only through the advent of the cognomen that all Roman women, for the first time, received a name that gave them a true individual identity in the public eye.
And see AWOL's Alphabetical List of Open Access Monograph Series in Ancient Studies
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