Renewed attention to the language of ancient documentary sources – above all Greek papyri – has opened new paths in linguistic research. Rays of Language: Linguistic Perspectives on Non-Literary Papyri and Related Sources brings together specialists from across the field to explore how everyday written documents illuminate linguistic diversity, change, and communication in the ancient world. The volume offers a comprehensive overview of current approaches to the study of non-literary Greek and related languages.
Drawing on new corpora, digital tools, and theoretical frameworks, the contributors examine a wide range of linguistic phenomena from spelling practices and language contact to syntax, register, and discourse structure. Each chapter demonstrates how documentary texts, often considered peripheral, in fact provide crucial evidence for the dynamics of language in use and for the multilingual realities of Graeco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt.
The book is organised into four thematic parts. Part 1: Language Contact and Scribal Influence explores multilingualism, scribal norms, and the interplay between Greek and other languages used in Egypt, including Latin and Coptic, while also considering early Arabic documentary practices within a comparative framework. Part 2: Quantitative Studies applies corpus-based and computational methods to questions of usage and change, revealing new insights into frequency and distribution. Part 3: New Insights on Greek Syntax investigates syntactic developments in the papyri, shedding light on phenomena such as the optative, insubordination, and variation in formulaic complementation structures. And Part 4: Socio-Pragmatic Approaches situates linguistic choices within their social and communicative settings, analysing stylistic variation, occupational language, and discourse markers.
By situating Greek within its wider linguistic environment – engaging with Latin, Coptic, and Arabic sources – Rays of Language broadens the horizons of papyrological linguistics and historical sociolinguistics alike. It offers both a synthesis of ongoing developments and a stimulus for future research into the language of the ancient Mediterranean’s everyday written culture.
Klaas Bentein is an associate research professor of classics and linguistics at Ghent University.
Marja Vierros is a professor of classical philology at the University of Helsinki.
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Rays of Language
Linguistic Perspectives on Non-Literary Papyri and Related Sources
Renewed attention to the language of ancient documentary sources – above all Greek papyri – has opened new paths in linguistic research. Rays of Language: Linguistic Perspectives on Non-Literary Papyri and Related Sources brings together specialists from across the field to explore how everyday written documents illuminate linguistic diversity, change, and communication in the ancient world. The volume offers a comprehensive overview of current approaches to the study of non-literary Greek and related languages.
Drawing on new corpora, digital tools, and theoretical frameworks, the contributors examine a wide range of linguistic phenomena from spelling practices and language contact to syntax, register, and discourse structure. Each chapter demonstrates how documentary texts, often considered peripheral, in fact provide crucial evidence for the dynamics of language in use and for the multilingual realities of Graeco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt.
The book is organised into four thematic parts. Part 1: Language Contact and Scribal Influence explores multilingualism, scribal norms, and the interplay between Greek and other languages used in Egypt, including Latin and Coptic, while also considering early Arabic documentary practices within a comparative framework. Part 2: Quantitative Studies applies corpus-based and computational methods to questions of usage and change, revealing new insights into frequency and distribution. Part 3: New Insights on Greek Syntax investigates syntactic developments in the papyri, shedding light on phenomena such as the optative, insubordination, and variation in formulaic complementation structures. And Part 4: Socio-Pragmatic Approaches situates linguistic choices within their social and communicative settings, analysing stylistic variation, occupational language, and discourse markers.
By situating Greek within its wider linguistic environment – engaging with Latin, Coptic, and Arabic sources – Rays of Language broadens the horizons of papyrological linguistics and historical sociolinguistics alike. It offers both a synthesis of ongoing developments and a stimulus for future research into the language of the ancient Mediterranean’s everyday written culture.
Klaas Bentein is an associate research professor of classics and linguistics at Ghent University.
Marja Vierros is a professor of classical philology at the University of Helsinki.
- Introduction Klaas Bentein & Marja Vierros
- Researching the language of the Greek papyri: Recent progress and the shape of the future Trevor V. Evans
- Iotacism in Egyptian Greek: Greek-internal development and transfer effect from Egyptian-Coptic Sonja Dahlgren
- Spelling variation of technical terms in the Greek medical papyri Nicola Reggiani
- Remarks on Adams’ category ‘regional’ loanwords: Selected examples from Latin documentary papyri Alessia Pezzella
- Case inflection in the early Arabic papyri (643–750 CE) Fokelien Kootstra-Ford
- Diminutives in the Greek papyri: A corpus-based investigation Alek Keersmaekers
- Defining the infinite: The articular infinitive in the Greek documentary papyri Marja Vierros
- Rewriting the history of the optative in the postclassical Greek papyri and literary texts (III BCE–VI CE): Persistence, formulae, and innovation Ezra la Roi
- Routes to insubordination in classical and postclassical Greek: ὅτι (and ἵνα) in the sentence and discourse grammar Victoria Beatrix Fendel
- Investigating the disclosure formula in non-literary papyri: Some observations on complement clauses Jerneja Kavčič
- Communicating in high-register Greek in private papyrus letters of the Roman period of Egypt Aikaterini Koroli & Amphilochios Papathomas
- Everyday occupations in Roman and Late Antique Egypt: ‘Metadata’ as data for the study of linguistic variation Marianna Thoma & Klaas Bentein
- A pragmatic and discourse analysis of the particle οὖν/oûn in documentary papyri Giuseppina di Bartolo
Sunday, December 21, 2025
Rays of Language: Linguistic Perspectives on Non-Literary Papyri and Related Sources
Klaas Bentain, Marja Vierros (eds.)
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