Search

[Resumo] Pretende-se, neste artigo, esboçar uma proposta de periodização do português antigo, com base em critérios estritamente linguísticos. Fixámos como campo de estudo um corpus notarial seriado cronologicamente (Carvalho 2017a) e analisámos a evolução e o comportamento de vários fenómenos, distribuídos pelos diferentes níveis de análise: fonologia (na sua relação com a codificação gráfica), morfologia, sintaxe, semântica, léxico e discurso. O objetivo foi estabelecer balizas de separação mais ou menos comuns a vários deles, no sentido de tornar mais rigorosas as designações tomadas de empréstimo da história literária e cultural. Depois de delimitadas essas franjas de separação, de menor amplitude do que aquelas que têm sido consideradas pelos periodizadores da língua, apresentar-se-á o termo ad quem dos fenómenos mais representativos do português antigo, manifestados nos textos de uma zona geográfica neurálgica no processo de estandardização e de fixação da norma: a região centro-litoral portuguesa. [Abstract] The article outlines a scheme for the periodisation of early Portuguese, on the basis of strictly linguistic criteria. Our study is based on a corpus of chronologically ordered notarial documents (Carvalho 2017a); we analyse the evolution and behaviour of various phenomena, distributed through the different levels of analysis: phonology (as related to graphical codification), morphology, syntax, semantics, lexis and discourse. The aim has been to establish delimiting markers that are broadly common to many of them, in order to make the designations borrowed from literary and cultural history more rigorous. Having outlining these time-zones, which are narrower than those previously considered in periodisations of the language, we present the terminus ad quem of the most representative phenomena of early Portuguese, as shown in texts from a nerve-center of the process of standardisation and fixation of the norm: the central-coastal region.

Linguistic varieties such as female speech, foreigner talk, and colloquial language have not gone unnoticed when it comes to Classical Greek, but little is known about later periods of the Greek language. In this collective volume leading experts in the field outline some of the most important varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek, basing themselves on a broad range of literary and documentary sources, and advancing a number of innovative methodologies. Close attention is paid to the linguistic features that characterize these varieties, with in-depth discussions of lexical, morpho-syntactic, orthographic, and metrical variation, as well as the interrelationship between these different types of variation. The volume thus offers valuable insights into the nature of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek, laying the foundation for future studies of linguistic variation in these later stages of the language, while at the same time providing a point of comparison for Classical Greek scholarship.

In this roundtable, from the theoretical assumptions of Historical Sociolinguistics, the challenges encountered by researchers in this study area were discussed. One of these challenges refers to the materials used as a source of analysis, since they are predominantly written and fragmented. In order to solve these obstacles, the debaters pointed out different paths, such as the use of certain textual genres to carry out historical investigations. In this review, we gave a greater focus to the proposal to use plays and how they can be a solution to the challenges of Historical Sociolinguistics. Thus, our discussion will be based mainly on three issues raised by Berlinck: (i) the nature of the texts that can be considered in the research; (ii) the ways of understanding the socio-historical context of the production of these texts and (iii) the differences that may result from the study of linguistic phenomena in texts of different natures. Nesta mesa-redonda, foram discutidos, a partir dos pressupostos teóricos da Sociolinguística Histórica, os desafios encontrados pelos pesquisadores dessa área de estudo. Um desses desafios refere-se aos materiais utilizados como fonte de análise, uma vez que eles são predominantemente escritos e fragmentados. A fim de solucionar esses entraves, as debatedoras apontaram caminhos diversos, como a utilização de determinados gêneros textuais para a realização das investigações históricas. Nesta resenha, demos um maior enfoque à proposta de uso das peças teatrais e em como elas podem ser uma solução aos desafios da Sociolinguística Histórica. Dessa forma, nossa discussão irá se pautar, principalmente, em três questões apontadas por Berlinck: (i) a natureza dos textos que se pode considerar na pesquisa; (ii) as formas de compreender o contexto sócio-histórico da produção desses textos e (iii) as diferenças que podem resultar do estudo de fenômenos linguísticos em textos de naturezas distintas.

The corpus of Greek documentary papyri from Egypt consists of various types of documents, such as letters, contracts and accounts, showing different types of linguistic variation. The concept of register is applied here to examine the relationship between the presence of non-standard orthography and the situational context according to the situational variables setting, participants, genre and production circumstances. Quantitative study shows that the participants involved and the genre of the document are predictors for the amount of orthographic variation that is found in a document. Qualitative analysis of the documents in a number of archives reveals that there are also other important factors, such as the choice of scribe, method of production and the stage of composition of the text that is preserved to us, to explain the presence of orthographic variation in the corpus of documentary papyri.

In this chapter, several metrical varieties in a corpus of Byzantine book epigrams are explored. More specifically, we look into a number of varieties in metrical colophons of the type ἡ μὲν χεὶρ ἡ γράψασα‘ the hand that wrote [this]’, which was a very popular colophon throughout the entire Byzantine period. In its canonical form, these epigrams follow a dodecasyllabic metrical pattern, but many scribes freely experimented with the wording and the metrical structure of these colophons, which gives us a unique insight into the mechanics behind the colometrics of these texts and, by expansion, of Byzantine texts in general. The modern cognitive-linguistic theory of Information Units provides a fitting framework to interpret these varieties and to see them in a way that is different from the traditional reading of written texts. Indeed, the specific characteristics of these texts allow us to attribute certain oral characteristics to them, while still maintaining their written status. From this point of view, multiple reoccurring “mistakes” in the metre turnout to be varieties in disguise, originating from a wrongful pairing of correct metrical units (cola).

This chapter draws attention to the importance of studying not only linguistic variation in language, but also the patterned heterogeneity that can be related to it – in other words, linguistic varieties. Whereas the presence of varieties such as foreigner talk, female speech, colloquial language, etc. in the Classical period has received considerable attention, much less work has been done on the Post-classical and Byzantine periods, a situation which this edited volume hopes to remedy. Before outlining the contributions to the volume, we address a couple of central theoretical questions to research on linguistic varieties, such as the relationship between concepts like ‘variant’, ‘variety’ and ‘variation’, the modeling of varieties in terms of a ‘variational space’, the relationship between varieties, and the different methodologies that can be adopted to study linguistic varieties.

Specialists of the history of Ancient Greek scholarship and modern-day sociolinguists alike have made observations regarding the seemingly “distinctive” status of syntax: the former have argued there is no coherent theory of syntax in Ancient grammatical treatises, and the latter that syntactic variation is much less prominent in modern languages than lexical or phonetic/orthographic variation. The aim of this contribution is to confront these two perspectives by studying linguistic variation in three different types of sources: petitions in the Katochoi of the Sarapieion archive (II BCE), Phrynichus’ Ecloga (II CE), and the Life of Euthymius and its later metaphrasis (VI/X CE). It appears that syntactic variation plays a different role in these three types of sources, which I explain by referring to the cognitive status of syntax, which is more schematic and complex than lexis, and therefore less easily focused upon in“observer-centered”sources such as the Ecloga. At thesametime, I suggest that culture-specific explanations should be taken into account, too.

This article introduces the newJournal of Historical Sociolinguisticsby situating it in the developing field of historical sociolinguistics. The landmark paper of Weinreich et al. (1968), which paid increased attention to extralinguistic factors in the explanation of language variation and change, served as an important basis for the gradual development and expansion of historical sociolinguistics as a separate (sub)field of inquiry, notably since the influential work of Romaine (1982). This article traces the development of the field of historical sociolinguistics and considers some of its basic principles and assumptions, including the uniformitarian principle and the so-called bad data problem. Also, an overview is provided of some of the directions recent research has taken, both in terms of the different types of data used, and in terms of important approaches, themes and topics that are relevant to many studies within the field. The article concludes with considerations of the necessarily multidisciplinary nature of historical sociolinguistics, and invites authors from various research traditions to submit original research articles to the journal, and thus help to further the development of the fascinating field of historical sociolinguistics.

The aim of this thesis is to shed light on language variation and language change in judicial protocols from the municipal court in Stockholm during the period 1476−1626. These documents provide a unique insight into late medieval and early modern use of written vernacular. The main material consists of 700 courtroom notes from seven different periods of time, a hundred documents from each year: 1476, 1499, 1525, 1550, 1575, 1600, and 1626. The study draws theoretically on functional linguistics; more specifically, it utilizes Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar, Ulf Teleman’s (1985) theoretical model of language change, as well as dialogism. The results are presented in four analytical chapters. In the first of these, the aim is to systemize the somewhat heterogeneous material, and the corpus is divided in two different ways: one due to judicial content (‘categories of matter’), and one due to textual structure (‘discourse levels’). These systemizations also serve as a methodological foundation for the lexicogrammatical analysis in the following chapters. A main result is that multi-party cases over time develop a functional need for new communication strategies, while unilateral cases already from the beginning seem to bear a more deep-rooted textual stability. In addition, there is a significant increase of discourse level 3, representing communicative events outside the courtroom, in multi-party cases found in texts from 1600 and 1626. In the two following chapters, lexicogrammatical resources of ‘personal reference’ and ‘time and tense’ are analysed. The texts realize different patterns of anaphora, where individuation explains much of the variation: texts with high degree of individuation (criminal cases) materialize a high degree of pronouns, whereas texts regarding property issues materialize low individuation with few pronouns and many full NPs. Regarding the use of tense, the past tense is the most common tense. Still, the study shows an diachronic increase in the use of present tense. The last analytical chapter examines the use of three lexical features: judicial pronouns; word pairs; and nominalizations. The results show that judicial pronouns and word pairs typically occur in registrations matters; nominalizations occur throughout the genre. In the last chapter, the results and implications of the thesis are summated and discussed. The results point towards a pragmatic use of the written language. Although the lexicogrammatical resources are the same during the period, the usages vary. Hence, linguistic variation and change are highly motivated by an intercommunion of contextual factors such as a more solid administrative literacy, a changing litigation, and an increase of legal demands for linguistic precision and documentation. It is argued that the language variety in the genre can be understood as instantiations of different registers.

Recent findings in sociolinguistics have greatly enhanced our understanding of the mechanisms of linguistic variation and change. In this paper, I discuss the possibility of applying a historical sociolinguistic approach to a corpus language such as Ancient Greek. In the first part of my paper, I address the question of exactly how to take into account the relationship between language and social context. I review a number of recently made proposals, and their applicability to Ancient Greek. In the second part of my paper, I argue for the benefits of one specific approach, the Systemic Functional framework, applying it to particle usage in letters and petitions from Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt (I – VIII ad).