Latin loanwords in Greek documentary papyri (c. 30 BCE to c. 200 CE)

Thesis

Ancient Greek hosted hundreds of Latin loanwords (e.g. κεντουρίων ‘centurion’) as a result of contact between Greeks and Romans. Because previous studies of Latin loanwords have mostly concentrated on chronology, morphology, and lexicon, there has been no systematic investigation of their introduction and spread in specific contexts and the motives behind their choice or avoidance. This thesis is the first work to address such questions. It uses a large corpus of Greek texts, the papyri of early Roman Egypt (c. 30 BCE to c. 200 CE), a place that did not have much prior exposure to Latin, as they are generally closer to everyday language than literature and present numerous first attestations of loans with a high density and frequency.

The dissertation includes an introduction laying the linguistic and methodological groundwork and four chapters. The first two focus on a military-influenced setting, the Eastern Desert of Egypt with forts (Didymoi and Krokodilo) and quarries (Mons Claudianus), and the other two on an urban setting in the Nile valley, the city of Oxyrhynchus. Being at the opposite ends of a scale of Romanness and military influence, the two settings might have presented diametrically opposed linguistic outcomes. In fact, most findings are valid for both. Only the players and a few tendencies differ: if in the Desert loanwords spread from within the community, from the higher ranks and the military administration, in Oxyrhynchus loanwords at first enter the community mainly from outside, reaching it from a larger centre, Alexandria. But general trends are observable in both settings. Documents show that military loanwords are usually the first large group of loans to enter military and civilian settings alike. Loanwords are by and large introduced by a select and generally bilingual minority and spread through society mainly through a top- down process. This process is faster in smaller societies and slower in larger ones. The introduction and choice of loanwords is not usually the consequence of a deliberate policy, and loans are deliberately chosen, preferred, or avoided in specific cases only. This analysis deepens our knowledge of Latin influence on Greek in a newly conquered, Greek-speaking region like Egypt and furthers our understanding of Latin-Greek language contact and its consequences.

Authors: Sidro, G

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: language contact; Latin loanwords in Greek; Oxyrhynchus; borrowing; Eastern Desert; Roman Egypt; papyri