Startseite Altertumswissenschaften & Ägyptologie Dialect Convergence and Linguistic Change: The Dodona Tablets Corpus and its Significance for the Study of the History of the Greek Language
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Dialect Convergence and Linguistic Change: The Dodona Tablets Corpus and its Significance for the Study of the History of the Greek Language

  • Georgios K. Giannakis
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Postclassical Greek
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Postclassical Greek

Abstract

Based on 187 tablets of the Dodona corpus that involve the Koine dialect, an explanation is attempted of a process of dialect convergence in the Dodona sanctuary. This process seems to be better explained by applying the theory of accommodation whereby in multilingual or multidialectal contexts one linguistic idiom (language or dialect), for a series of reasons, plays a dominant or progressively dominating role by infiltrating into the linguistic map of the area. In Dodona, this role is played by Koine, as indicated by the progressive infiltration of this dialect in the function of the oracle. This evolution may also provide a model for language change in ancient Greece and the history of the Greek language in general, with the expansion of Koine in most of the Greek-speaking world during the Hellenistic and Postclassical periods.

Abstract

Based on 187 tablets of the Dodona corpus that involve the Koine dialect, an explanation is attempted of a process of dialect convergence in the Dodona sanctuary. This process seems to be better explained by applying the theory of accommodation whereby in multilingual or multidialectal contexts one linguistic idiom (language or dialect), for a series of reasons, plays a dominant or progressively dominating role by infiltrating into the linguistic map of the area. In Dodona, this role is played by Koine, as indicated by the progressive infiltration of this dialect in the function of the oracle. This evolution may also provide a model for language change in ancient Greece and the history of the Greek language in general, with the expansion of Koine in most of the Greek-speaking world during the Hellenistic and Postclassical periods.

Heruntergeladen am 2.2.2026 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111079172-003/html
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