13 The Greek phonology of a tax collector in Egypt in the first century CE
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Emilio Crespo
Abstract
This chapter gathers the examples of deviating spellings found in four documentary papyri written by Nemesion, a tax collector for the Egyptian village of Philadelphia, in the first century CE, with the aim to ascertain the features of the phonemic system of Greek spoken by the writer. The main conclusion is that such spellings evidence a number of phonemic features of an idiolect of Koine Greek characterized by a pronunciation with interferences from the Egyptian vowels and consonants. The phonemic Greek idiolect of Nemesion most probably reflects the sociolect of many adults who lived in Egypt at that time and were bilingual in Greek and Egyptian.
Abstract
This chapter gathers the examples of deviating spellings found in four documentary papyri written by Nemesion, a tax collector for the Egyptian village of Philadelphia, in the first century CE, with the aim to ascertain the features of the phonemic system of Greek spoken by the writer. The main conclusion is that such spellings evidence a number of phonemic features of an idiolect of Koine Greek characterized by a pronunciation with interferences from the Egyptian vowels and consonants. The phonemic Greek idiolect of Nemesion most probably reflects the sociolect of many adults who lived in Egypt at that time and were bilingual in Greek and Egyptian.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments V
- Contents VII
- List of contributors XI
- The Greek Alphabet XV
- List of abbreviations XVII
- 1 Varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek: Novel questions and approaches 1
-
Part I: VARIETIES OF POST-CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE GREEK
- 2 Tracking down lects in Roman Egypt 17
- 3 Idiolect in focus: Two brothers in the Memphis Sarapieion (II BCE) 39
- 4 Imposing psychological pressure in papyrus request letters: A case study of six Byzantine letters written in an ecclesiastical context (VI–VII CE) 75
- 5 Greek in Egypt or Egyptian Greek? Syntactic regionalisms (IV CE) 115
- 6 In search of an Egyptian Greek lexicon in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt 141
- 7 Byzantine literature in “classicised” genres: Some grammatical realities (V–XIV CE) 163
- 8 From highly classicizing to common prose (XIII–XIV CE): The Metaphrasis of Niketas Choniates’ History 179
- 9 Back to the future: Akritic light on diachronic variation in Cappadocian (East Asia Minor Greek) 201
-
Part II: DIMENSIONS OF VARIATION IN POST-CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE GREEK
- 10 Tense variation in Ptolemaic papyri: Towards a grammar of epistolary dialogue 243
- 11 The Classical norm and varieties of Post-classical Greek: Expressions of anteriority and posteriority in a corpus of official documents (I–II CE) 265
- 12 Orthographic variation and register in the corpus of Greek documentary papyri (300 BCE–800 CE) 299
- 13 The Greek phonology of a tax collector in Egypt in the first century CE 327
- 14 Metrical variation in Byzantine colophons (XI–XV CE): The example of ἡ μὲν χεὶρ ἡ γράψασα 353
- 15 Arguing and narrating: Text type and linguistic variation in tenth-century Greek 369
- 16 The distinctiveness of syntax for varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek: Linguistic upgrading from the third century BCE to the tenth century CE 381
- Index locorum 415
- Index nominum 423
- Index rerum 425
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments V
- Contents VII
- List of contributors XI
- The Greek Alphabet XV
- List of abbreviations XVII
- 1 Varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek: Novel questions and approaches 1
-
Part I: VARIETIES OF POST-CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE GREEK
- 2 Tracking down lects in Roman Egypt 17
- 3 Idiolect in focus: Two brothers in the Memphis Sarapieion (II BCE) 39
- 4 Imposing psychological pressure in papyrus request letters: A case study of six Byzantine letters written in an ecclesiastical context (VI–VII CE) 75
- 5 Greek in Egypt or Egyptian Greek? Syntactic regionalisms (IV CE) 115
- 6 In search of an Egyptian Greek lexicon in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt 141
- 7 Byzantine literature in “classicised” genres: Some grammatical realities (V–XIV CE) 163
- 8 From highly classicizing to common prose (XIII–XIV CE): The Metaphrasis of Niketas Choniates’ History 179
- 9 Back to the future: Akritic light on diachronic variation in Cappadocian (East Asia Minor Greek) 201
-
Part II: DIMENSIONS OF VARIATION IN POST-CLASSICAL AND BYZANTINE GREEK
- 10 Tense variation in Ptolemaic papyri: Towards a grammar of epistolary dialogue 243
- 11 The Classical norm and varieties of Post-classical Greek: Expressions of anteriority and posteriority in a corpus of official documents (I–II CE) 265
- 12 Orthographic variation and register in the corpus of Greek documentary papyri (300 BCE–800 CE) 299
- 13 The Greek phonology of a tax collector in Egypt in the first century CE 327
- 14 Metrical variation in Byzantine colophons (XI–XV CE): The example of ἡ μὲν χεὶρ ἡ γράψασα 353
- 15 Arguing and narrating: Text type and linguistic variation in tenth-century Greek 369
- 16 The distinctiveness of syntax for varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek: Linguistic upgrading from the third century BCE to the tenth century CE 381
- Index locorum 415
- Index nominum 423
- Index rerum 425