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Epilogue: Historical sociolinguistics and the classical languages

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Published/Copyright: May 20, 2025

Abstract

In concluding this special issue on language change from above and below in Ancient Greek and Latin, I explore common themes across the contributions and ground them more firmly in the histories of these classical languages and in historical sociolinguistic scholarship. The discussion addresses the challenges presented by written sources, the analytical perspectives adopted, the language ideologies underlying written production, and the social factors influencing language change. I conclude by advocating for the integrated linguistic study of Greek and Latin, arguing that this approach provides a more nuanced understanding of their development.


Corresponding author: Klaas Bentein, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium, E-mail:

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Received: 2024-09-02
Accepted: 2025-01-20
Published Online: 2025-05-20

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Obituary
  3. In memoriam Prof. William Labov (1927–2024)
  4. Articles
  5. Along the stereotyping road: nineteenth and early twentieth centuries narratives of ukuhlonipha
  6. Gibraltar’s streetnames: an eighteenth-century Western Mediterranean spatial practice of civilian fort-servicers
  7. Historical reconstruction and media representation of the earliest known demand for Romani linguistic rights
  8. Linguistic ideologies, personae and practices in seventeenth-century France
  9. Sacred language ideology for Nomina Sacra between the second and fifth centuries CE
  10. Special collection: Language Change from Above and from Below in Greek and Latin; Guest Editors: Ezra la Roi and Dalia Pratali Maffei
  11. Sources and methods for detecting language change from above and below in Post-Classical Greek and Latin
  12. Doric features in Hellenistic inscribed epigrams: unveiling supra-regional and regional prestige in dialectal change
  13. Purist norms and language change: ideological approaches and changes from above
  14. Choosing how to say ‘a letter’ in a letter: variation between epistula and litterae in the corpus of Ciceronian epistolography
  15. Epilogue: Historical sociolinguistics and the classical languages
  16. Book Reviews
  17. Laurel J. Brinton: Pragmatics in the history of English
  18. Brenda Assendelft: Verfransing onder de loep. Nederlands-Frans taalcontact (1500–1900) vanuit historisch-sociolinguïstisch perspectief [Frenchification under scrutiny. Dutch-French language contact (1500–1900) from a historical-sociolinguistic perspective]
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  20. Caon, Luisella, Moragh S. Gordon and Thijs Porck: Unlocking the history of English: Pragmatics, prescriptivism and text types. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 364
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