Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics

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Ancient Bidialectalism and Bilingualism
(2,281 words)

Abstract

The Hellenic world can be characterized as a monolingual area. Greeks were united by a common language, while non-Greeks spoke ‘barbarian’. There were few bilingual people in archaic and classical Greece. After the conquests of Alexander bilingualism is better attested, especially in terms of the contacts with Latin. Bi- or even trilingual inscriptions document contacts between Greek and various other …

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Bruno Rochette, “Ancient Bidialectalism and Bilingualism”, in: Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, General Editor: Georgios K. Giannakis. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2214-448X_eagll_COM_00000023>
First published online: 2013



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