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I. History [German version] A. Term Hellenization is understood here to be a complex acculturation phenomenon composed of different processes operating on several levels. In addition to the area of language and literature, Greek ideas and forms of expression were also adopted in architecture, fine arts, as well as in religion and cult; non-Greek patterns of sociopolitical organization were also adapted to fit the Greek model (polis state, forms of organizations and associations,  gymnasium). All of th…

[German version] I. General points The term UL today conveys two meanings: (1) an artificially created language, intended to serve as a lingua franca for the entire world; efforts of this kind were made especially in the 19th cent. (e.g. Esperanto and Volapük); yet, as might be expected, they fell behind their self-imposed goal. (2) A language actually in world-wide use today is, above all, English. In the wake of the colonial period, it has established itself on all continents at least as a subsidiary means of commun…

[German version] I. Ancient Cypriot The sources for C. are inscriptions in  Cypriot script (most important finding places: Idalium, Golgi, Paphus, Marion; oldest Text: o-pe-le-ta-u / opheltau/11th/10th cents. BC),  glossography (esp. Hsch., schol. on the Iliad and the Odyssey, fr. of an anonymous grammarians: Anecd. Bekk. 3,1094) and Cypriot proper names. C. a) c…

[German version] I. Pre-classical perio…

I. Mesopotamia [German version] A. Scribes and schools …

[German version] (Ῥωμαῖοι). Rhōmaîos is the original Greek name for 'Romans', found in this sense especially in Greek historiographers (e. g. Polybius [2] or Dionysius [18] of Halicarnassus). As the imperial capital moved to Byzantium (Constantinople), however, Rhōmaîos came to be increasingly used for the Greek-speaking Byzantines; an initially still existing differentiation between οἱ ἐῷοι Ῥωμαῖοι/ hoi eṓioi Rhōmaîoi ('the eastern R.') and οἱ ἑσπέριοι Ῥωμαῖοι/ hoi hespérioi Rhōmaîoi ('the western R.' ) finally became obsolete with the decline of the western empire …

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I. Ancient Greek [German version] A. Age, Sources The earliest extant Greek texts date from around 1400 BC. Greek is thus the oldest known language transmitted in Europe and takes second place (after  Hittite) amongst the Indo-European languages. As Greek has a partly accessible prehistory (see B., C. below) and survives today, its linguistic history can be traced over about 5,000 years.…

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[German version] A. Principles…

[German version] Modern Greek dialect spoken in a small number of villages in the eastern Parnon mountain ridge on the east coast of the Peloponnese. It is unanimously considered the only modern Greek dialect to predominantly continue an Ancient Greek dialect, Dorian Laconic, without any effects of the Koine. In other respects, it is difficul…

[German version] I. General ‘Multilingualism’ refers to two different things: on the one hand the ability of an individual to use several languages, on the other hand a situation where, within a social group, several languages are used (linguistic contact). As a result, research into multilingualism can look at multilingual individuals or a multilingual society; accordingly, points of contact arise to psycho- and neurolinguistics on the one hand or to sociolinguistics and historical linguistics (des…

I. Ancient Orient and Egypt [German version] A. General Points Translation by means of an interpreter (Akkadian targumannu; Ugaritic targumiānu; Hittite tarkummija- ('to translate'); Aramaic ta/urgmānā; Arabic tu/arǧumān; Italian turcimanno; cf. dragoman) played an important role in the cultures of the Ancient Orient in their contacts with other ethnic groups. Mesopotamian rulers prided themselves on their command of foreign languages. Especially during the second half of the second millennium BC, Akkadian served as a kind of di…

[German version] (from ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος; hē koinḕ diálektos, ‘the common language’). Term adopted into Greek linguistic history which refers primarily to a relatively uniform post-classical Greek based on Attic but interspersed with numerous Ionian influences said to have replaced the Ancient Greek dialects and to be the ancestor of modern Greek. The sources consist of a number of no longer Attic but not yet Atticist prose authors in the Hellenistic and Imperial periods (such as Polybius, the NT, or Epictetus), also papyrus and inscriptions. One must, however, give special atte…

[German version] Language switching (LS) can occur on a social as well as on an individual level. In the first case, a demographic or functional minority gives up its language after a period of bilingualism, and adopts the language of the majority. Not the extinction of speakers, but LS is the most common cause of language death ( Language change and dialectal compensation are not considered LS). Typical attendant phenomena are interferences with the dominant language, non-adapted loan words, dism…

[German version] Latinization is understood as the influencing of other languages by Latin as a result of language contact. Since the historical circumstances varied for each language contact, Latinization occurred in a number of different ways. The most drastic result of language contact is the complete eradication of languages and dialects; thus, Latin replaced related Italic dialects and languages at an early time ( Italy, languages), the most prominent victim being Etruscan. However, the Rom…

[German version] A distinctive script of the Middle Ages, which emerged in the middle of the 8th cent. in the Abbey of Montecassino and which spread through the entire dukedom of Benevento in the 9th cent. It was still in use in the second half of the 15th cent. at Montecassino and in the first half of the 16th cent. in Naples [1]. The writing also reached the Dalmatian coast, where the earliest records of Beneventan documents date back to the 10th cent. The oldest Beneventan MSS from this region …

I. Ancient Greek dialects [German version] A. Dialect and standard language Greek is attested in dialectal form from the first texts in  Linear B onwards. Local dialects are used in every city or region from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period (in competition with the  Koinḗ and regional Koinaí). In the Imperial period some dialects (e.g.  Aeolic [Lesbian], Laconian ( Doric/Northwest Greek, Tsakonian) are used in a rather archaizing manner. Variants of the old dialects still survive today in Laconia (Tsa…

[German version] I. Overview From a synchronic point of view, ‘language strata’ (LS) represents a cover term for the different forms that a given language takes in its use by individual speakers (idiolect), by speaker groups defined by their social position (sociolect) or by geographically determined speaker communities ( Dialect); from a diachronic point of view, LS refers to the various historical strata of a given language that can be identified on the lexical (inherited and loan vocabulary), grammatical (syntactic or morphological) and phonological levels. The existence of L…

[German version] The present-day use of the term scriptorium refers to the writing workshop for the production of books in the period prior to the invention of the printing press. For Antiquity, there is no evidence of the word scriptorium in this sense; the first record is Isid. Orig. 6,9,2 (in the sense of a writing stylus). However, we know that ancient libraries must have had such an establishment since the book supply for the library was not acquired from booksellers but was produced on site. In an anecdote transmitted by Galen,…