36.1134, Reviews: Ancient Greek and Latin in the linguistic context of the Ancient Mediterranean: Fendel (2025)

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Subject: 36.1134, Reviews: Ancient Greek and Latin in the linguistic context of the Ancient Mediterranean: Fendel (2025)

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Date: 01-Apr-2025
From: Victoria Beatrix Fendel [vbmf2 at cantab.ac.uk]
Subject: Anthropological Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Translation: Fendel (2025)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/35-2952

Title: Ancient Greek and Latin in the linguistic context of the
Ancient Mediterranean
Series Title: Sprachvergleich
Publication Year: 2024

Publisher: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG
           http://www.narr.de/
Book URL:
https://www.narr.de/ancient-greek-and-latin-in-the-linguistic-context-of-the-ancient-medit-18585-1/

Editor(s): Carlotta Viti

Reviewer: Victoria Beatrix Fendel

SUMMARY
The volume consists of fifteen chapters, an introduction by the
editor, and an index containing languages and keywords. The chapters
are written in English (eleven chapters and the introduction), French
(three chapters), and German (one chapter). The chapters span a time
period ranging from the archaic period (with Homer’s epics) to the
medieval period (with the Vandalic language), cover a range of data
types (incl. epigraphic data, onomastics as data, literary, technical,
and biblical texts as data, and manuscript data), and a range of
languages (incl. Greek and Latin at various points in time, Hebrew,
Aramaic, Old Church Slavonic, Vandalic, Gothic, Lycian, Lydian,
Faliscan, Sabellic, and Etruscan). Thus, the volume is not only an
ambitious undertaking but also a strategic publication from the point
of view of researching multilingually (cf. Phipps 2022).
The introduction (by Viti) provides a critical evaluation of the
comparative method and its family trees from a discourse analytic
point of view (although Foucault is never mentioned explicitly) in
essence arguing that while language contact is currently the last
explanation considered, it should perhaps be the aspect to start from.
The first chapter (by Bile, Hodot, and Vottéro) advocates for the use
of sources on different materials, especially in order to assess
regional diversification perhaps already present in Mycenaeans times
(p. 69). The regionalisms that are shown to exist in the lexicon,
morphology, syntax, and phraseology take on not only functional but
also symbolic roles for the display of identity.
The second chapter (by Weiss) puts forward the hypothesis that the
signature ligatures that are found on tablets 15 and 26 from 4th c. BC
Locria Epizephyria are abbreviations of the dialectal form of
hieromnemon (a magistrate) while the inscription text in both cases
shows a mixed form (Koine and dialectal features) such that we would
observe a situation of code-switching between text body and signature.
The third chapter (by Giannakis) discusses, based on the tablets from
the oracle in Dodona (in Epirus, north-west Greece, 5th / 4th c. BC),
migratory movements, both in the short-term (undertaking a trip) and
the long-term (migrating to the colonies in the west). The tablets
contain enquiries from common people. In these, we find that the
dialects in new territories tend to reflect the dialect used in the
founding city but that there may also be independent diatopic
developments. Dialect mixing is a common technique for cooperation (p.
124) but may also happen at the surface level only because phrases
fossilise in a specific dialect (e.g. DVC35A, p. 125).
The fourth chapter (by García Ramón) looks at onomastics which reflect
recognisable, well-attested syntagms. His specific interest lies with
Ἀλεξι-τέλης which could either be ‘the one who guards / stands by his
company’ or ‘the one who wards off fatal doom’, with the latter
reflecting a phraseological collocation that is widely attested in
Greek.
The fifth chapter (by Pisaniello and Merlin) discusses Lycian (5th /
4th c. BC), which co-existed with Greek in Lycia, with Greek initially
being tied to the poetic genre and gradually spreading top-down into
the private sphere, and Lydian (7th–5th/4th c. BC, ca. 100
inscriptions), which shows signs of mutual interference with Greek.
The data drawn on primarily are glosses, i.e. any metalinguistic
information about a given language. Glosses can be overt, i.e. “the
Lydians did X”, or covert, i.e. foreign expressions without any
explanation or opaque and implicit metalinguistic information (pp.
190–192). One key issue is that Lydia was used as a generic gloss to
refer to the area of the Near East.
The sixth chapter (by De Dekker) discusses -σκ- iteratives in epic
Ionic. The epic Ionic -σκ- iteratives are defined clearly (p. 222) –
“the aorist or imperfect form in -σκ- of a verb that does not have
this suffix in the other tenses or moods and of which there are no
relics of this suffix in other Indo-European languages” – and the
chapter also provides meticulous counts for the Iliad and Odyssey
split by type of text passage which instances appear in. The chapter
concludes that the aorist and imperfect are used by aspect, and the
-σκ- infix functions on top of this (pp. 232–233).
The seventh chapter (by Wallace) is a brief commentary on CIL I2, 2780
dating from the 3rd c. BC. Specific attention is paid to the
abbreviations in the inscription, the old Latin Apolo (with one l and
an o at the end of the stem), the patronymic without the head noun
filius (which may be due to space constraints), and the missing vowel
in s(e)mo(nio?) at the start, possibly due to syllabic notation. The
text indicates worship of Apollo in his therapeutic function in
southern Etruria at the time (p. 248).
The eighth chapter (by Rigobianco) considers vowel reduction and
deletion in non-initial syllables (e.g. facio vs. conficio), the
earliest occurrences of which predate rhotacism (p. 255). The chapter
evaluates language contact with Faliscan, Sabellic, and Etruscan (pp.
257–260). It concludes that Latin inherited first-syllable stress from
Proto-Italic, and the innovative tendency towards rhythmic
compensation would have spread due to imperfect L2 learning by
Sabellic and Etruscan speakers (p. 265).
The ninth chapter (by Calboli) considers the situation of
Nausistrata’s father bringing home more income from Lemnos than her
husband in Terence’s Phormio (ll. 784–1055). This is related to the
socio-economic changes to farming on Lemnos over the course of time
(p. 281). It is argued that Apollodorus’ original was reworked by
Terence as regards the ending and Terence further drew on Plautus’
model of the uxor saeva.
The tenth chapter (by Weiss and Windhearn) discusses in-depth Plautus’
Amphitruo l. 260 (post ob virtutem ero Amphitrioni patera donate est
aurea ‘afterwards my master Amphitruo was presented with a golden bowl
for his valour’, acc. to the Codex vetus Camerarii). The key issue is
that the metre is corrupted in the transmitted version resulting in
multiple emendations over time. The authors argue that in archaic
Latin a right-T and right-V structure (from a generative perspective)
was the standard (p. 302), which the corrupted attested text shows (p.
307). Camerarius’ popular emendation (donata aurea est) does not
follow this (p. 309); Pareus’ emendation (‘st patera donata aurea) is
likelier with topicalization of ero Amphitrioni, T-to-C movement of
the copula, and right-dislocation of the modifier aurea (p. 310).
The eleventh chapter (by Cotticelli-Kurras) considers the development
of a grammatical metalanguage in early medieval grammars, especially
by Donatus (4th c. AD) and Priscian (4th/ 5th c. AD). Western grammars
like the one by the former presuppose knowledge of Latin; Eastern
grammars like the one by the latter are written for L2 learners (p.
321). The chapter concludes that Priscian’s grammar was the first step
of the convergence of some categories of the Greek / Eastern
grammatical tradition and the Latin / Western one and gave rise to
commentaries on ancient works written in the 9th c. AD and eventually,
fuelled by the diffusion of Aristotle’s works, the grammars of the
Modistae in the 13th to 15th c. AD.
The twelfth chapter (by Orlandi and Poccetti) considers negation as
the driving force in the evolution of the breakdown of the distinction
between inclusive and exclusive disjunction (i.e. disappearance of
vel) and equality and inequality in comparative contexts (i.e.
disappearance of alter) as the distinction is neutralised under
negation from the start (pp. 352–353 and 371).
The thirteenth chapter (by Bubenik) considers verb phrases consisting
of a participial and an auxiliary verb, so-called dative absolute
constructions, and nominalised infinitive structures in the context of
the biblical translation both into Greek and later into Old Church
Slavonic. The chapter carefully underlines that patterns can spread in
translation contexts for different reasons, e.g. by increasing the use
of an existing pattern (e.g. the participle-auxiliary structures),
calquing (e.g. articular infinitive structures), and replicating a
pattern (e.g. dative absolutes).
The fourteenth chapter (by Aresu and Cabriolu) considers word-order
variation of verb-object sequencing in Cicero’s Pro Milone, the
biblical books of Ruth, Obadiah, and Jonah, and Cato’s De Agricultura.
Word order is assessed in assertive declarative clauses, noun phrases
with a genitive, and adpositional phrases. While Cato shows primarily
an object then verb placement, the classical corpus is diverse, and
the biblical texts show primarily a verb then object ordering.
Attributive genitives across periods usually follow their head noun.
Postpositional relics exist in the system and seem to be preferred or
dispreferred in the biblical translation depending on the translation
approach.
The fifteenth chapter (by Cotugno) considers the remnants of the
Vandalic language. The vandals held a kingdom in north Africa after
sacking Rome in the mid-fifth century. Their language is only shining
through in onomastics and Latin treatises as they seem to have adopted
the working Roman bureaucratic apparatus. Vandalic seems to have been
an East Germanic language. Examples discussed include the name
Stilicho and its variants, the phrase froia arme, and the term eils.
EVALUATION
Shortcomings regarding presentation should be set against the
ambitious multilingual and content-related background of the volume:
translations of passages in a language other than the language of the
chapter are not consistently provided (e.g. pp. 317–338), formatting
of examples is inconsistent (e.g. pp. 425–426), and typos appear
regularly (e.g. p. 298) along with unexpected lexical choices (e.g. p.
414).
Viti’s introduction, without mentioning Foucault’s discourse analysis,
showcases the necessity to embed in and evaluate against the discourse
of their time even methodologies as influential as the comparative
method (see similarly Doody, Föllinger & Taub 2012). Her call to
action is taken aboard in the sense of considering different source
types spread out diachronically, diatopically, and diastratically but
the chapters do not all reflect to the same extent her critical
evaluation of the methodology. However, several chapters feed
perfectly into Viti’s call to action: De Dekker’s chapter on the -σκ-
epic Ionic iteratives highlights the importance of meticulously coded
quantitative datasets. Wallace’s chapter on CILI2, 2780 showcases the
interplay between material and linguistic realities. Rigobianco’s
chapter on vowel reduction in non-initial syllables in Latin
exemplifies the complexity of language-contact situations and the
multifactorial analysis needed. Weiss and Windhearn’s chapter on l.
260 of Plautus’ Amphitruo illustrates the interplay between the
editorial and linguistic realities.
Bile, Hodot, and Vottéro’s chapter on the dialectal diversity, while
emphasising the diversity of sources, faces the issue of
multicausality, i.e. especially in documentary sources, variations in
the spelling of items may be caused by diverse developments--either
mechanical (e.g. space constraint, writing utensil, spelling error),
social (e.g. educational background), or diatopic,  diastratic, and
idiosyncratic (e.g. Bentein 2024) (see Wallace in this volume).
In Weiss’ chapter on the hieromnemon’s signature the question of why
the code-switch, if the hypothesis is correct, from mixed to fully
dialectal happens is left open. Is this due to fossilisation of an
older form or the symbolic value of names? (see Giannakis in this
volume).In Giannakis’ chapter on the Dodona tablets the link between
onomastics and regions (p. 128) is difficult or even impossible to
prove given not only the special status of onomastics in the lexicon
and grammar (Anderson 2007) but also the fact that names are chosen
for a variety of reasons including personal preference or fashion
(e.g. Depauw & Coussement 2014; Fendel 2022: chap. 2).
García Ramón’s chapter is a brilliant example of the pervasiveness of
verbal multi-word expressions in all aspects of the Greek lexicon and
grammar throughout time (see esp. p. 141 n. 11) (Fendel 2024).
However, the equations that Hesychius puts forward (p. 139 ft. 2) are
possibly rather approximations than absolutes and to be taken in the
context of Hesychius’ larger project (see also Cotticelli-Kurras in
this volume and Pisaniello and Merlin, p. 185 n. 88 in this
volume).Pisaniello and Merlin’s chapter on Lycian and Lydian in
contact with Greek, while coming to the very plausible conclusion of
minor use patterns becoming major use patterns under the influence of
language contact (p. 185) (Matras & Sakel 2007), seems to cover an
impressive range of examples, yet the link to the conclusion is
inferential.
Calboli’ chapter on Terence’ Nausistrata is difficult to read due to
many orthographic, lexical, and morphosyntactic errors in German. It
is not entirely clear how the chapter fits into the volume although
cultural contact seems a plausible approach in the sense of reworking
earlier writings and incorporating common motives (see also Finnegan
2011).
Cotticelli-Kurras’ chapter on the development of a grammatical
metalanguage in early medieval grammars is very rich in examples,
often quoted verbatim from Schad’s (2007) lexicon, but they lack a
detailed discussion of what to take away. There are several formatting
issues in the chapter which complicate the situation.
Orlandi and Poccetti’s chapter on negation as a driving force claims
that formations with -τερο- like οὐδέτερος, μηδέτερος, πότερος, and
ἑκάτερος are almost unknown in the New Testament and papyri (with
reference to the grammars by Debrunner-Blass and Mayser, see similarly
Bubenik in this volume). A string search in the Duke Database of
Documentary Papyri relativises this claim already (ἑκατερ 316
instances, οὐδετερ 21 instances, μηδετερ 12 instances, ποτερ 177
instances, 20 March 2025). Note that string searches like this miss
many examples for reasons of mark-up and the like. It shows however
that our descriptive grammars for these text types have gradually
become outdated.
Bubenik’s chapter on translation phenomena seems to omit a clear-cut
definition of periphrasis (compare e.g. Haspelmath 2000; vs. Aerts
1965) and reference to Markopoulos’ (2009) extensive study of future
periphrastics when discussing them. It is not clear what the dataset
is and how statements like “increased” are justified against the
dataset.
Aresu and Cabriolu’s chapter on word order in preclassical, classical,
and biblical Latin is difficult to evaluate because it is based on a
corpus selection that is not further justified. The results coming
from the text selection are thus difficult to interpret. It would also
have been necessary to explain Greenberg’s typological word order
universals that are relied upon (p. 416) and why the authors chose to
rely on them.
Cotugno’s chapter on the Vandalic language struggles against the
scarcity of sources (for issues with onomastics see similarly on
Giannakis above). The chapter provides a good foundation in the
historical context which is necessary given the audience of the
volume. The chapter offers a completely revised translation of epigram
285 from the Anthologia Latina in the Codex Parisinus Latinus 10318,
which thus describes an author wanting to distance himself from
drinking and toasting Vandals in a tavern (p. 450). This may be a
specific group of Vandals and not apply to all of them
indiscriminately (p. 451), yet the text hints at an attitude towards a
group that is different from the author and his group identity (see
also Perrino & Wortham 2022). The chapter showcases how re-evaluation
of an established translation can change the interpretation of a text
and its embedding in its context (see similarly on well-known texts
Rusten 2020; Willi 2017).
REFERENCES
Aerts, Willem. 1965. Periphrastica: an investigation into the use of
εἶναι and ἔχειν as auxiliaries or pseudo-auxiliaries in Greek from
Homer up to the present day. Amsterdam: AMHakkert.
Anderson, John. 2007. The grammar of names. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Bentein, Klaas. 2024. Documentary papyri as ‘multimodal’ texts.
Aspects of variation in the Nepheros archive (IV CE). In Martti Leiwo,
Marja Vierros, Sonia Dahlgren & Hilla Halla-aho (eds.), Scribes and
Language Use in the Graeco-Roman World. Helsinki: Helsinki University
Press.
Depauw, Mark & Sandra Coussement. 2014. Identifiers and identification
methods in the ancient world: Legal Documents in Ancient Societies
III. Leuven: Peeters.
Doody, Aude, Sabine Föllinger & Liba Taub. 2012. Structures and
strategies in ancient Greek and Roman technical writing: An
Introduction. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A
43(2). 233–236.
Fendel, Victoria. 2022. Coptic interference in the syntax of Greek
letters from Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fendel, Victoria. 2024. Celebrating diversity: The origins and
pathways of three support-verb constructions. Lexis.
Finnegan, Ruth. 2011. Why do we quote?: the culture and history of
quotation. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers.
Haspelmath, Martin. 2000. Periphrasis. In Geert Booij, Christian
Lehmann & Joachim Mugdan (eds.), Morphologie / Morphology. Ein
internationales Handbuch zur Flexion und Wortbildung / An
international handbook on inflection and word-formation, vol. 1,
654–664. Berlin; Boston: Mouton De Gruyter.
Markopoulos, Theodore. 2009. The future in Greek: from ancient to
medieval. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Matras, Yaron & Jeanette Sakel. 2007. Investigating the mechanisms of
pattern replication in language convergence. Studies in Language
31(4). 829–865.
Perrino, Sabina & Stanton Wortham. 2022. Narrating Heterogeneous
Identities in Multilingual Communities. In Linda Fisher & Wendy
Ayres-Bennett (eds.), Multilingualism and Identity: Interdisciplinary
Perspectives, 239–258. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Phipps, Alison. 2022. Decolonizing Languages in Rural Settings:
Towards Equatorial Epistemologies. In Linda Fisher & Wendy
Ayres-Bennett (eds.), Multilingualism and Identity: Interdisciplinary
Perspectives, 155–180. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rusten, Jeffrey. 2020. τὴν ἐκβολὴν τοῦ λόγου ἐποιησάμην: Thucydides’
chronicle in the Pentekontaetia (1.97–117) is not a digression. Histos
14. 230–254.
Schad, Samantha. 2007. A lexicon of Latin grammatical terminology.
Pisa; Rome: Fabrizio Serra Editore.
Willi, Andreas. 2017. Krieg und Frieden im frühen Rom: Altes und Neues
zum carmen Arvale. In Andreas Willi (ed.), Sprachgeschichte und
Epigraphik: Festgaben für Rudolf Wachter zum 60. Geburtstag, 147–233.
Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität
Innsbruck.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Victoria B. Fendel (D.Phil. Oxford, 2018) is a research associate at
the University of Oxford, one of the editors of the Classics section
of the Literary Encyclopedia, and language leader for Ancient Greek in
the PARSEME/UniDive COST initiative. Her research focusses on language
contact (Oxford University Press, 2022) and multi-word expressions
(Brill, 2025) in literary, epigraphic, and papyrological sources.



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