37.2871, Confs: Sailing through Words. Maritime Technical Terminology from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Germany)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2871. Thu Sep 10 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2871, Confs: Sailing through Words. Maritime Technical Terminology from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Germany)

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Date: 08-Sep-2026
From: Eleonora Selvi [eleonora.selvi at univr.it]
Subject: Sailing through Words. Maritime Technical Terminology from Antiquity to the Middle Ages


Sailing through Words. Maritime Technical Terminology from Antiquity
to the Middle Ages

Date: 10-Dec-2026 - 11-Dec-2026
Location: Trier, Germany
Contact: Eleonora Selvi, Afnen Habibi
Contact Email: sailingwords.trier at gmail.com

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics; Lexicography;
Sociolinguistics; Text/Corpus Linguistics

Submission Deadline: 10-Oct-2026

Location: Trier University, Universitätsring 15, 54296 Trier, Germany
Abstract submission deadline: 10 October 2026
Notification of outcome: 20 October 2026
Organisers: Eleonora Selvi (Trier), Afnen Habibi (Trier)
Scientific committee: Prof. Patrick Reinard, Dr. Eleonora Selvi, Dr.
Afnen Habibi
Contacts: sailingwords.trier at gmail.com.
The workshop examines the formation and usage of naval terminology and
technical language connected to maritime activities across time and
between different regions of the Ancient and Medieval world. Maritime
specialised languages are integral to seafaring practice. Today,
Maritime English is regulated by international organisations to
prevent accidents and ensure clear, fast communication. In the ancient
and medieval world, communities of seafarers faced an analogous need
for a technical language, both to communicate at sea and to develop
and transmit their maritime knowledge. Maritime languages are thus
shaped, in different ways and contexts, by the naval technology
available to seafarers, by the institutional and administrative
settings in which this technology operates, and by the values and
beliefs of the seafaring community of practice itself; in turn, they
contribute to stabilise and transmit technical knowledge.
Specialised languages, or 'technolects', or 'specialised discourses'
in Gotti's (2003) terms, have been recognised as integral to technical
knowledge since the seminal work of Mauss (1936) and Leroi-Gourhan
(1964–65); studies of their specific features have shown that their
formation follows particular lexical, morphosyntactic, and discourse
patterns (Gotti 2003; Čulić-Viskota & Kalebota 2013). Scholarship on
ancient technical lexica has identified three main strategies through
which specialised terminologies are created (Schironi 2014): the
adaptation of existing terms from the common lexicon; the coining of
new terms; and the borrowing of terms from other specialised fields or
languages. Syntax and discourse tend to be organised around the
avoidance of ambiguity, thus generating patterns that depart from
everyday language (Bocanegra-Valle 2011). The supra-local circulation
of such languages, especially military and maritime ones, can generate
extensive chains of borrowing and adaptation, and can even drive
broader linguistic change (Huitink & Rood 2024). Finally, technical
languages could function as a marker of social belonging when carried
over into different contexts, or contribute, through their
acquisition, to transmitting the values and knowledge distinctive of
the community of practice that employed them (Lave & Wenger 1991;
Eckert 2000). To study these languages in the ancient world is no easy
task, as they are often preserved only in documentary texts such as
papyri and inscriptions, or at best in manuals that are frequently
overlooked and obscure, and their study requires a good understanding
of both linguistic phenomena and the relevant technological, societal,
and administrative contexts.
Our workshop thus seeks to compare the specialised languages of
seafaring, shipbuilding, naval administration, warfare, and commerce
across periods and regions, from the Aegean Bronze Age to the medieval
Baltic and beyond. We aim to ask which processes govern the formation
and transmission of these languages, and what role they played for the
communities that developed them, offering, in doing so, the first
systematic, comparative typology of maritime technical languages, and
bringing papyrology, epigraphy, linguistics, philology, and the
history of technology into a dialogue that has so far remained
fragmented across disciplinary and period-specific boundaries.
Themes and Questions:
We welcome proposals on any region of the ancient and medieval world,
spanning from prehistory (including reconstructed languages, e.g.,
Proto-Indo-European) to the end of the 15th century AD.
Submissions should address one or more of the following areas:
(a) Linguistic structures and features. How do naval technical
languages form and develop over time? What are their defining lexical,
morphosyntactic, and discourse features, and how do they differ from
general language?
(b) Sources for reconstruction. How can epigraphic and papyrological
sources help trace these processes? What is the role of manuals and
other normative texts in stabilising and transmitting technical
language (and its technical knowledge)?
(c) Technical language and naval technology. Which technological and
administrative developments trigger linguistic innovation? How do
linguistic structures encode technological knowledge, and to what
extent can each illuminate the other?
(d) Transmission and continuity. How were technical terms transmitted
across periods of political, social, and religious transformation?
What mechanisms (translation, transliteration, borrowing, etc.) govern
this transmission? Does terminological continuity reflect continuity
in professional or institutional structures?
(e) Expansion and sociolinguistic impact. How do technical languages
help form communities of experts? Which elements enter general
language, and how? To what extent do shifts in political or cultural
power shape the diffusion and transformation of technical lexica?
Submission:
- Please submit an abstract of around 250 words (excluding
bibliography) to sailingwords.trier at gmail.com, no later than 10
October 2026.
- Please include in a separate page of the same document your name,
affiliation, and contact details.
- Proposals will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee, and
notification of the outcome will be sent no later than 20 October
2026.
- Please note that accommodation for participants will be covered by
the organisers; travel costs are to be borne by each speaker.
References:
Bocanegra-Valle, A. (2011). The Language of Seafaring: Standardised
Conventions and Discursive Features in Speech Communications.
International Journal of English Studies 11: 35–53.
Čulić-Viskota, A. & Kalebota, S. (2013). Maritime English – What Does
It Communicate? Transactions On Maritime Science 2: 109–114.
Eckert, P. (2000). Linguistic Variation as Social Practice: The
Linguistic Construction of Identity in Belten High. Oxford.
Gotti, M. (2003). Specialised Discourse: Linguistic Features and
Changing Conventions. Bern.
Huitink, L. & Rood, T. (2024). Xenophon, Professional Military
Vocabulary, and the Formation of the Literary Koine, in C. Monaco, R.
Machado, & E. Bozia (eds.), Redefining the Standards in Attic, Koine,
and Atticism (Euhormos 6), Leiden, pp. 148–170.
Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral
Participation. Cambridge.
Leroi-Gourhan, A. (1964–1965). Le geste et la parole (2 vols.). Paris.
Mauss, M. (1936). Les techniques du corps. Journal de Psychologie
32(3–4): 271–293.
Schironi, F. (2014). Technical Languages: Science and Medicine, in E.
J. Bakker (ed.), A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language, New York,
pp. 338–353.



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