Conservatism in Language: Framing Latin in Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia

Barrett, Graham (2023) Conservatism in Language: Framing Latin in Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia. In: Languages and Communities in the Late Roman and Post-Imperial Western Provinces. Oxford Studies in Ancient Documents . Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN UNSPECIFIED

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Abstract

Multilingualism has long been wrapped up in the ‘historical enigma’ of Spain, one answer to the question of its origins and development. Iberia is remarkable in Western Europe as a sustained interface zone of distinct languages, from before the start of the Roman conquest in the Second Punic War to the 'Siglo de Oro' spanning the expulsion of the Jews and the Moriscos. Yet the undoubted dynamism of the long-term context can disguise a basic conservatism in the Latin of the late antique and early medieval Peninsula. In this paper, I sketch the general features of Latin in its linguistic context during the periods 400–700 and 700–1000 as a starting point, then consider the factors sustaining the conservatism of that Latin by exploring formulism in the drafting of everyday documents and the cyclical relationship between text and speech.

Keywords:Latin language, Early Ibero-Romance, Iberian Peninsula, Visigothic Spain, Early medieval Iberia, Latinity, literacy, Late antique Latin, Early medieval Latin
Subjects:V Historical and Philosophical studies > V224 Iberian History
V Historical and Philosophical studies > V130 Medieval History
Q Linguistics, Classics and related subjects > Q612 Medieval Latin
Q Linguistics, Classics and related subjects > Q610 Latin Language
Q Linguistics, Classics and related subjects > Q140 Sociolinguistics
Divisions:College of Arts > Lincoln School of Humanities and Heritage > Lincoln School of Humanities and Heritage (Humanities)
ID Code:52327
Deposited On:10 Nov 2022 16:10

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