Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VaLiD (Value to Linguistic Differences: Misspelled Inscriptions from Ancient Spain)
Período documentado: 2018-10-01 hasta 2020-09-30
The VaLiD project focused on mistakes attested in the Latin inscriptions of the Roman Empire. Errors in these inscriptions often reflect the interference of the oral language into the written medium, and thus allow us to access the spoken dimension of Latin. At the same time, they provide us with useful information on the literacy levels of ancient writers, and can also reveal the processes in the making of Roman inscriptions (writing on dictation or by improvisation or copying from a draft). For all these reasons, VaLiD aimed to study not only linguistic deviations from the Classical Latin norm – which have been traditionally used to investigate the so-called ‘Vulgar Latin’ – but also mistakes of a technical nature. Moreover, it considered not only the regional differentiation of the Latin language but also its sociolinguistic variations.
The principal field of study of VaLiD was the Roman province Hispania Citerior, but comparisons with other territories represented an essential aspect of the investigation. In its approach, VaLiD adopted an innovative methodology developed by the Hungarian linguist József Herman (1924-2005), which was based on the ‘relative frequency’ of misspellings and on the statistical treatment of linguistic data. According to this method, the linguistic ‘distance’ between the Latin spoken in the different provinces of the Roman Empire is measured by calculating the contrasts in a selected sample of linguistic features.
The conclusions of the project confirmed the central role of epigraphic sources for linguistic and sociolinguistic investigation. At an extra-academic level, VaLiD promoted knowledge on Latin Epigraphy and the diversification of the Latin Language, which goes beyond the topics traditionally studied in Latin classes at EU high schools.
The principal field of study of VaLiD was the Roman province Hispania Citerior, but comparisons with other territories represented an essential aspect of the investigation. In its approach, VaLiD adopted an innovative methodology developed by the Hungarian linguist József Herman (1924-2005), which was based on the ‘relative frequency’ of misspellings and on the statistical treatment of linguistic data. According to this method, the linguistic ‘distance’ between the Latin spoken in the different provinces of the Roman Empire is measured by calculating the contrasts in a selected sample of linguistic features.
The conclusions of the project confirmed the central role of epigraphic sources for linguistic and sociolinguistic investigation. At an extra-academic level, VaLiD promoted knowledge on Latin Epigraphy and the diversification of the Latin Language, which goes beyond the topics traditionally studied in Latin classes at EU high schools.
The first part of the VaLiD project was carried out during a 6-month Secondment at the Commission for Ancient History and Epigraphy of the German Archaeological Institute in Munich (Germany) under the scientific advice of Dr. Isabelle Mossong. At this Institution, epigraphic corpora and papers related to Hispania Citerior were consulted in the search for errors. A total amount of 1,144 data were recorded in LLDB, the ‘Computerized Historical Linguistic Database of Latin Inscriptions of the Imperial Age’ (http://lldb.elte.hu/en(se abrirá en una nueva ventana)) an open access repository originally conceived by Herman and in existence since 2006, which currently includes 108,663 epigraphic mistakes from all over the Roman Empire (17/03/2021).
The implementation of VaLiD continued at the Research Institute for Linguistics of Budapest under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Béla Adamik, the principal investigator of LLDB and the ‘Lendület (‘Momentum’) Research Group for Computational Latin Dialectology’ (Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), with which the VaLiD project was associated. At the Hosting Institution, data were carefully analyzed and elaborated in the form of graphics and maps thanks to LLDB’s specific software, and following the basic guidelines of Herman’s methodology.
Two topics were considered as particularly worth investigating with reference to Hispania. The first was the use of archaisms in epigraphic texts and their alleged connection with the ‘archaicity’ of Hispanic Latin. The second one was the presence of degeminated spellings and their supposed connection with the simplification of Latin geminates and lenition, which are typical features of Spanish and Portuguese. The contrastive analysis of these phenomena in Hispania and other provinces of the Roman Empire suggested that graphic archaisms cannot be held as absolute indicators of archaic Latin dialects, nor can degeminated forms attested in Roman inscriptions be considered as direct anticipations of the Romance developments. A third investigation related to Hispanic Latin was the evolution of relative pronouns from Latin to Portuguese, which resulted in a joint publication with Prof. Dr. Catarina Gaspar. It showed that the first hints of the evolutionary process which led to the progressive disintegration of the Classical Latin system of the relative pronouns are already visible in inscriptions dated to the Roman age and Late Antiquity. However, during the Middle Ages the adoption of Latin as a cultivated language led to the revival of linguistic regularity in epigraphic texts. A further investigation was undertaken in order to solve the thorny issue concerning the existence of two ‘erroneous’ superlatives of pius, piissimus and pientissimus, which are very widespread in epigraphy, but which are respectively condemned by Cicero (piissimus) and not attested at all by ancient literary and grammatical texts (pientissimus). The combined analysis of literary, epigraphic and metalinguistic sources revealed that these forms correspond to the post-Classical and the Vulgar Latin superlative of pius respectively, and that pientissimus possibly spread from the epigraphic domain to the colloquial language.
The VaLiD project also included a period of specialized training on Psycho- and Neurolinguistics, which was undertaken at a later stage of the action in order to enhance the analysis of non-grammatical errors. After fulfilling the training, a paper was prepared which examines the causes of writing errors in Latin inscriptions from a theoretical and taxonomic perspective. The publication of this paper in co-authorship with Dr. Simona Marchesini is expected in 2022.
The progress of the VaLiD project was presented in 4 international conferences and workshops and in 2 invited lectures. 5 papers were published or prepared during the implementation of the action. The transfer of knowledge to BA, MA and PhD students was provided via teaching courses on Latin Epigraphy at the Department of Ancient History of the Eötvös Loránd University Budapest (WT 2019, WT 2020, ST 2021) and via teaching contributions on Writing Errors at 2 international epigraphic summer schools (2019, 2020). Moreover, 2 series of lectures entitled ‘Encounters on Epigraphy and Linguistics’ were organized in Budapest in the spring and autumn of 2019, with 12 talks delivered by renowned international scholars. Another important aspect of the action was the dissemination to an EU extra-academic audience, with a particular focus on younger generations. For this purpose, 7 workshops on Latin Epigraphy and Vulgar Latin were held in high schools and 1 workshop on Roman Mosaic was addressed to children.
The implementation of VaLiD continued at the Research Institute for Linguistics of Budapest under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Béla Adamik, the principal investigator of LLDB and the ‘Lendület (‘Momentum’) Research Group for Computational Latin Dialectology’ (Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), with which the VaLiD project was associated. At the Hosting Institution, data were carefully analyzed and elaborated in the form of graphics and maps thanks to LLDB’s specific software, and following the basic guidelines of Herman’s methodology.
Two topics were considered as particularly worth investigating with reference to Hispania. The first was the use of archaisms in epigraphic texts and their alleged connection with the ‘archaicity’ of Hispanic Latin. The second one was the presence of degeminated spellings and their supposed connection with the simplification of Latin geminates and lenition, which are typical features of Spanish and Portuguese. The contrastive analysis of these phenomena in Hispania and other provinces of the Roman Empire suggested that graphic archaisms cannot be held as absolute indicators of archaic Latin dialects, nor can degeminated forms attested in Roman inscriptions be considered as direct anticipations of the Romance developments. A third investigation related to Hispanic Latin was the evolution of relative pronouns from Latin to Portuguese, which resulted in a joint publication with Prof. Dr. Catarina Gaspar. It showed that the first hints of the evolutionary process which led to the progressive disintegration of the Classical Latin system of the relative pronouns are already visible in inscriptions dated to the Roman age and Late Antiquity. However, during the Middle Ages the adoption of Latin as a cultivated language led to the revival of linguistic regularity in epigraphic texts. A further investigation was undertaken in order to solve the thorny issue concerning the existence of two ‘erroneous’ superlatives of pius, piissimus and pientissimus, which are very widespread in epigraphy, but which are respectively condemned by Cicero (piissimus) and not attested at all by ancient literary and grammatical texts (pientissimus). The combined analysis of literary, epigraphic and metalinguistic sources revealed that these forms correspond to the post-Classical and the Vulgar Latin superlative of pius respectively, and that pientissimus possibly spread from the epigraphic domain to the colloquial language.
The VaLiD project also included a period of specialized training on Psycho- and Neurolinguistics, which was undertaken at a later stage of the action in order to enhance the analysis of non-grammatical errors. After fulfilling the training, a paper was prepared which examines the causes of writing errors in Latin inscriptions from a theoretical and taxonomic perspective. The publication of this paper in co-authorship with Dr. Simona Marchesini is expected in 2022.
The progress of the VaLiD project was presented in 4 international conferences and workshops and in 2 invited lectures. 5 papers were published or prepared during the implementation of the action. The transfer of knowledge to BA, MA and PhD students was provided via teaching courses on Latin Epigraphy at the Department of Ancient History of the Eötvös Loránd University Budapest (WT 2019, WT 2020, ST 2021) and via teaching contributions on Writing Errors at 2 international epigraphic summer schools (2019, 2020). Moreover, 2 series of lectures entitled ‘Encounters on Epigraphy and Linguistics’ were organized in Budapest in the spring and autumn of 2019, with 12 talks delivered by renowned international scholars. Another important aspect of the action was the dissemination to an EU extra-academic audience, with a particular focus on younger generations. For this purpose, 7 workshops on Latin Epigraphy and Vulgar Latin were held in high schools and 1 workshop on Roman Mosaic was addressed to children.
VaLiD has significantly helped to update the documentation concerning the Vulgar Latin of Hispania, whose main publications dated to early 20th century (Carnoy 1906, Martin 1910). Since then, the number of Latin inscriptions known for the Iberian Peninsula has enormously increased, passing from ca. 4,500 to ca. 25,000 records. VaLiD has thus established the basis for further research related to Hispanic Latin and literacy levels in ancient Hispania, including sociological and gender differences. It has also allowed for new light to be shed on hotly debated topics concerning the appearance of specific graphic and linguistic forms in epigraphic records which stand in contrast to the literary sources. The VaLiD project was based on an innovative multidisciplinary approach, which included the use of computerized tools and the application of theories from contemporary branches of Linguistics to the study of Latin Epigraphy and the Latin Language.