Library Catalog
Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Language Change in the Wake of Empire : Syriac in Its Greco-Roman Context / Aaron Michael Butts.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic ; 11Publisher: University Park, PA : Penn State University Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©2016Description: 1 online resource (312 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781575064222
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 492/.32481 23
LOC classification:
  • PJ5415
  • PJ5415
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Transcription / Transliteration -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- Part 1: Prolegomena -- Chapter 2. The Contact Linguistic Framework -- Chapter 3. The Sociohistorical Setting -- Part 2: Loanwords -- Chapter 4. Greek Loanwords in Syriac: The Methodological Framework -- Chapter 5. The Phonological Integration of Greek Loanwords in Syriac -- Chapter 6. The Morphosyntactic Integration of Greek Loanwords in Syriac -- Part 3: Grammatical Replication -- Chapter 7. Grammatical Replication: The Methodological Framework -- Chapter 8. The Syriac Copula ʾiṯaw(hy) Replicated on Greek ἐστίν -- Chapter 9. The Syriac Conjunctive Particle den Replicated on Greek δέ -- Chapter 10. Conclusion -- Appendix 1. Greek Loanwords Inherited in Syriac -- Appendix 2. Citations for Verbless Clauses -- Bibliography -- Index of Authors -- Index of Biblical Sources -- Index of Syriac Words -- Index of Greek Words -- Index of Subjects
Summary: It is well documented that one of the primary catalysts of intense language contact is the expansion of empire. This is true not only of recent history, but it is equally applicable to the more remote past. An exemplary case (or better: cases) of this involves Aramaic. Due to the expansions of empires, Aramaic has throughout its long history been in contact with a variety of languages, including Akkadian, Greek, Arabic, and various dialects of Iranian. This books focuses on one particular episode in the long history of Aramaic language contact: the Syriac dialect of Aramaic in contact with Greek.In this book, Butts presents a new analysis of contact-induced changes in Syriac due to Greek. Several chapters analyze the more than eight-hundred Greek loanwords that occur in Syriac texts from Late Antiquity that were not translated from Greek. Butts also dedicates several chapters to a different category of contact-induced change in which Syriac-speakers replicated inherited Aramaic material on the model of Greek. All of the changes discussed in the book are located within their broader Aramaic context and analyzed through a robust contact linguistic framework.By focusing on the Syriac language itself, Butts introduces new - and arguably more reliable - evidence for locating Syriac Christianity within its Greco-Roman context. This book, thus, is especially important for the field of Syriac studies. The book also contributes to the fields of contact linguistics and the study of ancient languages more broadly by analyzing in detail various types of contact-induced change over a relatively long period of time.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Transcription / Transliteration -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- Part 1: Prolegomena -- Chapter 2. The Contact Linguistic Framework -- Chapter 3. The Sociohistorical Setting -- Part 2: Loanwords -- Chapter 4. Greek Loanwords in Syriac: The Methodological Framework -- Chapter 5. The Phonological Integration of Greek Loanwords in Syriac -- Chapter 6. The Morphosyntactic Integration of Greek Loanwords in Syriac -- Part 3: Grammatical Replication -- Chapter 7. Grammatical Replication: The Methodological Framework -- Chapter 8. The Syriac Copula ʾiṯaw(hy) Replicated on Greek ἐστίν -- Chapter 9. The Syriac Conjunctive Particle den Replicated on Greek δέ -- Chapter 10. Conclusion -- Appendix 1. Greek Loanwords Inherited in Syriac -- Appendix 2. Citations for Verbless Clauses -- Bibliography -- Index of Authors -- Index of Biblical Sources -- Index of Syriac Words -- Index of Greek Words -- Index of Subjects

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

It is well documented that one of the primary catalysts of intense language contact is the expansion of empire. This is true not only of recent history, but it is equally applicable to the more remote past. An exemplary case (or better: cases) of this involves Aramaic. Due to the expansions of empires, Aramaic has throughout its long history been in contact with a variety of languages, including Akkadian, Greek, Arabic, and various dialects of Iranian. This books focuses on one particular episode in the long history of Aramaic language contact: the Syriac dialect of Aramaic in contact with Greek.In this book, Butts presents a new analysis of contact-induced changes in Syriac due to Greek. Several chapters analyze the more than eight-hundred Greek loanwords that occur in Syriac texts from Late Antiquity that were not translated from Greek. Butts also dedicates several chapters to a different category of contact-induced change in which Syriac-speakers replicated inherited Aramaic material on the model of Greek. All of the changes discussed in the book are located within their broader Aramaic context and analyzed through a robust contact linguistic framework.By focusing on the Syriac language itself, Butts introduces new - and arguably more reliable - evidence for locating Syriac Christianity within its Greco-Roman context. This book, thus, is especially important for the field of Syriac studies. The book also contributes to the fields of contact linguistics and the study of ancient languages more broadly by analyzing in detail various types of contact-induced change over a relatively long period of time.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Aug 2021)