Trends in Classics – Greek & Latin Linguistics 2
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI
CENTER FOR THE GREEK LANGUAGE
Trends in Classics – Greek & Latin Linguistics 2
International Conference
“Aspects of Greco-Latin Language Contact”
Thessaloniki, 3 – 5 October 2025
Conference Venue
Auditorium I
Aristotle University, Research Dissemination Center
September 3rd Avenue, University Campus
http://kedea.rc.auth.gr
The earliest linguistic contacts between Greek and Latin go back to the period of the Greek colonization in Southern Italy and Sicily (8th c. BC onwards), which eventually led to a gradual influx of Greek dialectal elements into Latin and other languages of the Italian peninsula, including Oscan and Etruscan, which often functioned as an intermediary between L2 Greek (donor) and L1 Latin (recipient). The next phase of Greco-Latin bilingualism, namely Hellenistic and Roman (Imperial) times, is characterized on the one hand by the linguistic monopoly of Attic/Koine on the Greek end and by the slow redressing of the balance in Latin’s favor on the other, since the Greek/Hellenistic territories were gradually becoming part of the Roman world (2nd c. BC onwards, but 3rd c. BC already for Magna Graecia). The interactions between the two languages, lexical, grammatical and otherwise, but also various metalinguistic aspects, are evidenced in literary and non-literary works, including epigraphic and papyrological texts, which have provided us with a virtually boundless, multi-faceted wealth of evidence now available for study.
The conference aims to address various aspects of these long-term and complex Greco-Latin contacts, both early and later (Postclassical, early Medieval), focusing not only on high(er) register language (literary, epistolary, administrative), but also on documentary and everyday(-like) registers as these emerge in inscriptions, ostraca and papyri. In addition, special genres, such as poetry, philosophy, Biblical/Christian language, technical works, grammatical treatises, glossaries, etc., as well as particular issues like author/speaker identity, pragmatic, socio- and extra-linguistic context(s), etc. will be addressed too. A special theme, or even as a secondary topic, to be explored potentially within the context of Greco-Latin interactions are the linguistic hints at and insights into the relations and movements of people(s) in the territories of the Greco-Roman world up to AD 500 (or somewhat later on certain occasions), namely the conventional boundary between Ancient Greek and Medieval (Byzantine) Greek on the one hand, and Latin and Proto-Romance on the other.
In particular, special emphasis is planned to be placed on linguistic aspects proper of bilingualism and multilingualism, including borrowing, loanwords, code-mixing and code-switching, language status in bi-/multilingual milieus, etc. The intermingling of two languages in the form of code-mixing/-switching, which has an obvious (socio-, extra-)linguistic interest, is in fact documented in a rich body of material, notably epistolary, epigraphic, papyrological and otherwise, and is therefore expected to be discussed in the form of novel approaches, theoretically and/or in terms of new evidence. Nonetheless, the richest information for bilingual interaction is normally found in the lexicon, be it in the form of direct loans or loan translations (calques) and semantic loans. On the other hand, even though to a smaller scale and normally at later stages, bilingual interaction on the level of grammar has also offered some interesting evidence of Greco-Latin cross-influence, including morphological markers and derivational patterns but also syntactic or syntagmatic structures. In this context, the special sub-topic of the various ‘parallel’ developments in Post-classical Greek and Latin, which was not only a matter of the long-term linguistic symbiosis and osmosis of the two Weltsprachen, but also a phenomenon due to their common Indo-European background and concomitant genetic (and typological) affiliations, is expected to receive its fair share in the conference program.
Organizing Committee:
James Clackson, University of Cambridge (jptc1@cam.ac.uk)
Panagiotis Filos, University of Ioannina (pfilos@uoi.gr)
Stephanie Roussou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (roussous@lit.auth.gr)
Stavros Frangoulidis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (frango@lit.auth.gr)
Georgios K. Giannakis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (ggianak@lit.auth.gr)
For further information, please contact:
Georgios K. Giannakis (ggianak@lit.auth.gr)
