VaLiD · Value to Linguistic Differences: Misspelled Inscriptions from Ancient Spain

Value to Linguistic Differences: Misspelled Inscriptions from Ancient Spain

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.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union