‘In both our languages’: Greek-Latin code-switching in Roman literature

After a short introduction to code-switching and Classics, this article offers an overview of the phenomenon of code-switching in Roman literature with some comments on possible generic restrictions, followed by a survey of Roman attitudes to the practice. The analysis then focuses on Roman letter w...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mullen, Alex
Format: Article
Published: Sage 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44672/
_version_ 1848796971462033408
author Mullen, Alex
author_facet Mullen, Alex
author_sort Mullen, Alex
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description After a short introduction to code-switching and Classics, this article offers an overview of the phenomenon of code-switching in Roman literature with some comments on possible generic restrictions, followed by a survey of Roman attitudes to the practice. The analysis then focuses on Roman letter writing and investigates code-switching in the second-century correspondence of Fronto (mainly letters between Marcus Aurelius, who became Emperor in AD 161, and his tutor Fronto). This discussion uses part of a new detailed database of Greek code-switches in Roman epistolography and is largely sociolinguistic in approach. It makes comparisons with other ancient and modern corpora where possible and highlights the value of code-switching research in responding to a range of (socio)linguistic, literary and historical questions.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:56:27Z
format Article
id nottingham-44672
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:56:27Z
publishDate 2015
publisher Sage
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-446722020-05-04T17:11:54Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44672/ ‘In both our languages’: Greek-Latin code-switching in Roman literature Mullen, Alex After a short introduction to code-switching and Classics, this article offers an overview of the phenomenon of code-switching in Roman literature with some comments on possible generic restrictions, followed by a survey of Roman attitudes to the practice. The analysis then focuses on Roman letter writing and investigates code-switching in the second-century correspondence of Fronto (mainly letters between Marcus Aurelius, who became Emperor in AD 161, and his tutor Fronto). This discussion uses part of a new detailed database of Greek code-switches in Roman epistolography and is largely sociolinguistic in approach. It makes comparisons with other ancient and modern corpora where possible and highlights the value of code-switching research in responding to a range of (socio)linguistic, literary and historical questions. Sage 2015-08-01 Article PeerReviewed Mullen, Alex (2015) ‘In both our languages’: Greek-Latin code-switching in Roman literature. Language and Literature, 24 (3). pp. 213-232. ISSN 1461-7293 Greek; Latin; Code-switching; Roman literature; Letters; Fronto; Cicero; Pliny http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963947015585244 doi:10.1177/0963947015585244 doi:10.1177/0963947015585244
spellingShingle Greek; Latin; Code-switching; Roman literature; Letters; Fronto; Cicero; Pliny
Mullen, Alex
‘In both our languages’: Greek-Latin code-switching in Roman literature
title ‘In both our languages’: Greek-Latin code-switching in Roman literature
title_full ‘In both our languages’: Greek-Latin code-switching in Roman literature
title_fullStr ‘In both our languages’: Greek-Latin code-switching in Roman literature
title_full_unstemmed ‘In both our languages’: Greek-Latin code-switching in Roman literature
title_short ‘In both our languages’: Greek-Latin code-switching in Roman literature
title_sort ‘in both our languages’: greek-latin code-switching in roman literature
topic Greek; Latin; Code-switching; Roman literature; Letters; Fronto; Cicero; Pliny
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44672/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44672/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44672/