LautSchriftSprache III
Terzo convegno internazionale di grafematica storica
Sala Convegni della Banca Popolare, Via San Cosimo, 10
Verona 25-28 settembre 2013
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Variation within and among writing systems: old & new
concepts and methods in the analysis of ancient written
documents
1
LautSchriftSprache III
Variation within and among writing systems: old & new concepts and methods in the analysis of
ancient written documents
Third International Conference on Comparative Historical Graphemics // Dritte
internationale Tagung zur vergleichenden historischen Graphematik // Terzo Convegno
internazionale di grafematica storica comparata
Verona
25 – 28 September 2013
Organizzazione: Paola Cotticelli, Alfredo Rizza
Collaboratori: Roberta Meneghel, Stella Merlin
Dipartimento di Filologia, Letteratura e Linguistica – Università di Verona
www.lautschriftsprache.net
Redazione web: Alfredo Rizza
email: [email protected]
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Comitato Scientifico: Paola Cotticelli Kurras, Kerstin Kazzazi, Alfredo Rizza, Gaby Waxenberger
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Programma
Mercoledì 25 pomeriggio
ore 14-14.30: Warming-up/benvenuto
ore 14.30: Inizio dei lavori: sessione anticipata medievale-umanistica
ore 14.30-15.15: Alena Fidlerova, Phonetics, phonology and writing system
reform in late medieval Bohemia
ore 15.15-16.00: Marco Maulu, Soluzioni grafematiche nel condaghe di San
Pietro di Silki (XI-XIII sec.)
Pausa – sessione antichistica
ore 16.30-17.15: Sarah Bernard, Sur la piste des alphabets anatoliens entre les
mondes grec et sémitique: diverses adaptations possibles
ore 17.15-18.00: Michaela Zinko / Christian Zinko, Bemerkungen zur
sidetischen Schrift
ore 18.00-18.45: Isabelle Klock-Fontanille, From semiotic to linguistic: from
hieroglyphic and cuneiform writings of Anatolia to Greek alphabet
Conclusione della prima giornata
Giovedì 26
ore 9.30-10.15: Annick Payne, Adopting a second writing system: Anatolian
Hieroglyphs
ore 10.15-11.00: Anja Busse / Shai Gordin, Some remarks on graphic
variation in Hittite scribal circles
Pausa
ore 11.30-12.15: Anna Marinetti / Patrizia Solinas, Conservazione e innovazione fra ottimizzazione e ideologia nelle tradizioni alfabetiche derivate
dall’etrusco
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
ore 9.00 Seconda sessione: saluti delle Autorità / sessione antichistica
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ore 12.15-13.00: Massimiliano Marazzi, Linear B: Ungeeignete Schrift oder
graphische Strategie?
Pausa pranzo
ore 15: Terza sessione: sessione antichistica
ore 15.00-15.45: Carlo Consani, Considerazioni sul grado di adeguatezza della
scrittura lineare B
ore 15.45-16.30: Marta Muscariello, Lineare A e lineare B: questioni aperte
‘vecchie’ e soluzioni ‘nuove’
Pausa
17.00-17.45: Sabine Ziegler, The decipherment of some recently found ostraca
from Post-Roman North Africa: The "micro-linguistic" analysis
17.45-18.30: Billie J. Collins, Animal Terms in Hittite Cuneiform: Sound,
Script, and Scribal Jargon
18.30-19.15: Gerfrid Müller, Space concepts - Raumkonzepte
Conclusione della seconda giornata
Venerdì 27
ore 9.00: Quarta sessione: sessione germanistica
ore 9.45-10.30: Michelle Waldispühl, Runeninschriften und Verbrüderungsbücher im Spektrum medientheoretischer Schriftinterpretation
Pausa
ore 11.00-11.45: Christiane Zimmermann, Schreibvarianten und Schreibtraditionen in den Runeninschriften im jüngeren fuþąrk
ore 11.45-12.30: Andreas Nievergelt, Kürzungen im Althochdeutschen
ore 12.30-13.15: Annina Seiler, Irish influence on early Old English spelling?
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
ore 9.00-9.45: Fabrizio Raschellà, ‘Z’ in Icelandic. The vicissitudes of a letter
over the centuries
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Pausa pranzo
ore 15: Quinta sessione: sessione generale
ore 15.00-15.45: Daniel Solling, Die Entwicklung der Getrennt-, Zusammenund Bindestrichschreibung von Substantivkomposita im Deutschen
zwischen 1550 und 1710
ore 15.45-16.30: Paolo Pellegrini, Suoni e segni negli antichi volgari italiani:
due esempi (veronese e abruzzese).
Pausa
ore 17.00-17.45: Vittorio Springfield Tomelleri, Sprachliche und kulturelle
Implikationen im sowjetischen Diskurs: Die Latinisierung der ossetischen
Schrift
ore 17.45-18.30: Terje Spurkland, Graphemes and diacritics
ore 18.30-19.15: Federico Giusfredi / Alfredo Rizza, Rank-Frequency based
models and the case of short corpora
Conclusione della terza giornata
ore 20.30 Cena sociale presso Trattoria il Bersagliere, Verona.
Sabato 28
ore 9.00-9.45: Gaby Waxenberger, From Graph to Grapheme: Phonological
Possibilities and Methodological Limitations
ore 9.45-10.30: Alessia Bauer, Orthophonic writing: a different kind of 'perfect
fit'?
Pausa
ore 11.00-11.45: Kerstin Kazzazi, Between universality and individual
creativity in spelling – examples from multilingual language acquisition
and historical writing systems
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
ore 9.00 Sesta sessione: sessione teorica
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ore 11.45-12.30: Elke Ronneberger-Sibold, Mixing different scripts in word
creation: Examples from Farsi and Chinese
ore 12.30-13.15: Paola Cotticelli Kurras, Conclusions
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Ore 13.15-13.30 Chiusura dei lavori
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Abstracts
Orthophonic writing: a different kind of 'perfect fit'?
In my paper about post-Reformation Icelandic I would like to consider
two of the proposed reflections and promote a reconsideration of the
concept of 'perfect fit' in a particular context of communication.
Furthermore, I would like to propose an analysis of the relationship
between phonetics and writing systems in the codicological context of
the private manuscripts of Iceland in the above-mentioned period.
My context of study will be a wide group of semi-literate people.
Concerning the literacy rate of Icelandic people in post-Reformation
time, we can observe that it was much higher than in the rest of Europe.
However, the majority of people could not attend the official school and
had to find alternative access to an education program. Hence, a
disparity between the orthographic norm as taught in official education
and the textual documents we have arose, a sort of 'imperfection', due to
an orthophonic reproduction of the language. For, on the other hand,
another kind of 'perfect fit' was created at this time, namely a nearly 1:1
correspondence between the spoken and the written language. These
texts represent no difficulty for communication, probably because
writers and recipients shared the same kind of literacy and education.
Through the testimony of the semi-literati we gain an insight into a
phase of the Icelandic language which was and still is very conservative
from the orthographic point of view, and therefore does not reflect the
phonetic/phonological developments (for example the diphthongization
of <é> to [jɛ], probably concluded in the 14th century, which is still today
conventionally spelt as <é>, but was written <ie/je> in the period of time
under consideration.
Some Remarks on Graphic Variation in Hittite Scribal Circles
Anja Busse / Shai Gordin
Many modern written languages have their prescribed orthographic
rules which are often themselves set in writing. In contrast, it is more
difficult to identify such patterns in ancient languages, like the logo-
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Alessia Bauer
7
syllabic writing system of Hittite Cuneiform which exhibits graphic
variation. Thus far it has been possible to observe some graphic
conventions, but our knowledge about their application as well as about
deviations from these patterns in Hittite scribal circles is still limited. In
our paper we would like to present an outline of types and reasons for
scribal errors in Hittite Cuneiform and show how the scribes emended
their texts. Subsequently, we will propose possible conscious deviations
and intentions for their graphic implementation.
Animal Terms in Hittite Cuneiform: Sound, Script, and Scribal
Jargon
Billie Jean Collins
Considerazioni sul grado di adeguatezza della scrittura lineare B
Carlo Consani
0. Ci si propone di riflettere sulla communis opinio che considera la
scrittura lineare B come un sistema grafico altamente imperfetto nella
resa della lingua greca o di un suo dialetto: tale affermazione potrebbe
trovare un relativo fondamento se il sistema scrittorio in questione
venisse considerato astrattamente in rapporto alle caratteristiche
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
The origin, function, and use of logograms in Hittite cuneiform have
been the subject of two important, recent studies. These works have
raised many questions about the transmission and adaptation of
logograms in the Hittite writing system, the factors that determined their
use as against phonetic writings, and the language in which the
logograms were read, among others. Building on this work, I propose to
examine the orthography of animal terms in Hittite cuneiform, a class of
words that was singled out for logographic representation. I will
examine such factors as phonetic complementation, text genre, scribal
habits, and paleography in order to address the following questions:
Why were some animal names written with logograms or both
logographically and syllabically, and others only syllabically? How is
this class of logograms distributed in the texts chronologically and across
genres? To what extent were they adapted to a form or meaning distinct
from Mesopotamian cuneiform? And what did the logographic writings
signify for the author and for his audience?
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LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
fonologiche e fonotattiche del greco miceneo. Tuttavia, se si risponde
all'invito contenuto nel punto .2 del call for papers di LautSchriftSprache3, il
giudizio di supposta imperfezione della lineare B necessita di una
radicale riconsiderazione. Nella fattispecie, quando ci si proponga di
determinare il grado di appropriatezza di una scrittura come la lineare B
è indispensabile tenere conto di due ordini di fattori, uno di carattere
strutturale, l'altro di natura più ampiamente semiotica.
1. Per quanto attiene il primo aspetto (livello strutturale) è necessario
rendere conto di due elementi di inadeguatezza che non sono stati
sufficientemente distinti: il primo è quello relativo alle caratteristiche del
repertorio grafico, un aspetto connesso con l'origine stessa della lineare B
e con la sua derivazione dalla lineare A. Il secondo attiene invece alle
'spelling rules' messe a punto dagli scribi/funzionari per rendere una
lingua ricca di gruppi consonantici, come il greco, attraverso un sillabario a sillabe aperte; questo secondo aspetto è ovviamente indipendente
dall'origine della scrittura e dipende invece dalle strategie scrittorie
seguite dagli utenti della scrittura per gli specifici scopi cui questa era
destinata.
2. Quest'ultimo punto si collega direttamente con una riconsiderazione
della lineare B in prospettiva semiotica, cosa che implica la valorizzazione dei seguenti parametri:
a) circuito emittente-destinatari(o), in rapporto ai ruoli che le figure
tradizionalmente definite come 'scribi' ricoprono all'interno dell'organizzazione burocratica dei regni micenei;
b) il tipo di circolazione delle informazioni contenute nelle tavolette;
c) le modalità di utilizzazione della scrittura nel contesto palaziale;
d) la qualità del prodotto dell'attività scrittoria in riferimento all'accuratezza esibita e, rispettivamente, alla tipologia dei lapsus e degli errori
scrittori rilevabili nella documentazione disponibile.
3. Se si combinano in un quadro complessivo gli elementi che emergono
dai precedenti punti .1 e .2, cercando di coglierne le reciproche connessioni, è possibile giungere ad una conclusione notevolmente diversa da
quella richiamata all'inizio sulle pretese inadeguatezze della scrittura
lineare B: infatti, la specifica scelta di dotare i testi micenei di un duplice
livello di notazione, fonografico in grafia sillabica e sematografico, produce una notevole ridondanza che va di pari passo con l'impiego di
'spelling rules' molto economiche. Questa particolare strategia, che si
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segnala come unica nel panorama delle scritture lineari dell'Egeo antico,
rende la lineare B uno strumento perfettamente adeguato alla redazione
di testi di natura economica dalla valenza tutta interna al sistema di
economia redistributiva propria del mondo miceneo, di testi, cioè, dalla
circolazione limitatissima in una società caratterizzata da una literacy
estremamente ridotta.
4. Il quadro sopra delineato potrebbe trovare completamento:
a) nell'analisi della distribuzione delle informazioni attraverso i due canali della scrittura sillabica e dell'apparato sematografico in una qualsiasi
tavoletta (si pensi a KN Ca 895+fr come particolarmente significativa);
b) in sintetici confronti esterni con la lineare A da una parte e con il
sillabario cipriota dall'altra, volti a far emergere con ancor maggiore evidenza la singolarità delle scelte adottate dagli scribi micenei.
Phonetics, phonology and writing system reform in late
medieval Bohemia
The paper will deal with an anonymous Latin treatise called customarily
Orthographia Bohemica and ascribed to M. Jan Hus (approx. 1370–1415),
Czech religious reformer and scholar burnt to death during the Council
of Constance. This treatise (written probably between 1406 and 1412,
preserved in one abridged 15th century copy discovered in 1827 and one
brief excerpt from another, unpreserved manuscript discovered at the
beginning of the 20th century) treats individual Czech sounds, their
combinability at the beginning and at the end of a word and in some
cases also their pronunciation and appearance in other languages
(Church Slavonic, Hungarian, Hebrew, Croatian, Polish, German, Greek
etc.). On this basis it suggests a reform of the existing Czech writing
system (so called digraphic orthography) using diacritical signs. By
means of eliminating all digraphs (except <ch> present already in Latin
writing system) and establishing one-to-one (or a “perfect fit”) relation
between phonemes and graphemes it aims at rationalization and
facilitation of reading and writing processes, as well as saving on writing
material (for this purpose it also suggests using abbreviations similar to
those common in writing Latin). The aim of the paper is to summarize
briefly the contents and importance of the treatise and unanswered
questions it still poses and then to concentrate on its possible inspirations
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Alena A. Fidlerová
10
Selected literature:
Balász, János. Zur Frage der Typologie europäischer Schriftsysteme mit lateinischen
Buchstaben. Studia Slavica Academiae scientiarum Hungaricae IV, 3–4 (1958),
251–291.
Bartoš, František Michálek. K Husovu spisku o českém pravopise. «Jihočeský sborník
historický» 18 (1949), 33–38.
Bursill-Hall, Geoffrey L., Speculative Grammars of the Middle Ages. The Doctrine of Partes
Orationis of the Modistae. The Hague: Mouton 1971.
Fredborg, Karin Margareta. Speculative Grammar. In: Peter Dronke (ed.). A History of
Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1988, 177–195.
Law, Vivien. The history of linguistics in Europe from Plato to 1600. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2003.
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
and sources. Up to now, several sources of proposed diacritical marks (a
dot – punctus rotundus – above letters the pronunciation of which differs
from that in Latin, and an accent – gracilis virgula – above long vowels)
have been suggested (dagesh in Hebrew, abbreviated jer in Croatian
Glagolitic script, acute in Greek loanwords in Latin, Irish diacritics, Latin
<i> with a dot, occasional accents in some older Czech manuscripts etc.),
but up to now only few hypotheses have been proposed concerning
possible sources of the way it treats sounds, their combinability and their
pronunciation. Although some distant parallels (De litteris by
Terentianus Maurus, De enuntiatione litterarum by Marius Victorinus,
Icelandic First Grammatical Treatise, Codex Bernensis 417, Orthographia by
Parisius de Altedo etc.) have been identified, only one source of more or
less direct inspiration has been suggested, namely the works of
grammarians teaching in Paris (Petrus Helias and especially Joannes de
Dacia). This assumption is supported by the fact that there existed quite
an intensive cultural exchange between France and Bohemia since the
reign of John of Luxembourg and that it was not exceptional for young
men from Bohemia to study at the Sorbonne. However, as the parallels
between these works and Orthographia Bohemica are quite loose, this
suggestion does not seem to be persuasive enough and the inspirational
sources of this influential work (it laid foundations not only of present
Czech orthography, bur it influenced also writing systems of several
other, mostly Slavonic languages, e.g. Slovene, Croatian, Polish or
Hungarian) still remain rather a mystery. The paper will suggest
another, up to now not mentioned possible inspiration.
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Rank-Frequency based models and the case of short corpora
Federico Giusfredi / Alfredo Rizza
In this communication we go back to our previous work(*) and try to
better define some problems connected with the computational analysis
of ‘rest’-corpora. We would like to explain what is rank-frequency, why
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Libera, Alain / Rosier, Irène. La pensée linguistique médievale. In: Sylvain Auoux (ed.).
Historie des idées linguistiques II. Liège: Mardaga, 1992, 115–186.
Mareš, František Václav, Emauzské prameny českého diakritického pravopisu, in: Z
tradic slovanské kultury v Čechách, Praha: Univerzita Karlova, 1975, 169–172.
Nechutová, Jana / Šlosar, Dušan / Večerka, Radoslav (ed.), Čítanka ze slovanské
jazykovědy v českých zemích. Brno: Univerzita J. E. Purkyně, 1982.
Otto, Alfredus, Johannis Daci Opera. Hauniae: Gad, 1955.
Pinborg, Jan. Die Entwicklung der Sprachtheorie im Mittelalter. Münster Westfalen,
Kopenhagen: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Verlag Arne FrostHansen, 1967.
Pleskalová, Jana. Jan Hus a nabodeníčka. In: Světla Čmejrková / Ivana Svobodová (ed.),
Oratio et ratio. Praha: ÚJČ AV ČR, 2005, 283–287.
Pleskalová, Jana / Krčmová, Marie / Večerka, Radoslav / Karlík, Petr (ed.), Kapitoly
z dějin české jazykovědné bohemistiky. Praha: Academia, 2007.
Raumer, Rudolf von, Gesammelte sprachwissenschaftliche Schriften. Hildesheim: Olms,
2004.
Rosier, Irène, La grammaire spéculative du Bas Moyen-Age. In: Sylvain Auroux (ed.),
History of the language sciences: an international handbook on the evolution of the
study of language from the beginnings to the present. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter,
2000, 541–550.
Schröpfer, Johann, Hussens Traktat „Orthographia Bohemica“. Die Herkunft des
diakritischen Systems in der Schreibung slavischer Sprachen und die älteste
zusammenhängende Beschreibung slavischer Laute. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz,
1968.
Seelmann, Emil, Die Aussprache des Latein nach physiologisch-historischen Grundsätzen.
Heilbronn: Henninger, 1885.
Sirridge, Mary / Rouge, Baton, The Science of Language and Linguistic Knowledge: John of
Denmark and Robert Kilwardby. In: Sten Ebbesen (ed.), Sprachtheorien in Spätantike
und Mittelalter. Tübingen: G. Narr, 1995, 109–134.
Šembera, Alois Vojtěch (ed.), Mistra Jana Husi Ortografie česká. Wien: Leopold
Sommer, 1857.
Thurot, Charles, Extraits de divers manuscrits latins pour servir à l'histoire des doctrines
grammaticales au moyen âge. Frankfurt am Main: Minerva, 1964.
Vidmanová, Anežka, Ke spisku Orthographia Bohemica. «Listy filologické» 105 (1982),
75–89.
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and how is it an interesting tool to analyze deciphered and undeciphered
ancient written corpora.
(*) Giusfredi / Rizza, Zipf's law and the distribution of written signs, in Cotticelli Kurras,
P. (ed.), Linguistica e filologia digitale: aspetti e progetti, Alessandria: dell'Orso,
2011, pp. 87-99.
Between universality and individual creativity in spelling –
examples from multilingual language acquisition and historical
writing systems
Taking up the second theme proposed for this conference, I would like to
explore the concept of the 'perfect fit' from a comparative perspective
that seems both unusual and fruitful. By juxtaposing empirical data from
a case study of a trilingual child and examples of the use of the runic
script for different Germanic languages with regard to, e.g., the notation
of pre-consonantal nasals or the possibility of allophonic writing, an
attempt will be made to distinguish between possible spelling universals
and spellings which depend on specific conditions, such as external
language contact, individual multilingualism, contact of scripts etc.
In a corpus of spontaneous, pre-alphabetisation writing data from a fiveyear-old growing up with German, English and Farsi, there was
substantial evidence for the omission of pre-consonantal nasals in all
three languages, e.g., <take> Gm. Danke, <muki>, Eng. monkey, <kabz>
Farsi personal name Kambiz. Similarly, there are several instances of the
same phenomenon in runic writing, e.g. <kaba> 'comb' in various
inscriptions. The latter has been interpreted as evidence for the loss of
pre-consonantal nasals in the Germanic idioms represented in these
inscriptions. However, in light of the child data, a more plausible
explanation may be to regard this phenomenon as a kind of spelling
universal to the effect that pre-consonantal nasals are often not written
due to their low saliency. In the child data, this universal is applied to all
three languages the child knows; in the runic data, we witness a kind of
entrenchment of this spelling at least in the Scandinavian material,
maybe even coming close to a rule, a stage already reached in other
historical writing systems such as the Cuneiform writing system for Old
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Kerstin Kazzazi
13
Persian. In all these cases, the specific languages involved and the
language knowledge of the individual writer are of no significance.
On the other hand, there are also instances in both sets of data of
extremely creative idiosyncratic spellings which can only be based on
that particular writer's knowledge of his or her language(s): This would
explain, e.g., the differentiation of the German allophones [x] and [ç] by
the letters <R> and <F>, respectively, in the child data, as it could be due
to the fact that Farsi only has one of these sounds, namely [x], leading to
multilingual phonetic awareness that goes below the phonemic level. In
the Old English runic inscriptions, we find a newly created rune ® for an
allophonic k-sound on only one inscription, the Ruthwell Cross, which is
situated in an area of possible Celtic language contact, again pointing to
specific knowledge as the basis of this spelling.
Both types of spelling seem to represent ways of creating not a
phonemic, but a phonetic 'perfect fit' between what the speaker
considers phonetically salient information and its notation. However, the
cognitive basis for these types differs, which is why in the one instance
we find comparable data in several of the world's writing systems, while
the other is restricted to just one instance/writer. These observations may
be of relevance for the creation of a typology of spelling principles
according to their universality.
From semiotic to linguistic : From hieroglyphic and cuneiform
writings of Anatolia to Greek alphabet.
The traditional approach to the study of writing is ordered around two
axes: (1) a methodological point of view, strictly historical, teleological
and ethnocentric (centered on Western alphabets, considered the final
stage); (2) a definitional point of view, a representative conception of
writing: the only function of writing is to transcribe speech.
However, I believe writing cannot be reduced to a system of signs and
functions. Through the semiotic approach, we can exceed the traditional
approach, in particular by reintroducing the iconic component that
belongs intrinsically to writing.
But the two conceptions are not mutually exclusive: writing, any writing
whatsoever, has an intrinsic iconic dimension and a linguistic dimension,
it would be artificial and even difficult to separate. Moreover, if we re-
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Isabelle Klock-Fontanille
14
examine the history of writing, (1) the iconic component is intrinsically
part of writing and gradually has been removed or hidden, and at the
same time (2) the phonetic component has always existed.
It would be naive to try to separate text and image, language recognition
and iconic recognition, or more accurately assign text to glottic function
and image to iconic, semiotic recognition. Indeed, whatever the system alphabetic, syllabic, ideographic (to use the traditional typology) - there
is a common ground between writing formants and iconic formants. A
dialectic can then be established between the two: in some cases, one can
see how developed the iconic potential of writing and / or scriptural
potential of image, in others the two terms are separated, in others
integrated.
I propose to describe and to model this intersémiose, this dialectic
between the visible and the readable: how the two terms are orchestrated? how they are stabilized to reach a configuration in which the parties
are involved in a consistent manner? what function can be given to each
of these terms? how each type does lead to generating meaning and to a
perception of world?
Non-alphabetic civilizations are civilizations of inscribed space, as much
or more than of verbal notation. The hieroglyphic writings are thus
characterized by an intertwining of semiotic modes. That is why I will
study particularly the Anatolian hieroglyphic writing. But the cuneiforms will hold me also, especially when they were used and adapted by
Hittite scribes to transcribe the Hattian language. I will look also changes
that Phoenician signs underwent when they were transmitted to the
Greeks.
Linear B: Ungeeignete Schrift oder graphische Strategie?
Seit der Entzifferung der Linearschrift B wurde immer wieder behauptet,
dieses Schriftsystem sei für die Notierung der griechischen Sprache
ungeeignet. Die Struktur des Systems an sich, mit seinen überwiegenden
Zeichen für offene Silben sowie seine orthographischen Konventionen
wirken in der Tat völlig inadäquat für die glottische Wiedergabe der
griechischen Lexeme.
Bei einer näheren Betrachtung entsprechen jedoch solche Bewertungen
einer ganz bestimmten Darstellung von Schrift und Schriftsystem,
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Massimiliano Marazzi
15
nämlich dass Hauptaufgabe jeglicher Schrift eine genaue phonologische
Wiedergabe der durch sie festgelegten Sprache sei. Eine solche
„alphabetozentrische“ Repräsentation der Schrift scheint aber - wie
schon von mehreren Schriftanthropologen behauptet wurde - der
funktionellen Mehrschichtigkeit der schriftlichen Notierung nicht angemessen.
Nach einigen kurzen methodologischen Bemerkungen über eine
„integrierte Annäherung“ zum Akt des Schreibens werden Funktion,
formale Eigenschaften und diagrammatische Strategien der mykenischen
epigraphischen Dokumentation gründlich dargestellt. Dadurch wird
gezeigt, dass die mehrmals behauptete „Unangemessenheit“ der Linearschrift B nur scheinbar ist und die gemeinte Unfähigkeit der mykenischen Schreiber, die griechische Sprache durch ihr Schriftsystem mit
seinen orthographischen Konventionen glottisch wiederzugeben, in der
Tat einer bestimmten Schreibstrategie entspricht.
Conservazione e innovazione fra ottimizzazione e ideologia nelle
tradizioni alfabetiche derivate dall’etrusco
Dal punto di vista delle attestazioni epigrafiche l’Italia preromana
presenta caratteristiche particolari in quanto ambito relativamente
chiuso, del quale le fonti storiche consentono di conoscere in modo
abbastanza dettagliato sia la storia avvenimentale sia quella socioculturale e in cui, per secoli, hanno convissuto in rapporti reciproci varie
tradizioni grafiche. Proprio per le dimensioni ridotte del contesto e per
la quantità controllabile della documentazione, l’Italia antica può essere
vista come una sorta di laboratorio in cui si identificano fenomeni che, in
altri ambiti, con documentazione quantitativamente e qualitativamente
di ben altra portata, appaiono in termini meno definiti e definibili.
Il presente contributo vuole evidenziare, nella fenomenologia varia
dell’adattamento dell’alfabeto etrusco per notare nell’Italia antica lingue
diverse dall’etrusco, fatti di conservazione e di innovazione grafica che si
spiegano non tanto con finalità di ottimizzazione quanto piuttosto in
relazione al ‘prestigio’ dei modelli, o a scelte culturali, o a motivazioni
ideologiche di affermazione di identità.
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Anna Marinetti / Patrizia Solinas
16
Soluzioni Grafematiche nel condaghe di San Pietro di Silki (XIXIII sec.)
Marco Maulu
Il condaghe di San Pietro di Silki è un registro di possedimenti
appartenenti all'abbazia benedettina fondata nell'omonima località del
Giudicato di Torres fra i secc. XI e XIII, oggi compresa nell'abitato di
Sassari. Il documento, attualmente custodito nel codice membranaceo n.
95 della Biblioteca Universitaria di Sassari, risulta particolarmente
interessante per la ricostruzione della vita e l'organizzazione sociale isolana dell'epoca. Si tratta di un complesso di schede compilate da più
mani in una carolina tarda dal ductus elegante con rubriche ornate di
rosso per quanto concerne la parte di più recente redazione e da una
gotica corrente con influenze toscane per quella più datata. La lingua è
una scripta logudorese che sarà nostro scopo indagare dal punto di vista
grafematico, ponendola in relazione con alcuni altri testi coevi, sì da
poter chiarire quali siano gli usi indigeni e quelli foranei (cf. ad es.
l'oscillazione fra ki e chi nel relativo 'che'), oltre a distinguere le differenti
soluzioni adottate diacronicamente nella composizione del registro.
Space concepts – Raumkonzepte
Alles Schreiben beginnt mit einer leeren Fläche. Seit Jahrtausenden plagt
Autoren die Angst vor dem sprichwörtlichen weißen Blatt. Die Antike
übte sich in der Aemulatio, in der Romantik wartete man auf den Hauch
der Inspiration. Fließen die Gedanken, geraten sie bei der Formulierung
ins Stocken. Wurden die Gedanken endlich in Sätze geknetet, sind diese
auf der leeren Fläche anzuordnen. Wie wird der Raum genutzt? Woran
orientiert sich der Schreiber? Welches sind die richtigen Proportionen?
Und was hat das mit dem Text zu tun? Ein kursorischer Streifzug durch
Zeiten und Kulturen soll den Blick schärfen, um Raumkonzepte der
Keilschriftkulturen besser zu verstehen.
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Gerfrid W. Müller
17
Lineare A e lineare B: questioni aperte ‘vecchie’ e soluzioni
‘nuove’
Marta Muscariello
Il dibattito scientifico sulle due scritture lineari egee dell’Età del Bronzo
presenta varie questioni ancora aperte: la prima, di ‘vecchia’ data ma
ancora non accettata pacificamente né in modo soddisfacente dalla
comunità scientifica (e soprattutto proprio dagli specialisti del settore), è
la questione della leggibilità della lineare A. La lettura dei sillabogrammi
A secondo il valore dei rispettivi omografi B si è imposta da sé, come un
fatto ‘naturale’, dopo la decifrazione del miceneo, ma è stata in seguito
oggetto di attenta riflessione da parte di L. Godart e J.-P. Olivier, che
negli anni ’70 hanno stabilito l’illiceità dell’applicazione automatica dei
valori fonetici micenei alla scrittura lineare usata dai Minoici. Nel 1999
M. Negri e C. Consani sono giunti, dopo più di dieci anni di ricerche
stimolate dalla messa in discussione dell’identità dei valori A:B, a
dimostrare su solide basi scientifiche la piena leggibilità della lineare A.
Ripercorrere questo dibattito significa anche identificare diverse
problematiche collaterali, fra le quali di particolare rilevanza appaiono la
questione delle differenze fra i centri scrittorii palaziali micenei e,
soprattutto, il punctum dolens dell’adeguatezza grafematica della lineare
B per la notazione della lingua greca, anche questo ‘vecchio’ campo di
riflessione che ha conosciuto importanti sviluppi recenti sul rapporto fra
la sillaba e i sillabogrammi e fra la leggibilità dei testi e il contesto della
loro fruizione.
Kürzungen im Althochdeutschen
In den althochdeutschen Quellen sind vielerorts - vor allem in Glossen
und besonders häufig in Griffelglossen – unvollständig geschriebene
Wörter anzutreffen. Was auf den ersten Blick wie eigenartige Abkürzungen aussieht, erweist sich bei näherer Betrachtung als vielgestaltiges und funktional komplexes Phänomen. Einzelne Ausformungen können mit zeitgenössischen lateinischen, wenige andere mit
modernen Kürzungsverfahren in Zusammenhang gebracht werden.
Daneben aber zeigen sich zahlreiche eigenständige Formen wie bei-
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Andreas Nievergelt
18
spielsweise die unbezeichnete Kürzung eines ganzen Wortes auf einen
einzigen Schlussbuchstaben.
Die Kürzungen im Althochdeutschen bilden einen noch wenig erforschten Sonderbereich in der althochdeutschen Schriftlichkeit. Am
Deutschen Seminar der Universität Zürich (Lehrstuhl Prof. Dr. E. Glaser)
läuft seit Anfang 2013 ein SNF-Projekt zu ihrer Erforschung. Das Referat
bietet einen Einblick in das Material und seine Problematik und berichtet
aus den laufenden Arbeiten.
Adopting a second writing system: Anatolian Hieroglyphs
Annick Payne
The Bronze Age Hittite Empire is well known for its thousands of clay
tablets, written in cuneiform. Yet for reasons unknown, a second, highly
pictorial writing system was created, today known as Anatolian
Hieroglyphs. We can only speculate why the Hittites adopted a second
writing system, yet its appearance in the wake of monumental selfrepresentation by Hittite kings seems to suggest a link with the iconography of power. This paper will examine possible reasons for promoting the Hieroglyphic writing system, considering its functionality, its
powers of communication, its relationship with cuneiform and its status
in society.
Suoni e segni negli antichi volgari italiani: due esempi
(veronese e abruzzese).
Una manciata di esempi problematici di rapporto suono grafia in
veronese antico (in riferimento ai testi che ho appena pubblicato) e di
dilemmatico scioglimento di compendio in un sonetto marchigianoabruzzese di metà Trecento.
‘Z’ in Icelandic. The vicissitudes of a letter over the centuries.
Fabrizio D. Raschellà
The letter ‘z’ has been used, with different values and functions, in the
Germanic languages since the very beginning of their written tradition
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Paolo Pellegrini
19
and is still in use in some of them. Icelandic is perhaps the Germanic
language which has made the most idiosyncratic use of this letter.
Originally employed to denote any phonemic cluster combining a dental
and a sibilant consonant, its use – and consequently its grapho-phonemic
status – has become more and more variable and unstable in the course
of time. Only in modern times it has received definite normalizing rules,
but, paradoxically, this happened only after its phonetic value had come
to coincide with that expressed by the letter ‘s’, i.e. when the
phonological rules that accounted for its application had already become
obscure and no longer retrievable without a clear understanding of the
underlying morphological structure. This fact is among other things at
the basis of its official removal from the Icelandic alphabet in 1973.
The paper aims at reviewing the main stages of the history of this letter
in Icelandic writing from the earliest manuscript evidence up to the
present, particularly focusing on the grapho-phonemic relationships
underlying its varying use over time.
Mixing different scripts in word creation: Examples from Farsi
and Chinese
My paper deals with the combination of different writing systems in
graphically hybrid Farsi and Chinese word creations: In the Farsi
creations, the (slightly modified) Arabic alphabet representing Farsi
phonemes is combined with the Latin alphabet representing English or
(rarely) French phonemes. In the Chinese creations, Chinese logographic
characters are combined again with the Latin alphabet with English
(occasionally also with other “Western”) sound values. My material
comes from a larger project concerning word creation in German, Farsi
and Chinese. These languages were deliberately chosen because of their
important differences as to their linguistic types and their writing
systems.
Word creation in this context refers to all techniques for the production
of new lexemes (and to the resulting lexemes themselves), which are not
covered by the productive rules (or models) of regular word formation.
It includes not only the coining of entirely new words not based on any
previously existing linguistic elements (German Urschöpfung), but also
extragrammatical operations such as shortening or blending lexemes or
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Elke Ronneberger-Sibold
20
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
phrases. Unlike with regular word formation, the linguistic input of
word creations is obscured to various degrees. Therefore, besides its
obvious phonological aims, word creation has the function of “fine
tuning” the morphosemantic transparency of words according to their
communicative purposes. Mixing different writing systems in the same
word contributes to this function in the written code.
Two basic communicative purposes better served by words with a more
or less reduced transparency than by fully transparent ones are the
disguise of certain concepts for various reasons, on the hand, and the
evocation of certain prestigious associations, on the other. Disguising
prevails as a purpose in in-group slangs of young people or other, more
specific social groups on the Internet, the creation of prestige in the
language of advertising, especially in names of firms and products.
The techniques of mixing different scripts are manifold: Some basic
techniques are the following:
• In a linguistically hybrid word, the English part is written in Latin
letters, the Farsi or Chinese one in the respective scripts.
• A linguistically homogeneous word is partly written in one script,
partly in another.
• Only certain features of the respective other script are borrowed,
e.g., certain characteristic correspondences between phonemes and
graphemes, or the direction of writing.
• The graphical form of letters or characters is modified so that it
resembles the letters or characters of the respective other script.
• Letters of the respective other script are used not with their own
sound value but with the sound value (in Chinese also with the
semantic value) of their name. (This is also possible with Arabic
numerals.)
In my paper, this typology will be exemplified, refined and set in
relation to different communicative purposes. It will be shown how a
linguistic community disposing of different languages and writing
systems makes creative use of these particular possibilities of code
mixing.
21
Irish influence on early Old English spelling?
It has been a matter of debate in how far Irish scholars influenced
learning in the South of England in the late 7th century (cf. Herren 1998).
This paper focuses on one particular aspect of this question – namely
whether Irish spelling had an influence on Old English orthographic
practice, as has been claimed by scholars such as Oliver (1998) and White
(2000). The question will be investigated on the basis of an analysis of the
orthography of the “Corpus Group” of glossaries, especially the Epinal
glossary (Épinal [Vosges], Bibliothèque municipal MS. 72 [2]). The
“Corpus Group” of glossaries does not only include some of the oldest
extant sources of Old English, it also bears witness to scholarly activity in
Canterbury and the South of England in the late 7th century: some of the
glosses can be traced back to the teaching of Theodore and Hadrian in
Canterbury (Lapidge 1986). Irish influence is clearly attested by a couple
of Irish forms in some of the glossaries. The spellings of the Old English
interpretamenta of these glossaries differ markedly from later Old English
orthography: The most notable difference lies in the fact that the typical
Old English characters wyn and thorn are rare. The Epinal glossary
mainly employs the digraphs <uu> and <th> instead, and also <ch>
rather than <h> for the velar fricative. The use of <th> and <ch> strikingly
parallels Old Irish spelling practice (cf. Harvey 2011), which makes Irish
graphemic influence plausible. However, since these features are also
present in contemporary Merovingian sources, the similarities are
probably not the result of straightforward borrowing from Old Irish
spelling practice. Herren has suggested that it was, in fact, Theodore and
Hadrian who were responsible for establishing Latin as a spoken
language in Anglo-Saxon England (1989). I will argue that Latin, the
“father tongue” of the European Middle Ages, is also the source of
continuing correspondences among the developing writing systems of
the respective vernaculars.
References:
Harvey, Anthony, Reading the genetic code of Early Medieval Celtic orthography, in E.
Glaser, A. Seiler, M. Waldispühl (ed.), LautSchriftSprache: Beiträge zur vergleichenden historischen Graphematik, Zurich, 2011.
Herren, Michael W., Scholarly contacts between the Irish and the Southern English in the
seventh century, «Peritia» 12 (1998), 24-53.
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Dr. des. Annina Seiler
22
Lapidge, Michael, The school of Theodore and Hadrian, «Anglo-Saxon England» 15
(1986), 45-72.
Oliver, Lisi, Irish influence on orthographic practice in Early Kent, «NOWELE» 33 (1998),
93-113.
White, David L., Irish influence and the interpretation of Old English spelling. Ph.D.
Austin, Texas (2000).
Die Entwicklung der Getrennt-, Zusammen- und
Bindestrichschreibung von Substantivkomposita im Deutschen
zwischen 1550 und 1710
In this talk I will show the results of a study that investigates the changes
in whether compound nouns were closed (written as one word), open
(written as separate words) or hyphenated in Early New High German
between 1550 and 1710. Due to the fact that there were no orthographic
norms in the German of this time, graphematic phenomena in this period
of the German language are very fruitful to examine.
The study is based on a corpus of 249 sermons in 90 different postils.
Since the study aims to show a diachronic development, the corpus texts
originate from six time windows centered around the years 1550, 1570,
1600, 1620, 1660 and 1710.
The results show a general development from 1550, when around 80% of
the occurrences of compound nouns were written as one word, to 1620,
when this way of writing dominated almost entirely. In the texts from
the last two time windows, the hyphenation spreads, and by 1710, nearly
two thirds of the instances of compound nouns were written with a
hyphen. The study also shows that the geographical origin of a text is of
lesser importance for the writing of compound nouns as one word,
separate words or with a hyphen. However, the distinction between
genuine compound nouns (a compound noun with the modifier in an
unmarked case) and artificial ones (a compound noun with the modifier
in an oblique case) seems to be of greater relevance. The artificial
compound nouns are closed to a lesser extent in the period between 1550
and 1620 and hyphenated to a higher extent from 1660 onwards than the
genuine compound nouns.
In the talk, which will be given in German, I will propose some
explanations for the shown development.
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Daniel Solling
23
Graphemes and diacritics
Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo
The concept of grapheme is normally defined as the smallest distinctive
unit of a writing system. Graphemes may be analyzed as consisting of a
set of distinctive and non distinctive graphic features. If you exchange
one distinctive feature with another, you get another grapheme; if you
exchange non distinctive features, you get allographs of the same
grapheme.
A diacritic is commonly held as a graphic addition to a written symbol to
create a new symbol from a pre-existing symbol. Translated to
graphemic theory this should imply that a diacritic might serve as a
distinctive graphic feature added to a grapheme to make a new
grapheme.
The graphic features of a grapheme normally have no connection with
the phonemic/phonetic reference of the grapheme. A one-to-one
correspondence between grapheme and phoneme does not imply any
relation between the graphic features of the grapheme and the phonetic
features of the related phoneme.
In medieval runic script there is, however, at least one instance where a
distinctive graphic feature, introduced as a diacritic, is perceived as an
expression of a distinctive phonetic feature. The diacritc in question is a
“dot” added to the runic character and we get a grapho-phonological
relation <± dot> → [±voice]. Once this connection was established, it
called for a restructuring of the graphemic system of runic script.
May such an evidence effect the definition of the grapheme as “the
smallest distinctive unit” of a writing system? Would it have any
implication for the discussion about the relational and the autonomous
concept of the grapheme?
Sprachliche und kulturelle Implikationen im sowjetischen
Diskurs: Die Latinisierung der ossetischen Schrift.
Vittorio Springfield Tomelleri
Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der in der bisherigen Forschung eher
vernachlässigten Frage der Latinisierung der ossetischen Schrift, welche
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Terje Spurkland
24
Auswahlbibliographie
Alborov B. A., Istorija osetinskich pis’men, Vladikavkaz 1929.
Alpatov V.M., 150 jazykov i politika 1917-2000. Sociolingvističeskie problemy SSSR i
postsovetskogo prostranstva, Moskva 2000.
Ælborty B., Iron fysty damyhætæ (Osetinskie znaki pis’ma), Dzæudžyqæu 1929.
Bigulaev B.B., Kratkaja istorija osetinskogo pis’ma, Dzaudžikau 1952.
Bocuaty E.E., Iron fyssynad æmæ orfografijy istorijæ cybyr zonynægtæ, in Iron nyxasy
kul’turæ æmæ stilistikæ, 3-ag činyg, Dzæudžyq’æu 2006, 156-176.
Crisp S., Soviet Language Planning 1917-1953, in M. Kirkwood, Language Planning in
the Soviet Union, London 1989, 23-45.
Frings A., Sowjetische Schriftpolitik zwischen 1917 und 1941. Eine handlungstheoretische
Analyse, Stuttgart 2007.
Dzagurov G.A., Novaja osetinskaja grafika (na latinskoj osnove), Vladikavkaz 1923.
Glück H., Sowjetische Sprachenpolitik, in H. Jachnow et al. (1984 ed.), Handbuch des
Russisten. Sprachwissenschaft und angrenzende Disziplinen, Wiesbaden 1984, 519559.
Imart G., Le mouvement de “Latinisation” en U.R.S.S., «Cahiers du monde russe et
soviétique» 6 (1965) 2, 223-239.
Isaev M.I., Sociolingvističeskie problemy jazykov narodov SSSR (Voprosy jazykovoj politiki i
jazykovogo stroitel’stva), Moskva 1982.
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
1922 erfolgte und bis 1938 andauerte, als die Rückkehr zur kyrillischen
Schrift vollzogen wurde.
In den meisten einschlägigen sowjetischen und postsowjetischen
Publikationen wird diese Erfahrung als eine missglückte, wenn auch
notwendige Übergangsphase auf dem Weg zur Herausbildung einer
kodifizierten Sprachnorm angesehen; sie stellt dagegen ein äußerst
wichtiges Phänomen in der Geschichte der osteuropäischen Kultur dar,
auf der Mikroebene der ossetischen Sprachgeschichte sowie auf der
Makroebene der sowjetischen Sprachpolitik.
Als besonders wichtig und ergiebig, sowohl im linguistischen als auch
im kulturhistorischen Sinne, erweist sich die um den Alphabetwechsel
geführte Debatte, an der sich prominente Vertreter der ossetischen
Kultur mit Begeisterung und Einsatz beteiligten; dabei wurden sehr
schnell sprachwissenschaftliche Überlegungen durch ideologisch behaftete Argumentationen ersetzt.
Anhand konkreten Materials soll dieses kurze aber nichtsdestotrotz
hochinteressante Kapitel aus der Geschichte der ossetischen Sprache in
seinen unterschiedlichsten Implikationen untersucht und womöglich erhellt werden.
25
Jachnow H., Die sowjetischen Erfahrungen und Modelle der Alphabetisierung, in H.
Günther & O. Ludwig, Schrift und Schriftlichkeit/Writing and Its Use, 1.
Halbband/Volume 1, Berlin-New York 1984, 803-813.
Martin T., The Affirmative Action Empire. Nation and Nationalism in the Soviet Union,
1923-1939, Ithaca-London 2001.
Musaev K.M., Alfavity jazykov narodov SSSR, Moskva 1965.
Simonato-Kokochkina E., Alphabet «chauvin» ou alphabet «nationaliste»?, in P. Sériot /
A. Tabouret-Keller, Le discours sur la langue sous les régimes autoritaires, Lausanne
2004, 261-275 [= Cahiers de l’Institut de linguistique et des sciences du langage
17 (2004)].
Smith M.G., Language and Power in the Creation of the USSR 1917-1953, Berlin-New
York 1998.
Zak L.M. / Isaev M.I., Problemy pis’mennosti narodov SSSR v kul’turnoj revoljucii,
«Voprosy istorii» 2 (1966), 3-20.
Keywords: Ossetisches Alphabet, Sprachpolitik in der Sowjetunion, Schrift und
kulturelle Identität
Runeninschriften und Verbrüderungsbücher im Spektrum
medientheoretischer Schriftinterpretation
Mein Beitrag ist im Rahmen der unter Punkt 2. aufgelisteten
Fragestellungen zu verorten. Es soll darum gehen, bei der Analyse und
Deutung von Schrift neben den schriftformalen und sprachlichen
Aspekten auch mediale Ansätze mit einzubeziehen.
Die Schrift wird in einen breiteren Handlungskontext gestellt und die in
der Schrift vermittelte Sprache unter Einbezug der Situationalität ihrer
Überlieferung betrachtet. Ein Ziel dabei ist, das historische
Schriftverständnis im Licht ihrer möglichen konkreten medialen
Verwendung zu sehen. Die Schwierigkeiten und Chancen einer solchen
Interpretation werden an der Verschriftung fremdsprachiger Personennamen in karolingischen Verbrüderungsbüchern und an südgermanischen Runeninschriften veranschaulicht.
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Dr. des. Michelle Waldispühl
26
From Graph to Grapheme: Phonological Possibilities and
Methodological Limitations
Gaby Waxenberger
Thus the sequence [.]lA[.] has been seen as hlāf ‘bread’ [Odenstedt 1980:
30], hlāw ‘tomb; mound’ [Nedoma 2004: 435]; hlæ
‾ ‘grave’ [Bammesberger
1991: 127; see also Eichner 1990: 325] and as a “perhaps incomplete”
personal name “Hlæ” [Bammesberger 1994: 17 quoting Robinson
(personal correspondence: 18.2.1992)].
Another pivotal point is the dating of the urn. If an early date is
assumed, the rune A denotes not only [a], [æ] but also [æ:] and [a:]. This
circumstance has a great impact on the first and even more so on the
third sequence. For as a consequence, [.]lA[.] might be seen either as hlæ
‾w
which may be interpreted as the allophonic phase of the i-umlaut of ā
[see Campbell 1959: §636; SB 1965: §288], but it may as well render nonmutated hlāw [see Bammesberger 1990: 69]. The readings [a:] and [æ:] as
in hlāf, hlāw, and hlæ
‾ f are only possible if Loveden Hill is dated before ca.
500 (see Waxenberger forthcoming).
More importantly, after a new autopsy of the Loveden Hill inscription
with a microscope camera in 2012, I do not think that the first rune of the
last sequence is an unusual form of h.
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
The first character of the last sequence of the Loveden Hill Urn
inscription (ca. 400-600) has been seen as an h, although it has been
argued that it is an unusual h.
Moreover, the runes of the
s§
§þAAbAAd
2 þi{c/u}w 2 hlAA[.]
inscription
have
been
siþa/æba/æd
2 þi{c/u}w 2 hlæ/a[.]
regarded as carelessly cut
[Page 1973: 184; Odenstedt
1980: 25; Nedoma 19911993: 115; Looijenga 1997:
165; Parsons 1999: 55] and
therefore it is difficult to
(© The Trustees of The British Museum)
decipher them.
27
[.]
l
a/æ
[.]
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Photographs taken by RuneS
The form of the first character may be due to a damaged tool rather than
to the inscriber's lack of care and precision and therefore the inscriber
may have intended a different character than modern researchers seem
to have detected. In my paper, I will make an attempt to sketch the type
of holistic method that would be necessary to come to more confident
decisions in such cases.
The decipherment of some recently found ostraca from PostRoman North Africa: The "micro-linguistic" analysis
During excavations of a Roman fort at the Limes Tripolitanus near the
village Gheriat el-Garbia (roughly 300 km to the south of Tripolis) in the
years 2009/2010 a team of Munich archaeologists unearthed 8 ostraca
written in Latin current script, but not (mainly, see below) in Latin or
Greek or any other hitherto well-known language, dating from the first
half of the 5th century AD. This is sure due to the associated finds in the
excavated stratum. The ostraca are written in scriptio continua (except for
some lists) and show a few peculiar letters or letter forms not known to
Latin script in this area. Each ostracon is written in a characteristic ductus
so that we can distinguish 8 scribes. One of these ostraca is long enough
(roughly 150 characters) that I could take it as a starting point for
deciphering. While working on these ostraca I soon saw that I had to
develop a method by which as a first step I would be able to work the
word boundaries out. The second step was to identify words or
functional elements. This method is mainly based on the principles of
linguistic typology and information or discourse structure of texts. By
applying this new "micro-linguistic" method – as I named it – I could
identify the language of the ostraca as a new variety of late Punic which I
call "South Punic". Two of the ostraca show a mixture of Latin and South
Punic words looking like short vocabulary exercises. The hitherto known
Punic language varieties are attested only fragmentary and mainly in
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Sabine Ziegler
28
funeral or monumental inscriptions in Phoenician consonant script or
(after the Roman conquest of Carthago in 146 BC) in Latin script.
The discovery and decipherment of these few ostraca adds a contribution
to our knowledge of this badly documented area which should not be
underestimated. They show that 1. Latin scribal tradition was still vivid
in Post-Roman times, 2. a regional scribal tradition had developed in this
area, 3. both Latin and South Punic were spoken,
and 4. they exhibit an new variety of Punic
vernacular different from the fragmentary
funeral and monumental inscriptions from
Carthago and the neighbouring regions which
increases our knowledge of late Punic.
A picture detail of the "long" ostracon
Literature:
M. Mackensen, Das severische Vexillationskastell Myd(---)/ Gheriat el-Garbia am limes
Tripolitanus (Libyen). Bericht über die Kampagne 2009, «Mitt. DAI Rom» 116 (2010),
363–458.
M. Mackensen, Das severische Vexillationskastell Myd(---) und die spätantike Besiedlung in
Gheriat el-Garbia (Libyen). Bericht über die Kampagne im Frühjahr 2010, «Mitt. DAI
Rom» 117 (2011), 247–375.
M. Mackensen / S. Ziegler (forthc.), Die spätantike Besiedlung in Gheriat el-Garbia und
die Entzifferung der südpunischen Ostraka (working title), «Mitt. DAI Rom» 119
(2013).
Schreibvarianten und Schreibtraditionen in den
Runeninschriften im jüngeren fuþąrk
Die Gruppe der skandinavischen Inschriften im jüngeren fuþąrk ist vor
allem durch die große Zahl monumentaler Runensteine geprägt, die die
schriftliche Überlieferung der Wikingerzeit besonders im 11. Jh.
kennzeichnen. Mit ca. 2500 von mehr als 3000 Inschriften bilden die
schwedischen Runensteine unter ihnen die größte Gruppe.
Die Mehrzahl der in den Inschriften überlieferten Texte zeigen eine
gemeinsame inhaltliche und formale Struktur, deren Kern die Phrase „X
errichtete/ließ errichten diesen Stein für Y“ (schwed. resarformel) bildet
und die als Grundlage für die Klassifizierung dieser Texte als Memorial-
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
Christiane Zimmermann
29
Bemerkungen zur sidetischen Schrift
Michaela Zinko / Christian Zinko
Anhand einer unpublizierten Inschrift, die im Rahmen des Projekts SIDE
am Zentrum Antike der Universität Graz bearbeitet wird, werden
aktuelle Daten zur sidetischen Schrift und deren Interpretation
dargestellt. Weiter wird die Stellung der sidetischen Schrift innerhalb der
kleinasiatischen Schriftsysteme untersucht.
LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
inschriften gelten kann. Über diesen obligatorischen Kern hinaus
erscheinen wiederholt weitere Textelemente, die eine Charakterisierung
der verstorbenen Person (schwed. statusmarkör), eine Fürbitteformel
(schwed. förböner) und eine Signatur (schwed. ristarsignatur) umfassen
können und damit fakultative Formelelemente darstellen. Im Hinblick
auf die lexikalische Stereotypie dieser Texte ist das Spektrum der
auftretenden Schreibvarianten auffällig. Die zahlreichen runographischen Realisierungen des hochfrequenten Lexems „Stein“ (im Akk. Sg.)
u.a. in den Formen stan, stein, sten, stin, stn oder auch istaen machen
dies beispielhaft deutlich.
Als Erklärungsansatz für die Existenz dieser Varianten wird für die
runischen Texte der Wikingerzeit im Allgemeinen von ausschließlich
lautlich basierten Verschriftungsakten ausgegangen. Die Variation in der
Schreibung könnte so als Wiedergabe regional oder auch sozial bedingter Sprachvariation bzw. als Folge des Sprachwandels verstanden
werden. Andere erklärungsbedürftige Schreibvarianten werden nicht
selten auch als „Fehlschreibungen“ gewertet, die auf unterschiedliche
Grade von Literalität oder auch fehlerhafte Planung bei der räumlichen
Anlage der Inschriften hinweisen.
In Verbindung mit einzelnen namentlich bekannten Runenschreibern
oder Runenschreiberschulen zeigen sich jedoch auch Formen konsequent
verwendeter Schreibvarianten, die auf runographische Traditionen jenseits einer ausschließlich lautlich basierten Verschriftung hinweisen
könnten. Dies gilt z. B. auch für wiederkehrende graphische Kürzungsformen, die als Kennzeichen einzelner Runenschreiber interpretiert
wurden. Die belegten Schreibvarianten stellen so möglicherweise verschiedene Typen von Schreibtraditionen innerhalb der Runeninschriften
im jüngeren fuþąrk dar.
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LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013
vuoto
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LautSchriftSprache III – 25-28 settembre 2013