Book contents
- The Slow Fall of Babel
- The Slow Fall of Babel
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Awakening to Linguistic Otherness
- Chapter 1 Meeting the Alloglottic Other: The Socio-Linguistic Landscape of the Ancient Mediterranean and the Spread of Christianity
- Chapter 2 Languages and Identities in Greco-Roman and Jewish Antiquity
- Chapter 3 The Tower of Babel and Beyond: The Primordial Linguistic Situation, the Original Language, and the Start of Linguistic Diversification
- Chapter 4 Speaking in Tongues in Christian Late Antiquity
- Chapter 5 Foreign Languages and the Discourse of Otherness
- Chapter 6 The Languages of Saints and Demons
- Conclusion: What’s in the Language?
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction: Awakening to Linguistic Otherness
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2021
- The Slow Fall of Babel
- The Slow Fall of Babel
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Awakening to Linguistic Otherness
- Chapter 1 Meeting the Alloglottic Other: The Socio-Linguistic Landscape of the Ancient Mediterranean and the Spread of Christianity
- Chapter 2 Languages and Identities in Greco-Roman and Jewish Antiquity
- Chapter 3 The Tower of Babel and Beyond: The Primordial Linguistic Situation, the Original Language, and the Start of Linguistic Diversification
- Chapter 4 Speaking in Tongues in Christian Late Antiquity
- Chapter 5 Foreign Languages and the Discourse of Otherness
- Chapter 6 The Languages of Saints and Demons
- Conclusion: What’s in the Language?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Introduction explains the purpose and scope of the book, and the research questions it addresses, as well as its place within recent scholarship – both in relation to works focusing on languages in Late Antiquity and to more theoretical studies of various forms of group identity and its attributes. We open with a discussion on changes in the linguistic views of the increasingly Christianized elites in the late antique Mediterranean and the ways they experienced and conceptualized linguistic differences. The chapter defines such important concepts as “metalinguistic comments,” “the alloglottic Other,” “communities of linguistic sensitivities,” “objectification of language,” “linguistic awareness,” and “a different language”; clarifies the linguistic and religious terminology to be used; outlines the geographical scope, chronological limits, and the range of primary sources analyzed; and describes the book structure. The Introduction also explicates possible methodological problems in research like this and suggests the ways in which one could overcome them –avenues this book further explores.
Keywords
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- Information
- The Slow Fall of BabelLanguages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity, pp. 1 - 17Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021