FAIR Epigraphic Vocabularies: Bilingualism in epigraphy

Classifications of bilingual epigraphy

Website: https://ontology.inscriptiones.org/bilingualism

Github: https://github.com/FAIR-epigraphy/ontology

This vocabulary provides a hierarchical classification system that categorises inscriptions which indicate the concurrent use, or evidence of the presence of, two or more languages, for example Latin/Greek/'indigenous' languages, and which may therefore reflect societal and/or individual bilingualism/multilingualism. This is split into two main sub-categories, language-focused and script-focused, and the same epigraphic texts may contain multiple features, including those from both main sub-categories.

Following a review of available sociolinguistic and epigraphic datasets by the LatinNow and the FAIR epigraphy teams, it became clear that there were no established off-the-shelf digital ‘epigraphic bilingualism’ vocabularies. Generally, digital epigraphic datasets have not tagged the relevant items with information regarding the nature of the bilingual features, and in the cases where bilingualism has been indicated, this has not been done systematically using a schema. Various scholars of bilingualism in the modern world (particularly within the relatively young, and inadequately named, field Linguistic Landscapes) have offered their own categorisations in print but not in a digital context and not in a way that has gained wide traction (see e.g. Pavlenko and Mullen 2015 https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.1.1-2.07pav for some examples).

This new vocabulary has been created by Alex Mullen based on the foundational work of J. N. Adams, particularly the 2003 volume Bilingualism and the Latin Language, and engagement with scholars from modern bilingualism and sociolinguistics studies. She published an earlier non-digitally oriented version of this vocabulary in Southern Gaul and the Mediterranean (2013) and Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman Worlds (2012). An updated version, expanded to integrate the script-focused features, was first published as Appendix 1 of Mullen and Willi Latinization, Local Languages and Literacies (2024). This digital version is almost identical, though see the scope note on mixed-language texts for one divergence.

The vocabulary has been tested by colleagues dealing with ancient and medieval world contexts. Terms include definitions, scope notes with clarificatory comments, bibliography, and usage examples drawn from the LatinNow webGIS, which provides links to the major digital corpora, facilitating comparative studies and with the intention of encouraging consistency in metadata descriptions across digital epigraphic projects whilst maintaining interoperability with existing epigraphic databases and standards. 

Acknowledgements

Mullen is grateful to the LatinNow and FAIR epigraphy teams, to the audiences of various conferences (in particular in Berlin, Copenhagen, Fribourg, Namur, Oslo, and Oxford), and for feedback from James Clackson and Alessandro Palumbo on the version published as Appendix 1 of Mullen and Willi Latinization, Local Languages and Literacies in 2024.

Version note

The previous version of the vocabulary was published on 1 April 2024 https://ontology.inscriptiones.org/bilingualism, but was never formally released. The current version 1.0.0 maintains an identical structure but was enriched with improved definitions and examples. See the scope note on mixed-language texts for one divergence.

Anyone wishing to contribute can do so either by contacting Alex Mullen, or creating an issue via GitHub (https://github.com/FAIR-epigraphy/ontology/issues).