Greek bilingualism in ancient Judaea-Palaestina

双语一直是语言学的一个重要课题，在以多语言为核心的古地中海研究中占有重要地位。亚当斯的《双语和拉丁语言》（2003）长达800页，为研究古代语言接触的工作树立了新的标杆。亚当斯使用当前的语言学方法研究了大量的现象，并更多地关注了以前未被充分研究的证据类型。亚当斯在希腊语方面的研究没有类似的成果，一篇博士论文也无法做到这一点。然而，他的原则可以有效地应用于特定领域。从亚历山大时代起希腊语就存在的古犹太-巴勒斯坦是一个完美的候选者。我们从该地区幸存下来的大量证据表明，四种主要语言——阿拉姆语、希腊语、希伯来语和拉丁语——以明显复杂的方式相互作用。事实上，我们有幸从该地区获得了大量的希腊文本，包括文学和非文学文本。《新约》和《约瑟夫传》受到了广泛的关注，但也有像《巴鲁克三书》这样的半铭文文本，而即将完成的《巴勒斯坦铭文大全》（2010-），为了解该地区亚历山大和穆罕默德之间的所有铭文提供了重要的新途径——其中大部分是希腊语。我们最近也在犹太沙漠中发现了大量私人文件。虽然过去对犹太-巴勒斯坦的语言情况进行了研究，但没有根据现代社会语言学原理对希腊双语进行全面的研究。此外，两个独立的问题导致讨论停滞不前。首先，新约学者产生了最近的大部分学术成果。然而，他们主要集中在加利利使用希腊语的简单程度上，以回答耶稣是否说希腊语。但是整个犹太-巴勒斯坦都是值得研究的，我们也不应该仅仅停留在“谁说希腊语？”第二个障碍是“犹太希腊人”是否存在的问题。霍斯利1989年的文章认为这是一个“虚构”，这实际上被视为对这个话题的最后定论。他指出，虽然有一些证据表明犹太人的讲话具有语音特征，但这还不足以构成“自己的方言”。此外，在《七十士译本》中发现的许多所谓的“犹太特征”在通语中也有相似之处。虽然有些人确实夸大了犹太人语言的独特性，但我们是否想说一种“独立的方言”——一个定义不清的概念——并不重要，也很武断。不幸的是，这扼杀了对犹太人希腊语的研究，犹太人在基督教出现前的犹太巴勒斯坦占多数。那么，在古代犹太-巴勒斯坦说希腊语的人；给谁;如何;如何学习;他们是怎么想的？这些问题是不同类型的学者——古典学者、新约学者、犹太学者和语言学家——非常感兴趣的，而且有大量的材料可以根据现代语言学原理进行研究。

Bilingualism has always been a key topic in linguistics, and it has an important place for the study ofthe ancient Mediterranean, which was multilingual to the core. Adams' 800-page Bilingualism andthe Latin Language (2003) set a new benchmark for work on ancient language contact. Adamsexamined an immense range of phenomena using current linguistic methodology and giving moreattention to previously underexamined types of evidence.There is no equivalent to Adams' work for Greek, nor can a PhD thesis produce this. However, hisprinciples could be applied profitably to a specific area. Ancient Judaea-Palaestina, in which Greekwas present from the times of Alexander, is the perfect candidate. We have copious survivingevidence from the region for the perceptibly complex ways in which four main languages - Aramaic,Greek, Hebrew and Latin - interacted.We are, indeed, blessed with the number of Greek texts, literary and non-literary, that we have fromthe region. The New Testament and Josephus have received much attention, but there are alsopseudepigraphical texts such as 3 Baruch, while the Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae Palaestinae (2010-), nearing completion, provides crucial new access to all the region's inscriptions between Alexanderand Mohammed - the majority of which are in Greek. We have found recently, too, numerousprivate documents in the Judaean desert.Although the linguistic situation of Judaea-Palaestina has been examined in the past, there is nocomprehensive study of Greek bilingualism following modern sociolinguistic principles. In addition,two separate issues have caused the discussion to stagnate. Firstly, it is New Testament scholarswho have produced most of the recent scholarship. However, they focus primarily on the simpleextent of the use of Greek in Galilee to answer whether Jesus spoke Greek. But all of JudaeaPalaestina is worth studying, and we should also not stop at just 'who spoke Greek?'.The second hindrance is the question of the existence of a 'Jewish Greek'. Horsley's 1989 articlecontending that this is a 'fiction' has effectively been treated as the last word on the topic. He notesthat while there is some evidence for above all phonological characteristics of the speech of Jews,this is not enough for it to constitute a 'dialect of its own'. In addition, there are parallels in generalKoine for many of the alleged 'Jewish features' found in especially the Septuagint. Though it is truethat some have exaggerated the distinctiveness of Jewish speech, whether we want to speak of a'separate dialect' - an ill-defined concept - or not is unimportant and arbitrary. It is unfortunate thatthis has stifled research on the Greek of Jews, who constituted the majority in pre-Christian JudaeaPalaestina.Who, then, spoke Greek in ancient Judaea-Palaestina; to whom; how; how learnt; and what they didthink about it? These questions are of great interest for scholars of different types - classicists, NewTestament scholars, Jewish scholars, and linguists - and there is an abundance of material on whichresearch in tune with modern linguistic principles can be carried out.