Scribes as Agents of Language Change

by Esther-miriam Wagner (Editor), Ben Outhwaite (Editor), Bettina Beinhoff (Editor)

The majority of our evidence for language change in pre-modern times comes from the written output of scribes. The present volume deals with a variety of aspects of language change and focuses on the role of scribes. The individual articles, which treat different theoretical and empirical issues, reflect a broad cross-linguistic and cross-cultural diversity. The languages that are represented cover a broad spectrum, and the empirical data come from a wide range of sources. This book provides a wealth of new data and new perspectives on old problems, and it raises new questions about the actual mechanisms of language change.

336 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2013