Mullen Alex, Woudhuysen George (eds.) Languages and Communities in the Late-Roman and Post-Imperial Western Provinces

Oxford University Press, 2024. — 368 p.- First comprehensive modern study devoted to the later-Roman and post-imperial linguistic environment
- Provides a wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary treatment by leading international experts
- Presents major advances in understanding languages in use in the Roman WestLanguages are central to the creation and expression of identities and cultures, as well as to life itself, yet the linguistic variegation of the later-Roman and post-imperial period in the Roman west is remarkably understudied. A deeper understanding of this important issue is crucial to any reconstruction of the broader story of linguistic continuity and change in Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as to the history of the communities who wrote, read, and spoke Latin and other languages. Languages and Communities in the Late-Roman and Post-Imperial Western Provinces offers the first comprehensive modern study of the main developments, key features and debates of the later-Roman and post-imperial linguistic environment, focusing on the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, Gaul, the Germanies, Britain and Ireland. The chapters collected in this volume help us to understand better the embeddedness, or not, of Latin, at different social levels and across provinces, to consider (socio)linguistic variegation, bi-/multi-lingualism, and attitudes towards languages, and to confront the complex role of language in the communities, identities, and cultures of the later- and post-imperial Roman western world.This volume will be accompanied by two further volumes from the European Research Council-funded LatinNow project: Social Factors in the Latinization of the Roman West and Latinization, Local Languages, and Literacies in the Roman West.Contributors: Graham Barrett - University of Lincoln, Alderik Blom - Philipps Universität Marburg, Jonathan P. Conant - Brown University, Wolfgang Haubrichs - University of Saarbrücken, Alex Mullen - University of Nottingham, David Parsons - University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Paul Russell - University of Cambridge, David Stifter - Maynooth University, Isabel Velázquez - Complutense University of Madrid, Nora White - Maynooth University, Ian Wood - University of Leeds, George Woudhuysen - University of Nottingham.Alex Mullen, Professor of Ancient History and Sociolinguistics, University of Nottingham; George Woudhuysen, Assistant Professor in Roman History, University of Nottingham.