Latinization, Local Languages, and Literacies in the Roman West

Abstract

This volume explores Latinization, local languages, and literacies in the Roman West, focusing on the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, the Germanies, and Britain in the later Iron Age and Roman period. We use a combination of various sets of evidence and an interdisciplinary—historical, archaeological, sociolinguistic, and epigraphic—perspective to uncover local voices. The results and arguments draw on the importance of context, local communities, and regionality. We consider the factors relating to the uptake of Latin, tracking ‘differential Latinization’ and revealing the probable survival of local languages, alongside, or even to the exclusion of, Latin in some communities in the non-Mediterranean areas. By including everyday writing in their epigraphic evidence, the contributors reveal regionality also in the varieties of Latin used and disparities in engagement in both the epigraphic habit and broader literate practices. Cautious use of previous research and new data enabled us to describe types of literacies, and to move away from debates on provincial percentages of literacy or from generalizations about urban–rural literacy, to contemplate social, chronological, and geographical complexity—essentially a socio-literacy approach following sociolinguistic methodology. Throughout the book we grapple with the ‘characterful’ data sets available to us, whose careful treatment enables the exploration of a range of themes vital for understanding provincial life.