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Article published In:
On the Systematic Nature of Writing Systems
Edited by David F. Mora-Marín and Lynne Cahill
[Written Language & Literacy 26:1] 2023
► pp. 76–95

Koineization and the Pamphylian alphabet

Instability and compromise

| Università degli Studi di Pisa, | Università degli Studi di Siena,
In the Hellenistic age, contact with the Ionic alphabet used to write koine Greek rapidly changed the Pamphylian alphabet, initiating the processes of koineization and standardization. The analysis of three case studies (personal names with -muu̯a; personal names built from the root ϝαναξ-; -αυ and -ευ diphthongs) shows how the need to write dialectal personal names led to the creation of a ‘local standard’ of spellings suited to the koine alphabetic set. However, some features of the epichoric alphabet survived in competition with this local standard. It is therefore argued that the process of standardization of the Pamphylian alphabet in contact with the koine alphabet affected different alphabetic features according to the social and identity values given to them by the community.
Keywords: Pamphylian alphabet, Greek alphabets, Pamphylian epigraphy, koineization, Epichoric alphabets, Pamphylian dialect, Hellenistic Asia Minor, Hellenistic Greek
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Motivation and theoretical framework
    • 1.2The context: Pamphylia
  • 2.The Pamphylian alphabet from the classical to the Hellenistic age
    • 2.1Case study (1). Personal names with -muu̯a
    • 2.2Case study (2). Personal names built from the root ϝαναξ-
    • 2.3Case study (3). Second element in -αυ and -ευ diphthongs
  • 3.Between standardization and tradition
    • 3.1Solutions and compromises for a ‘local standard’
    • 3.2Alphabets in context
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 April 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.00074.sel
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