Lilyofthevalley

If you were from Rome in the first century AD and you then went to Corinth, what exotic and exciting languages might you hear that would strike your ear?

Would you hear 'Italian and Spanish'? (I really don't think you would, but some people think so - perhaps Italian and Spanish dialects of Latin?)

As for languages, apart from Greek, I think you might hear Latin, Aramaic, possibly Persian (Farsi, or whatever it was called back then). Any ideas as to what other languages might be heard spoken in Corinth in the first century AD?

Eldarion Lathria

Latin, Koine Greek, Corinthian Greek, Coptic, Aramaic, Iberian, Berber, Illyrian, Gaulish, Parthian and maybe Sarmatian. A slim possibility of Ethiopic and whatever was spoken in western India.

Eldarion Lathria

Lilyofthevalley

Thanks very much for your reply. You told me what I needed to know - very interesting!

Roger Pearse

Italian and Spanish do not exist in this period; they arise from corrupt late Latin.

Certainly one would meet people from Italy, and possibly people from Spain. These would both speak Latin.

Mainly you would hear Greek. Even the Romans spoke it, remember.

Any other languages would depend on whether anyone of any language group spoken at the time was there, and able to speak their native language. It is theoretically possible for an Indian to be there; but very unlikely. It's not very likely that Persian would be used.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

razlyubleno

But I wonder how divergent the dialects would be, since geographical separation in the ancient world would surely cause greater linguistic divergence than it does in the modern world... no?

razly

Clivedurdle

Sorry?


Why not? The language of a major local empire in an area with excellent trading routes for probably thousands of years?

The other possible languages would be North African, Phoenician.