Personal Names Research Articles

Exploring the patchwork of personal names in ancient Cyrenaica with the help of digital tools

Exploring the patchwork of personal names in ancient Cyrenaica with the help of digital tools

FRAGMENTS OF SLAVONIC-IRANIAN MYTHOPOETIC TEXT: SYNTACTIC CONSTRUCTIONS WITH *svęt- : *śṷanta-

The paper aims to reconstruct the common elements of the Slavonic and Iranian mythopoetic text, referring to the idea of the sanctity and sacred. The need to reconstruct the elements of this phenomenon of the communicative culture history makes out topicality of the proposed study. The objects of the investigation are: 1) set phrases, which in Iranian and Slavonic consist of the genetically identical lexemes; 2) Slavonic and Iranian set phrases, in which the only term is genetically common for both languages (*svętъ : *śṷanta-), while the second part here is represented by the synonyms with the different etymons; 3) two-termed (dithematic, bibasic) compound words with *svęt- : *śṷanta-, which are often the result of contraction of primary set phrases. Etymological, morphological and lexical-semantic features of analyzed units as well as reconstructed prototypes constitute the subject of the study. As the result of the proposed research, a set of ancient common to Iranians and Slavs formulaic expressions (and anthroponyms derived from them) are revealed; it is determined, that all the analyzed syntactic constructions were formed in the process of cultural contacts between speakers of both languages; their formal and semantic reconstruction is justified. Conclusions. Comparative-historical analysis of the ancient Slavonic and Iranian cliched phrases with the core component *svętъ : *śṷanta- and related to them dithematic personal names reveals the traces of the common Slavonic-Iranian text, formed within the poetic speech. Etymological composition of such «mycrotexts» along side with reflected therein complex of religious and ethic ideas, which is common to both cultural-linguistic traditions, leaves no doubt that we deal with the heritage of Slavonc-Iranian contacts. Especially indicative are the examples of full genetical identity in composition of formulaic constructions among the Slavs and Iranians. The semantic basis of formulaic expressions, common to both languages, is formed with the complex of discrete meanings, referring to the notions of abundance, life force and its increase. The material demonstrates the significant specific weight of Proto-Slavonic units with the exponent *svęt- alongside with the rudimentary and clearly areally and also chronologically limited data of Iranian languages. Permanent renewability of the tradition to use the syntactic cliches with *svęt- was facilitated by their involvement into the field of the derivation of Slavonic anthroponymic composites and later their demand in the texts of Christian religious topic. The perspectives for further work in the outlined vector are seen in comparison of the collected material with data of Baltic languages.

The Representation of People in the Ibibio Anthroponymic System: A Socio-Onomastic Investigation

In the African cultural context and beyond, personal names are not just unique forms of identifying and individuating their bearers; they also provide relevant windows that resonate with the people’s worldviews, values, and cosmology. From a socio-onomastic perspective, this article examines the representation of people and their description in the Ibibio cultural namescape, which is a source of their traditional epistemology. Personal names are symbolic linguistic resources that contain information about the Ibibio universe of meaning, where people are placed at the centre of every social relationship. Drawing on ethnographic data sourced through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 30 participants who were name-givers, name-bearers and name-users, this study reveals that the Ibibio naming tradition provides a medium for the dissemination of its traditional cultural scripts, which capture community solidarity, support, security and a sense of belonging. This article concludes that the Ibibio anthroponymic culture reflects people as sources of empowerment. People provide the foundation for understanding the past and a path for reaching one’s life goals. This study offers significant entry points into the way the Ibibio act and react to the strength of its community and reinforces the belief that for the Ibibio, people-related regime of names is an important resource used to foster a positive sense of community and well-being.

Exploring named‐entity recognition techniques for academic books

Recent advances in the natural language processing (NLP) field have achieved impressive results in various tasks. However, NLP techniques are underrepresented in the analysis of Humanities and Social Science texts and in languages other than English. In particular, academic books are a highly valuable source of information that has not been exploited by these techniques at all. The recognition of named entities (person names, organizations or locations) and their semantic annotation over books could enrich the visibility and discoverability of the information by users. This is an opportunity for academia and the academic publishing industry in which semantic search is a central task and now books can be queried by named entities of interest that are in their content. This work proposes a methodology to apply named‐entity recognition to publish the results into an ontological semantic‐web format. The work has been performed over a corpus of academic books provided by UNE (Unión de Editoriales Universitarias Españolas, Union of Spanish University Presses). Results show an enrichment of the information extracted over the books and of the possibilities of querying them at the individual level but also within the whole set of books, increasing the possibilities for books to be discovered or retrieved beyond metadata.

Bynames in the Baduy Dalam as a Conception of Family Relationships

The Baduy people of the Banten Province in Western Java are one of many peoples that make up the larger Sundanese ethnic group in Indonesia. The life of the Baduy Dalam (the Inner Baduy people) is interestingly bound to their customary rules and norms including those regulating their naming system. This research discusses the Baduy naming system which has a unique concept of naming a child using part of his/her parents’ byname. In the research, 493 people and their bynames were selected from a total population of 1,202. The names were collected from the Family ID Cards of those living in three Baduy Dalam villages — Cibeo, Cikeusik, and Cikartawana. The study also utilized interviews with informants who have considerable knowledge about the bynames of the Baduy people. These interviews were conducted to see when and how the names of Ayah, Ambu, Ki, and Ni were formed. In Baduy tradition, parents are called Ayah (male) and Ambu (female) followed by the name of their child. Similarly, grandparents are called Ki (male) or Ni (female) followed by their grandchild’s name. It is not always the first child or a male child whose name is taken for his/her parents’ or grandparents’ byname. The choice is taken based on agreement among family members. The research was informed by the study of personal names known as anthroponomastics, and more specifically, by Eva Brylla’s anthroponomastic theory of the byname (Brylla, 2018).

‘Refuse Dump, Hurry Up!’: A Cognitive Onomastic and Cultural Metaphor Perspective of Nzema Death-Prevention Names

African personal names have communicative contents that reflect the experiences and expectations of the name-giver as well as the bearer. Death-prevention names, for instance, provide some assurance and security that are vital for a child’s survival, given the implicit assumption that certain spiritual forces are at work. The bestowal of despicable and ‘ugly’ names on children whose preceding siblings died shortly after birth is also a common practice among the Nzema, aiming at preventing succeeding children from death. This study examines cultural conceptions and metaphorical correlations in Nzema death-prevention names. Using 42 death-prevention names obtained through interviews, the study discusses the implications of the names and their metaphoric connections with the objects used to identify this category of people. The study reveals that features of entities such as ɛkpɔtɛ ‘vulture’, nrɛzenra ‘housefly’, kɛndɛne ‘basket’, and fovolɛ ‘refuse dump’ are attributed to these children to make them seem ‘unpleasant’ to the ancestral spirits who are believed to have been snatching them after birth. Other ‘long-lasting’ entities like nyevile ‘sea’, bolɛ ‘rock’, and kpɔma ‘walking stick’ are used metaphorically to refer to a child with the belief that they would survive right from birth and live long on the earth.

Metaphorical Personal Names in Mabia Languages of West Africa

Cultural philosophies, belief systems and experiences serve as superordinate cultural concepts that are reconceptualised and expressed using metaphorical personal names in Mabia languages. Metaphorical personal names are ‘vehicles’ that transport the worldviews of speakers of Mabia languages to the target audiences. Every metaphorical personal name shares properties of a superordinate umbrella concept such that even newly created metaphorical names fall within an already existing cultural philosophy. This study argues that there is a corresponding relationship between a metaphorical personal name, the source domain, and its superordinate umbrella philosophical concept, the target domain. The study uses data from four Mabia ‘sister’ languages of West Africa: Dagbani, Kusaal, Likpakpaln, and Sisaali. The findings show that the source domains of these names include the name-bearer and the personal name itself, and the name-giver, whilst the target domains include flora and fauna terms, belief systems, innuendos and proverbs, experiences of name-givers, ‘death prevention’ labels, among others. The article also establishes that both sociocultural and ethnolinguistic factors influence the use of metaphorical personal names in the cultures under study. The Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) is employed for the analysis of data in this research. The work uses the qualitative method and data are sourced from semi-structured interviews, from school registers and other previous studies on personal names in the selected languages.

BASIC THEORETICAL PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL NAMES IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK LANGUAGES

The article talks about the origin of English and Uzbek personal names, as well as the stages of formation of unique names in different periods. In the article, the structural-semantic features of English and Uzbek given names, which categories they may belong to, are approached in detail. The effect of adding suffixes before or at the end of Uzbek personal names on the gender of the person and various personal characteristics of the name owner, but English personal names have not such suffixes.

《說文解字》“从夲”諸字考及西周金文中“从𠦪”字考

Some people identify the character “夲” in clerical form as “𠦍”。 In Shuowen Jiezi (Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters), all characters belonging to “夲” are derived from the character “夲”, like “𠦪”、“曓”、“𡴞”、“奏”and“皋”。They are all components separated from the seal script forms of characters。But we believe that the character “夲” has nothing to do with the above。In Shuowen Jiezi, the pronunciation of the character “夲” is given as “滔”, which seems to inherit the “”, “” belonging to the character “𠦪”, borrowing the pronunciation of “禱”。We believe that the character “夲” may be related to the character “奔”, and its rhyme is also related to the characters “跑”, “挑”, or “走”, thus the pronunciation of the character “夲” is “滔”。 The initials of the characters “𠦪”, “曓”, “𡴞” and “奏” in Shuowen Jiezi are not very similar, the pronunciation of the character “夲” is “滔”, which also has a rhyming relationship with the characters “曓”, “奏” and “皋”, but their origins are different。The characters “𠦪”, “曓”, “𡴞” and “奏” can be classified under the “𠦪” radical, and the ancient form of the character “㚖” can be classified under the “㚔” radical。In Shuowen Jiezi, some characters in the “夲” section can be classified under the “𠦪” radical。This paper uses oracle bone inscriptions to explore the origin of the character “𠦪” , in the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty, characters pronounced as “𠦪” include “𠦪”, “”, “”and “”, while the character “曓” has not yet been found。In the Yin and Zhou Bronze Inscriptions Collected, there are more than 50 examples of characters with the pronunciation of “𠦪”, such as “𩞑(饙)”, “賁”, “幩”, “帗”, “紱”, “韍”, “黻”, etc。In the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the character “𠦪”is borrowed for characters such as “賁”, “幩”, “巿”, “祓”, “韍”, “饙” and “弼”, these borrowed characters have labial initials and a entering tone (-k) or a nasal ending (-en) in their rhyme。Their meanings, besides being used as personal names, also include “祓”, “賁”, “𩞑(饙)”, “弼”, “韍”, and “百”。 Among them, the character “” in “趩觶(chi zhi)” (06516) is interpreted as “百世”, which can be seen as a ligature, and it should be identify in clerical form as “”, but some people interpreted it as “𠦪”, we believe that should be interpreted as the variant character of “𠦪”。

자평명리학의 운명가능론과 그의 변천

This article examines how Seo Ja-pyeong's theory of possible fate, which founded the study of Japyeong Myeongri in the early North Song Dynasty, is inherited and changed during the major successors after the Southern Song Dynasty. Seo Ja-pyeong was wary of luxury and emphasized on the doing one's bestand waiting Heaven's decree and took the theory of possible fate that if he blocked it with his accumulation of virtuous deeds, he would return in a bad way. Jin So-am emphasized accumulation of virtuous deeds and the immutability of misdeed, arguing that good deeds and evil deeds, as well as life expectancy, could increase or decrease just by thinking about them. Jin So-am recognized accumulation of virtuous deeds as a higher concept than nasolabial folds in terms of the influence that determines the life, and presented an example of successful 改命 through accumulation of virtuous deeds. Lim Cheol-cho emphasized the practice of virtue and listened to the donation of property as a way of good deeds, but donating to a religious organization has no effect and should be shared with poor relatives He argued that there was an effect of changing Heaven's decree. In addition, it was said that if you cultivate virtue, you can receive rewards and make up for people's work, and the purposeful good deeds of changing Heaven's decree were also considered to be effective. In addition, it was considered that the virtue of parents or ancestors influenced the name of a child. In addition, it was considered that the person's name was a combination of not only the nasolabial folds but also the ancestors' graves and ancestors' virtues based on feng shui. Seo Ja-pyeong, Jinso-am, and Im Cheol-cho saw that they can change Heaven's decree through accumulation of virtuous deeds in common. However, if Seo Ja-pyeong's theory of naming is a passive theory of possible fate, Jin So-am and Im Cheol-cho's theory of naming can be said to be a positive theory of possible fate, and among them, Jin So-am is the most active.

The Commemorability Principle in Akan Personal Name Construction

The movement from regular lexicon to onomasticon, especially anthroponomasticon, is often mediated by cultural principles which may determine which concepts could normally be selected for the formation of personal names. Restrictive traditions have guiding principles making some concepts acceptable or not, and some names central or peripheral. In this paper, I discuss the principle of commemorability as gatekeeping the selection of concepts for the formation of personal names in Akan; and, having established the restrictiveness of the Akan anthroponomastic system, I identify the two considerations of honourability and preservability as making up the commemorability principle. The study is inductive, establishing the theory that explains the principles for the selection of appropriate concepts for the construction of personal names, and it relies on ethnographic resources including observation, interviews, and focus group discussions supported by name content analysis to generate the theory. The paper establishes that commemorability is founded on a general philosophy that upholds the societal, effort and perseverance, and social cognitive value in the selection of concepts for constructing personal names. Guided by these considerations, concepts are placed within a value ranking system to determine their ‘commemorability’, with items that rank as ‘honourable’ normally selected and processed as personal names. In the construction itself, there is a preference for the cognitive over the physical and the general beyond the specific, and there is an overriding preference for the use of general commemorability concepts which represent excellence, prominence, fullness, abundance, inexhaustibility, strength, endurance, and resilience, among others, which are used both as base-concepts for family names or as ‘amplifier’ concepts in the construction of extension names.

“If You Can Change Your Name, You Can Write”: Pseudepigraphy in Antiquity and Its Function in 1 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John

This article attempts to answer the following question: why did the author of the apocryphon called 1 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John choose to efface himself and adopt John as his pseudonym? Why not Peter or Paul? This paper argues that the author of 1 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John intended to harness the audience attached to John, the seer of Revelation, by taking his name as a pseudonym. This paper sustains this claim by demonstrating that, in antiquity, each author had a specific pool of readers, often made out of friends and accolades of the author. Thus, authors’ names evoke an audience attached to them. When an author takes another person’s name to write under, he does so out of necessity, because he does not have an audience. But, when he takes another’s person name, he does so hoping to trick the audience of the impersonated into reading him. Based on this insight, this article concludes that the author of 1 Apocr. Apoc. John wanted the readers of canonical Revelation to engage with his work and that he achieved his purpose as evinced by the fact that the titles of both works share an uncanny resemblance, ranging from identical titles to similar wording. Since titles in antiquity were given to the works by their readers, the most logical explanation for canonical Revelation and 1 Apocr. Apoc. John having the same titles is that they both shared the same readers. Finally, this article argues that, in line with recent research on the use of pseudepigraphy in Jewish, Christian, and Roman contexts, the author of 1 Apocr. Apoc. John wanted to be read by CR’s readers because he wanted to expand, criticize, rework, and update CR’s eschatological discourse, exemplified by a close reading of how 1 Apocr. Apoc. John criticized, reworked, and updated CR’s presentation of the resurrection to bring it in harmony with late Christian reflection on the subject.

MICROTOPONYMS WITH THE FORMANTS -IV (-OV-, -EV-), -YN DERIVED FROM ANTHROPONYMS IN ZHYTOMYR POLISSIA

The territory of Zhytomyr Polissia is rich in toponymic proper names of local significance geographic features. Names ending in -iv (-ov-, -ev-), -yn occupy a prominent place among the studied microtoponyms. Microtoponyms formed with the help of such formants reflect the system of local names of individuals, based on nicknames and personal names. Furthermore, personal names, as the basis for microtoponyms, are significant in terms of being a broad field for the creativity of people, thereby reflecting their worldview. The boundary between the aforementioned types of anthroponyms is often blurred since all lexemes that are now proper names of individuals could have functioned as common nouns in the past. Today, a surname is semantically neutral, as it is merely the name of a person inherited from an ancestor, indicating a characteristic feature of that ancestor. Therefore, in this article, our goal is to review and characterize the semantics of anthroponyms that motivated the formation of possessive models of microtoponyms with the formants -iv (-ov-, -ev-), -yn. A significant group consists of microhydronyms based on diminutive forms of Christian names, such as Vakulkova, Hrytskiv Luh, Yemilchyne, Klymkove, Kostykove, Levkove, Mykolaichykove, Natalchyne, Onyskove, Opanaskove, Petrykove, and so on. Informative are microtoponyms derived from anthroponyms, indicating the origin or place of residence of their owners (Lytvynova, Polyachkove) and personal names, indicating social affiliation or a person's permanent occupation or profession (Bosiakove, Holiakova, Diakova, Kovalova, Ksiondzove, Tsariv Lisok, Shevtseva Nyva and so on). The weighty category of nicknames, derivatives for local microtoponyms, consists of those characterizing a person by their appearance, physical features, and temperament: Zhmakove, Matloshove, Morhunove, Pospishylove, Psiurove, Strakhiv, Tsiupove, Shlapakove. These anthroponyms are interesting because the nicknames indicate the most prominent characteristic of a person, whether physical or moral (often exaggerated). Overall, the anthroponymy of Zhytomyr Polissia that motivated the formation of microtoponyms, despite conforming to common Ukrainian features, reflects dialectal and territorial characteristics of local names of geographic objects.

“FISH” SURNAMES IN THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE: Peculiarities of Creation, Territorial Distribution 1. Karas

Introduction. The study of anthroponyms in general and surnames in particular is one of the urgent problems of modern Ukrainian onomastic science, which has important theoretical and practical significance not only for linguistics but also for history, geography, and ethnology. Despite the close attention of Ukrainian scientists to the study of various aspects of anthroponymy at the end of the XXth — the beginning of the XXIst centuries, it should be said that the study of anthroponyms of individual microsystems, such as settlements, social groups, and, especially, surnames derived from personal names, is only at the initial stage. The purpose. The purpose of the article is to investigate the place of the surnames of the surname microsystem “Karas (karas)” in the system of Ukrainian surnames, to describe the methods of their creation, to distinguish the affixes with the help of which the surnames of this microsystem were formed, to analyze their prevalence on the territory of Ukraine. Materials and methods. The dataset of the investigation was the materials of the website “Ridny” (Ridny), which records 876,000 surnames of residents of Ukraine, of which only 77 surnames belong to the “Karas” surname microsystem. The descriptive method and its main means are used in the article: inventory and systematization of language material in synchrony. Results. The result of the conducted research is the establishment of the place of the surname microsystem “Karas(karas)” in the system of Ukrainian surnames, the description of the methods of creating surnames of this microsystem, the identification of affixes with the help of which these surnames were formed, the determination of the limits of the prevalence of surnames of the surname microsystem “Karas(karas)” in the territories of Ukraine. Conclusions. The analysis of the surnames of the surname microsystem “Karas(karas)” gave reasons to conclude that although this microsystem is relatively small, it is rather diverse in terms of methods and means of creation. The most common surname of this microsystem is the surname Karas (3,550 bearers), which occupies the 1,125th place in the general list of residents of Ukraine, and the most derived surnames are formed from the surname Karas (18 surnames). The most common way of creating surnames of the surname microsystem “Karas (karas)” is the suffix (45 surnames). Most often, the suffixes -ov (7 cases), -enk (-enk) (5 cases), -sk-, -ich(-ich) (4 cases each) were used to create such surnames. 19 surnames are formed by the inflectional method. Among the residents of Ukraine, there are 11 bearers of double surnames. Of the 77 surnames of the surname microsystem “Karas (karas)” that are common in Ukraine, 35 or 45.45 percent are russified, that is, appeared in the Ukrainian language under the influence of the Russian language. In the future, the problem of the origin, peculiarities of creation and distribution on the territory of Ukraine of surnames derived from other names of river and sea fish, including a comparative aspect, and some other problems will need to be studied.

UKRAINIAN PERSONAL NAMES WITH LATIN ORIGIN DERIVED FROM ROMAN MYTHOLOGICAL NAMES

Introduction. Evidence that almost all modern European countries were part of the Roman Empire in the past raises the question: how much culture and lifestyle influenced the peoples of different provinces. Traces are observed in many layers — even in the field of onomastics and naming patterns. The purpose of the present paper is to establish the list of Ukrainian personal names with Latin origin derived from Roman mythological names and to classify them according to the basic appellatives used in their formation. Background and motivations. Most of the Latin names became extremely popular throughout the centuries due to the fact that they became canonized by the Church. As the names of saints and martyrs, and due to the popularization of Christianity as a religion, many onyms that are part of the Roman system of proper names have been incorporated into other anthroponymicons. However, being of foreign origin, their meaning in many cases remains unclear to ordinary people even today. Methodology. The main methods used are onomastic data excerption and comparative analysis. The expected results are related to the external description and etymology of anthroponyms of Latin origin, which are widespread even today in modern Ukrainian onomasticons.

Прилагательные английского и русского языков с семантикой предшествования

The aim of the research is to identify the features of the functioning of adjectives in Russian and English that contribute to expressing the semantics of precedence within an utterance. The paper provides an analysis of English and Russian adjectives that realize the semantics of precedence. The study highlights a group of adjectives with the temporal semantics that function as adverbial modifiers expressing precedence at the level of deep structure, while at the level of surface structure, they serve the syntactic function of attributive modifiers. The scientific novelty lies in identifying the spectrum of English and Russian adjectives as non-verbal means of expressing precedence actualizing the temporal semantics of an utterance. It is found that in both languages, adjectives explicitly express the semantics of precedence and at the level of deep structure correspond to adverbs functioning as temporal modifiers. The most frequent adjective in English is ‘previous’, in Russian it is ‘предыдущий’ (previous). Adjectives like ‘former’, ‘бывший’ are characterized by their combination with personal names and organizations to represent their preceding state or position. Allomorphism is manifested in the presence of adjectives with distinctive features expressing precedence.

M.F.AXUNDOVUN ƏSƏRLƏRİNİN ANTROPONİMİYASI

Anthroponymy of M.F.Akhundov's works Summary The article “Anthroponymy of M.F.Akhundov’s works” examines personal names, nicknames, pseudonyms, etc. all anthroponymic units used in the playwright’s work are studied. M.F.Akhundov is the first researcher to think about the important role of anthroponyms in the formation of literary language styles. All representatives of Azerbaijani life of the 19th century participate in the playwright’s work and their spiritual person, spiritual existence is shown with all openness. A number of phraseological expressions used in our modern literary language and containing personal names have become widespread from the works of Mirza Fatali Akhundov or in connection with these works. The names of the heroes of his works provide rich research material. Key words: nicknames, pseudonyms, anthroponymy, artistic-poetic name, characters, dramas, Haji Kara

Język równościowy w nauczaniu DaF na poziomie uniwersyteckim – postawy osób uczących i studiujących wobec jego zastosowania w praktyce dydaktycznej

This paper focuses on gender-fair language and the attitudes of teachers and students of German as a foreign language (DaF) towards its use in university teaching. In the context of the survey study presented here, gender is understood as a construct that is manifested in specific, changing language use variants, such as in personal names. The surveyed teachers and students of applied linguistics at the University are current and future DaF linguists and educators, who, due to social changes, will be increasingly confronted with the issues under study in their professional lives. The aim of the study is, firstly, to determine whether gender-fair language is addressed in the DaF courses under study, if so, in what form and to what extent, and secondly, to record and describe the attitudes of the studied groups towards it, in order to raise awareness of this important phenomenon of contemporary German language use. Consequently, the conducted survey provides information about the presence of gender issues in DaF courses and the attitudes of the two groups towards gender-fair language. The results of the study are discussed in terms of their contribution to the development of gender-sensitive didactics of German as a foreign and as a second language.

‘My dearest Clara … my dear friend’ – Personal Names and direct address in Mary Hamilton’s private correspondence

Abstract In the eighteenth century, a period dominated by linguistic correctness, propriety and etiquette, appropriate forms of address are a customary feature in correspondence and a key means by which individuals are able to construct their social identity in light of their relationships with others. In this context, and framed within the fields of historical sociolinguistics and historical sociopragmatics, this paper explores the role of direct address as a socially-governed linguistic practice and as an index of politeness, and the focus lies in intra-speaker variation in the use of personal names and honorifics in the opening, body and subscription parts of the letter. The study is based on a set of 170 private letters written by Mary Hamilton (1756–1816), courtier, diarist and a member of the Bluestocking circle, and the analysis considers notions traditionally connected with pragmatic language use such as distance, power and politeness, bearing in mind other content-dependent factors as well. Overall, the research presented here aims to contribute to a growing body of literature which understands ego-documents as providing a window onto language and society.

Unveiling Messapic Funerary Discourse

Messapic, an ancient language from the 6th to the 2nd century BC in Southern Italy, remains a linguistically enigmatic and poorly understood entity, has been traditionally classified as an extinct language. Current scholarship predominantly views Messapic epigraphy as primarily consisting of personal names, anthroponyms, and theonyms. However, attempts to linguistically classify and interpret it within the broader framework of Greek, Latin, or other ancient languages have yielded limited insights. This article investigates Messapic epigraphy as a potential descendant of Proto-Albanian and reveals intriguing parallels with classical Albanian. The chosen exemplars challenge the prevailing assumption that Messapic is an extinct language, presenting it in a new light and underscoring its enduring linguistic and cultural legacy. This is notably exemplified through a distinctive funerary discourse that serves as a hallmark of the Messapic language.