Séminaire « Nommer les hommes dans les Mondes Anciens »
Mardi 20 janvier 2026, 17h-19h
Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, Salle Reinach, 7 rue Raulin Lyon 7e, 4e étage
From Alpha to Aleph: The Demotic Transcription of Greek Personal Names
Adrienn Almásy-Martin (British Museum)
The establishment of Greek rule under the Ptolemies was the start of a prolonged period of contact between Greek and Egyptian linguistic traditions. Greek quickly assumed a central role in the administration, forcing Egyptian scribes and officials to engage with a second written language and its associated conventions. This ongoing interaction produced extensive documentary corpora in both Greek and Demotic, within which personal names offer some of the most informative points of comparison. As names frequently appear in both Greek and Demotic versions, they provide critical evidence for understanding the mechanisms of linguistic transfer, phonological adaptation, and scribal practice. This lecture investigates the principles governing the Demotic transcription of Greek personal names, analysing regular patterns alongside interesting irregularities, with particular emphasis on material from the Roman period.
Légende de l’image : Ostracon from Thebes (EA20339) ©️ The Trustees of the British Museum