Constructing, deconstructing and understanding: The early Christian corpora and the Latin dialectology

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to bring into discussion some data concerning early Christian inscriptions from the Iberian Peninsula on the differentiation of Vulgar Latin, focusing on the several methods and procedures of collecting data (in corpora and databases), and the interpretation as regards Latin dialectology. The low number of specific dialectal traits in early Christian funerary epigraphy contrasts with specific local features that can be found when we put the epigraphic texts into their social and cultural context. We may conclude that Latin dialectal evidence in Late Antiquity should be evaluated according to its context. We can understand both common and specific traits of the written language from this perspective.