Reading J.N. Adams' scathing review of Roger Wright I am more convinced than ever that somebody needs to write about Early Medieval Latin in comparison to Arabic and Medieval Chinese. The points of convergence and parallels are too great to ignore. A discussion of 7th-8th century Latin informed by the sociolinguistics of the medieval and modern Arab world, and/or Imperial China, is so sorely needed it is not even funny.
Medievalists and Classicists just don't look outside Europe enough. You guys, just look a bit eastward and you'll find that the stuff that puzzles you is not that hard to explain. Because Europe isn't that special.
People's sociolinguistic behaviors are rarely novel. They may be unusual or peculiar, but rarely unique. Odds are, if a given sociolinguistic phenomenon was in effect in a particular place and time, you can find something quite similar in other places and times. You just have to be willing to look for it. You gotta reach out to the broader world.
And I'm reminded of why I hate particularism and refuse to put universalism in scare quotes.
Medievalists and Classicists just don't look outside Europe enough. You guys, just look a bit eastward and you'll find that the stuff that puzzles you is not that hard to explain. Because Europe isn't that special.
People's sociolinguistic behaviors are rarely novel. They may be unusual or peculiar, but rarely unique. Odds are, if a given sociolinguistic phenomenon was in effect in a particular place and time, you can find something quite similar in other places and times. You just have to be willing to look for it. You gotta reach out to the broader world.
And I'm reminded of why I hate particularism and refuse to put universalism in scare quotes.
Estne ubi ista censūra legī possit irrētī?
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