The role of archaisms in the Latin inscriptions of the Roman Empire: some new considerations in light of computerized dialectology

Abstract

This paper aims to reconsider the role of archaisms in epigraphy and, above all, their possible dialectal value. Indeed, according to a traditional theory, provinces that were colonized earlier by the Romans preserved archaic varieties of Latin. Scholars have often used inscriptions to support this idea, particularly in the case of Hispania , but the results of this paper, which rely on the methodology of modern Computerized Dialectology, are negative in this regard.