Language Use and Literacy in Late Antique and Medieval Nubia

Abstract

Abstract This chapter is an overview of the current knowledge about the linguistic situation in the Middle Nile valley in Late Antiquity and Middle Ages. Throughout this long period as many as five languages were employed in this region as a means of written communication: Meroitic, Greek, Sahidic Coptic, Old Nubian, and Arabic. In the first part of the paper, we discuss the use of all these languages from chronological, both diachronic and synchronic, as well as functional perspectives. Such an approach is crucial for the proper understanding of their social significance, which we attempt to analyze in the second part. A special attention is devoted to the interaction between the languages, with a focus on such phenomena as code-switching and linguistic borrowing.

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