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Joanne Stolk

Universiteit Leiden, Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), Faculty Member

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Post-doctoral fellow FWO: Scribal Corrections and Language Variation and Change in Greek Documentary Papyri from Egypt (300 BCE – 800 CE) (Ghent University 2016-2022)
Marie Curie Post-doctoral fellow: Language norms from below: the Greek language in Graeco-Roman Egypt (University of Oslo 2017-2020)
Trismegistos Text Irregularaties: database of editorial regularizations in documentary papyri (KU Leuven)
Dissertation: Case Variation in Greek Papyri. Retracing dative case syncretism in the language of the Greek documentary papyri and ostraca from Egypt (300 BCE - 800 CE) (University of Oslo 2012-2015)

Affiliated projects:
Everyday Writing in Graeco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt. A Socio-Semiotic Study of Communicative Variation (Ghent University 2018-2023)
Act of the Scribe: Transmitting Linguistic Knowledge and Scribal Practices in Graeco-Roman Antiquity (Department of World Cultures, University of Helsinki 2015 – 2019)
Strengthening research capacity in the papyrus collection of the Oslo University Library (Oslo University 2012 – 2016)

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Books by Joanne Stolk

Text Editions of (Abnormal) Hieratic, Demotic, Greek, Latin and Coptic Papyri and Ostraca (P. L. Bat. 37)

by Joanne Stolk and Guus A J C van Loon

Some people love their friends even when they are far away: Festschrift in Honour of Francisca A.... more

Case Variation in Greek Papyri Retracing dative case syncretism in the language of the Greek documentary papyri and ostraca from Egypt (300 BCE – 800 CE)

Introductory chapter to article-based doctoral dissertation, University of Oslo

Articles by Joanne Stolk

A Coptic letter to Dioscorus of Aphrodite from the collection of the Ghent University Library [preview]

by Yasmine Amory and Joanne Stolk

Chronique d'Égypte, 2021

Edition of P.Ghent inv. 47, a Coptic letter addressed to Dioscorus of Aphrodite.

A Cognitive Approach to Spelling Production in Historical Sources: Explaining the Variation between <e, ai> and <o, ō> in Greek Documentary Papyri

The Greek documentary papyri (300 BCE-700 CE) provide an interesting corpus for linguistic study ... more The Greek documentary papyri (300 BCE-700 CE) provide an interesting corpus for linguistic study due to the large amount of linguistic variation. Variation in spelling is traditionally used as evidence for phonological changes in the post-Classical Greek language. The interchange of graphemes, however, does not only depend on the pronunciation of the corresponding phoneme. In this paper I examine the cognitive processes behind the production of non-standard Greek orthography in more detail by applying an interactive dual-route model for spelling. If two graphemes are pronounced identically in the spoken language, the final choice between one grapheme or the other is likely to be based on cognitive and social aspects, such as the general frequency and probability of spelling patterns in the language, previous exposure of the writer to other lexemes and morphemes in the language and local scribal conventions, to name just a few factors. On the basis of examples of the frequent interchanges of <e, ai> and <o, ō>, I show how these other factors can contribute to a better interpretation of spelling production in documentary papyri.

Orthographic variation and register in the corpus of Greek documentary papyri (300 BCE – 800 CE)

Post-Classical Greek from a Scribal Perspective. Variation and Change in Contemporary Orthographic Norms in Documentary Papyri

Combining linguistics, palaeography and papyrology: the use of the prepositions eis, prós and épi in Greek papyri

Van analfabeten tot langzame schrijvers: Grieks schrijfonderwijs in Egypte

Tetradio 28, 2019

Itacism from Zenon to Dioscorus: scribal corrections of <ι> and <ει> in Greek papyri

A. Maravela & J. Stolk, Bringing Together the Family for a Daughter's Wedding: P.Yale 1.78 Reconsidered, BASP 55 (2018) 275-280.

by Anastasia Maravela and Joanne Stolk

In this article we suggest a new interpretation of the private letter first published as P.Yale 1... more

Subscriptions to a lease contract (Coptica Barcinonensia 8)

Subscriptions to a renunciation contract (Coptica Barcinonensia 7)

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.08.03

Review of Nicola Reggiani, Digital Papyrology I: Methods, Tools and Trends. Berlin - Boston. De G... more

Encoding Linguistic Variation in Greek Documentary Papyri: The Past, Present and Future of Editorial Regularization

Language contact and case variation: interpreting evidence for dative case syncretism in Greek documentary papyri

To appear in: Trevor Evans and Genevieve Young (eds.), Koine Greek and the Evidence of Documentar... more

Dative Alternation and Dative Case Syncretism in Greek: the Use of Dative, Accusative and Prepositional Phrases in Documentary Papyri

This paper explores the evidence for dative case syncretism with personal pronouns in post-Classi... more This paper explores the evidence for dative case syncretism with personal pronouns in post-Classical Greek based on documentary papyri (300BCE–800CE). Three alternative encodings are examined for the animate goal of transfer verbs: the prepositions pr os and eis (with accusative) and the bare accusative case. It is shown that the dative case and the preposition pr os are in complementary distribution dependent on the animacy of the object and the conceptualization of the event. The preposition eis is only used for animate goals in the specialized meaning 'on account of'. The bare accusative case is occasionally found as a replacement for the dative case, but not in the same constructions as those in which the prepositions are attested. Therefore, based on the encoding of the animate goal in Greek papyrus letters, there is no reason to assume that a change in the use of these prepositions led to the merger of dative and accusative cases.

Dative for Accusative Case Interchange in Epistolary Formulas in Greek Papyrus Letters

by Joanne Stolk and Delphine Nachtergaele

http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/xcUgDNJpYIMBpbPkse7T/full

Scribal and phraseological variation in legal formulas: the adjectival participle of ὑπάρχω + dative or genitive pronoun

Dative by Genitive Replacement in the Greek Language of the Papyri: A Diachronic Account of Case Semantics

Semantic analysis of the prenominal first person singular genitive pronoun (μου) in the Greek of ... more Semantic analysis of the prenominal first person singular genitive pronoun (μου) in the Greek of the documentary papyri shows that the pronoun is typically found in the position between a verbal form and an alienable possessum which functions as the patient of the predicate. When the event expressed by the predicate is patient-affecting, the possessor is indirectly also affected. Hence the semantic role of this affected alienable possessor might be interpreted as a benefactive or malefactive in genitive possession constructions. By semantic extension the meaning of the genitive case in this position is extended into goal-oriented roles, such as addressee and recipient, which are commonly denoted by the dative case in Ancient Greek.The semantic similarity of the genitive and dative cases in these constructions might have provided the basis for the merger of the cases in the Greek language.

Dative and genitive case interchange in Greek papyri from Roman-Byzantine Egypt

Examples of case interchange in Greek papyri are often used to illustrate the start of dative cas... more Examples of case interchange in Greek papyri are often used to illustrate the start of dative case syncretism in Greek (Humbert 1930; Browning 1983; Horrocks 2010). On the other hand, case interchange can be caused by Egyptian scribes having difficulties with the Greek case system (Clarysse 1993; Vierros 2012). In this article, I combine quantitative analysis of the dative and genitive case interchanges in Greek documentary papyri with a qualitative examination of the social and linguistic contexts of the interchanges. This shows that whereas the usage of the dative instead of the genitive pronoun as adnominal possessor may be explained by indirect bilingual interference and scribal confusion, the replacement of the dative by the genitive as a third argument of a verb may have been caused by interference from the Greek spoken language in the writing of less educated scribes.

Text Editions of (Abnormal) Hieratic, Demotic, Greek, Latin and Coptic Papyri and Ostraca (P. L. Bat. 37)

by Joanne Stolk and Guus A J C van Loon

Some people love their friends even when they are far away: Festschrift in Honour of Francisca A.... more

Case Variation in Greek Papyri Retracing dative case syncretism in the language of the Greek documentary papyri and ostraca from Egypt (300 BCE – 800 CE)

Introductory chapter to article-based doctoral dissertation, University of Oslo

A Coptic letter to Dioscorus of Aphrodite from the collection of the Ghent University Library [preview]

by Yasmine Amory and Joanne Stolk

Chronique d'Égypte, 2021

Edition of P.Ghent inv. 47, a Coptic letter addressed to Dioscorus of Aphrodite.

A Cognitive Approach to Spelling Production in Historical Sources: Explaining the Variation between <e, ai> and <o, ō> in Greek Documentary Papyri

The Greek documentary papyri (300 BCE-700 CE) provide an interesting corpus for linguistic study ... more The Greek documentary papyri (300 BCE-700 CE) provide an interesting corpus for linguistic study due to the large amount of linguistic variation. Variation in spelling is traditionally used as evidence for phonological changes in the post-Classical Greek language. The interchange of graphemes, however, does not only depend on the pronunciation of the corresponding phoneme. In this paper I examine the cognitive processes behind the production of non-standard Greek orthography in more detail by applying an interactive dual-route model for spelling. If two graphemes are pronounced identically in the spoken language, the final choice between one grapheme or the other is likely to be based on cognitive and social aspects, such as the general frequency and probability of spelling patterns in the language, previous exposure of the writer to other lexemes and morphemes in the language and local scribal conventions, to name just a few factors. On the basis of examples of the frequent interchanges of <e, ai> and <o, ō>, I show how these other factors can contribute to a better interpretation of spelling production in documentary papyri.

Orthographic variation and register in the corpus of Greek documentary papyri (300 BCE – 800 CE)

Post-Classical Greek from a Scribal Perspective. Variation and Change in Contemporary Orthographic Norms in Documentary Papyri

Combining linguistics, palaeography and papyrology: the use of the prepositions eis, prós and épi in Greek papyri

Van analfabeten tot langzame schrijvers: Grieks schrijfonderwijs in Egypte

Tetradio 28, 2019

Itacism from Zenon to Dioscorus: scribal corrections of <ι> and <ει> in Greek papyri

A. Maravela & J. Stolk, Bringing Together the Family for a Daughter's Wedding: P.Yale 1.78 Reconsidered, BASP 55 (2018) 275-280.

by Anastasia Maravela and Joanne Stolk

In this article we suggest a new interpretation of the private letter first published as P.Yale 1... more

Subscriptions to a lease contract (Coptica Barcinonensia 8)

Subscriptions to a renunciation contract (Coptica Barcinonensia 7)

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.08.03

Review of Nicola Reggiani, Digital Papyrology I: Methods, Tools and Trends. Berlin - Boston. De G... more

Encoding Linguistic Variation in Greek Documentary Papyri: The Past, Present and Future of Editorial Regularization

Language contact and case variation: interpreting evidence for dative case syncretism in Greek documentary papyri

To appear in: Trevor Evans and Genevieve Young (eds.), Koine Greek and the Evidence of Documentar... more

Dative Alternation and Dative Case Syncretism in Greek: the Use of Dative, Accusative and Prepositional Phrases in Documentary Papyri

This paper explores the evidence for dative case syncretism with personal pronouns in post-Classi... more This paper explores the evidence for dative case syncretism with personal pronouns in post-Classical Greek based on documentary papyri (300BCE–800CE). Three alternative encodings are examined for the animate goal of transfer verbs: the prepositions pr os and eis (with accusative) and the bare accusative case. It is shown that the dative case and the preposition pr os are in complementary distribution dependent on the animacy of the object and the conceptualization of the event. The preposition eis is only used for animate goals in the specialized meaning 'on account of'. The bare accusative case is occasionally found as a replacement for the dative case, but not in the same constructions as those in which the prepositions are attested. Therefore, based on the encoding of the animate goal in Greek papyrus letters, there is no reason to assume that a change in the use of these prepositions led to the merger of dative and accusative cases.

Dative for Accusative Case Interchange in Epistolary Formulas in Greek Papyrus Letters

by Joanne Stolk and Delphine Nachtergaele

http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/xcUgDNJpYIMBpbPkse7T/full

Scribal and phraseological variation in legal formulas: the adjectival participle of ὑπάρχω + dative or genitive pronoun

Dative by Genitive Replacement in the Greek Language of the Papyri: A Diachronic Account of Case Semantics

Semantic analysis of the prenominal first person singular genitive pronoun (μου) in the Greek of ... more Semantic analysis of the prenominal first person singular genitive pronoun (μου) in the Greek of the documentary papyri shows that the pronoun is typically found in the position between a verbal form and an alienable possessum which functions as the patient of the predicate. When the event expressed by the predicate is patient-affecting, the possessor is indirectly also affected. Hence the semantic role of this affected alienable possessor might be interpreted as a benefactive or malefactive in genitive possession constructions. By semantic extension the meaning of the genitive case in this position is extended into goal-oriented roles, such as addressee and recipient, which are commonly denoted by the dative case in Ancient Greek.The semantic similarity of the genitive and dative cases in these constructions might have provided the basis for the merger of the cases in the Greek language.

Dative and genitive case interchange in Greek papyri from Roman-Byzantine Egypt

Examples of case interchange in Greek papyri are often used to illustrate the start of dative cas... more Examples of case interchange in Greek papyri are often used to illustrate the start of dative case syncretism in Greek (Humbert 1930; Browning 1983; Horrocks 2010). On the other hand, case interchange can be caused by Egyptian scribes having difficulties with the Greek case system (Clarysse 1993; Vierros 2012). In this article, I combine quantitative analysis of the dative and genitive case interchanges in Greek documentary papyri with a qualitative examination of the social and linguistic contexts of the interchanges. This shows that whereas the usage of the dative instead of the genitive pronoun as adnominal possessor may be explained by indirect bilingual interference and scribal confusion, the replacement of the dative by the genitive as a third argument of a verb may have been caused by interference from the Greek spoken language in the writing of less educated scribes.

Dative and genitive case interchange in Greek papyri from the Ptolemaic period

Linguistic Variation in Greek Papyri: Towards a New Tool for Quantitative Study

Linguistic Variation in Greek Papyri: A New Quantitative Tool for Study

Digital Classics Seminar, Universiteit Leiden

Change in a language contact situation: Egyptian-Greek Language Contact and Case Interchange in Greek Papyri from Egypt

Conference Language Contact: The State of the Art, August 28-30, 2014, University of Helsinki

A Diachronic Acount of Dative by Genitive Replacement in Papyrological Greek

21st International Conference on Historical Linguistics, 5-9 August 2013, University of Oslo

Summer course in Papyrology, 18-22 June 2018, University of Oslo

by Anastasia Maravela and Joanne Stolk