11 IV 2024: Paweł Nowakowski (UW), ‘I pray, do not focus on their barbarous tongue.’ The written and spoken languages in monasteries of early Byzantine Syria

The complex issue of written and spoken languages used in Eastern monastic communities of the early Byzantine period was discussed in detail, especially regarding the coenobia and laurae of Palestine. In my paper, I would like to focus on north Syrian communities. Drawing upon the recent results of the EpIdentinty project (NCN Sonata, UMO-2019/35/D/HS3/01872), I will review our dossier or literary sources and confront them with the evidence of Syriac inscriptions in order to answer the question: Did Syrian monks have a predilection for Syriac as a written and spoken language?

Photo copyright: Andrew Wilson/Manar al-Athar, St Simeon (Qalaat Simaan) – Cruciform Church قلعة سمعان – الكنيسة المصلبة. License: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.