(Im)Politeness in Ancient Egypt

Norms, Wit, and Rudeness in Texts from Pharaonic Times Through Late Antiquity
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-72422-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 27, 300 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

Reihe: Studies in Pragmatics

Exploring (Im-)Politeness in Ancient Egyptian Texts (c. 2600 BCE-8th century CE) is the first book-length study of (Im-)Politeness in ancient Egyptian texts. Leading experts in their respective corpora examine a range of textual sources spanning approximately 2,000 years, using the latest frameworks for analyzing language in usage. This collective edition asks how ancient Egyptians adapted and modified their language to persuade, complain, or mock, and how they assessed the risks and benefits of communicating with those above or below them in the social hierarchy. The papers explore whether ancient Egyptians used politeness freely and strategically, or were constrained by mandatory social rules. The documents presented, translated, and analyzed in this book include personal letters, ritual utterances, fictional stories, dialogue captions in tomb scenes, and messages to dead relatives.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Almansa-Villatoro, Maria Victoria

Motte, Aurore

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Historische & Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Soziolinguistik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie

Über Autor(innen)

M. Victoria Almansa-Villatoro, Ph.D. (2022), Brown University, is Assistant Professor of Egyptology at Yale University. She has published on Egyptian language, society, and religion and is co-editor of Ancient Egyptian and Afroasiatic: Rethinking the Origins (Eisenbrauns, 2023).

Aurore Motte, Ph.D. (2018), University of Liège, is a postdoctoral researcher of the F.R.S.-FNRS (Belgium). She has published on ancient Egyptian language, literature, and paratext and co-edited Looking Beyond the Text: New Approaches to Scribal Culture and Practices in Ancient Egypt (Brill, 2025).