Download or read book Scribes as Agents of Language Change written by Esther-Miriam Wagner and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-03-22 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The majority of our evidence for language change in pre-modern times comes from the written output of scribes. The present volume deals with a variety of aspects of language change and focuses on the role of scribes. The individual articles, which treat different theoretical and empirical issues, reflect a broad cross-linguistic and cross-cultural diversity. The languages that are represented cover a broad spectrum, and the empirical data come from a wide range of sources. This book provides a wealth of new data and new perspectives on old problems, and it raises new questions about the actual mechanisms of language change.