Latin technical legal terminology in Greek papyrus documents . Some examples from Late Antique and Byzantine Egypt

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Latin technical legal terminology is common in Greek juristic texts, especially after the Justinianic reforms. Some earlier examples are found in documentary papyri from Egypt. This terminology is written in Latin or Greek script or in forms that mix both scripts; it features Latin or Greek morphology or a hybrid inflection. The question hence arises of how this terminology can be described from a sociolinguistic perspective: is it borrowing, code-switching, or something in between the two? Is the relationship between languages and scripts relevant for such a description? Whereas literary occurrences of the phenomenon have recently been investigated along those lines, occurrences in Greek papyrus documents are mostly unexploited in this respect. This paper discusses some documentary examples and the relevant language contact phenomena and suggests that there is a possible connection with juristic literature in the way Latin is used. Finally, it considers what the results can tell us about the use and learning of Latin in late antique and Byzantine Egypt.