The Languages of Aristophanes. Aspects of Linguistic Variation in Classical Attic Greek.

`Even if its focus is not so much on Aristophanes per se but on his background and environment, the book also makes important contributions to the interpretation of the individual comedies, or of particular passages in them, and to the study of the genre of comedy. The second chapter of the book ends with a summary that epitomizes its conclusions under three different headings, `(1) literary, (2) methodological, and (3) linguistic` (p. 47). Summaries with comparable content end the other chapters as well. Not only the varieties of the language and the often complex methodological issues involved in their study but also Aristophanic comedy as an example of Athenian and Greek literature fall within the scope of the book; to quote its author (p. 7): `... the positive facts assembled in this book ... show what a complex structure comic discourse has, how literary styles are composed and configured, and where the potentials and limitations of our analytic methods lie.` Let me say it at once: this is an important book. It opens up a new field of studies of classical Attic, rarely cultivated before, its author shows an excellent understanding both of the empirical data provided by the texts and of the theoretical and methodological obstacles continually surfacing in studies of this sort, and his conclusions are well founded and well presented, their uncertainties pointed out whenever motivated.` (JERKER BLOMQVIST in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.06.04).