McMaster Divinity College Linguistics Circle – Monthly Meeting
Presenter: Iain Sungmin Park, Ph.D Candidate at MDC
Title: The Indexical Meaning of the Galilean Dialect in Peter’s Denial of Jesus
Abstract:
This paper aims at identifying the potential meaning of Peter’s Galilean dialect of Aramaic in Caiaphas’s courtyard. In this study, there are two sociolinguistic inquiries: macro-sociolinguistics and micro-sociolinguistics. Macro-sociolinguistics examines the different multilingual environments between Judea and Galilee that resulted in the distinctive feature of the Galilean dialect of Aramaic. Micro-sociolinguistics determines the social meaning in Peter’s Galilean dialect in relation to his social identities in Caiaphas’s courtyard, where Judean leaders strongly promoted an ideology of Jesus as the false Messiah.
Due to the online format during this pandemic, we have had the opportunity to have participants from all over the world join the Circle, including from the US, China, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Brazil, among other places. We look forward to another enlightening discussion on how linguistics can inform our understanding of the biblical text!
