Plurilinguismo e motivazioni identitarie nel Mediterraneo del II/I sec. A.C. Il caso della trilingue di Pauli Gerrei

The trilingual from Pauli Gerrei datable to the II / I century B.C. and coming from south-western Sardinia is re-examined starting from the assumption that an ancient epigraphic text, above all if it is plurilingual, represents a unique document, planned in order to achieve certain communicative purposes. In the present case this assumption appears all the more true since the triple dedication to Escolapio, Asklepio, Eshmun Merre from Pauli Gerrei presents remarkably different contents in the three Latin, Greek, and Neopunic versions, which are characterized by a careful selection of the information transmitted in each language. An epigraphic, philological and linguistic analysis of the trilingual allows to obtain different information: first, on the degree of vitality of the three languages in the linguistic landscape in which this text is to be inserted; second, on the phenomena of contact between the three languages and on the direction that characterizes these phenomena; third, on the repertoire of both the codifier of the text and the linguistic community to which the text was addressed; finally, on the identity motivations that can be supposed to have been at the basis of such a use of plurilingualism.