-d / -t alternation in the Vindolanda corpus: insights from Octavius’ letter

Abstract

This paper deals with word-final alternation of -d / -t as it occurs in Tab.Vindol. 343, a letter written by the merchant Octavius (early 2nd century CE), as well as in other tablets of the Vindolanda corpus. While word-final -d occurs according to the morphological expectation in the large majority of the corpus, in Octavius’ letter the scenario is different, insomuch that non-classical spellings predominate. In particular, we consider to what extent this phenomenon may be interpreted within a historical sociolinguistic context