Breu anàlisi lingüística del cor d'Els perses

Abstract

Besides the well-known distinction between lyric parts, influenced by the choral lyric «Doric» dialect, and recited parts, closer to spoken Attic, this brief survey on the chorus’ language in Aeschylus’Persians might allow us to verify the reach of this classification and which linguistic traits –phonetical, morphological, syntactical and lexical– tragic poetic language variation is based on. Chorus language is marked as conservative rather than borrowed from a foreign dialect, being often the only recipient of noteworthy epic poetic expressions (genitives in –οιο, datives in –εσσι, lexical Homerisms…). Its greater syntactical simplicity highlights the importance of rhythm in sung parts above grammatical coherence. These traits prevail in the lyric parts; however, in the dialogue between the chorus and the other characters, the trimeters allow for a high degree of colloquialism. Wherever chorus language variation is attested in Persians, an interesting tendency appears to relate certain linguistical ressources (tmeseis, conjunction ἠδέ, genitives in –οιο…) to the main semantic fields permeating the play such as fate and the misfortunes of the Persian naval expedition.