ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 lays the groundwork for an analysis of how Canaanite scribes infused their letters with semiotically significant forms using linguistic and orthographic variation. While the “classic model” of bilingual code-switching is still pervasive in the study of Late Bronze Age cuneiform, and in the study of the Canaanite Amarna Letters, more recent scholarship on linguistic variation in writing highlights the agency of speakers and writers in their navigation between available linguistic resources. This chapter proposes the “code-alternation” approach as an alternative way to study the complex uses of linguistic and orthographic variation in the Canaanite Letters. The code-alternation approach also considers the multimodality of the scribes’ use of repetition, glosses, and a range of scribal marks, which can occur alongside marked linguistic and orthographic forms.
