Victoria Beatrix Maria Fendel - Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt

I am deeply grateful to my DPhil supervisor, Andreas Willi, who guided me all the way through the storms and calms of this study. For his never-ending insistence, his endless patience, his constant encouragement, and the countless hours he spent reading and discussing with me every single word of this study, I owe him my greatest thanks. My thanks go also to his opposite number, Gesa Schenke, who battled through the Coptic half of this study with me and never ceased to be enthusiastic and thus provide me with reassurance. Furthermore, I owe thanks to Wolfgang de Melo, who advised me on how to transform a DPhil thesis into a monograph. For his witty anecdotes, his consistently constructive criticism, and his enlightening comparisons, I am immensely grateful.

In addition, my college advisors, Amin Benaissa and Helen Kaufmann, the two directors of graduate studies I worked with during my time at Oxford, Felix Budelmann and Gregory Hutchinson, and my teaching mentor, Juliane Kerkhecker, were a constant source of support. They all contributed to creating a stimulating environment and helped me to overcome all the little hurdles on the way. Equally, all the staff of the Classics faculty, in particular the Craven committee, and the Bodleian libraries had their share in making for this wonderful experience.

Furthermore, I owe thanks to Matthias Mller (Basel) for his interminable willingness to advise me on all questions of Coptic linguistics and for the manuscripts of several forthcoming publications of his. Equally, I owe thanks to Willy Clarysse (Leuven) for providing me with the manuscript of a very insightful article on later Greek formulaic language as well as to Joanne Vera Stolk (Ghent) and Klaas Bentein (Ghent) for allowing me to read their brilliant forthcoming articles on post-classical Greek linguistics.

I would not be at Oxford and this study would not exist without the generosity of Lady Margaret Hall and the Classics faculty, who awarded to me a Clarendon scholarship. This allowed me to focus fully and exclusively on my academic work. I will always be deeply indebted to both institutions.

My thanks go further to the two kind native speakers who identified all my interferences, hypercorrections, and language-internal confusions of patterns, to Thomas McConnell and Jonathan Griffiths. They analysed my writing at least as meticulously as I analysed my Greek data.

Finally, too many people have been on this journey with me to name all of them. For their optimism, their encouragement and their reliability throughout this journey, I am indebted to Stephanie Johann (Mannheim), Florence Becher-Husermann (Basel), Roxanne Taylor (Oxford/Manchester), Alexander Fairclough (Cambridge), Alexandre Loktionov (Cambridge), and Matthew Ireland (Cambridge) as well as my parents, Andreas and Brigitte, and my siblings, Leonard and Sophie.

Victoria Beatrix Maria Fendel

Oxford

12 April 2021