Un esito palatale nel latino di Sicilia? A proposito del bilinguismo greco–latino

In Sicily, a few Greek forms for ‘Christian’ are attested with <si>, <ssi> instead of <sti> The same spelling is documented in the form ossaria beside Lat. ostiarius ‘janitor (name of a degree in the ecclesiastical hierarchy)’, in the well-known Greek inscription of Proba, in the island of Lipari. Also other Greek-speaking eastern areas give evidences of such a spelling for the adjective ‘Christian’. Although rare, forms such as grissana, criss[iani], cressiani etc. are also attested in Latin epigraphy. All these spellings could represent the palatal outcome of the cluster -stj-, as the Romance development -/stj/- > -/ʃʃ/- would confirm. The presence of a non-standard Latin outcome in Greek epitaphs of Sicily could throw new light on the interference processes between Greek and Latin in Sicily in Late Antiquity.