La terminologie grecque et latine du plurilinguisme

The aim of this article is to study the words and expressions in Greek and Latin relating to multilingualism, especially the compounds in –φωνος and in –γλωσσος in Greek and those in –lingua in Latin. I start by examining some texts related to the awareness of the linguistic diversity and multilingualism in Greece, in Rome and in the Jewish-Christian thought, from Homer to Augustine. Next, after having studied the terminology in Greek and Latin, I consider some case studies of inter-linguistic communication and multilingualism in Greek and Latin authors. In the conclusion, I compare the ancient terminology of the multilingualism with some aspects of the modern terminology in French.