For the sociolinguistic study of papyri -and of the Greek papyrus letters, more specifically-,archives are a treasure-trove. In such collections, one can examine the language ofthe individual of whom often different letters have been preserved. Also the language ofa specific group of people can be studied. In this paper, I focus on the language of the familymembers of Saturnila. This archive dates to the 2nd century AD and solely exists outof private letters. Most letters are sent by Sempronius to his mother Saturnila and to hisbrother Saturnilus. Private letters have a number of conventionalized phrases, such as anopening formula and health wishes. To the standard expression of these topoi, variationis possible. Yet, the letters of the Satumila archive notably differ from those standard formulas.The language of the different members of the archive shows uniformity in theiridentical deviation from standard phraseology. It thus seems that this family developed asort of in-group and shared language.
