Koine Greek

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History of the Greek language (see also: Greek alphabet)

Proto-Greek (c3000BC)

Mycenaean (c1600BC-1100BC)

Ancient Greek Dialects: Ionic, Attic, Doric, Aeolic

Koine Greek (from c323 BC)

Medieval Greek (c330-1453)

Modern Greek (from 1453) Dialects: Tsakonic, Pontic, Katharevousa

Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική) is an ancient Greek dialect which marks the 2nd stage in the history of the Greek language. Other names are Alexandrian, Hellenistic or New Testament Greek. Koine Greek is not only important to the history of the Greeks for being their first common dialect and main ancestor of Koine Modern Greek, but it's also important for its impact on the Western Civilization for being the first "international" form of speech (see lingua franca) and eventually the chosen medium for the teaching and spreading of Christianity. Koine Greek was unofficially a first or second language in the Roman Empire.

Contents 1 History 2 The term Koine 3 Roots 4 Sources of Koine 5 Evolution from Ancient Greek 6 Koine Greek in the Old Testament 7 References

History

Koine Greek started taking shape as a common Greek dialect within the armies of Alexander the Great. As the allied Greek states under the leadership of Macedon conquered and colonised the known world, their newly formed common dialect was spoken from Egypt to the fringes of India. Even though Koine Greek was shaped during the late Classic Era, the symbolic starting point of the 2nd period of the Greek language that is known as Post-Classic begins at the death of Alexander the Great and the beginning of the Hellenistic era in 323 BC. The closing of Post-Classic Greek and the passage into the 3rd period of the Greek language, which is known as Medieval Greek, is symbolically assigned at the foundation of Constantinople by Constantine the Great in 330 AD. In that respect, the Post-Classic period of Greek refers to the creation and evolution of Koine Greek throughout the entire Hellenistic and Roman eras of Greek history until the start of the Middle Ages.

The term Koine

Koine (Κοινή), which is Greek for "Common", is a term that had been previously applied by ancient scholars to several forms of Greek speech. A school of scholars such as Apollonius Dyscolus and Aelius Herodianus maintained the term Koine to refer to the Proto-Greek language, while others would use it to refer to any vernacular form of Greek speech which deferred to the literary language. When Koine gradually became a language of literature, some people distinguished it in two forms: Hellenic (Greek), as the literary Post-Classic form, and Koine (common), as the spoken popular form. Others chose to refer to Koine as the Alexandrian dialect ("Περὶ τῆς Ἀλεξανδρέων διαλέκτου"), meaning the dialect spread by Alexander the Great (a term often used by modern Classicists).

Roots

The linguistic roots of the Common Greek dialect had been unclear since ancient times. During the Hellenistic age, most scholars thought of Koine as the result of the mixture of the four main Ancient Greek dialects, "ἡ ἐκ τῶν τεττάρων συνεστῶσα" (the composition of the Four). This view was supported in the early 19th century by Austrian linguist P. Kretschmer in his book "Die Entstehung der Koine" (1901), while the German scholar Wilamowitz and the French linguist Antoine Meillet, based on the intense Attic-Ionic elements of Koine - such as σσ instead of ττ and ρσ instead of ρρ (θάλασσα - θάλαττα, ἀρσενικός - ἀρρενικός) - considered Koine to be a simplified form of Ionic. The final answer that is academically accepted today was given by the Greek linguist G. N. Hatzidakis, who proved that, despite the "composition of the Four", the "stable nucleus" of Koine Greek is Attic. In other words, Koine Greek can be regarded as the result of the admixture of the three Ancient Greek dialects and Attic. The degree of importance of the non-Attic linguistic elements on Koine can vary depending on the region of the Hellenistic World. In that respect, the idioms of Koine spoken in the Ionian colonies of Asia Minor and Cyprus would have more intense Ionic characteristics than others.

Sources of Koine

The first scholars who studied Koine, both in Alexandrian and contemporary times, were classicists whose prototype had been the literary Attic language of the Classic period, and would frown upon on any other kind of Hellenic speech. Koine Greek was therefore considered a decayed form of Greek that was not worthy of attention. The reconsideration on the historical and linguistic importance of Koine Greek began only in the early 19th century, where renounced scholars conducted series of studies on the evolution of Koine throughout the entire Hellenistic and Roman period that it covered. The sources used on the studies of Koine have been numerous and of unequal reliability. The most significant ones, are the inscriptions of the Post-Classic periods and the papyri, for being two kinds of texts that have authentic content and can be studied directly. Other significant sources are the biblical texts of the Old and the New Testaments, the former being translated and the latter being written directly in Greek. The teaching of the Testaments was aimed at the most common people, and for that reason they're using the most popular language of the era. Information can also be drained from some Atticist scholars of the Hellenistic and Roman periods, who, in order to fight the evolution of the language, published works which compared the supposedly "correct" Attic against the "wrong" Koine by citing examples. For example Phrynichus Arabius during the 2nd century AD wrote:

• Βασίλισσα οὐδείς τῶν Ἀρχαίων εἶπεν, ἀλλὰ βασίλεια ἢ βασιλίς.
  • "Basilissa (Queen), none of the Ancients said, but Basileia or Basilis".

• Διωρία ἑσχάτως ἀδόκιμον, ἀντ' αυτοῦ δὲ προθεσμίαν ἐρεῖς.
  • "Dioria (deadline), badly illiteral, instead use Prothesmia".

• Πάντοτε μὴ λέγε, ἀλλὰ ἑκάστοτε καὶ διὰ παντός.
  • "Pantote (always) do not say, but Ekastote and Dia pantos".

Other sources can be based on random findings such as inscriptions on vases written by popular painters, mistakes made by Atticists due to their imperfect knowledge of pure Attic, or even some surviving Greco-Latin glossaries of the Roman period, e.g:

• "Καλήμερον, ἦλθες; - Bono die, venisti?" (Good day, you came?).

• "Ἐὰν θέλεις, ἐλθὲ μεθ' ἡμῶν. - Si vis, veni mecum." (If you want, come with me).

• "Ποῦ; - Ubi?" (Where?).

• "Πρὸς φίλον ἡμέτερον Λεύκιον. - Ad amicum nostrum Lucium." (To our friend Lucius).

• "Τί γὰρ ἔχει; - Quid enim habet?" (What does he have?).

• "Ἀρρωστεῖ. - Aegrotat." (He's sick).

Finally, a very important source of information on the ancient Koine Greek is the Modern Greek language with all its dialects and its Koine form and idioms, which have preserved most of the ancient language's oral linguistic details that the written tradition has lost. For example the Pontic and Kappadocian dialects preserved the ancient pronunciation of η as ε (νύφε, συνέλικος, τίμεσον, πεγάδι etc), while the Tsakonic preserved the long α instead of η (ἁμέρα, ἀστραπά, λίμνα, χοά etc) and the other local characteristics of Laconic. Idioms from the Southern part of the Greek-speaking regions (Dodecanese, Cyprus etc), preserve the pronunciation of the double similar consonants (ἄλ-λος, Ἑλ-λάδα, θάλασ-σα), while others pronounce in many words υ as ου or preserve ancient double forms (κρόμμυον - κρεμ-μυον, ράξ - ρώξ etc). Linguistic phenomena like the above imply that those characteristics survived within Koine, which in turn had countless idiomatic variations in the Greek-speaking world.

Evolution from Ancient Greek

The study of all sources from the six centuries that are symbolically covered by Koine reveals linguistic changes from Ancient Greek on phonology, morphology, syntax, vocabulary and other elements of the spoken language. Most new forms start off as rare and gradually become more frequent until they are established. From the linguistic changes that took place in Koine, Greek gained such a resemblance with its Medieval and Modern successors that almost all characteristics of Modern Greek can be traced in the surviving texts of Koine. As most of the changes between Modern and Ancient Greek were introducted with Koine, today Modern and Koine Greek are almost mutually intelligible.

Evolution in phonology:

• The ancient distinction between long and short vowels was gradually lost, and from the 2nd century BC all vowels were isochronic.

• Since the 2nd century BC, the means of accenting words changed from pitch to stress, meaning that the accented syllable is not pronounced in a musical tone but louder and/or stronger.

• The aspirate breathing (aspiration), which was already lost in the Ionic idioms of Asia Minor and the Aeolic of Lesbos, stopped being pronounced and written in popular texts.

• Long diphthongs, which in older times were written with a subscript of ι after a long vowel, stopped being pronounced and written in popular texts.

• The diphthongs αι, ει, οι, and υι became single vowels. In his manner 'αι', which had already been converted by the Boetians into a long ε since the 4th century BC and written η (e.g. πής, χήρε, μέμφομη), became in Koine, too, first a long ε and then short. The diphthong 'ει' had already merged with ι in the 5th century BC in regions such as Argos or in the 4th c. BC in Corinth (e.g. ΛΕΓΕΙΣ), and it acquired this pronunciation also in Koine. The diphthongs 'οι' and 'υι' acquired the pronunciation of the modern French 'U' ([y] in IPA), which lasted until the 10th century AD. The diphthong 'ου' had already acquired the pronunciation of Latin 'U' since the 6th century BC and preserved it in modern times.

• The diphthongs αυ and ευ came to be pronounced "av" and "ev", but are "af" and "ef" before the voiceless consonants θ, κ, ξ, π, σ, τ, φ, χ, and ψ.

• Simple vowels have preserved their ancient pronunciations, except η which is pronounced as ι, and υ, which retained the pronunciation of modern French U only until the 10th c. AD, and was later also pronounced as ι. With those changes in phonology there were common spelling mistakes between υ and οι, while the sound of ι was multiplied (Iotacism).

• The consonants also preserved their ancient pronunciations to a great extent, except β, γ, δ, φ, θ, χ and ζ. Β, Γ, Δ (Beta, Gamma, Delta), which were initially pronounced as b, g, d, acquired the sound of v, gh, and dh ([v], [ɣ], [ð] in IPA) that they still have today, except when they're preceded by a nasal consonant (μ, ν); in that case, they retain their ancient sounds (e.g. γαμβρός - γαmbρός, άνδρας - άndρας, άγγελος - άŋgελος). The latter three (Φ, Θ, Χ), which were initially pronounced as aspirates (ph, th and kh respectively), acquired the sound of f, th, h ([f], [θ], and [x]) that they also preserve until today. Finally the letter Ζ, which is still categorised as a double consonant with ξ and ψ, because it was initially pronounced as σδ (sd), later acquired the sound of Z as it appears in Modern English and Greek.

Koine Greek in the Old Testament

The Deuterocanonical books is a series of texts that was not part of the Jewish Tanakh (scripture) and was later included in the Old Testament by the Eastern Christianity, and also recognized by Catholics. It cannot be said for certain whether the surviving Greek text is a translation, as no Hebrew text was ever found. The First Book of the Maccabees, which starts the Deutrocanon, was written in the 1st or 2nd century BC by an unknown Jewish author. It is a very informative source on Greek Koine as most writers and scholars at the time used Attic for their literary work. This is a sample text from its first ten verses:

1 Καὶ ἐγένετο μετὰ τὸ πατάξαι Ἀλέξανδρον τὸν Φιλίππου Μακεδόνα, ὃς ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ γῆς Χεττιιμ, καὶ ἐπάταξεν τὸν Δαρεῖον βασιλέα Περσῶν καὶ Μήδων καὶ ἐβασίλευσεν ἀντ᾽ αὐτοῦ, πρότερον ἐπὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα.

(Ke egeneto meta to patakse Alexandron ton Philippou Makedona, os eksilthen ek ghis Chetiim, ke epataksen ton Darion Vasilea Person kai Midon ke evasilefsen ant'aftou, proteron epi tin Ellada).

En. And so it happened, after Alexander (son) of Philip the Macedonian, he came out of the land of Cethim, and smote Darius ruler of Persians and Medes, and reigned in his stead as the ruler of Greece.

2 καὶ συνεστήσατο πολέμους πολλοὺς καὶ ἐκράτησεν ὀχυρωμάτων καὶ ἔσφαξεν βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς·

(Ke sunestisato polemous pollous ke ekratisen ohuromaton ke esfaksen vasilis tis ghis)

En. And he waged many wars, conquered strongholds and slew Kings of the Earth.

3 καὶ διῆλθεν ἕως ἄκρων τῆς γῆς καὶ ἔλαβεν σκῦλα πλήθους ἐθνῶν. καὶ ἡσύχασεν ἡ γῆ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, καὶ ὑψώθη, καὶ ἐπήρθη ἡ καρδία αὐτοῦ.

(Ke diilthen eos akron tis ghis ke elaven skula plithous ethnon, ke isuhasen i ghi enopion aftou, ke upsothi, ke epirthi i kardia aftou).

En. And he went to the edges of the Earth and received the spoils of many nations, and the Earth went quiet before him, and his heart was risen and lifted up.

4 καὶ συνῆξεν δύναμιν ἰσχυρὰν σφόδρα καὶ ἦρξεν χωρῶν ἐθνῶν καὶ τυράννων, καὶ ἐγένοντο αὐτῷ εἰς φόρον.

(Ke suniksen dunamin ishuran sfodra ke irksen xoron ethnon kai turannon, ke egenonto auto is foron)

En. And he gathered strength and power, and he conquered countries of nations and tyrants, and they all became his subjects.

5 καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ τὴν κοίτην καὶ ἔγνω ὅτι ἀποθνῄσκει.

(ke meta tafta epesen epi tin kutin ke eghno oti apothniskei)

En. And after all of these, he fell down upon his bed, and he knew that he was meant to die.

6 καὶ ἐκάλεσεν τοὺς παῖδας αὐτοῦ τοὺς ἐνδόξους τοὺς συνεκτρόφους αὐτοῦ ἐκ νεότητος καὶ διεῖλεν αὐτοῖς τὴν βασιλείαν αὐτοῦ ἔτι αὐτοῦ ζῶντος.

(Ke ekalesen tous pedas aftou tous endoksous tous sunektrophous aftou ek neotitos ke diilen aftis tin vasilian aftou eti aftou zontos).

En. And he summoned his noble servants that were brought up with him in youth, and he divided his Kingdom between them while he was still alive.

7 καὶ ἐβασίλευσεν Ἀλέξανδρος ἔτη δώδεκα καὶ ἀπέθανεν.

(ke evasilefsen Aleksandros eti dodeka ke apethanen).

En. And Alexander ruled for twelve years, and he died.

8 καὶ ἐπεκράτησαν οἱ παῖδες αὐτοῦ, ἕκαστος ἐν τῷ τόπῳ αὐτοῦ.

(ke epekratisan oi pedes aftou, eksastos en to topo aftou)

En. And his servants ruled in his stead, each in his own place.

9 καὶ ἐπέθεντο πάντες διαδήματα μετὰ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν αὐτὸν καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτῶν ὀπίσω αὐτῶν ἔτη πολλὰ καὶ ἐπλήθυναν κακὰ ἐν τῇ γῇ.

(ke apethento pantes diadimata meta to apothanin afton kai i uii afton opiso afton eti polla kai aplithinan kaka en ti ghi).

En. And they all took crowned themselves after his death, and so did their sons after them for many years, and evils were increased on the earth.

10 καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἐξ αὐτῶν ῥίζα ἁμαρτωλὸς Ἀντίοχος Ἐπιφανὴς υἱὸς Ἀντιόχου τοῦ βασιλέως, ὃς ἦν ὅμηρα ἐν Ῥώμῃ· καὶ ἐβασίλευσεν ἐν ἔτει ἑκατοστῷ καὶ τριακοστῷ καὶ ἑβδόμῳ βασιλείας Ἑλλήνων.

(ke eksilthen eks afton riza amartolos Antiohos Epifanis uios Antiohou tou vasileos, os in omira en Romi ke evasilefsen en eti ekatosto ke triakosto ke evdomo vasilias Ellinon).

En. And out of them came an evil offspring, Antiochus the Illustrious, son of King Antiochus, who had been a hostage in Rome, and ruled in the hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks.

References

• Nikolaos P. Andriotis, History of the Greek language.
• Abel E., Grammaire du grec biblique.