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Koine Greek (, "common Greek", or , "the common dialect") is the popular form of Greek which emerged in post-classical antiquity (c.300 BC – AD 300), and marks the third period in the history of the Greek Language Andriotis, Nikolaos P. History of the Greek language. Other names are '''Alexandrian''', '''Hellenistic''', '''Common''', or '''New Testament''' Greek. Koine Greek is important not only to the history of the Greeks for being their first common dialect and main ancestor of Demotic Greek , but it is also significant for its impact on Western Civilization as a Lingua Franca for the Mediterranean. Koine also was the original language of the New Testament of the Christian Bible as well as the medium for the teaching and spreading of Christianity . Koine Greek was unofficially a first or second language in the Roman Empire . HISTORY Koine Greek arose as a common 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 . Though elements of Koine Greek took shape during the late Classic Era , the Post-Classic period of Greek dates from the death of Alexander The Great in 323 BC, when cultures under Hellenistic sway in turn began to influence the language. The passage into the next period, known as Medieval Greek , dates from the foundation of Constantinople by Constantine I in 330. The Post-Classic period of Greek thus 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 (), Greek for "common", is a term which had been previously applied by ancient scholars to several forms of Greek speech. A school of scholars such as '' (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, "" (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 elements of Koine — such as instead of () — considered Koine to be a simplified form of Ionic . The final answer which 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 Attic with the admixture of elements especially from Ionic, but also from other dialects. 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 Ionia n colonies of Asia Minor and Cyprus would have more intense Ionic characteristics than others. The literary Koine of the Hellenistic age resembles Attic in such a degree that it is often mentioned as ''Common Attic''. 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 which was not worthy of attention. The reconsideration on the historical and linguistic importance of Koine Greek began only in the early Nineteenth Century , where renowned scholars conducted series of studies on the evolution of Koine throughout the entire Hellenistic and Roman period which 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 which have authentic content and can be studied directly. Other significant sources are the Septuagint , the Greek translation of the Old Testament , and the New Testament . The teaching of the Testaments was aimed at the most common people, and for that reason they use the most popular language of the era. Information can also be derived 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 second century AD wrote:
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[http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost03/Dositheus/dos_col3.html Augsburg]., e.g:
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 which the written tradition has lost. For example the Pontic and Cappadocian dialects preserved the ancient pronunciation of etc), while the Tsakonic preserved the long α instead of η ( 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 (), while others pronounce in many words υ as ου or preserve ancient double forms ( 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 which 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 which took place in Koine, Greek gained such a resemblance to 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 introduced with Koine, today Koine Greek is largely intelligible to speakers of Modern Greek. Phonology See Also: Koine Greek phonology Koine Greek is phonologically a transition period: at the start of the period, the language was virtually identical to Classical Ancient Greek, whereas in the end the language had phonologically much more in common with Modern Greek than Ancient Greek. The three most significant changes during this period were the loss of vowel length distinction, the substitution of the pitch accent system with a stress accent system, and the monophthongization of most diphthongs. Evolution in phonology is summarised below:
BIBLICAL KOINE "Biblical Koine" refers to the varieties of Koine Greek used in the Christian Bible and related texts. Its main sources are:
There has been some debate to what degree Biblical Greek represents the mainstream of contemporary spoken Koine and to what extent it contains specifically Semitic Substratum features (''cf.'' Aramaic Primacy ). These could have been induced either through the practice of translating closely from Hebrew or Aramaic originals, or through the influence of the regional non-standard Greek spoken by the originally Aramaic-speaking Jews. Some of the features discussed in this context are the Septuagint's normative absence of the particles μεν and δε, and the use of εγενετο to denote "it came to pass." Some features of Biblical Greek which are thought to have originally been non-standard elements eventually found their way into the main of the Greek language. New Testament Greek The Koine Greek in the table represents the New Testament Koine Greek, deriving to some degree from the dialect spoken in Iudaea and Galilaea during the 1st century and similar to the dialect spoken in Alexandria, Egypt. Note, the realizations of certain phonemes differ from the more standard Attic dialect of Koine. Note the soft fricative "bh", the hard aspirated "th", the preservation of a distinction between the four front vowels "i", "ê", "e", and "y" (which is still rounded), and other features. SAMPLE KOINE TEXTS The following excerpts illustrate the phonological development within the period of Koine. The phonetic transcriptions are tentative, and are intended to illustrate two different stages in the reconstructed development, an early conservative variety still relatively close to Classical Attic, and a somewhat later, more progressive variety approaching Modern Greek in some respects. Sample 1 The following excerpt, from a decree of the Roman Senate to the town of Thisbae in Boeotia in 170 BC, is rendered in a reconstructed pronunciation representing a hypothetical conservative variety of mainland Greek Koiné in the early Hellenistic era.Horrocks (1997: 87), cf. also pp. 105-109. The transcription shows partial, but not yet completed raising of η and ει to /i/, retention of pitch accent, fricativization of γ to /j/ but no fricativisation of the other stops as yet, and retention of word-initial /h/. :[ IPA : ] "Concerning those matters about which the citizens of Thisbae made representations. Concerning their own affairs: the following decision was taken concerning the proposal that those who remained true to our friendship should be given the facilities to conduct their own affairs; that our governor Quintus Maenius should delegate five members of the senate who seemed to him suitable in the light of their public actions and individual good faith." Sample 2 The following excerpt, the beginning of the Gospel Of St John , is rendered in a reconstructed pronunciation representing a progressive popular variety of Koiné in the early Christian era, with vowels approaching those of Modern Greek.Horrocks (1997: 94). :[ IPA : ] "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." EXTERNAL LINKS
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