Koine Greek

Koine Greek ( "Hellenistic common [language]"; or , "the common dialect", also simply called koine "common [language]", or "Alexandrian dialect", "common Attic" or "Hellenistic Greek") is the popular form of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity (c.300 BC – AD 300), developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic.

Koine was the first common supra-regional dialect in Greece and came to serve as a lingua franca for the eastern Mediterranean and Near East throughout the Roman period.

It is also the language of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) and of the Christian New Testament. Koine is the main ancestor of modern Greek. As the language of the New Testament and of the Church Fathers, Koine Greek is also known as biblical, patristic or New Testament Greek.

Name

Koinḗ (), 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 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 differed from the literary language. e.g.:

Bono die, venisti?Good day, you came?

Si vis, veni mecum.If you want, come with us (The Latin actually says with me, not us).

Ubi?Where?.

Ad amicum nostrum Lucium.To our friend Lucius.

Quid enim habet?Indeed, what does he have?What is it with him?.

Aegrotat.He's sick.}}

Finally, a very important source of information on the ancient Koine is the modern Greek language with all its dialects and its own Koine form, which have preserved some 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.

Patristic Greek

The term patristic Greek is sometimes used for the Greek written by the Church Fathers, the Early Christian theologians in late antiquity. Christian writers in the earliest time tended to use a simple register of Koiné, relatively close to the spoken language of their time, following the model of the Bible. After the 4th century, when Christianity became the official state religion of the Roman Empire, more learned registers of Koiné influenced by Atticism came also to be used.

Differences between Attic and Koine Greek

The study of all sources from the six centuries which are symbolically covered by Koine reveals linguistic changes from ancient Greek on elements of the spoken language including:

grammar - accidence and syntax,

morphology - word formation

vocabulary

phonology - pronunciation

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. 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/.

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 - Greek New Testament

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.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He 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 shone in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.}}

Sample 3 - Greek Old Testament

This is from the LXX version of Joshua, dating to c. 150 BC. This Greek is the "biblical Greek" discussed above. Note that because of literalness this text in many ways does not fit the Hellenistic Greek of the time, full of semiticisms.

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Further reading

Stevens, Gerald L. New Testament Greek Primer. ISBN 0718892062

Stevens, Gerald L. New Testament Greek Intermediate. From Morphology to Translation. ISBN 0718892003

Notes

References

Abel, F.-M. Grammaire du grec biblique.

Allen, W. Sidney, Vox Graeca: a guide to the pronunciation of classical Greek – 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-521-33555-8

Andriotis, Nikolaos P. History of the Greek Language

Buth, Randall, : Koine Greek of Early Roman Period

Conybeare, F.C. and Stock, St. George. Grammar of Septuagint Greek: With Selected Readings, Vocabularies, and Updated Indexes.

Smyth, Herbert Weir, Greek Grammar, Harvard University Press, 1956. ISBN 0-674-36250-0

External links

Greek-Language.com Dictionaries, manuscripts of the Greek New Testament, and tools for applying linguistics to the study of Hellenistic Greek

New Testament Greek Online

Polis Koine A method to learn Koine Greek including a video of a class

Diglot A daily di-glot or tri-glot (Vulgate) reading

Greek, Koine Category:Hellenistic civilization Category:Languages of ancient Macedonia Category:Offshoots of the Macedonian Empire Greek, Koine