268780037 Robert Browning Medieval and Modern Greek 1983

8/20/2019 268780037 Robert Browning Medieval and Modern Greek 1983

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Medieval and Modern Greek


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Medieval an

oder Greek

ROBER T BROWNING

Professor Emeritu of Clsscs,Birkbeck Coe, Universty of London

UC BRIDGE

UNIVERST PRESS


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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Inrmation on this tie: w.cambridge.org/9780521299787

© Robert Browning 969© Cambridge University Press 983

his publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,no reproduction of any part may take place without the writtenpermission of Cambridge University Press.

First published by Hutchinson & Co Ltd 969Second edition published by Cambridge University Press 983Reprinted 989, 995

A catalogue recordr this publication is avaible om the British Library

Library of Congress catalogue card number: 82-I977I

ISBN 978-0-521-23488-7 HardbackISBN 978-0-521-29978-7 Paperback

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this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is,or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Inrmation regarding prices, traveltimetables, and other ctual inrmation given in this work is correct atthe time of rst printing but Cambridge University Press does not guaranteethe accuracy of such inrmation thereafter.


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Contents

Preface to the second editon vi

Preface to the rst edition vii

ntrodutor 1

2 Greek in the Hellenisti world and the Roman empre 19

3 The Greek language in the earl midle ages (6th entur1 1) 3

4 The Greek language in the later middle ages (l 100143) 69

Greek in e Turkish riod 88

6 The development of the national language 100

7 The dialets of mode Greek 119

Bibliography 138

Inx of Greek wor mentioned in the text 149

v


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Preface to the second edition

Whn th rt dition of thi book wnt out of print a ar or twoago collagu and ind in thi countr and abroad urgd m tobring it up to dat Th kind or b th Cambridg UnivritPr to publih a cond dition wa thu particularl wlcomand r man raon Much work ha ben don in th lat ftn

ar on th hitor of Grek in th pot-claical and divalriod Th political vnt in Grce inc 1967 hav bn ctd in an unuuall rapid chang in linguitic uag which hamad all arlir dicuion of th languag qution to omxtnt out of dat Partl a a conqunc of thi tudnt oflinguitic hav hown a livl intrt in modrn Grk in rntar

In rviing th arlir dition I hav trid to rmov a man

a poibl of th rror and inliciti which digurd it Muchha bn rwrittn and thr i carcel a pag which tandunchangd om th rt dition Th bibliograph which litonl work rfrrd to in th not bear witn to th ourihingtat of mdival and modrn Grek tudi toda

I am glad to b abl to thank th Cambridg Univrit Pr rth cinc and court with which th hav tranrmd anuntid manucript into a book; Mand Macdonald th Pr'

ubditor who kill and alrtn nabld man inconitnciand ambiguiti to b corrctd in tim; and th Trut rHarvard Univrit r appointing m to a Fllowhip atDumbarton Oak Wahington in pring 982, during which motof th work on thi book wa don

J 1982 ROBER BROWNING

vi


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reface to the rst edition

The Homeri poems were rst written down in more or less theirpresent rm in the seventh entur B.c. Sine then Greek hasenjoed a ontinuous tradition down to the present da Changethere has ertainl been But there has been no break like thatbetween Latin and the Romane languages Anient Greek is not

a rei language to the Greek of toda as Anglo-Saxon is tothe modern Englishman The onl other language whih enjosomparable ontinuit of tradition is Chinese

The stud of Greek in England as in most other ountries hastraditionall been onentrated upon the lassial language TheNew Testament was left to theologians and a nineteenthenturhoolbo who attempted to imitate it in his prose ompositionwould have got short shrift om his teaher The medieval and

modern stages of the language were largel ignoredToda the situation has hanged There is a widespread interest

in Modern Greek And the Bzantine world attrats the attentionof studens of histor literature and art Classial sholars nolonger regard it as beneath their diit to one themselveswith the Grk of the middle ages and mode times

Te prent volume aims to provide an introdution to thedevelopment of the Greek language om the Hellenisti age to the

prent da It will be of use primaril to those who know someanient Grk and who wish to explore the later histor of thelanguage But it is the authors ho that it will also be helpful tothose who have learnt Modern Grk and who seek some guidanein their approah to the medieval or lassial language It annotbe too muh empasised that Greek is one language and not aseriesof distint languages If one wants to learn Greek it does notreall matr whether one begins with Homer with Plato with the

New Testament with the Romane of Digenis Akritas or withKazantzakis The eort required to takle earlier or later stagesone the student is rml ounded in one stage is not great Andeduated Greek sakers have alwas had present in their mindsthe whole of the language up to their own time drawn upon it

vii


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viii Preface to therst edition

aluded to it, and onioul modied it t i thi intelletualontinuit whih make the tud of Greek both rewarding anddiult

July 1969 ROBERT BROWNING


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1 Introductory

Sakers of Greek entered the southern part of the Balkanninsula in the rst half of the seond millennium BC 1 From thenuntil the present da the have rmed the overwhelming majoritof the pulation of the region. From this nuleus Greek spread tobome the language of both isolated settlements and large areas

all round the Mediterranean oast as well as of the greater part ofthe land mass of Asia Minor2 n addition it seved at varioustimes as a language of ulture of administration of trade in areaswhere it was not the native language of the mass of the population:it llled this role as r east as the othills of the Pamir and thendus valle in Hellenisti times throughout Egpt and beondits ontiers to the south in Hellenisti and Roman times in theSlavoni-saking areas of the northe Balkan ninsula during

the middle ages. Lastl there have existed at various riodsinluding the present ompat ommunities of Greek sakerssettled in areas of non-Greek seh and often maintaining heiridentit and their national onsiousness r man generationsexamples whih spring to the mind are the Greek tradingommunit of Southe Gaul of whih St renaeus was a memberthe hungr Greeklings of uvenal's Rome one of whom was StClement the Greek village of Cargse in Corsia the Grk

ommunities of the present-da United States 5 the Greekommunities of Odessa and Alexandria the HellenophoneCpriot ommunit of London6

1 F an exhausve an eale survey f he even an he pblems f.Caridge Ancient Htory 1 (1973), esally hapes 4 12 13 14; (1975)esally hapes 22 27 36 38 39 4. I s sll ul esablsh rrelansween ahaelgal an lngus evene.

2 Baman (1980) he eale Muh nman n he Hellensanf Asa Mni un e hughu Mae (1950) Bu hee s sll nsysema suy f hs mran p

3Tan (1938) Naan (1957) Wk (1966)4Blanken (1947 (1951)5 Cf Salus (1964) (1967) Seaman (1972) Psmaes an Suby (1982).6Ge an Mllesn (1966/7)

A O


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2 noduory

In spite o its geographial extension an the existen of Greekspeaking enlaves r om the main mass of speakers of thelanguage Greek has alwas remaine one language There have

been in the past an are toa onsierable ialetal ierenesBut neither in the past nor toa have the been suientl greatto impee ommuniation between sakers of ierent ialetsNor has there ever been in histori times an other language evenpartiall intelligible to Greek sakers without sil stu NoGreek speaker was or is ever in oubt whether another mansspeeh is Greek or not Though loal ialets have sometimesaquire prestige as vehiles of literature outsie the area in whih

the were spoken there has never bn an tenen r Greek tobreak up into a series of languages either mutuall not fullintelligible or felt b their speakers to be istint as Vulgar atinbroke up into the various Romane languages

Perhaps onnete with this ontinuous ientit over somethree an a half millennia is the slowness of hange in Greek It isstill reognisabl the same language toa as it was when theHomeri poems were written own probabl aroun 70 Bc.,

thou it must be observe that the traitional orthographmasks man of the phonologial hanges whih have taken plae8The ontinuit of lexial stok is sriking though here too thingsare not as simple as the seem at rst sight An though there hasbeen muh rearrangement of morphologial pattes there hasalso been muh ontinuit an Greek is quite learl even toaan arhai Ino-Euroan t of language ike atin or

7 There was no consensus in antiquity on whether the Macedonians were Greekor not Herodotus 15 83 states hat they were originay Dorians Thucydides12-7 maintains that they were 'barbarian; so aso socrates Php 108Demosthenes Olynth. 32 The argument is maiy about cuture and iticsnot about anguage. There is cear eviden that Madonian was not adiyundersto by most Grks (Putarch Alex 51 Eumenes 1 Curius Rufus937 Livy 3129 etc) Aeged Madonian words rsona names and panames provide no cr ution. The most ikey hyhesis is hat Madoniawas either an aberrant Greek diaect or an Indo-Euroan anage cosey akin toGreek. Cf. Katii (197) 11 e anguage of he Epirotes is reaty

derid in antiquity as nonGreek (Thucydides17 11 280

etc. Strabo813) Yet the Epirotes were connected wih the origin of various Grkcommunities There may we have en an ehnic and inguist mixture in Epirusme tris saking Greek, others Iyrian or some other angua (c Hammond(197) 23 Katii (197) 1207)

8 Faiure to rgnise the irevan of an orhoaphy whih was no ongerphonoogica has often ed to he postuation of ghostwords or ghostforms cPamer (19) (1939) (195) 15


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Inrocory 3

Russian, not a modern, analytical language, like English orPersian There has been no passage om one typological categoryto another The verbal system in particular has preserved most of

its structure and many of its morphological atures, while therehas been more rreaching rearrangement of the nominal systemEarlier stages of the language are thus accessible to sakers oflater stages in a way that Anglo-Saxon or even Middle English isnot accessible to sakers of modern English One must of coursedistinguish between active and passie linguistic comtenceInability to sak or write a particular rm of a language does notnessarily imply inability to understand it In Greece, thanks to

an educational system which often overvalued linguistic archaismand to the equent exposure of all classes to archaising language,particularly that of the liturgy, passive ability to understand upto a point older rms of the language is widespread.

Greek was rst written in a syllabary adapted om one designedr a non-Hellenic, and probably nonIndoEuroan, languagein the second half of the second millennium Bc9 However, withthe collap of the Mycenean civilisation this syllabary seems to

have been quickly rgotten, and Greece reverted to illiteracy rseveral centuries It is uncertain when or by whom the Phoenicianalphabet was adapted to represent Greek by using certainsuruous consonant signs to indicate vowels But by the lateeighth century B several varieties of the new Greek alphabetwere in use r sepulchral and other inscriptions 1° From this earlyriod date also a number of casual verses and personal remarksscratched on pottery or carved on natural rock surce, which bear

witness to the use of the new alphabetic writing r 'unocialpurses and to widespread miliarity with it Perhaps the earliestGreek 'literary text is a line and a half of verse containing anallusion to the cup of Nestor described in the Iliad, which isratched on a jug und in Ischia, and plausibly dated to the thirdquarter of the eighth century 1 1 By the sixth century at the latestthe study of reading and writing was being added to the traditional

9Chadwick (19) gives a pular but authoritative account The now immenseliterature on the subject can best llowed through the annual biblioaphyand index, Studes n Menean Inrtons and Dlet, published by the Insttuteof Classil Studies of the University of London 196 . and in riodicalbibliographie in the oual Kao

10Jeery (1%1) Lejeune (1966) Diringer (196); Phl (196)11 Buchner and Russo (19)


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4 roduoy

curriculum of gymnastics and music in some cities From that dateuntil the present day there has been a continuous and un-interrupted literary tradition, maintained by schools, by a body

of grammatical literature, and by the continuous study of a limitednumber of literary texts, whose linguistic rm came to dier oreand more om that of current speech The prestige of these litarytexts was high, and they came more an more to serve as modelsr rmal sech and writing By the rst century of our era a newkind of diglossy had begun new in the sense that it was somethingmore than the usual opposition between dialect and standardlanguage btween casual and more rmal utterance, between

prose and etry, and so on The reasons r this developmentwill be discussed later What we are here concerned with isthe continuous pressure exercised through schools and otherinstitutionalised means in vour of language patterns whichenjoyed prestige, and in particular of archaic patterns, and thecorresponding discrimination against those atures of livingspeech which were felt to clash with the prescribed patterns Theeect of this pressure on the development of the spoken language

was pobably extremely slight until recently; literacy was never, inancient times or in the middle ages, suciently widespread But itdid mean that any rmal utterance, and in particular any writtensample of language might dier considerably om normal'speech. The degree of dierence varied Imitation of all the a-tures of the models was an unattainable goal, even r those whodevoted the main eort of their lives to it All literature and allwritten documents of late antiquity and the middle ages show a

mixture of diverse elements, the continuously developing languageof the people being adulterated in varying degrees and in variousways by classicising Greek This is true even of texts ostensiblywritten in pular Greek. The knowledge of writing could beacquired only by soe study, however supercial, of the literarylanguage and elements of the classical tradition, and writing couldnot be practised without making concessions to that tradition

Thus in spite of the large number of texts surviving om all

periods, it is often extremely dicult to trace the developmentof the language as it was actually used in most situations. Thereal process of change is masked by a ctitious, classicisingunirmity For the riod up to the eleventh century A.D. weare dependent largely on negative evidence, ie on what thegrammarians enjoin their pupils not to do This evidence can be


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nocory 5

supplemented r the earlier part of the riod up to the middleof the seventh century by that of non-literary papyri om Egyptcontaining letters shopping lists tax receipts, titions and the

like But it must be boe in mind that the writers of these areusually trying their best which may be not a very good best towrite purist Greek their evidence is never unequivocal A rthercheck is provided by a series ofliterary texts which display aturesof the spoken language These are mainly world chronicles tales ofascetics and lives of saints Examples are the onicle of JohnMalalas (sixth century) and the onogapy of Theophanes(early ninth century) Te Spiitual Meadow of John Moschos

(619), the lives of Palestinian saints by Cyril of Scythopolis (sixthcentury) and the Le o St Jon te Almgive by Leontios ofNealis in Cyprus (seventh century). None of these works is inany sense a reproduction ofcontemporary spoken Greek; they aremixtures of living sech and dead tradition like all medievalGreek texts One must in each case try to determine theproportions of the mixture and also the reason fr the adoption ofthis particular literary rm it may be important to know whether

we are dealing with an incompetent attempt to write purist Greekor with the work of a man of learning who tries to makeconcessions to uneducated readers or hearers A rther practicaldiculty is the arcity of lexica indexes and grammatical studiesof early medieval Greek texts whether purist or sub-standard

We often do not know what is 'normal however we may denethat term

In the later medieval and early modern periods we have a great

deal more direct evidence. There is a large body of literaturemostly poetry, written in a inguistic rm which is clearly not thatofcontemrary purist literature 3 To take only a w examplesthere are the vernacular Prodromic poems of the middle of thetwelfth century the poems of Michael Glykas of the same riodthe onicle of te Moea om the end of the thirteenth centurya group of verse romances which are dicult to date exacty but

Psltes (91 oers ry useul olletio o mteril here re o lexi oroordes to y o these uthors. Reet imrtt studies i hih rereesto the erlier literture ill ud ilude ihevGbrove (1960 Weierholt(196 bhovit (1 94 Lir (1 94 Wol ( 1961 Zillius (1 967

1 3For suvey o his erly demoti literture d ts problems . Ks ( 196,k (1971 d ( l97 E. Jereys ( l979 d (19 E d . ereys ( 979 .Jereys ( 197.


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6 ntoductoy

which probably belong o he hireenh or ureenh cenury, heepic poems on Achilles and Belisarios, arious popular reamensof he heme of he Trojan War, lamens on he ll of Con

saninople, he poem on he plague a Rhodes of EmmanuelGeorgillas (end of he feenh cenury), he poems of he CreansGeorgios Choumnos, Sephanos Sakhlikis and Marinos Phalieros(same period), a group ofloe poems in Cyprio dialec, probablyof he sixeenh cenury, and he exensie and imporan lieraureof he Crean school of he laer sixeenh and seeneenhcenuries, culminaing in he Eotokitos ofVinsenzos Kornaros

ere we seem o be �eading rmer ground No single line of any

of hese poems could possibly be supposed o be inended as purisGreek And cerain of hem are wrien in a dialec whose rmsare ofen disinc om hose of he lierary language Buaparances may be decepie, and close inscion of any of heseexs reeals cerain disquieing aures For insance, a helexical leel, we nd ha he Coro poe akoos Triolis (rshalf of he sixeenh cenury) has hree dieren words r 'lion inone and he same poem wv, kovrapz and 20vrap1 Were hese

all curren in he spoken Greek of his ime, or are some of hemlexical borrowings om he puris language? A he leel ofmorphology Triolis, like many wriers of early demoic poeryuses wo rms r he hird person plural of he presen indicaieor subjuncie, om and -ov and wo corresponding rms rhe hird rson plural of he imrfec and aoris indicaie, mand v Now om he Aic and Koine rm, is ha curen in hepuris language, while ov is ha of modern common demoic

and medieal grammarians enjoin he use of om and warnagains ha of ov. Are he om rms puris inrusions in hebasically demoic language of Triolis? A rher consideraionmay ake us hesiae Modern Greek dialecs are diided beweenom and ov m and v4 Those which use he one do nonormally use he oher bu here are areas where boh are in use,eg Cree ae we herere a mure of dieren conemporarydialec rms, such as is ofen und in a lierary language,

especially in a naion of raellers like he Greeks We cannoreally answer his quesion wihou considering he problem of he

4 -o ad ru are ud Cypus Crete erta of the Sporades ad Southtaly .e a rpheral lt. C. humb (9 § 165 O the s o theepaemet o ovm by o Ga (191 9


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Intoctoy 7

origin of these terminations Now z belongs historically to therft tense and to the aorist In liing sech the distinctionbetween the two tenses disapared in late antiquity, partly thanks

to the coincidece of rtain rfect and aorist rms, but mailyowing to the restructurig of the system of ascts in earlymedieal Greek s In medieal purist Greek the two tenses arermally distiguished but are semantically equialent Are thez rms due to the inuence of the purist language? Do they owetheir preseration to the analogy of the z rms of the present?Was there really a choice in sixteethcentury spoken Greekbetween 01 and z and a choice which was resoled

in later common demotic in our of and ? These arequestions which it would be premature to seek to answer at thisstage, and to which an answer is sometimes impossible in thepresent state of our knowledge But they are questions which aresquarely d by lines in which both rms are und side by side,such as r eiz n nB n 6 nBz 'as muchtho who desire it as those who do not desire it and by parallelrmulae in which now the one rm now the other occurs like

;w(z y cry aloud and 'Kr Kp ;w( cry"Kasti giaour .

Similarly Triolis us both the mode demotic nominatierm nrp 'the ther and the purist genitie singular rm nrp. Were both patterns of declension miliar in thespoke Grk of his time, or is the latter a cassicising reminiscence? Genitie singulars in occur in many tys ofnouns in certain dialects, particularly in the Ionian Islands where

one may hear r Brep r npr &;er, etc Incommon demotic &p µ is as common as rp µ. 8

When we nd the author of the Chroicle of the Morea regularlyusing the purist nominatie sigular r Byrp daughter (thedemotic rm is Brp) not only as a nominatie but also as anausatie, eg. 2492 K xzper Pz Ke Byrp and greets the daughter of that King, we are clearlydealing with an illconceied attempt at literary style by a writer

5 ihevc (1959 16Iher (1956) 6.7 bi. 44, (NBomlous etutio ofw,av probbly o the loy

oftw,aµe ,are; there is stro teecy to et ll thr rsos of theplurl verb o the sme syllble.O the eitives i oicf Rue ( 1969) 62.AGreek ie tells me (rch

19) tht oe oul likely to sy ' wv drpO µ but ' oµnpi) wvarp µv.


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ntodutory

wo s n gnral rlaly mmun o nunce of pursraon pom was robably compos by a HllnsedFran an a Caolc, an s n c unceran wr Gree

or Ol Frnc rson s orgnal T analogcalargmn unrlyng s basar rm, wc s nr pursGr nor moc s as llows: moc rm 8encons bo as nomna an accusa, as s normal rmnn subsans o 8ep n s nomna ncon corrsnng purs rm s 8yp; s s n xne nsco o corrspon o moc 8ye n s accusa ncon; r urs accusa rm s acually 8e wc s l o

b moc an us nsucnly la r scrpon of aroyal rsonag Tus w se a n a po as rmo om Byzann lrary raon as auor of Choicle of theMa s ac by , ras unconscously, as soon as ass n n s an, or cas somng o b ra alou

A ll of synax w n n Trols bo nns ansubjunc clauss nrouc by v< afr £n rprascur g div f8A Kµzv f8 8ek v Koz, 8ek1

Wi 8r pi 8r &i 8 µn s by s w 8r vµpb va Kpµaw. Now inn a long ansom moc Gr n mos of s usags, an a ben rplacby a claus or by a rbal noun, long befr sxn cnury s rr mng o smss Trols nns as larms, aln o spon Gr f s m Bu s noworya os no us nn rms xcp afr £ Fuurrms n mal Gr ar cularly labl T ancn Gree

uur rms wr alray ceasng o b snc n Kon asa rsul of onologcal cangs, an a ary of rprases wexw, £c ar un n lss purs xs ofla anquy an ml ags9 Fuurs of rm £ ypl ar un nsom alcs canno b rul ou a £ lus nn was alng rm n spon Gr of sxn cnury, s bys w alrna arn £ plus subjunc, wcs ancsor of morn moc ur rm < plus

subjunc0 A slgly rn problm s xmpl by

'9 ecu 9 e 9. O he hiy f he iiive d i uiue i eek cf m ey Jeph 978 -.

0 The chice d ey demic ex, uch Spne Gyk,ch pdm hve y few ucei ce f +if. ueiphi I me much cmme i he e demic pey d iccmpied by viey f eve m cf e 9.


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ntroctoy 9

constructon of te ndrt obt Date rms ad longansed om lng use, except n solated pras surng aslexcal tems by te late mddle ages In many ofte ms under

dscusson e nd sde by sde to patterns, ausate of ndrectobect and gente f ndrec obect, eg Chc f th M 2486 qn µWV;ep ei


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Introtory

literary use of demotic at the end of the nineteenth century, and aHellenist of impressive range and inctious enthusiasm wastedmany years in the compilation o satistics o the use of various

morphological atures in the mistaken impression that he wastracing the development of veacular Greek He thus succeededin dating most developments much too late, and in postulatingtheir occurren in an order which makes no sense25 His greatcontemray and rival, Georgios Chatzidakis (18491941),inted out that the prortion of old to new rms dendslargely on the degree of education of the writer and that statisticsof the kind amassed by Psichari were o no value r the

chronology of the development of the language26 He emphasisedthat what was imrtant was to date the earliest occurrence of anew ature in the texts this was what enabled us to reconstuct thehistory of the living, spoken language Chatzidakis was right inprinciple (though he did not allow r the ct hat the rst instanceo an innovation, if isolated, may be a ilure in linguisticrrman rather than an indication of change in pattern) Butlike most holars o his generation, brought up under theinuence of the German NeoGrammarians (Junggrammatiker),he overlooked two points of some importance The rst is that onelinguistic ature does not simply replace another at a givenmoment of time Both the old and he new may coexist in livingsech, indd must r some time Where there is a long andcontinuous literay tradition where therere the archaic enjoyspestige, and earlier states of the language are aintained in theconsciousness of its sakers one would ext this coexistence of

te old and the new to particularly marked In the case of Greekwe must bear in mind not only the direct inuence of the puristlanguage un the literate, but its indirect inuence upon theilliterate who hear it used on occasions of solemnity or by rsonsenjoying prestige in society the miliarity f the vast majority oGreeks wit the language of the Orthodox liturgy s particularlyimrtant in this connection 27 It is therere a priori probable

25This is an oversimplied statement of Pshari's views. Fo a more detiledand nuand appriation cf Miraml (197) Nevertheless it remains true thatmost of the material laboriously collted in Psichai (886-1889) irrelevant tothe problems which the author was trying to solve.

6 Chatzidakis sition was maintained in a numr of majo works, of whichthe most imtant are Chatzidakis (189) (1) nd (191)

7Antoniadis (1939)


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ntroductory 1 1

ha a any given ie a sake of Geek had bee hi a agehoi of inguisi paes han a sake of a anguage wih noeoded ieaue and no adiiona syse of eduaion I is

itan o y o disinguish wn aenaives wihin hespoken anguage and boowings o puis Geek Fequenyouns ondued wih due peauions ay be of use hispupose To his een Psihai was woking on he igh ines

The seond in in egad o whih he wok of he geneaionof Psihai and Chazidakis is seen oday o be inadequae is heiendeny o egad inguisi hanges as aoi This ineion isepaed by ha wo phonees oinide his o ha ense o a

s ou of use as if eah individua hange wee indenden of aohes Wha hey and hei geneaion did no ake ino aoun isha anguage a a is eves is suued and ha phonoogiaophoogia and synai hanges and o a esse een eiahanges ae geneay ony individua anisaions of a hangein he suua paen of he anguage a soe eve 28 Thuswhen we nd indiaions ha -e< was epaing -az in he noinaive pua of s deension nouns o ha and aois

s of he veb wee being used as equivaens hese ae onysypos of he eoganisaion of he noina deension in suha way as o eae he od disinion beween voai and onsonana ses on he one hand and he eoganisaion of hesyse of enses and ass of he veb on he ohe In hesueeding hapes aenion w be onenaed on he agesuua hanges ahe han on he deaied hanges of ophoogy and syna To soe een his ehod of appoah

enabes us o suoun he diuy auded o in he peviouspaagaph of disinguishing beween inidena iiaions of pu-is Geek and ea aeaives oeising in he spoken ongueCae us aken howeve no o invove ouseves in iuaaguens i his onneion And we us bea in ind hadieen suua paens an oeis in he spoken anguage as

28rk chlr hve the whle hw little iteret i tructurl liguiticThe mt imrtt wrk y tructurlit i the eld f tclil d mder

rk h de y Adr Mirmel e.g Mirml (I99 d lg erief rticle i the Buletin Ja Socit de Lingutique d elewhere Hkiler iler 9 98 etc d ther hr wrkig utide re Iret yer hwever reek hlr hve ctriuted dichric tudie whichtke ut f mder tructurl d ttructurl liguitic e.g Biite97 Mlikute 970


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1 2 ntoductoy

lernie Conemrr modern Gree in c rmi muchriion e. in he ronl endin of brone (rmer con-rc erb cf pp. 81 117.

The reoin coniderion ie ome ide of he precuionner in uin he eidence of mediel e o reconruc hehior of he poen lnue. Mn diculie em om heconinui of he lierr rdiion nd he ccompnin diloThi dilo i no imple mer of he coeience of lierrnd poen erion of he me lnue bu of he preence ofn bnormll ide choice of lernie mode of epreion inhe poen lnue plu rin deree of dmiure of leicl

ncicl nd morpholoicl elemen lonin o or houhb rier or er o belon o n rchiin nd relielunchnin puri lnue.

eriodiion of he hior of he poen lnue i hereredcul nd ineibl onl pproime I i cler hoeerh behind he curin of rdiionl linuiic unirmi hemodern Gree lnue hd lrel umed i rm b he enhcenur nd h mn of he ndmenl chne in i rucure

belon o he riod of rniion om he ncien orld o hemiddle e. In he lloin chper priculr enion ill beconcenred on he riod beeen he le Helleniic Koine ofhe Romn empire nd he enh cenur. From he enh o hefeenh cenur e he i i rue re nuber of e hichho ron eculr chrceriic Thee ere o illurehe chne hich cn omeime be onl inl rced in hereoin cenurie Cerin deelopmen in priculr he id

in up of he rucure of nominl declenion nd he dopion ofeenie leicl lon om oher lnue cn condenl beplced in hi riod The hird riod om he feenh cenuro 1821, i one in hich r ll he relie bundnce of merili i no e o deec deelopmen in he poen onue. To ibelon he rmion of more or le ndrdied Cren lierrdilec i replcemen b n incipien lierr lnue in heIonin Ilnd nd he r ep ord he creion of mode

ndrd demoic. The urh riod om 1821 o he preend mred b he emerence f he 'Lnue Queion henhe rdiionl dilo bein o preen culir problem ohoe ben on rin modern nionl lnue nd n edu-cionl em bed upon i nd cquire poliicl oerone

2 9aomeno 5 Mambe 63a; hatza 30


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Intoctoy 1 3

hch dd ssess he earer rd Fr mus be bre md ha he Greek dgss eeds ver mea heaguage ques arses h he brh f he Greek sae

Oher aures f he urh erd are he rejec f a argeumber f Turksh ards hch had becme curre heaguage he recedg rd ad he mmese eca erchme f he aguage as became a vehcle f mde scec hshca ca ad erar eress

Ths erchme k ace ar b he ad f ards m her Eura aguages a rs Frech ad aerEgsh Bu he esece f a cuus erar rad e

abed he aguage augme s eca sck arge m Greeksurces b he revva f bsee rds he semac mdcas f esg rds he rma f gusc caques adabve a b a cme rss f era brrg beee herada urs aguage ad he deveg demc Thesercesses l e dea h dea subseque chaers bu abref surve f he vcabuar eemes f mde demc hr rher gh ha s he ma heme f hs rducr

chaer he ecuar sua creaed b a g ad cuuserar rad hch makes a eemes f Greek m aqu he re da a sese accessbe ad rese aerae Grk

Frs here are rds cuus rm ad meag sassca mes eg &b 'brher (hugh ms daecs adfe cmm demc refer & accrdace h a reguar hec deveme re Ao her The

here are rds mded rm accrdace h hgcaad mrhgca devemes bu deca meag hher cassca Greek acesrs eg µ£pa da piKw 'd 'hgh hch he crresdg cassca Greek rmsare µ epiKw V


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14 ntocory

lnde he ur ru are ur crrendn rup frd decended m nelm f clacal Kne Greekhch a r a dern Greek, and ndeed medeval Gk, are

cncerned are n clearl dnuhable m lexcal elemennhered m clacal Greek) Fr, he cnnuu n rmand meann, e.. Karpwµa 'ue, zrµovzKc 'cenc wri(w 'llumnae. Nex, he mded n rm bu dencal nmeann, e.. µo(w 'reemble, (Tt 'dcun, 6Aypa'arund Thrd, he cnnuu n rm bu mded n meann, e.. naµov 'vl bere a a, NBo 'make, oapc'eru, npzopw 'dene nd lal, he mded bh n

rm and n meann, e. voz 'rn, Kvw 'lf u, Wµi'bread.

The nex majr emen f he vcabular cn f medevalr earl mdern nelm rmed m earler exn r rem b dervan r cmn e. naipvw 'ake ( naipvw< naipw), µa(w 'aher µa&w, nuenced b µ(a,

µa(vw), Kopirz 'rl < Kt+medeval ux zrz), xaµoyM'mle xaµo +yM; xaµo- < xµw < xµa xaµai b anal

h Krw w ec), & 'lwl (< dpyc 'dle), mnoit'uaranee < nizc+noz)

rher emen cn f clacal r Hellenc wrdrenrduced he ken nue va he ur kaharevua,eher h unchaned r h lhl med meann, bualm ceranl n n cnnuu ue hruhu he mddleae, e Jzrµa 'ace, npJpoc 'charman, aKiVt 'au-mble, dpi(w 'venlae, VT7 'mren.

Needle a, hee ma be mded here necear naccrdance h demc hnl and mrhl u nernal brrn are equenl n adaed he hnl fdemc, a ll becme clear n he dun f he relanbeeen he deren ae f he lanuae da

The nex men and a ver lare and 'nended ne cn f ne rd rmed n mdern Greek b dervan rcmn m clacal r Kne Greek elemen. Sme f

hee aar have aren n he r lace n he ken lanuae, her n he kaharevua. The readl a m kaharevua demc, and ccanall n he e drecn,uuall h he necear adjumen f rm. Examle areypav 'ce, azpKc 'excenal, vJzapOV 'nereywoyoc 'lnu, n(oJpµzo 'avemen, navmrfµzo


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Itroctory 1 5

univesity e1c basto3 1auno10 spaceship acaque32 om the Engish wod) epµopec stoageheate dnonv1K0o denuceaisation

Ain to these entiey Gee mations and once they havebome cuent not distinguished om them by natie saesis the ent consisting of intenationa wods med inWeste Euo om Geek eements and adopted with thenessay mophoogica adjustments into Gee eg dµzpa atmosphee µav1µc mechanism yIiaphotogaphy Koµovac cosmonaut

Side by side with these thee is a age ent of wods med

in moden Geek om G eements as caques of eign wodso expessions; the mode is ost usuay Fench Exampes ae nep1c sunatua

vzKl'c nationaist

EK'8e'lKc

exutive dKaia bad taste vep1K'a iitabiitynyµano eaise VOeia mise en ne Xpazµasangoid npomK sonne 1aµnozo spaceshiphee is no cea ine to be dawn between this segment of thevocabuay and that diussed two paagaphs eaie Fench

and to a es extent Engish wee widey nown in educatedcices in Geece in the nineteenth and twentieth nties andthey inevitaby ved as modes in the sense that they suggestedwhat vocabuay eements wee missing in Gee But thee isceay a dieence in the degee of coesndence between ei mode and Geek equivaent betwn say


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16 toctory

been going on n Greek r a very ong time indeed the near Btexts o the cond miennum BC. and the Homerc ems con-tain many oanwords om preHeenic anguages. But we are

here concerned wth oanwords in postcassica Greek. The eari-est stratum s that o atin oanwords, such as n housenpra door Pevrzw converse. The next arge segment con-ssts o taan oanwords, which may n ther turn be cassiedaccording to the diaect om which they were borrowed.Exampes are yKpo� grey KapKAa char µnpo arm,ypo cigarette, opva storm, orv womans dress.There s a consderabe segment o Turkish oanwords such as

µeve� voet Ka� coee 33, raPap disturbance, chaoszµnoKz pipe. But a great many o the Turkis oanwordscurrent in the midde o the nneteenth century have now ceased tobe current, and indeed many o them are now quite unknown toGreek sakers. The ast main segment o assmated oanwordss that om French taan and Engsh usuay o qute recentdate, e.g ppira� arriviste nopro portrait, npoAerpo�proetaran pmAAiw torpedo. n addition to these arge

segments o oanords, there are smaer numbers om ranianin the midde ages, om South Savonic eg. vrµnpo� knda sieve, avb\ hay PopKAaKa� werewo vampire, orAbanian, e.g. AoAoJ ower, n he ater midde ages or n earymodern times and om Russan and other anguages in the mostecent period. 34

Among the oanwords o modern demotc we must countaso those cassica or Koine words and expressons preserved in

the purist katharevousa and borrowed thence into demotc. Theyusuay retain their katharevousa phonoogy and morphoogyExampes are µeiAK� impacabe, AeKb� white, oKo�house,35 yKexµvo\ consed, yKeKpzµvo� concrete,

t i intrtin t nt hw aftr th Turkih invain f ypru in July 1974whn GrcTurkih latin at all lvl bcam train TovpK1K Ka;iTurkih c bcam '1K Ka;t Grk c by ubtitutin f n

Grk wr r anthr whil avin th Turkih lanwr r which thr i nGrk uivalnt unchann Slavnic anwr which ar mtim cnn t rticular ialct

f Myr (189) Triantaphyli (1963) 299 . Irmchr (1978) Withmann(1978) 16670

5 NB 6 AevK Olo i th Whit Hu in Wahintn unf1 i anywhit hu A trikin paralll i prvi by tw tnthcntury tx n fwhich (anin Prphyrnitu' D adminstrando imperio, writtn in un-


27/170

Itroctory 17

dJop 'a indieen

vex coninuously

np :µal inc ovav on he cony Mny wies of demoic ndin he mpous skes of i exend his cegoy of

lonwods by using clssicl o Koine wods peseved in khevous even when hee is fly good demoic synonymvilble Thee my be wo vesions of he sme sock phse onewih khevou phonology mophology nd synx he ohedemoic: hus in ny c my be v epe1 o K enep

Thee s nohe clss of lonwod which is no dped omoden Gk phonologicl o mophologicl pens eihe

khevou o demoic These wods end o enjoy he shovogue nd hen eihe o pss ou of use o o be ed ino Geekes Exmples e na psel jzz µnp b xµp humou np spo viKe nickel As n exmple ofhe mode of dpion of hese lonwods i is ineesing onoe h deivives of ophologiclly egul pe e ofenmed eg om viKe we hve v1K1vo nickel dj v1Kevo nickelple v1Kµa nickelple v1K pocess of

nickelpling nd h he v1Kzo is now und side by sidewih he unssimiled viKe.

The ls gmen of he vocbuly consiss of dilec wodsud sil eec Cein wies such s Kznzkis mkevey exnsive u of hese inenl boowings some of whichheeby become pemnen elemens of he vocbuly of common demic

This nlysis of he souces of he vocbuly pplies in pic

ul o moden common demoic Gk Bu simil nlysis ofhe vocbuly of he living lnguge ohe iods would evel simil complexiy even if ll he cegoies of pesendyGeek wee no pesen The vocbuly of Geek ll iods isexemel ich nd his ichness dends in p on he possibiliyofusing elemens longing o elie ses of he lnguge whichlwys emin ccesible nd which my hve scil emoionloveones ched o hem 36 Thee is lso good del of poly

petentious langua anslates Sakel the name of the Chaza ity on the ien, by ov mov, while the ohe (the moe classiising TheophanesConinuaus) ves as an equivalent AVKO o1µ. r DAI 42.24 eoph Cont2229.3The most ent geneal studies of he voabulary of moden Gk ae

Miaml (1959) 337-450 and van DjkWittop oning (1963)


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1 8 troctory

semy, in that the same wd may be sed with seveal dieentmeanings which iginally lnged t it in dieent states f thelangage Only the cntext, bth lingistic and extalingistic

detemines the paticla meaning F instance, aKw meansnt nly sclpt, engave, bt als peseves its ealie meaningsdig p and investigate, the last dending n a metaphical sein the Septagint vesin f Psalm 76.6 (µert f� KpJ� µoJoxov, Ki kv r nveµ µo I cmmned with minewn heat, and my spiit made diligent seach) m)vr


29/170

2 Greek in the Hellenistic world and the

Roman empe

sag a hso of mdval and mod Gkmus h KO oiak� o common Gk of h Hllnscwold hs m of h laguag was om h s h vhl ofcommuncao a all lvls h w Gk cs whch wud bw h Agan coas of Asa o ad h plans of

h Pujab om h SDaa h Noh o h slad ofSokoa h Souh I old G apdl bcam h ocallaguag of admsao ad mo slowl ousd h old dalcs as a gal mas of commucao A h sam m bam h uvsal laguag of pos lau apa omca hghl slfcoscous goups whch ad a scal lgusc m of h own g h docos who wo h Ioc ofh Hpcac copus ad h Phagoa phlosophs who

wo h Doc of Souh Ial Po coud o bw h adoal lgusc ms hough hs w moad mo ac b h KOl oiakKr�.

on Gk cam o bg suddl spos o a suddnad adcal asmao of h Na Eas wold whbGk cam h laguag of lu ad som cass hmohogu of m ad socs ov a vas aa h a ops paallls such a apd and damc xson of a

laguag h h xpanso of Aabc af h ga coqussof Islam ad h dvlopm of Eglsh o a wold laguagook plac d ccumsacs ad agas qu dbackouds 1

h og of h KOl tiakKw< s all lvan o hhso of la Gk I h pas was h subj of muchdusso oda ma of h pons al dspu a owcla I shall co mslf o poducg h gall accpd

vw o h og of h o and h go on o dsc

' Cf. Millt (935) 241 J.; Tumb (90); Radrachr (1947); Costs (1936);Dbrnc and Scherer (1969); Frosn (1974) Palmer (1980).

19


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20 Greek in the Heenistic world and the Roman empire

emphassng n parcular he changes hch can deeced n hecurse f s develpmen.

In he areas hch had lng been f Greek sech here as n

he urh nury B.c. n lngusc uny Each cy sae used rcal busness s n dalec hch as als he nrmal meansf nercurse beeen s czens The dalecs ere muuallycmprehensble hu dculy and ms Greeks mus havebn used hearng dals her han her n spken Thereas n ne bu several lerary languages epc pery asren n he cmplex Kunssprache f he Hmerc radnhse rs prbably g back he Mycenean rld alhugh n

s develp rm s aures ere predmnanly Inc lyrcpery as ren n a Drcsng Greek hch embded auresn und geher n any lvng dalec and s n The use f heselerary languages as deermned by he lerary genre and n byhe nave dalec f he rer Prse leraure hch as laer ndevelpng han pery had been ren n a varey f dalecs n Inc by ms rers f he early and mddle fh cenury anInc hch as based n he sandard language f nercurse

amng he ces f Asa Mnr raher han n he dalec f anyparcular cy n a sr f cmmn Drc by many rers fScly and Suh Ialy and s n Bu by he end f he fhcenury Ac as mre and mre beng used even by nnAhenans as a vehcle f lerary prse I s ypcal ha heseches f Grgas f Lenn an Inan cy n ease Sclyhch he delvered as mdels f rherc n varus ces f Greecen he clsng dades f he fh cenury seem have been n

Ac.The plcal per and nellecual presge f Ahens led he

ncreasng use f Ac as a lngua anca f cmmn nercurse nGreece. Aenan cals vsed r resded n a grea many cesrund he Aegean. Ahenan clnss ere seled n a number fns n he regn. Czens f ces subje Ahens had anncreasng exen subm her dspues he jursdcn fAhenan curs. A a humbler scal level many husans f

nnAhenans served as rers n he Ahenan ee ThePeraeus as he grea enrep f easern Mederranean radeand bh here and n Ahens self a large cmmuny f nnAhenans m all pars f he Greek rld as esablshed Inhese and her ays he knledge and use fAc spreadi helas hrd f he fh cenury The mlary dea f Ahens n 404


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Geek in the Helentic woldathe Roman empe 21

B.c. dd not aect the socl and onomc pressures whh woredn our of Attc However, the Attc thus extensvely used out-sde of Att was tsel moded. Contemporary wrters sak of

the adopton of words om many other dalects n the cosmopol-tan socety of AthensPeaes he late fh centry, cf Ps-Xenophon, Ath Pol 2.8: 'By hearng every dalect they haveadopted somethng om the one and somethng om the other;and whereas the Hellenes hve each ople ts own dalect and wayoflfe and costume, the Ahenans use a mxed rm, wth elementsborrowed om both Hellenes and barbarans The admxturemust n ct have been manly Ionc, and have orated at all

levels, from phonetcs, eg -u- r Attc H, to vocabulary Atthe same tme wrters, even thos of Athenan brth, who countedon a panHellenc readershp, themselves avoded some of themore sc features of Attc, and gave ther language an Ionctnge For nstan Thucyddes, wrtng r the whole Greekworld, replaces Attc -n- by Ionc (and to some extent commonHellenc) -uu-, -pp- by -pu- and so on, whle the author of thepolemcal reat on the Consttuton of Athens erroneously attr-

bted by the manscrpt tradton to Xenophon, wrtng a poltcalpamphlet r Athenan readers, us the Attc rms e dalogueof Attc tragedy, too, was wrtten n a language whch, whlebascally Attc, dsplayed many Ionc and n partcular Homercfeatures of phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary Inths t der sharply om the dalogue of comedy, whch drelatvely pure Attc, expt of course when t was parodyngtragedy These two ctors, workng at derent levels, resulted n

e expand Attc whch was the common language of much ofGree n the urth century, beng sgncantly derent om thepre dalect spoken by Attc sants

In the urth ntury, Attc, whether n ts pure or ts expandedrm, was the normal language of lrary prose Not onlyAthenans lke Xenophon, Isocrtes, moshenes and Pltowroe n Attc, but men om other parts of Gree, hose navedals dered both om Attc and om one another Aeneas of

Symphalos, Arstotle of Stagera, narchus of Cornth,Theophrasus of Eress n Lesbos, Ephorus of Kyme n AsaMnor, Theopomps of Chos, Anaxmenes of Lampsacus, andothers

Thus, when n the mddle of the urth centry Phlp II ofMadona determned to elevate hs backward trbal kngdom to


32/170

22 Gk i th Histic d ad th Rma mpi

te tat ofa geat powe, e n Attic in wie e togotte Geek wol, incling at any ate te citie of Maceonia, ant aopte it a te ocial langage of Maceonian iplomacy

an aminitation. Hi on Alexane caie Maceonianpowe a a Egypt, te ami an te ive Jmna Attic, in itexpane intenational m became te ocial langage ante langage of eveyay intecoe of te mltite of Geekcitie ne in te conqee teitoie by Alexane an icceo, citie woe inabitant ally came om many if-feent egion of Geece Ti moie Attic calle by gam-maian 1 KOl oi


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Geek n the Helentic wold and the Roman empe 23

s In t past tr was a grat dal of dusson of tlngustcrm of tNT Many scolars lvd t to wrttn na scal varty of Grk n us among t Jws communts of

t Nar East and sougt n ts an xplanaton of t dvrgncstwn ts languag and tat of t ltrary txts A paralll wcmay av n prsnt to t mnd of som scolars would tJudoSpans of t Spardc communts, wc drs nmany rsts om t Spans of Span T vdnc provddn t last 85 yars y t nnumral lttrs and documnts onpapyrus as provd tat ts s not so, ut tat t languag of tNT s a clo rcton of t skn Kon of t Grk world at

t tm of ts composton4 Among t ltrary txts tr arvral t Dourss of Epcttus ar t prm xampl wc av many ponts of contact lngustcally wt t NT,ng comsd n a lss carlly standardsd languag tan tulk of Kon pro ltratur T osrvatons of grammaransar mostly yproducts of an arcasng movmnt wc sougtto rstor ancnt Attc as t languag of ltratur and ltntrcours, a movmnt of wc w sall sak latr T words

and rms wc ty wa tr pupls not to us ar t Konwords and rms

T Kon dd not rman statc, ut was n procss of contnuous dvlopmnt Tr wr no dout also local drncswtn t. gograpr Strao (8. 1 .2) saks of local drncsn pronuncaton wtn t Grk world. Ts would proaly most markd n t old aras of Grk sttlmnt, wr t olddalcts wr slow to dpar, and lss markd n t vast aras

of nw ttlmnt, wr tr was no dalt sustratum But asr as our vdnc gos, t Kon was rmarkaly unrmtrougout ts ara of us T Engls of Nort Amrca ratrtan tat of England, t Spans of Cntral and Sout Amrcaratr tan tat of Span, ar approprat mod parallls

Cangs n t languag ar oftn dcult to dat wt pr-cson T ltrat tndd to mantan n us words and rmswc wr ng rplad n t sc of t mass of t opl,

and all our vdnc coms om t ltrat. Ponologcal cangsn partcular ar maskd y t storcal ortoapy, and can

he anguage of the N.T. and its sition in the spctrum o stlassicalGrk c. Mouon (908) Tabachoviz ( 96); BlassDbrunner (96) Ryk(967).


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24 Geek n the Heentc world a the Roman empre

often only be detted through slling mistakes in letters anddocuments on papyrus In the llowing paragraphs the mainfeatures which distinguished the eary Koine om the Attic of

cassica iterature wiU rst be decri and then an aount willbe given of the principal changes detectable in the course of thecenturies between Alexander the Great and Justinian

PHONOLOGY

The Koine regulary avoids the sicaly Attic -rr- (om guttural posive +D and substitutes the Ionic, and generally pan

Hellenic 0 hus(OUI 'sea, yAa tongue, pum dignot ( yr prw. It is not clear to what phoneticdierence this orthographic distinction corresponds Attic wordsr which there is no precise coate in Ionic or other dialts,often apar in Koine with Attic r eg wv oµ1 amdeated 'µ 'deat NT 2 Pt ii 9 20 Ro. i 2; Covi. 7) - te Ionic rm was awv uboµz (in 2 Co. xii. 3 thereading of the majority of the MSS is aae but ancient

variants (e and le indicate the uneasiness whichcopyists felt in the presence of this Ionic but non-Koine rm); byanalogy ewv 'lesser and Kpewv greater sometimes appearin pace of the commoner Daawv and Kpeiaamv Similary, Atticpp- was rejted in vour of Ionic and pan-Heenic pa, thusfpv ae (puo courage, not ppv (ppo: but nbppwrther because there is no corresnding Ionic rm *nbpum.Attic went rther than most Greek diaects in contracting two

vowes in contact within a word. Koine often prers to low theIonic patte, thus ebro 'needed enUo sailed rather thanebiro, enkiro.

Thus r the orthography reects phonologica change But inthe eary centuries of the Koine a much more imporant process ofphonoogical change was going on, which is only betrayed byerrors in sling in papyrus documents, Greek loan-words inother anguages reign loanwords in Greek, and the evidence of

spoken Grk today. The vowel system and the consonant systemere aike restuctured during this riod and the prosodic pattern of the anguage was reorganised on a new basis. It is dicutto date any of these changes with precision: one can ony note therst sign of equent use of each which hapns to be preserved Inany case what is important is not the individua phonetic change


35/170

Greek in he Helenisi wld and he Rman emire 25

bt the phooogica tcta chage. Ad it i ikey that aog iod the od ad the ew patte exited ide by ide eithei the ame commity o eve o the ip of the ame ake

Sti e ca we detemie whee thee chage bega. They eemhoweve to have pead apidy ove the whoe aea of Geekech.

(1 Vowels

Attic i the fth cety B.C had a compex ad abe voweytem itef i poce of chage. To the ve hot vowe a e i o thee coepoded eve og vowe � � I Q u. The oigia

hot diphthog ai oi i a e wee ti pooced a tediphthog; ei ad o had e togethe with � ad The ogdiphthog i �i Qi � eem ti to have bee pooced adiphthog5 By the ed ofthe ecod cety B.C thi ytem hadb impied ad tabiied. The ve hot vowe emaiedchaged. Of the og vowe � ad I coicided by the thidty i ome diat eg. Boeotia thi chage ook paceeaie we d coio of ez ad z i iciptio i the fth

ty ad a ty ate � ad I bega to coicide thogh thepoce eem to have take a og time to compete Simiay became aowed to (a phoetic athe tha a phooogicachage. The diphthog wee etcted too Oigia ei ad ohad aeady become moophthog i caica Attic (� ad Q ad ai oi owed them i eay Heeitic becomig e ad u bythe od cety B. I a e ad the coepdig ogdiphthog the cod eemet became a piat av ev iv. I

the og diphthog i �i Qi the ecod eemet diapaedatogethe Stabo witig at the ed of the t cety B.,emak that may o oge wite the od vowe i theediphthog ad the evidece of the ppyi com hi obevatio (Stabo 14.1 .41, p 648). The deveopmet of i i tai: it diphthoga chaacte i ofte emphaied by igch a vi:, z- ad atteted by gammaia bt thi may be deto eaed iece. By the th cety A.D it had cetaiy

coicided with .6At the ame time a thee chage wee takig pace the po

5On h phonoog ofAti ad h chang nodcd h dvopm oKon cf. Lupa� (1972, Sommn (1973 odoon (1974 1978

0 h phonoog ofKo Gk cf. odoo ( 1977 Ggnac (197.


36/170

26 Geek n the Heentc wld and the Rman empe

sdical pattern f the language was changing Dstinctins fvwel length were ceasing t be phnlgicall signicant, andstress was replacing raised pitch as the distinguishing mark f the

accented syllable f a wrd This change is nt at alJ easy t detectBut by the end f the third r early secnd century Bc cnsinbetween o and begins t ccur in letters, and a little later we ndgrammarians giving elabrate rules r the length f vwels which suggests that their pupils were n lnger bserving distinctins f length in practice

The utcme f these changes was t replace the cmplex vwelsystem f Attic by a mre stable system f six vwels a e i u ,

with n true diphthngs, which can best be arranged in a tri-angular patern7

a e

u

This is an unusual and nt entirely stable system, but it des ccurin several languages tday

(2) Cosos

At the same time a rearrangement f the cnsnant system wastaking place Classical Attic and s r as we can tell ther Greekdialects f the same rid had three classes f plsives, unviced viced, and aspirated p b p, t d t, k g k, plus the snantsl r m n, the icative s (z is merely a cmbinatry variant f s inancient Greek, as ppsed t mdern Greek), and the aricate d;

ks and ps are best treated as cmbinatins f phnemes, and are swritten in many lcal varieties f the Greek alphat In theHellenistic rid this patte is changed Bth viced plsivesand aspirat plsives becme spirants, viced and unviced re-sctively Thus instead f p b p we get p v f, instead ft d t, t3 ,instead f k g k, k x There has bn a change in the rder fthr articulatry prcesses cut f air stream, bstructin fair stream, and tensin f vcal chrds In the dental and velar

series these changes are hardly attested by the rthaphy Theevidence cnsists largely in the transcriptin f lanwrds, and inthe state f aairs in mdern Greek In the labial series we haveample evidence in the rm f such errrs f slling as Krm-

7Tutzky (939).


37/170

Geek n the Hellent wold and the Roman empe 27

av eav 'intalld, 'ta tcom th t cntuy B Though any attmpt to giv a pcidat i milading, it i a to ay that thi tuctuing of th

cononant ytm wa compt by th cond cntuy A.D. Thtiangula cononant ytm

pf v

i an unuual on, and it i natual to ak whth b, d, g allyxitd in lat Koin Gk giving a ctangula cononant ytm

p fb v

Numou loanwod, patculaly tho om Latin, containdb, d and g; and thy may hav ain a combinatoy vaiant, athy do in modn Gk But th qution of th phonmic tatuof b, d, g i till not ttld in gad to mod Gk, o w cancacly xtd to anw it lat oin Th vidnc ofth Coptic alphabt, in which th Gk ltt with thi con-

vntional ponunciation w upplmntd by a i of nwltt phonm xiting in lat Egyptian but not in KoinGk, ought to thow light on thi and oth poblm of potclaical Gk phonology But Coptic othogaphy i itlf vyvaiabl, th w adical dinc btwn th dialt ofCoptic whih w cannot away gap, and in any ca w do notally know how Coptic wa ponouncd in antiquity th tadi-tional ponunciation of th Coptic chuch today may milad-

ing In paticula th ponunciation ofe�x a voicl apiatpobably ct Egyptian ath than potPtolmaic Gkphonology8

Th onant l m n maind unchangd With th ponunciation of a z, a nw phonmic oppoition btwn and z aoWhth th mdival and mod Gk aicat pai t, dzxitd in lat Koin i not cla and in any ca thi phonmictatu in mod Gk i till a matt of diput

Thi adical tuctuing of th phonology of th languag

8Woell (934); ill (96). A deailed dicion o e poblem o Copicponolo i ven b Vergoe ( 973 2-83. rain dial o mode Gkinclding sakonian, make a ponemaic diincion wn apiated and napiraedp t ts k, b i i a onda developmen aiing om mbinaovaians.


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2 Greek in the Hellenistic world and the Roman empire

took lace largely without anyone noticing it Yet its eects uonthe structure of the language at other levels were wideranging andround as will be seen

MORPHOLOGY

Fro its earliest eriod the Koine avoided certain morhologcalatterns of Attic The dual was given u in nouns ronounsadectives and verbs Certain anomalous substantives were relaced by synonys; this was articularly the case with monosyllabic substantives in which the distinction between stem and

termination was not as clear as was usual in Greek Thus:

vc VY or w was relaced by nAov (the only word rshi in the N. T, though � occurs n the Setuagint)

oc, oc shee' was relaced by nprovpv pvc lab µvc, µvoc, c ig' xoocp, c water , , Vpv (vepv)

Kkc, Kku56c key' Ke5vo, c ear' " rv

The Attic rms vc, v temle' kc, k ole wererelaced by the Panhellenc rms c, c. Kipc, Ki hornand pc, Kpc meat' were relaced by Kpc, Kiproc andpc, Kproc There was much analogical tidying u of adjec-tives escially those in which the attern of declenson was com-licated by the eects of Attic vowel contraction So r zc, 1

healthy' we nd zc, 1, r &c, v, lacking, v&c,v&

Anomalous comarative and suerlative rms were more andmore relaced by rms in -rpoc, rroc. Thus rxepoc relacedaawv quicker and rxrroc rx1aroc quckest': but ths ro-cess was never comletely carried out in Koine and mny anom-alous comaratives remained in use.

Athematic verbs were to some extent relaced by thematic thus

&1Kv relaced Kvµz show but µ1, rµ, rµ1 andbwµ1 remained in ful use The anomalous aradigm ol, olaO,ol&, faµev, [m, aa1 know' was relaced by ol, olc, ol&,o[µv, o[re, ofaz v, 'a0, 'v was tended to be replacedby µ, ao, ro, but ths rocess never extended to the standardised literary Koine Weak aorist endings om the begnnng


39/170

Greek n the Heenstc word and the Roman empre 29

end o replace ho of he srong aos - en en sad salready und n Aic Bu hs process was only slowly carriedhrough compleely, and is no fully reeced in lierary Kone

tOa anicpaed, arrived (already in hucydides andXenophon) and read (no hird cenur sc.) epace; and dy bu }wen, { go were vulgarsms( no ll rs cenury B.c; weakly aesed n Newesamen manuscrps, common in posPolemaic papyr) Ahe same me here was muual ineracion beween he mrcindicaive and he weak aoris indicaive ype wroe andy are boh und as analogcal rmaions yreplaces

y n he 3rd plural, ec a iself in orgn an Aic in-novaion in ahemaic aoriss such as Wea r We is rapidlyexended o he 3rd plural of all secondary ndicave enses,leading o rms lke ytoa wroe, jOoa wen, arequesed ec iddle fuures ofacive verbs are early replad byacive rms, hus G {Hyrdes, Lycurgus), µw (prob-ably no re Pluarch) repla doaoµ1 will hear, µoµ1wll swear hs is par of a general reorgansaion of he orignal

hree voices, acive, mddle and passve as wo So middle aorssend o be replaced by passve: dnep (Macho, PsPlao,Alcibdes, Polybius) replaces nep1J answered, lesseuenly ye (Philemon) replaces yeµT bame

DEVELOPMENT OF OINE

he aures of he early Koine, mos of which can be paralleled

n Ac or oher early dalecs, and which were largely esablshedby he me he NT exs were wrien, were only he gnning of amore radical resrucurng of he verb sysem which we can race nsublierary exs of he Roman and early Bynine rod iswas parly occasoned by he phonologcal changes described n anearler paraaph, which resuled in Uyoµe and µe (presndc and pres subj), Maez and ( indc and aor subj)and many oher pars of rms concding Bu apar om phono-

logical consderaons, here were also srucural pressures awork In ancien Grk derences of asc and dierences ofen did no nessarily coincde; in e Koine hey ended moreand more o do so And he dsincions of asc, which n ancenGrk were manydimensonal, ended in he Kone o reducedo a sngle par of lar opposes Whaeve he relaive imr


40/170

30 Geek n he Heensi word and he Ron empe

ace abued o he cos he esul by lae aquy was adasc eogasao of he veb sysem.

The ma aues of hs eogasao some of whch have

bee alluded o he eale pa of hs chape ae

(1) The educo of he h vos of classcal Geek o wo.Alhough may of he uses of he mddle voce survved oe ad eve mode Geek om he mophologl po of vewhe dsco bewee mddle ad passve s elmaed.

() The so of pec ad aos. Pef s coue oapa lae oe exs, bu hey aeu sde by sde wh ad

equvalece o aos ms. I s somemes had o ell wheheoe s dealg wh a aos -Ka o wh a regulaly e-duplcaed f.9 I medeval Gk, as we shall e he co-so becoes complee. The ec ms ae 'desysemasedhe s sep he elmao. Ths s he copleo of apocess he s sages of whch ca aleady be obseved classcal Gk. 0

(3) The opave dsapas as a sepaae caegoy excep a

w sslsed usages whch ae becomg lexcal ahe hagammacal. Ths s hadly a esul of phoec chages as op-ave s of hemac vebs emaed phoecally dsc omdcave/subjucve ms ul a leas he eh ceuy. Thecos of he opave ae ake ove by he subjucve ad byvaous phasc cosucos.

() A hemac vebs µ ae eplaced by hemac ms wThe ed esul of hs s o leave oly wo ys of pese hose �wad hose -: dscos wh he lae y ae pocessof elmao. The mos eacous of he µ vebs s µ bu eve

Cf. Mayser ( 1923) 145, Mandilaras (1 973) § 307, Gignac (1981) 243-4.°Cf. Chantraine ( 1927); Mihec (1959). For lse reduplications xpWr,ra1

(Malalas) loKaTe (Malalas) KKrwµo (Malalas), pvµV (Mohos).Frequent 3rd rsons plural rft in are a rther indication of the confsionf rfet and aorist, e.g. ntnx (Malalas ): to the corresnd e 3rd rsonsplural aorist in -a, such as 01sKau1 (Mohos). Many dialts of modern Grkregularly rm aorists in -K-. Cf Kontosoulos (1981) passim.

1 The recent controersy regarding the place of the optatie in literary Grk ofte riod which some holars belieed to ret the u of contemraryspoken Greek, has now larly di down The optatie of literary Gk in thisriod was maintained in u by literary and ammatil tradition not by liingusage hence its uncertainty and imprision. Most of the literature, and all thevalid argments regarding this controersy will und in Henry ( 1943), Higns(1945) and Anlaf ( l96).


41/170

Greek n the Heentc world and he Roman empre 3 1

eµi tends to be replaced by a mddle rm eµ and the anomalous uri eui by rms based on vz whch was orgnally not averbal rm at all On ths see p 66. However some of the rms

sm to have remaned n lvng usage sde by sde wth thersurrogates n !( or -wuntl the end of the rod under dscussong. John oschos stll makes large use of Tµl urTµl, ri0µ1Ji&µl

(5) he present subjunctve concdes rmally wth the presentndcatve he concdence n pronuncaton of Ae and Ae and V 2oµev and Mµev leads to the substtuton of 6erer re and mou r Au. he aorst subjunctve whch

undergoes the same changes often concdes wth the ture n-dcatve However the subjunctve remans nctonally dstnctom the ndcatve snce they can never both occur n the samecontext

(6) he ture ten though contnung to survve n lvngsh and mantaned by the lterary tradton tends more andmore to be replaced by a seres of rphrases whch are dussedbelow pp 33, 79. In s r as these nvolve the nntve a

dstncton of asct begns to arse wthn the ture ten aordng to wheer the present or the aorst nntve s ud hsday of the ture s only n part explcable on phonetc groundseg b the concdence of ture ndtve and aorst subjunctven many verbs he man ctor s the restructurng of the verbsystem on the bass of two ascts and two only each wth ts owndstnct theme he old ture dd not t nto ths new system andwas hen more and more replaced n lvng sech by rms whch

dd17 Satc aorsts more and more repla the nonsgmatc

aorsts of classcal Grk eg veµx dstrbuted s replaced byvµqu

(8) Certan smplcatons of e rsonal endngs of verbalrms take pla of whch the prncpal are the spread of -uv nthe hrd rson plural of mrfts and aorsts and he replace

1 2Troughout la Koine and mieval Grk a numr of rival ttes r theexpion of turity xist It is not until the me riod that a ngle future

t pable of expessing the two asts o the Grk eb, emeges (demot+subjunctive and corresnding rms in the dialects eg �subjunctive)n some dialts of Asia Minor the is still a structural mbalan, in so far asdistinctions of ast a not exprs in the ture On the diparan o theancient ture and its replaments in Koine medieval and mode Grk cBneu (1915) Miraml (1) 187-8 Peot (194); Joph (198).


42/170

32 Greek n the Heenistic world and the Roman empire

of -ov b e h aor prav (o Poc) Thproal dg of rc ad cod aor o h o hadad ho of r aor o h ohr wr or ad or

ql d, ladg Bza ad od G oh aalgaao of h wo coal par

Sd b d wh h chag, ad par drmd b h,hr appar a r of prphrac vrb r, ol rdwh h vrb eiµ a ad xw hav oghr wh vor parcpl Th provd rlac r old r whchhav b dad, ch a h r, ad cla h

xpro of h dal ac of la Ko Th do o a wllorgad h rod dr dco.Alrav par ar d coxg, ad hr a gra dalof cra ad prco Th a par of rphraccogao whch appar la Ko ar

(1) eµ ()+ pr parcpl acv, cog wh prad rfc dcav Th corco occr occaoall clacal Gr, b bco ch or q h Ko

Dr o pha h oo of co probabl h aovag cor B h oppoo bw coo adoar aco o of ho xprd b h dcobw pr ad aor h la Ko, dval adodr Gr So h prphra wh h pr parcpl vrccd rplacg h pr ad prc dcav KoGr Howvr, h corco co drg hdval rod a a alrav xpro of co, ad

ol dapar wh h pr parcpl lo I Taoa, coradco o coo Gr, h parcpal rphradd rplac h pr ad prc dcav r I hadalc w hav a pr dcav

a prc dcav

µ po6 I ,,

" c

µ po I aw "K ,, c

Cf Mandlaras (1 973 § 277-83, 3 1 721 ; Gignac (1981) 33545 353.


43/170

Geek n he Heenc wo an he Ron empe 33

whle he corresondng sbjnce rm s no rhrasc14ccasonally eµ+ aors arcle s nd as a connos resen n lae Kone exs. hs s ndcae of he begnnng of hebreakdown of he sysem of arcles whch ook lace n hellowng rod.

(2) eiµ+ rc arcle ace relaces he mssng rfecand exress resen sae reslng om as acon e.g. eiµepK� ' am conden he same ncon s ofen rrm-ed by eiµ+ aors arcle, he aors and rc rms bengconsdered eqalens. Common n classcal Greek n sbjnceand oae hs rhrass s exended by Kone o he ndcae, b neer becomes really common. he aors arcles commoner han he rfec and he axlary erb s mos ofenmrf .e. he erhrass s a lrfec sbse.

(3) eµ+ rf arcle asse, or less eqenly aorsarcle asse, smlarly relas he medoasse rc

() + an ace arcle sally aors shes an-oher rfeceqalen n ranse erbs e.g. rekq hae comleed. hs aern s rare n lae Kone and hardlyors a all n medeal Greek.

(5) A smlar ncon s rrmed by + rf arcleasse. hs nclasscal rhrass occrs only oasonally nKone and s no eqen n Byzanne wrers. s rod ofgreaes exenson s robably n early mode Greek, cf. 9.

() + nne, o he oher hand, s a freeqalenexremely common n lae exs whch reec he soken Greek ofhe me. he nne s mos ofen aors, b he resen s alsond. ess eqenly efov (ef) + nne s nd servng as aenal or condonal rm, relacng he oae +v of class-cal Greek 1 Wheher here s any connecon bewn hs consrucon and he consrcon ofhabo+ nne whch gae rseo he fre rm n mos Romance langages s an on qes-on. ne of he roblems s ha he srvng Balkan Romance

14On h iphrasis wh µ and h prsn icipl c Bjrck ( 194): n thisand hr rphrasic vrbal rms wih µ and in ancn mdval and

md Grk c. Ars ( 1965)1 5On his vry qun riphrass in la Kin and arly mdval Grk c

Diich (1898 26 Jannaris (1897 553-5; Chazdakis (15) 1, 2; Psas(1913 21617; MihvcGabrvc (1960 T ars xamps m ng t sixh AD. On ur rphrass in Bakan Lain c Mihu (1978)253.


44/170

34 Gk n th Hlnstc wold and th Roman mp

angages and diaects m thei fte om volo innitive. Btthey ae not attested bee a elatively nt date.

(7) Anothe teeivalent oinaly with a somewhat dif

ent nan wi as opposed to obigation is povided by£ + innitive which does not become eent nti the nextiod6

(8) A the op offteeivaentsipovided by owe + innitive µ am abot to intend + innitive oµ+ pesent paticipe cf (1) above) and + sbnctive. Thee aecoesponding conditiona peiphas med by dAo() + innitive and µAAov+ innitive. These ae less

eent and ess sysemaised than those with xw and Oel.9) µ 'it hapns + innitive p1 I nd my

self+pesent paticipe etc povide the asimodal vebaliphases The deveopment of so many iphastic vebalms most of which did not svive into late Byantine Gket aone into mode Geek is a symptom of the adica estcting of the vebal system which was taking pace in the lateoman iod

What emeges om a this is that the ate Koine veb has onlytwo themes coesponding to two opposed ascts.6 All otheascta distinctions ae expesd by iphas t has twovoices active and mediopassive and two moods which in thecase of the pesent theme ae mophologialy distinct only in the2nd son ) and 3d peson pla (


45/170

Grk in h Hnic word and h Roan pir 35

an parcple bome rare, an are generally equvalen o hecorrenng aor rm

I very har o dae any o hese change, owng o he naure

o our evence, an he nevable conamnaon o any wrenex by he pur language In any cae many o hem are onlyexenon o eaure alreay exng n clacal Greek Wha mran no h or ha nvual nnovaon, bu he newyem n a alway n language, ol an new yem exee by e n lvng h r a long me unl he ncveaure o he ol became eyemae an hu conemneo dapar excep n o r a n Greek he prege o he

raonal pur language o wrng an ne peech conerreupon ome o hem a cou, ombelke le

An example o he acual ae o he language prove by heSpiril Mdo o John Mocho1 Inuence o he leraryraon an above all o he New Teamen are preen, bu onhe whole ex rly repreenave o he ken Greek ohe xh cenury o our era Th he poon regarng heexpreon o ury

There are only yve rue ure rm The uual rm rhe expreson o ury he preen ncave, he nex moequen he aor ubjuncve, boh acve an pave anexample oboh rm ogeher Kozµ, e� nv tv o Aovro�Ka rpyez µ I hall le own n he pah o he lon an he wll eame 290 C The oaonal opave expreng ury are ueo he elng ha he opave a 'rene equvalen o heubjuncve In aon he llowng ype o rphra are

un oµa1+ preen parcple, µ + preen or aornnve, OeA+ aor nnve xw+ aor nnve,oµaz+ aor nnve, eiv+ aor nnve= ure par-cple Th ae o aar ncae he nably o he rucureo he language whch wa complcae bu no namenallymoe by he exence o an archang wen language enjoy-ng grea prege

noher rkng example prove by he ue o he opave

n he New Teamen There are only ryone example n manclaue (more or le n he exence o varan reang complcae he uaon) O hee, hryegh are whng opave

18 Unfortunately there s no reliable text of the Spirtul Meadw. A crticalton s n prepaation by Dr Phlp Pattenden.


46/170

36 Greek in the Hellenisic world and he Roman empire

all bu one n he hd peon) and een o hee ae nance ohe clch µ yvoro a no be' hch ll uvve a a lecale n oden eek he eanng hee ae poenal opave

h a. Thee ae eleven opave n ubodnae claue noduced b ei o hch u ae ndec queon hee aepobabl no nal opave hee ae a ndec opave nndec queon oee accopaned b av - bu none nndec aeen The egula condonal conucon ei+oplloed b op doe no occu n he N T. e houghhe ee la h cean o ue hough he conach he lea adon and peeved oe deeaed'

opave n phae hch ee becong lecal un ahe hannacc conucon

n he phee o nonal na he o kng change n heod unde dcuon he begnnng o he elnaon o hedave cae The eek dave cae llled he ole no onl o hendouoan dave bu alo hoe o he locave and henuenal Th ulplc o gncance led o abguand n clacal eek alenang paen began o eege -

J+ genve n he nuenal ene ec n Kone eek hpoce a caed uch he The locave ue o v+ davea eplaced b eic accuave n accodance h he eekendenc o cone oon od and e n oehng B he cenu A.D he poce a ell advanced and a choceeed beeen he o ode o epeon a he llongpaallel paage n he opel deonae

'Mk MhwLuk

16o eic rv &ypv µlmarperw ecn naw

7CpCaov µceic auvJpC K eic

avywyc Jp�aaO

K Oc r Ivµrv Kfe eicrv p,µov

v1o lv r &ypµ lmarperwei rd naw

1K v TcauvCywyCc TWV

µCaT1yaoav µv

rr o ,aoc&v�x' rvp,µov n roIvµroc

v31o lv r< &ypµowc µ barpe-rw ei rd naw

vyro lv rIvµT lv rlp�µ


47/170

Geek in the Helenistic world and the Roman empie 37

As the last example shows one of the sgns of the growngconson s the erroneous use of +date of moton towardsLater Vulgar texts of the rod under dsusson more and more

equenty use e< ausate of rest whch was edently theusage of the spoken language

he nstrumental use of the date was replaced by a seres ofconstructons all of whch tu up occasonally n classcal Greekhe rst was + date the next Ju+ gente whch appear tohae en the common usage of later spoken Kone as edencedby nonlterary papyr and nally om the urth century onµer+ gente By the tenth century to glance ahead a moment

all prepostons goerned the accusate case and µeraccusate rst makes ts aparance n an nstrumental sensealongsde of µer+ gente n Theophanes Contintus (1746)and n the De administrando imperio of Constantne Porphyrogentus (2523 294 375 etc) he mode Greek µ+ accusate s the descendant of ths constructon

he date rm sured longest n the sense of the pure date ndrect objt or rson nterested But we nd rst the accusa

te and later the gente of rsonal pronouns replacng thedate om the rst century sc on n nonlterary papyr n suchphrases as ypoµi e I wrte to you' (81 sc), dnoreW e Isend to you' (l BC., Jit I ge you' (late urth century)nµov µe r send me the boat' (late fth century B<ee< µe as you told me' (sxth to seenth century) &w o Ishall ge you (4Bc, neµ o I sent to you' (346) epK oI told you' (end of urth century) dypv µo buy r me'

(second century) hs constructon spreads to substantes n theearly centures of our era as s edenced by such phrases as thesen papyrus letters: tK ov MCiµo I gae to Maxmus (c.3), pxo 8eopo urnsh to heodore' (seenth century)and by the use of date and gente rms sde by sde n papyrand nscrptons; eg U Ierexvo r dJeA xipev Helento her brother Petechs geetngs' (thrd century) r yAKrrwµo dvJp IoAxpoo to my dearest husband Polychronos'

dvr µr K E< r< µi I set up [ths] to myself andto Ea my wfe' ! nrp K K y nveµro< glry toe Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost' It s not unti thennth or tenth centu that we nd clear cases of substtuton ofgente or accusate r date pror n lterary texts as we shalls n the next chapter Modern Greek s dded n ts usage he


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38 Geek in the Hellenstic world and the Roman empire

orther diaect ue the accuative the outher diaect hichrm the bai of commo emotic the geitive

Thu e ee that durig the period uder dicuio the dative

rm of ou proou ad adjective ceaed to have a cearctio i the tructure of the aguage became ued more admore erratica ad ere probab maitaied i the cociou-e of peaker mai b the iuece of the purit aguage. Ithe ubequet riod the diappeared om ivig ue

Durig the riod uder revie a deveopmet of the oudeceio patter took pace hich caot be expaied o phoetic groud. Variou aaogica iuece have bee uggeted

but the expaatio ti remai ucertai. Neuter ubtative i!WV ad -iv ot their a voe ad came to ed i '1v ad iv.Exampe are commo i icriptio ad papri om the ecodcetur o eg vpµ1v moorig (AO 5) qµ1p1v haf-poud (A.O. 265) p1v amuet' (A.O. 49) c1v heterBtlTOAV etter (v beat 81OVlV meo' 1lTTaKIVtabet0 The did ot i the Koie drive out the oger rmbut ere aterative to them At the ame time macuie proper

ame i imiar ot their a oe. vobecomigvrwvtc ad o o Thi caued thee ou to pa over to theca i ; v itef the reut of a coatio of a tem oui 7ike XcpµiJ7ad cooattem ou ike p1,hich had begu i caica time. There i itte i of a imiarchage i commo ou or adjective i .

KINE VCABULARY

The vocabuar a exteded durig the Koie period b deriva-tio ad b borroig. ertai uxe icudig e uxert appearig i potcaica Greek became extreme produc-tive. Thee icude

(a Aget ou-r1er1;, ri

1 9 0n the disaparance of the daive ad s substtutes c Humbrt ( 3);Mihec-Gabrec (6) 4 Jannars (87) 3.

2°Cf Mayr (3) 56 Ggac (8) 8


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Greek in the Heentic world and the Roman empire 39

-plO� (of Latin origin)-c� -p1a-1a

(b) Verbal abstractsl�-ia (which tends to replace l� in later Koine)µ�µa

(The original semantic distinctions between these tend to beeliminated.)

(c) Abstract nouns of quality-ia�

(d) Nouns of place--fpV

(e) Nouns of instrumentplOv (of Latin origin)

-pov(f) Diminutives

·V-izov-rplOV

(g) Adjtives of material V�

(h) Adjtives of quality

1K�-lO� (e last three tend to become semantically equvalent)

(i) Verbal adjectives-�-lµo�

(j) Misllaneous Adjtives-zav� (of Latin origin)

(k) Verbs-e--i


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40 Greek in the Helenistic world and the Roman empire

At th sam tim som drivational suxs which ar productiv in classical Grk and arly Koin, cas to b productivin latr Koin, .g. fp, cuv, -v (which again bcoms pro

ductiv in Modrn Grk), -pov, -pa, -T, -our, -vw. It will bnotd that among th productiv suxs ar som of Latin origin.Spakrs who wr miliar with th in Latin oanwords usedthm to rm drivativs om Grk stms. Thus w nd µ7xavpr, npo{oApr, &xppr, npoBKpzor Y


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Gk i th Ht wod d th Rom mp 41

loan-words Greek nds it dicult to borrow verbs because aGrk verb requires two themes and in Koine it might stillrequire a rfect theme as well. Hen any borrowed verb has to be

made to t into a pae of complementar themes This can onlybe done by giving it one of a group of productive verbal suxeseg - e But the were lt to be characteristic of denominative verbs, hence they could not readily be used to adaptLatin verbs to the needs of Greek morphology. So we nd Greekverbs rmed om Latin nominal stems, eg dvveV,OMy p10e :zv(w but w at this riod rmedom Latin vebal stems Among the rare exceptions aredn.1t,

P1ye, andoye the two latter in due course giving ri to thedeverbative nouns y) and .

Latin nouns and adectives could generally tted into Greekdlension tterns without diculty But we nd a number ofanalogical modications taking place. Changes of gender are common eg lims > )µ1v, xdit > CT&v (analogy ofo?, nar 0'pv, amsa Kµov. And thegender of a loan-word is sometimes uncertain e.g KOPp

and Kv�pov, KKoµo< and KKoµzov Ap1


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42 Greek in he Heleni wrld nd he Rn epire

midde ages, and to a sighty ess extent today was openended, inthat new derivatives and ompounds were eey rmed as theoasion required2 3

As we as the reation or borrowing o new words Greekaugmented its exia resoures by attahing new meanings to odwords The weestabished iterary tradition ensured that the odmeanings survived in use, at any rate among the iterate side byside with the new meanings Exampes o this semanti enrihmentare:

&)ivoµa1&vT.l

pu:ov61opov


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Geek in he Heenisic wod and he Roman empie 43

sentence was maintained thoghot Geek om Home to thepesent day The nonsonal vebal ms initive and paticiple wee still peseved thogh alteatives apaed to most

of the constctions in which they wee sed2 6 In paticlav+sbjnctive apas as an altenative to most ses of theinnitive othe than that in indiect sech The accental hythmofsome of theHymnsof Romanos (sixth centy) indicates that inits pely sbodinating capacity as a mee make the sb jnctive which was often mophologically indistingishable omthe indicative c was beginning to be pononced v theansto of the moden Geek sbjnctive make v.2 7 As the

system of thee moods indicative sbjnctive and optative which classical Geek had inheited om IndoEoan waseplaced by a dal system of two moods indicative and sb

jnctive a geat many of the distinctions which the classical langage made in the syntax of the complex sentence became imssible This is eected in the liteay langage of the iod even in that which seeks to imitate Attic by a looseness in modalsage bjnctives and optatives ae sed side by side in simila

contexts ndicatives apa n sitations which in cassica Geekeqied the sbjnctive o optative and so on In paticla it isclea that the dieence between geneic and paticla elativeand tempoal clases was no longe made rav, b


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4 Geek in the Hellentic world and the Roman empire

THE TTCST MVEMENT ND ITS FTERMTH

d the end f the t centu Bc e nd teche f

gmm nd hetc pechng ne dctne tht lngugemut nt be lled t chnge nd develp, nce ll chnge decdence, nd tht the nl cect Geek tht ued bclcl Attc te, nd the Kne, bth the cmmn pkenlnguge f ll cle nd n t lte m, mut be eected pduct f gnnce, debement nd vulgt. In the eungt centue th mvement gtheed eght nd nuence, cmet dmnte the techng f Geek n chl, nd getl n

uenced ll lte pe, ledng t cncu mttn fncent lngutc ptten, el mgned, nd delteeectn f the lvng nd develpng lnguge vehcle fml ech nd ltetue. t i th tht begnnng mde f the dgl hch h been mked tue fGeek thughut t ubequent ht.

he cue ee pbbl mn, tng t deent level fcncune. We e nt n ptn td, untuntel, t

detemne t hch f them the enmu ucce f th putmvement due. Amng the mn ct mut be cunted:

( I ) he gng dcepnc beteen cntemp lvngech nd the lnguge f the lte text upn hch eductn bed. A the develpment f Kne Geek pceeded thceted n eve me peng pblem teche.

2 eche f hetc, n ectng gnt e nnte tle cuent n the t centu Bc, uged cle mttn

f clcl mdel. Imttn f the tle n bught th tmttn f the lngutc ptten. h ccu ptcullel n Geek, n hch the lngutc m ued lgel nc-tn f the tutn, .e n k f ltetue nctn f thelte gene.

(3 Rectn t Rmn dmntn led ptcull fte theMthdtc W nd Sull' egme f epen n Gee ndA Mn, t ne ntlgc hkng bck t the get d f

Geek eedm. eche f hetc hndled lmt excluvelheme m the d beteen the en W nd Alexndethe Get, nd tuned the bck n the n ge. Clclte ee the nl mdel th f mttn; f nl menpke nd te lke the get ebe the mght mehete the lt gl f Geece.


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Geek the Heetc wld ad the Rma eme 45

() A society sharply diided into classes nds status symbols.English readers need hardly reminded of the role which lan-guage can play in indicating a sakers class position So in the

ancien world the living developing sech of he common ople,who had no literary education, was despised by those wealthyenogh o hae had one and who und in he disincion beweentheir purist sh and that of the masses jus he kind of symbolthey sough(5) I ma be tha he rst signs of a new dialect diereniation

were aparing in Koine though here is ery litle direc evidenceof this

We nd a ody of didactic lierature growing up, prescribingwhat one must and must not say at all leels om phonology osyntax The prescriptions are usually particular no general, in therm: Say A, no B Obsolete words were resuscitaed omlierary exs and the Koine replacements anahemaised as 'incorr 'vulgar, 'shocking Obsolete inections were given preferen over hose in everyday use osolete Attic rms like the

dual and the socalled Atic declension were gien a esh thoughcitious lease of li, obsolee meanings were dlared o be heonly correct ones A disincion is ofen drawn between Aic andHellenic uge he rmer rerring o he osolee words orrms und in classical prose texs, the later to postclassicalKoine rms in liing use Occasionally more complex classications are atempted

The u of he Atic words and rms ame a mark of culure

and of literary acceptability The criterion of correc usage waswhether a word or rm is attested in a limited body of literaryexts comsed ve centuries earlier Ancient authority replacedsntaneiy There is a character in Athenaeuss Deipnosophistsnicknamed ero6er ecause his inariable quesion whenany new objt or topic is inrodud is o enquire if the name of itis aest in the corpus of classical lierature or not eh oeh. The normal relation of poken and written langage be

came reversed Sech was to llow writingAs direc eidence of the tenets of he Aticists we hae a number

of lexica laying down correct usage, and agments om manyoher works of this kind inorporaed in coenaries on classicalexs As indir eidence we hae the practice of wriers

No prose lierature ofthe rst ntury A.O. was unaeced by he


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4 G he Helec wod ad h Ro eme

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268780037 Robert Browning Medieval and Modern Greek 1983

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