History of Koine Greek
M. Z. Kopidakis
Contents
Introduction ...... 1 Alexander the Great the the Transmission of the Greek Language ...... 5 Old and New Testament ...... 6
Introduction tantly, to learn how to wield the Attic dialect with fluency. The cosmopolitan city of Athens became Man is, according to Aristotle, a political animal the “prytaneum of wisdom”, the «Ε ». –meaning that, within the city, in a society orga- nized by consensus, he can exploit his innate abil- Neither the sad outcome of the Peloponnesian War ities to the fullest and acquire new ones as well. nor ongoing civil convulsions -not even the rise of In the city, language, the communication instru- the Macedonian dynasty- impeded the development ment par excellence, is enriched, refined and nor- of the Attic dialect into the Panhellenic linguistic malized. In the Archaic period, the formation of medium. On the contrary, Philip II, a magnan- the city-state, along with the institution of panhel- imous and discerning ruler, established the Attic lenic athletic and religious centers, the contracting language as the official language for education and of alliances and other political unions (amphicty- administration in his state. Alexander and the off- onies), and the development of commercial activi- spring of other aristocratic Macedonian families all ties contributed to the smoothing out of differences received an Attic education. The celebrated panhel- between dialects. In the pioneering region of Ionia, lenic campaign to the East promoted Hellenic cul- a type of hypertopical koine language appears next ture all the way to Baktria. The multi-ethnic states to the equally hypertopical literary dialects of the of Alexander’s successors furnished the proof of epics and of choral poetry. Until the beginning of Isocrates’ statement that anyone receiving a Greek the Persian Wars, this Ionic Koine, which almost education was a Greek. The Koine dialect, which completely monopolized artistic prose, was the lan- at the time of the successors became an interna- guage of distinction. tional instrument of communication, was an idiom based on the Attic dialect. This idiom was con- After the end of the Persian Wars, Athens assumed sciously promoted by the Macedonian administra- the political and cultural hegemony of Greece. Fear tion and the army, as well as by merchants, fortune- of the Persians rallied the Greeks and this rallying hunters and scholars in Asia Minor, the Near Easy favored the Attic dialect. The Athenian League and Egypt. (478/7 B.C.), with the Temple of Apollo on De- los as its base, enforced its will that Athens be While the term koine is ancient, grammarians have regarded as the center of reference for the major- tended to disagree on the origin of the koine di- ity of mainland cities and islands. With this new alect. Some argued that it originated in the com- gravitas, Athens also attracted theoroi, litigants, mingling of the four basic dialects ( metics, actors, misfits, sophists and prostitutes. In ); others believed that it was the “mother” order to fit into the rather exclusive and demand- of the four dialects; yet others considered it to be ing Athenian society, newcomers were forced to es- a fifth dialect, or a transformation of Attic. The pouse the Athenian way of life and, more impor- latter view, which was also supported by G. Hadji-
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dakis and other reputable scholars in recent years, phers, historians, scientists, mythographers, and turns out to be the right one. Nevertheless, today fabulists. Nevertheless, the deviations are worth the term Koine is used to indicate the various levels noting: the language of Polybios (201-120 B.C.) is used throughout the Hellenic world in the oral and, highly artificial (neologisms, poetic words, avoid- in part, the written language from the Hellenis- ance of hiatus), whereas the language of Epictetos tic to the Early Byzantine period. This is a syn- (55-135 A.D.), who was a freedman, is very similar cretistic and “encyclopedic” language, which has to the popular koine. a central core and several radiating spurs. Need- In other words, the cultural prestige of Athens, lit- less to say, Athenians and Peloponnesians, Ioni- erary production (especially prose) and the brow- ans and Macedonians, the Hellenized Jews and the beating suasion exerted by state authority (Athe- rulers from Eastern Libya did not all speak the nian alliances and, later, Macedonian hegemony, same language. In contrast to the spoken language, reinforced Attic in the contest of dialects. Nev- which presented a pronounced lack of uniformity, ertheless, the koine that emerged was the result of the written language tended toward homogeneity. multiple concessions and compromises. Thus, some Nevertheless, here, too, differences were important. uniquely Attic characteristics, such as the use of – The historian Polybios writes in a refined and rich instead of – and the second Attic declension Koine, whereas the author of a spell would use a () were rejected, since the other dialects were spicy argot. able to offer a unified type. The tendency of Attic Our immediate sources for the koine are the texts oral speech towards simplification found some unex- that were preserved in inscriptions, papyri and pected allies. Native speakers of other languages, shreds (fragments of vases). A wealth of material those speaking other dialects as well as ordinary is also provided by the lexica/dictionaries of the people could not easily use the numerous eccentric- Atticists; the Greco-Latin glossaries -namely the ities, the flamboyant particles, the complicated syn- elementary methods of learning Greek meant for tax and the finest semantic of the unforgiving Attic the native speakers of Latin- as well as literature. dialect. With time, major changes took place on all Among the most important samples of the koine are levels, leading to the creation of a plastic, rich and, the translation of the Old Testament by the Septu- at the same time, simple linguistic instrument or agint, the New Testament, the Apocrypha and the idiom. Writings. Indirect sources are also found in the di- While the Attic dialect comprised the core of the alects and idioms of the modern Greek language, koine, other dialects, mostly the Ionian, also played that go back to the Byzantine koine. An exception a role in its creation. St. G. Kapsomenos (1907- is found in the Tsakonic dialect, which originated 1978) and Agapetos Tsopanakis proved that the in the new Doric dialect of Laconia. contribution of the Doric language was more im- Right from the start, the Koine laid siege to that portant than previously thought. The Doric lan- bulwark of linguistic conservatism: literature. Of guage significantly enriched both military and le- course, all the poetic genres that survived (epic, el- gal terminology: , (originally the leader egy, iambic, epigram) retained their old artificial of mercenaries), , , . The widely used idiom, with some compromises. New genres were terms (NE instead of the Attic ), , , composed in new, also artificial, dialects. For in- were also Doric. Even the marginal NW en- stance, Theocritos’ Bucolics were a hypertopical dowed the Koine, especially the modern Greek one, Doric dialect based on the dialect of Syracuse. A with the extension of the ending – from the nom- refined version of the Koine was used by the minor inative of the third declension to the accusative: composers of the Anacreontia, the early Christian - (and, by analogy, , ). Hymns as well as work songs and erotic verses. Nev- The language of administration and the military ertheless, the first samples of poetry using stress was strengthened by the Macedonians: (>NE accents, which later dominated, first appeared in , ), , , , while Mace- the early post-Christian centuries. The traditional donian was also the origin of the word and of prosodic poetry would soon be demoted into a mu- the ending – (Μ). seum piece. Thus, at the time of the Koine, major changes were The conquests of the koine in the realm of prose introduced in the phonological system, in the mor- are even more significant. Aristotle, who was much phology, syntax and vocabulary of the Greek lan- admired by Cicero, used an early form of literary guage. Nevertheless, the most significant changes, koine. Koine was also the language used by philoso- those that primarily led to the shaping of the mod-
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ern Greek language, took place in the realm of ings. phonology. The stress of the ancient Greek lan- guage was musical, as is indicated by the terms There are perennial, short-lived and ephemeral , , , and others. The transition words – the latter being the most noisome. The from the musical to the dynamic stress (more specif- Koine was forced to reject a great number of words ically, the transition of the word stress from musi- that either resisted the tendency to simplification cal to dynamic) seems to have had, as its principal or lost their etymological clarity, were highly id- effect, the suppression of prosody. Thus, the turn iomatic or represented ephemeral values and ob- of the diphthongs into single notes is accelerated jects. Nevertheless, those losses were offset by the ( → i, → e) and consonants become isochronal. influx of thousands of neologisms that were neces- Thus, for instance, , , , and ended up be- sitated by radical changes in society; the rise of ing pronounced as (the transformation of the pro- the lower classes; political developments; the emer- nunciation of the diphthong to was completed gence of the multiethnic states of the successors only in the 10th century A.D.). One of the results and the Roman occupation; cultural innovations; of iotacism was the creation of many homonyms. and, finally, the advent of Christianity. Thus, for Changes were also sweeping in the realm of conso- instance, many ancient words acquired new mean- nants. Nevertheless, even today in modern Hellenic ings in Christian idiom (, , , ). dialects, double consonants ( = -) continue In the period of the koine, Greece was dominated to be pronounced, while the ending – that has been politically by Rome (1st century A.D.) and cultur- hounded by both grammarians and popular usage, ally by Christianity. This double domination left since the 4th century B.C. continues to resist. The indelible marks even on our national identity: Ρ, script remained phonetic. The variance between namely “Romans”, and Χ instead of Έ. the written word and the phoneme resulted in a The conquest of Greece by the Romans naturally plethora of spelling mistakes: instead of , led to an antagonistic linguistic exchange. The Ro- instead of etc. mans as conscious founders of a multiethnic empire proved to be good students in areas that used to Morphology is dominated by the tendency towards puzzle them. Thus, they systematically topped the simplification, which is mainly accomplished by Greek language to meet the needs of their poor analogy.Two-syllable and three-syllable formations agrarian language in art, science and voluptuous replace capricious monosyllables in terms of declen- sensuality. In order to facilitate their administra- sion: : , : , : , : . Ir- tive mechanism, they founded an official translat- regular comparatives are replaced: , or ing service in Rome. Moreover, a good part of the (instead of ), . Adverbs ending Roman upper class, especially women of the aristoc- in – () are limited to the advantage of those racy, was bilingual. Caesar expired with a Greek ending in – (). The multiplicity of the verb is phrase on his lips: «Κ Β;». Augustus sharply limited. Some verbs ending in – acquired died with a line by Menander. Nero used to trans- an ending in – ( – ). The dual, which had late Aeschylos and was acclaimed as a performer suffered since the 3rd century B.C., received the of tragedy. The poets helped themselves to meters, final blow by Christ himself: « genres and themes of both Classical and Hellenistic » (Luke, 16, 13). Nevertheless, the Atti- poetry. cists attempted to revive this archaic type: « , » (Phrynichos). By contrast, the Greeks (even Γ) had an arro- gant attitude toward Latin and Roman civilization In the realm of syntax, too, the Koine strives for as a whole. Borrowings from the Latin language simplification, analytical expression and precision. were limited to the first years of the conquest, and “Naked” cases are often replaced by the more pre- resistance was led by the Atticists, fervent champi- cise prepositional structures. The accusative grad- ons of linguistic purity. Nevertheless, in the 3rd ually replaced the genitive and dative ( in- and 4th century B.C., many words (particularly stead of ). The infinitive was likewise replaced: from military, administrative and commercial ter- the infinitive of intent by +indicative and the in- minology) insinuated themselves into Greek. finitive of purpose by + subjunctive. The opta- tive mood was shaken, and some of its applications The effect of the Latin language on Greek is im- became obsolete. Parataxis and the omission of perceptible on the level of syntax, only slightly per- conjunctions limited the subordinate clauses; there- ceptible in terms of morphology (particularly in the fore, the conjunction acquired additional mean- endings: -, -, -, -), but was very promi-
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nent in terms of vocabulary. Numerous words that (the Egyptian Manethon, the Babylonian Barossos, found their way into the Koine, especially in its the Druids of Gaul) and sophists – all wrote in the mature period, remain until today: , , koine. , , , , (), , , . In the beginning of the 3rd century B.C., as the Latin was also the origin of the names of many Koine began its triumphal course towards the lin- months as well as of a number of personal names guistic unity of Hellenism, rhetoric gradually aban- (Α, Κ, Π). doned its cradle, Athens, and repaired to Ephessos, The meeting of Hellenism with Judaism was a trau- Smyrna and Rhodes. With the fall of democracy, matic experience for both sides. The Greeks at- the freedom of speech that had served to sharpen tempted to impose their own world-view and way the orator’s skill was restricted, but the rhetoric of of life on people who identified themselves as the the “” was still free to chatter about trivial chosen people. The Jews threw off the Greek yoke, subjects. The Asian style was no longer confined to and for a certain period of time Judaea remained the sphere of ostentatious rhetoric and threatened independent. Nevertheless, in 68 B.C., Pompey an- to inundate both philosophy and historiography as nexed the wider area to the Rome sphere of influ- well. The Atticists, strict guardians of the Classical ence. In the interim, already from the 3rd century tradition, attempted to stop the trend. Neverthe- B.C., a large number of Judaeans of the diaspora less, the flamboyant, chattering and self-satisfied spoke Greek as their mother tongue. Thanks to all Asian style was an easy opponent, merely the pre- those Greek-speaking Jews, the Old Testament was text for a conspiracy of conservatives. The Atticists translated into Hellenistic Koine. It took them ap- directed their furor mainly at the Koine, which was proximately three centuries to complete the trans- threatening to conquer prose. Their themes were: lation (the book of Job was only translated in the nostalgia for ancient glory, and a longing for the first century A.D.). The text of the Septuagint comfortably familiar and strict Attic language of does not have a unified linguistic form. The numer- Lysias and Plato. ous barbarisms (Exodus 18,6, Τ ), solecisms, Dionysios of Alexandria, who taught from 30-8 B.C. (Genesis 4,8 ), the indeclinable in Rome –the most significant center for Hellenic names (Α, Ι) and the overall unadorned and culture and letters at the time– was the most im- brusque style reveal that the authoritative voice of portant theorist of the Atticists. This movement Yahweh was not at ease in a foreign tongue. spread quickly thanks to the popularity of the At- The New Testament is also characterized by a tic dialect; the prestige of the writers of the 5th marked lack of stylistic uniformity. One end is oc- and 4th centuries; Augustus’ belief that Classicism cupied by the highly artificial Greek of Luke, the in language and art could preserve traditions; as other by the strident popular language of the Apoc- well as the philological work that were done by the alypse. The numerous Biblical scholars and He- Alexandrians on Classical texts (editing, lexicogra- braists remind us that the New Testament did not phy, annotation). The enemies of Christianity also supplant but rather continued and supplemented acceded to the movement of the Atticists; as rep- both the Laws and the Prophets. The peculiar resentatives of the high intelligentsia, they scorned Greek of the Bible, which caused such repugnance both the simple lessons of the Gospel and the Apos- among followers of Hellenistic purism, influenced, tles as well as their simple language. under the dominance of Christianity, the popular The direct aim of the Atticists seemed to be a tide of the Koine. shared one: a return to the pure and correct At- Thus, the Koine was a language of communication, tic dialect. However, which was the true schol- different from one region to another as it is colored arly Attic dialect? At this point, opinions diverged. by the local dialect (Koine with Doric and Ionic ele- Some singled out Lysias, others Plato, still others ments). It favored lively expressions (direct speech Xenophon. Nevertheless, all of them agreed that instead of indirect, superlatives instead of compar- the imitation of form would sooner or later lead to atives), strove for emphasis, clarity and simplicity, the creation of masterpieces. Since the Atticists be- and used, if necessary, loans from high literature lieved that the purely Attic idiom vouchsafed the () as well as from the languages of nearby peo- urbanity of speech, they considered the presence ples. As a language, it was also the key to access- of certain words in the texts of scholarly writers ing the goods of high civilization. For many years, as an infallible criterion. Ulpian, a grammarian of its reach was extensive. Foreign rulers (Armenians, the 2nd century A.D., was named “Κ”, be- Parthians, Siclo the King of the Nubians), priests cause, before sampling a dish he would attempt to
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discover whether the name of that dish existed in mised by using different brands of the Koine. Nev- the Attic paradeigms ( ). However, it ertheless, official historiographers, orators, philoso- was not only the “outer shell” of language that cap- phers and the heads of the Church were Atticists. tivated the supporters of retrogression. They also Some genres of poetry continued to be composed in believed that simply being involved with the “texts” traditional literary dialects. However, lyric poetry, would automatically revive the ancient values of the particularly the writing of hymns, as well as popu- soldiers at Marathon! In any case, regardless of the lar songs were composed in the Koine. Poetry using motives of its supporters, Atticism was ultimately stress accents had already made its appearance. characterized by the nobility of the quest for utopia Despite the deep disunity between the spoken and and unattainable goals. the written language, the Greek language managed During the 2nd century A.D., the Roman state to beat out Latin in the struggle for linguistic dom- flourished. Education was no longer restricted to a ination of the East. This great victory greatly con- narrow aristocracy. The Greek-speaking portion tributed to the gradual Hellenization of the Eastern of the populace claimed cultural hegemony. At part of the Roman Empire. that time, the most popular writers of prose in the Greek-speaking world were the representatives of the Second Sophist Movement, led by Aelios Alexander the Great the the Trans- Aristeides (129-181). These witty Atticists, appar- mission of the Greek Language ently captivated, with their well-paid talks, even illiterate audiences who failed to understand their The conquests of Alexander the Great and the polit- sophist nuances or their manners of speech, due ical and cultural unification of the Eastern Mediter- to the radical social changes that had taken place. ranean, Asia Minor and the Middle East are histor- Finally, strict Atticism was also accepted by the ical phenomena that can be explained by the con- established Christian Church. This causes one to text of that period – however, they are also related wonder how much of the wise words of the Great with the personality of the Macedonian King. The Fathers of the Church the poor congregation could creation of the Hellenistic world, which later be- even comprehend. However, among the achieve- came the backdrop for the Roman presence in the ments of Atticism were the protection of the writ- area and for the spreading of Christianity, was the ten language from the influx of Latin words, and result of both the socio-economic changes in Greece the protection of the cultural tradition of the Classi- and Alexander’s conscious choice. The founding cal world from the purges and onslaughts of fanatic of numerous cities with a mixed (Greek and local) Christians. population in the subjugated regions; the intermar- riages of the Macedonians with Asian princesses; However, retrogression came at a high price. The the preservation of institutions and practices in ar- fixation of the Atticists on their glorious past and eas that formerly belonged to multinational and their refusal to accept the self-evident truth that multicultural empires; the plans for the transfer of language evolved over time, led to bilingualism, populations from Greece to Asia and vice versa – which afflicted the nation for two thousand years all these indications prove that Alexander had en- and widened the gap between the educated minor- visioned the creation of a new Empire, not just the ity and the rude masses. Access to the benefits annexation of lands to the Macedonian kingdom. of education presupposed a long occupation with texts. This distorted estimation of a text based Just as the military supremacy of the Athenians only on its language was the principal reason for was associated with their cultural supremacy and the neglect of authors writing in simpler language resulted in the domination of the Attic dialect – a fact that resulted in the loss of important scien- over the Ionian, Alexander’s victorious campaign tific and literary works. against the Persians in the second half of the 4th century created the political framework and the Towards the end of the fifth century A.D. in the conditions that resulted in the dissemination of the wider Greek world, the state of language was neb- Greek language and, subsequently, of Greek civi- ulous. The Koine dominated oral speech, although lization. The language of the time, known as the differences were observed within each region, due Koine, was developed gradually as a unified lan- to both tribal allegiances, social stratification and guage used only by many inhabitants of the Greek the overall differences in education. The written universe, in lieu of various ancient Greek dialects. text was multifaceted. Authors who targeted the general audience as well as administrators compro- At the time of Alexander, the Classical notion of
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the “citizen” was replaced by that of the “cos- tleness –all of them basic elements of Greek phi- mopolitan” and Greek cities were founded every- losophy. Combining the great theological tradition where. Greeks were all those partaking in Greek of Judaism, transferred by the laws and prophets education. Thus, the term “Greek” did not relate of the time, Christianity and Hellenism followed a only with ethnic background, but also with the common route, though not without conflicts. Greek education and way of life – and it was re- Thus, the Koine, which was the formal written flected in language. It included the Macedonians, and spoken language in the areas of the East- the Classical Greeks, the Persians and other na- ern Mediterranean from the time of Alexander the tions of Asia, or, even, the entire universe. This lan- Great to approximately the 6th century A.D., be- guage was a simplified version of the Attic language, came the language of the sacred texts of Chris- dictated by the new needs of the large and het- tianity. Moreover, the texts of the Old and New erogeneous population groups in Alexander’s vast Testament along with the inscriptions and the pa- empire. The Hellenistic Koine became an interna- pyri, are the main sources of information for the tional language and was used by the Greeks and the language of the period. Hellenized foreigners of Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria and Persia. It was not only the official language of The Bible consists of 66 books, starting with the the administration but also the language of intel- Genesis of the Old Testament and ending with lect, literature and commercial transactions – the the Apocalypse of St. John, the last book of the common code of the many inhabitants of the Hel- New Testament. The term Old Testament was lenistic world – the “lingua franca” of its time. used by the Christians to distinguish the Judaic scripts from the New Testament, which includes the preaching of Christ and his disciples. Old and New Testament The 39 books of the Old Testament were translated from Judaic and Aramaic into Greek in Alexan- At the time when the Koine was the dominant lan- dreia, from the 3rd to the 1st century B.C. This guage, Greece’s political submission to Rome was translation is known as the Old Testament ac- succeeded by its cultural submission to Christian- cording to the Seventy (O), because according ity, which constituted a true milestone in the his- to a historically unsound tradition, Ptolemy II tory of the Mediterranean and, later, of Europe as Philadelpheus commissioned the translation of the well. Christianity emerged when the linguistic and Judaic Law to 72 Judean scholars –six from every spiritual unity of the Eastern Mediterranean had al- tribe – to meet the needs of the Greek-speaking Ju- ready taken place. As Greece was the best-known daists of the area. In essence, this is the oeuvre of language and Greek philosophical and rhetorical many translators – a fact that explains its linguistic schools existed in all major cities, Greek civiliza- dissimilarity. tion had established its presence to the peoples of the East. Similarly, the 27 books of the New Testament, which were written straight into Greek, exhibit a The new religion opposed the ancient Greek way stylistic discrepancy, though with clear Semitic in- of life, while the pagan religious rites of the an- fluence. Aramaisms and Judaisms could be due cient Greeks came into real conflict with the Chris- to either the bilingualism of the authors or their tian tradition. However, Christianity was related conscious attempt to imitate the language of the to the principles of Stoic philosophy and the es- Seventy. Atticisms, Latin terms and neologisms oteric principles of Platonism, as well as to mes- abound in both the Gospels and the New Testa- sages related to self-control, philanthropy and gen- ment.
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