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The Greek Language: an Historical Study

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The Greek Language: an Historical Study Illinois Wesleyan University Digital Commons @ IWU Honors Projects Greek and Roman Studies 1960 The Greek Language: An Historical Study Richard C. Leonard '60 Illinois Wesleyan University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/grs_honproj Part of the Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons Recommended Citation Leonard '60, Richard C., "The Greek Language: An Historical Study" (1960). Honors Projects. 3. https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/grs_honproj/3 This Article is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Commons @ IWU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this material in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This material has been accepted for inclusion by faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ©Copyright is owned by the author of this document. () 0 0 r::;J Q I /' IJ � -t. <7 �/.o, b� rn G"l 0\ b GREECE 400 B.C. \ Dialects 1---' Attic- Arca0-0- CJ- L-J Ionic Cypr lan c::J Doric t£�;�r CJ an) o Narth1Ae3tr--""l Th es s alian o Greek L-.J and Boetian Richard C. Leonard Tim GREEK LANGUAGE: AN HISTORICAL ST1JlJY prepared under the spon- sorship of Dr. Cho.rles H. �I.'hrall, as a requirement for graduation with Honors in Greek at the Commence- ment of June, 1960. T'/ L f Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington, Illinois May, 1960 / IIIJCK M1i!MOIIlAL LIlIIIAIi:Y lLU'IOIS WESLEYAN!IISH'Y UMV 'fEE GREEK LfllWUAGE: AN HISTORICAL STUDY Richard C. Leonard CONTErlTS Map of Greece, 400 B.C. Frontispioce I. Introductory remarks 1 II. The Indo-European language family 4 III. Early history of Greek; the dialects 9 / IV. Formation of the 1(0''1'11 20 V. Greek literature 2'7 VI. Greek in English 40 Bibliography 1 Ie Introductory This is deS.LguCiu so that it can without dif- f iculty not only by those who have 8 tudj_ed the Greek language but also by those with only a limited knowledge of the Greek alphabet. Accordingly, although all Gre words in the Greek a1pha- bet, most of them are transliterated in parentheses, especially where the Greek letters do not resemble their English equivalents. Furthermore, most quotations of texts are provided with in- ter1inear cl'aIlLslations so that the arrangement of is appar- ent to those who cannot translate the Greek themselves. In Section VI. the usual method of transliteration is explained, s the English words of Greek derivation 1isteci in that section were transliterated according to t!lat method. However, t method used the viritel' differs slightly, as he fe that in certain cases the usual transliteration tends to give an incorrect of the actual pronunciation of the Greek word. For example, the letter upsilon is usually transliterated as whereas act- u ( ) I, " u£11 s of Iet te r 'if D.S S orr,ei; hing 1 the German �, oc- cas :tonally as in chute 0 writer's system of transl ion � is glven along \'lith the Greek alphabet on the follonlng two and can refer to it whenever necess reading this paper. no a tternpt has been to deal with the acc of in terms of cruLl:sliteration. In ancient t three ac acute " , c irclunflex '"' amI the ' -- denoted a ( ) ( ) ( ) c :tn pitch, i1' function at 8 is to iate spell , o:r� 80me cases to indicate s in 8 from an , as th the c over vovlel c tions. jThe Greek A.lphabet Capital Small Viriter's I,etters Letters Name 'l'ranslitera tion Pronunciation A <l Alpha a a as in father Beta b b' sometimes v B � -' - r Gamma g, (n)g g as in got; sometimes y soft, byI'Oroing air through it; n as in finger before K, orX 1, � Delta d d', sometimes th as in weather e. Epsilon e e as in get E Zeta dz dz as in adz 'Z. � H 'I') Eta (!j a as in late e Theta th th as in hothousel e Iota i i as in pit, ee as in r :reet I� Kappa k k K A A Lambda 1 1 },Iu m m .M fA n n 'V Uu N '=' Xi x X a8 in fix (not as in ,.... � xylophone) 0 Omicron 0 0 as in obey 0 - --" 7T Pi P II 1: p P Rho l' l' '» 2 <1"( ) Sigma s s as in sit I: ,. T Tau t u T u Upsilon u, {13 u as in chute, b1tt more T often a8 German u l q, oj> Phi ph ph as in mop handle Chi kh kh as blockheadl X X (1) ot th as in theory, ph as f in fat, nor ch a8 in German according to ChadV!lck, ,Tonn, The DecTj5nermentof Ioinear 12, p (2) at the end of a word (3) transliterated as H 1n cases where the ish trans- 11terat10n is y 3 Hal ','Jri tor! s Le ters Letters Harne !11ransll tion prommcintion Psi ps ps as in tipsy, not 'Y 'I' in psychology as LV Omoga (5 o as in note {} Digamma v v or orobably -'w as F Tn povler4 ( Rough h h Breathing ,['he Greek alphabet has been in constant use since the eighth century B.C., and Vias derived from the Phoenician alphabet. Greek colonists in Ita.ly gave the Romans a modtfied vers1�on of the Gre alphabet, which became the Roman alphabet in vlh:tch EnGlish is virit- ten. The principle source for the information contained in this paper is The Greek L,unguage, by Basil F. C. Atkinson (London: l�aber and Faber, 19:5::\), hereinafter referred to as "Atkinson." ,F'or information on other sources referred to, consult the bib110- graph�l � Of the importance of the study of the Greek language little need be said; the final section of this paper ShOllld be evidence enough. The greatness of Greek civilization is in no small meas- ure due to the fJ,daptability of the language with which the Greeks expressed themselves,: and as western civilization owes much to that of ancient Greece, so it is indebted to the vehicle of that civilization. D and the rough are not considered part 4) of the( Greek alphabet. fell out of use around .C., since in most cases it was superfluous; Similarly, we350 drop the w in power spell it�, ;1ith sour. • The Greek is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. TherE) are seven other branches represented by currently spoken languages: (1) Ger",anic-- extinct Gothic; modern German, ish, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages: (2) Balto-Slavic-- Lith- uanian, Polish, Russian and the southern Slavic tone;ues (3) Ary- an-- ancient Vedic and Sanskr:tt; modern Hindi, Bengali and Per- sian (4) Italic-- ancient Oscan and Umbrian; Latin and the mod- ern Romance languae;es such as French, Spanish, Italian and Ruman- ian (5) Celtic, once widely spoken but noVi confined to the Brit- ish Isles and Brittany (6 ) modern Armenian modern Albanian. (7) There have been Indo-European lane;uages belonging to none of these groups, as is the case ;vith certain languages of the ancient Hit- tite Empire. Indo-European languages have, of course, certain cOEimon char- acteristics and even certain vJords � For example, our English word �hel' is the equivalent of Sa nskrit pitar, Greek ITaTl)p (pa­ ter), Latin pater, German yater, Prench pere, Armenian �, and Old Irish athir. In each case a COl,"!non Indo-J�ur'opean root has been altered according to certain linguistic tendencies. In Indo-European "'O.H!:"A·"IC,VS a word normally consis t8 of three elements: a root, which carries the princtpal meaning of the word, plus 8. ix and ending, each of which conveys certain informfl- t ion about how the vlOrd is be used. For example, the Greek ., !t Vlord IWplOU (kuriou) "of a lord" may be divided into a root (KUpl-) signifying a noble person, 9. suffix (-0-) indicating the masculine , gender means "lady"), and an ending indicating the (Iwpla (-u) 8enetive case. In lanGuQGes such as Enelinh tho inflec- tions, or chane8S in suffix ending, have been lost. VIe ern- ploy pl'epositions, emphasis, punctuation and \Iord order to ex- press Vias formerly conveyed by inflections. We make no change in the Vlord itself, except to add::!. in the plural. 'l'he following table Viill illustrate the difference between an in- flected and a non-inflected language ef the Indo-]�uropean group: - a lord speaks I t' A" (ho logos k��ur�ou" ' ) - the Vlord of a lord o 0"(05 I{UP'OU Ao.AiI KUp(� (lalei ,{ur�o1" . -) - he speaks to a lord Ii , (blep1:l kurion) - I s ee a lord ��i.TTw l<°PIO'V (lalEd, lrur�e) - Lord, speakl A�A(.I, 1< tip I (- " . The five cases of Greek (neminative, genetive, dative, accusa- tive and vocative, in the order listed above), ,lith five more forms in the plural, are able to do v:hat in English recl'uires an extensive rev;ol"lking of the sentence {I Certain English nouns illustrate the use of suffix and end- to a ted For example, the ytor'd aetorts can be divided :into a root (act-) plus a suffix (-01'-) signifyin8 mas­ culine gendel' (as opposed to actress) and an (-�) indi- eating possession.
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