Ancient Greek was the language ofHomer and offifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, andphilosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a standard subject of study in educational institutions of theWestern world since theRenaissance. This article primarily contains information about theEpic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek.
Ancient Greek was apluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups areAttic andIonic,Aeolic,Arcadocypriot, andDoric, many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms inliterature, while others are attested only in inscriptions.
There are also several historical forms.Homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in theepic poems, theIliad and theOdyssey, and in later poems by other authors.[3] Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects.
History
The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the commonProto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period[a] isMycenaean Greek, but its relationship to the historical dialects and the historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form.
Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of theDorian invasions—and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to the historicalDorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians.
The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from the center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation.
West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West is called 'East Greek'.
Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age.
Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of theBoeotian poetPindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture.[6]Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree.
Pamphylian Greek, spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence.[7]
TheLesbian dialect was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poetSappho from the island ofLesbos are in Aeolian.[14]
Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (includingCretan Doric), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (includingLaconian, the dialect ofSparta), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (includingCorinthian).
All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects.
After the conquests ofAlexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known asKoine or Common Greek developed, largely based onAttic Greek, but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in theTsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs ofDemotic Greek. By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed intoMedieval Greek.
Ancient Greek differs fromProto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. Inphonotactics, ancient Greek words could end only in a vowel or/nsr/; final stops were lost, as inγάλα "milk", compared withγάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes,[21] notably the following:
PIE*s became/h/ at the beginning of a word (debuccalization): Latinsex, Englishsix, ancient Greekἕξ/héks/.
PIE*s waselided between vowels after an intermediate step of debuccalization: Sanskritjanasas, Latingeneris (wheres >r byrhotacism), Greek *genesos > *genehos > ancient Greekγένεος (/ɡéneos/), Atticγένους (/ɡénoːs/) "of a kind".
PIE*y/j/ became/h/ (debuccalization) or/(d)z/ (fortition): Sanskrityas, ancient Greekὅς/hós/ "who" (relative pronoun); Latiniugum, Englishyoke, ancient Greekζυγός/zyɡós/.
PIE*w, which occurred inMycenaean and some non-Attic dialects, was lost: early Doricϝέργον/wérɡon/, Englishwork, Attic Greekἔργον/érɡon/.
PIE and Mycenaean labiovelars changed to plain stops (labials, dentals, and velars) in the later Greek dialects: for instance, PIE*kʷ became/p/ or/t/ in Attic: Attic Greekποῦ/pôː/ "where?", Latinquō; Attic Greekτίς/tís/, Latinquis "who?".
PIE "voiced aspirated" stopsbʰ dʰ ǵʰ gʰ gʷʰ were devoiced and became the aspirated stopsφ θ χ/pʰtʰkʰ/ in ancient Greek.
The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that ofModern Greek. Ancient Greek hadlong and short vowels; manydiphthongs;double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspiratedstops; and apitch accent. In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as/i/ (iotacism). Some of the stops andglides in diphthongs have becomefricatives, and the pitch accent has changed to astress accent. Many of the changes took place in theKoine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes.
The examples below represent Attic Greek in the 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent.
1[ŋ] occurred as anallophone of/n/ that was used before velars and as an allophone of/ɡ/ before nasals.
2/s/ was assimilated to[z] before voiced consonants.
3/h/ was earlier writtenΗ, but when the same letter (eta) was co-opted to stand for a vowel,/h/ was dropped from writing, to be restored later in the form of a diacritic, therough breathing.
4/r/ was probably a voiceless/r̥/ when word-initially andgeminated (writtenῥ andῥῥ).
Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations oftenses andaspect (generally simply called "tenses"): thepresent,future, andimperfect areimperfective in aspect; theaorist,present perfect,pluperfect andfuture perfect areperfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice.
Augment
The indicative of pasttenses adds (conceptually, at least) a prefix /e-/, called theaugment. This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to theindicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist).
The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixese (stems beginning withr, however, adder). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel:
a, ā, e, ē → ē
i, ī → ī
o, ō → ō
u, ū → ū
ai → ēi
ei → ēi or ei
oi → ōi
au → ēu or au
eu → ēu or eu
ou → ou
Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation ise →ei. The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss ofs between vowels, or that of the letterw, which affected the augment when it was word-initial.In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example,προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes toπροσέβαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word:αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes toηὐτομόλησα in the aorist.
FollowingHomer's practice, the augment is sometimes not made inpoetry, especiallyepic poetry.
The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below.
Reduplication
Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types ofreduplication are:
Syllabic reduplication: Most verbs beginning with a single consonant, or a cluster of a stop with a sonorant, add a syllable consisting of the initial consonant followed bye. An aspirated consonant, however, reduplicates in its unaspirated equivalent (seeGrassmann's law).
Augment: Verbs beginning with a vowel, as well as those beginning with a cluster other than those indicated previously (and occasionally for a few other verbs) reduplicate in the same fashion as the augment. This remains in all forms of the perfect, not just the indicative.
Attic reduplication: Some verbs beginning with ana,e oro, followed by a sonorant (or occasionallyd org), reduplicate by adding a syllable consisting of the initial vowel and following consonant, and lengthening the following vowel. Henceer →erēr,an →anēn,ol →olōl,ed →edēd. This is not specific toAttic Greek, despite its name, but it was generalized in Attic. This originally involved reduplicating a cluster consisting of alaryngeal and sonorant, henceh₃l →h₃leh₃l →olōl with normal Greek development of laryngeals. (Forms with a stop were analogous.)
Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example,lambanō (rootlab) has the perfect stemeilēpha (not *lelēpha) because it was originallyslambanō, with perfectseslēpha, becomingeilēpha through compensatory lengthening.
Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed byi. A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs.[22]
The beginning ofApology byPlato exemplifiesAttic Greek from the Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is theIPA, the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of theErasmian scheme.)
How you, men of Athens, are feeling under the power of my accusers, I do not know: actually, even I myself almost forgot who I was because of them, they spoke so persuasively. And yet, loosely speaking, nothing they have said is true.
The study of Ancient Greek in European countries in addition toLatin occupied an important place in the syllabus from theRenaissance until the beginning of the 20th century. This was true as well in the United States, where many of the nation's Founders received a classically based education.[23]Latin was emphasized in American colleges, but Greek also was required in the Colonial and Early National eras,[24] and the study of ancient Greece became increasingly popular in the mid-to-late Nineteenth Century, the age of Americanphilhellenism.[25] In particular, female intellectuals of the era designated the mastering of ancient Greek as essential in becoming a "woman of letters."[26]
Ancient Greek is still taught as a compulsory or optional subject especially at traditional or elite schools throughout Europe, such aspublic schools andgrammar schools in theUnited Kingdom. It is compulsory in theliceo classico inItaly, in thegymnasium in theNetherlands, in some classes inAustria, inklasična gimnazija (grammar school – orientation: classical languages) inCroatia, in classical studies inASO in Belgium and it is optional in thehumanities-orientedgymnasium inGermany, usually as a third language after Latin and English, from the age of 14 to 18. In 2006/07, 15,000 pupils studied ancient Greek in Germany according to theFederal Statistical Office of Germany, and 280,000 pupils studied it in Italy.[27]
It is a compulsory subject alongside Latin in the humanities branch of theSpanish Baccalaureate. Ancient Greek is taught at most majoruniversities worldwide, often combined withLatin as part of the study ofclassics. In 2010 it was offered in three primary schools in theUK, to boost children's language skills,[28][29] and was one of seven foreign languages which primary schools could teach 2014 as part of a major drive to boost education standards.[30][needs update]
Ancient Greek is taught as a compulsory subject in allgymnasiums andlyceums inGreece.[31][32] Starting in 2001, an annual international competition "Exploring the Ancient Greek Language and Culture" (Greek:Διαγωνισμός στην Αρχαία Ελληνική Γλώσσα και Γραμματεία) was run for upper secondary students through the GreekMinistry of National Education and Religious Affairs, with Greek language and cultural organisations as co-organisers.[33] It appears to have ceased in 2010, having failed to gain the recognition and acceptance of teachers.[34]
Modern real-world usage
Modern authors rarely write in ancient Greek, thoughJan Křesadlo wrote some poetry and prose in the language, andHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,[35]some volumes ofAsterix,[36] andThe Adventures of Alix have been translated into ancient Greek.Ὀνόματα Kεχιασμένα (Onomata Kechiasmena) is the first magazine of crosswords and puzzles in ancient Greek.[37] Its first issue appeared in April 2015 as an annex toHebdomada Aenigmatum.Alfred Rahlfs included a preface, a short history of theSeptuagint text, and otherfront matter translated into ancient Greek in his 1935 edition of the Septuagint; Robert Hanhart also included the introductory remarks to the 2006 revised Rahlfs–Hanhart edition in the language as well.[38] Akropolis World News reports weekly a summary of the most important news in ancient Greek.[39]
Ancient Greek is also used by organizations and individuals, mainly Greek, who wish to denote their respect, admiration or preference for the use of this language. This use is sometimes considered graphical, nationalistic or humorous. In any case, the fact that modern Greeks can still wholly or partly understand texts written in non-archaic forms of ancient Greek shows the affinity of the modern Greek language to its ancestral predecessor.[39]
Ancient Greek is often used in the coinage of modern technical terms in the European languages: seeEnglish words of Greek origin.Latinized forms of ancient Greek roots are used in many of thescientific names ofspecies and in scientific terminology.
^Newton, Brian E.; Ruijgh, Cornelis Judd (13 April 2018)."Greek Language".Encyclopædia Britannica.Archived from the original on 20 May 2019. Retrieved22 May 2019.
^Roger D. Woodard (2008), "Greek dialects", in:The Ancient Languages of Europe, ed. R. D. Woodard, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 51.
^abCrespo, Emilio (2018). "The Softening of Obstruent Consonants in the Macedonian Dialect". In Giannakis, Georgios K.; Crespo, Emilio; Filos, Panagiotis (eds.).Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea. Walter de Gruyter. p. 329.ISBN978-3-11-053081-0.
^Dosuna, J. Méndez (2012). "Ancient Macedonian as a Greek dialect: A critical survey on recent work (Greek, English, French, German text)". In Giannakis, Georgios K. (ed.).Ancient Macedonia: Language, History, Culture. Centre for Greek Language. p. 145.ISBN978-960-7779-52-6.
^Reynolds, Margaret (2001).The Sappho Companion. London: Vintage. p. 18.ISBN978-0-09-973861-9.
^Brixhe, Cl. "Le Phrygien". In Fr. Bader (ed.),Langues indo-européennes, pp. 165–178, Paris: CNRS Editions.
^Brixhe, Claude (2008). "Phrygian". In Woodard, Roger D (ed.).The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press. pp. 69–80.ISBN978-0-521-68496-5. "Unquestionably, however, Phrygian is most closely linked with Greek." (p. 72).
^Thirty-six of the eighty-nine men who signed the Declaration of Independence and attended the Constitutional Convention went to a colonial college, all of which offered only the classical curricula. Richard M. Gummere,The American Colonial Mind and the Classical Tradition, p.66 (1963). Admission to Harvard, for example, required that the applicant: "Can readily make and speak or write true Latin prose and has skill in making verse, and is competently grounded in the Greek language so as to be able to construe and grammatically to resolve ordinary Greek, as in the Greek Testament, Isocrates, and the minor poets." Meyer Reinhold,Classica Americana: The Greek and Roman Heritage in the United States, p.27 (1984).
^Harvard's curriculum was patterned after those of Oxford and Cambridge, and the curricula of other Colonial colleges followed Harvard's. Lawrence A. Cremin,American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607–1783, pp. 128–129 (1970), and Frederick Rudolph,Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study Since 1636, pp. 31–32 (1978)
^Caroline Winterer,The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Cultural Life, 1780–1910, pp.3–4 (2002).
^Yopie Prins,Ladies' Greek: Victorian Translations of Tragedy, pp. 5–6 (2017). See also Timothy Kearley,Roman Law, Classical Education, and Limits on Classical Participation in America into the Twentieth-Century, pp. 54–55, 97–98 (2022)
^"Ministry publication"(PDF).www.edscuola.it.Archived(PDF) from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved27 October 2010.
Horrocks, Geoffrey.Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers. 2d ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
Janko, Richard. "The Origins and Evolution of the Epic Diction." InThe Iliad: A Commentary. Vol. 4, Books 13–16. Edited by Richard Janko, 8–19. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992.
Jeffery, Lilian Hamilton.The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece: Revised Edition with a Supplement by A. W. Johnston. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1990.
Morpurgo Davies, Anna, and Yves Duhoux, eds.A Companion to Linear B: Mycenaean Greek Texts and their World. Vol. 1. Louvain, Belgium: Peeters, 2008.
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