[B-Greek] Koine and Homeric

Micheal W.Palmer mwpalmer at greek-language.com
Mon Apr 12 01:03:26 EDT 2004


Here are a few observations relevant to Bert's question to Carl about 
Koine Greek being a "langauge in flux."

As you note, all language are to some extent "in flux." They all change 
over time. I believe a solid case can be made for viewing Koine Greek 
as a language in a particularly intense state of flux, though.

The Hellenistic-Roman period was one of tremendous cultural change, and 
language change is accelerated when cultural change is intense. 
Beginning with the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 300s BCE, 
many local cultures (and local language groups) were absorbed into the 
widening area of Greek influence. When the Romans came to dominate some 
of these same regions, a second wave of cultural changed followed 
(though Latin never had the impact that Greek did in the East).

There are, of course, similar examples of cultural change in the modern 
world, but the language change they cause is sometimes mediated or 
masked by the presence of a constraint that Koine Greek did not face: 
the prominent role of print media. The invention of the printing press 
allowed a standardization of writing conventions that was not present 
before that point, so change in WRITTEN language slowed down to some 
extent as literacy and availability of books became more widespread. Of 
course, writing conventions cannot prevent language change, but they 
can artificially retard the change of the written form of the language. 
The amazing difference between the way English is spoken and written is 
a direct result of this phenomenon. Why do we still spell the past 
tense of "teach" as "taught," for example, even though no one has 
pronounced it with a gutteral fricative (the "gh") for over 250 years? 
Koine Greek did not face this artificial retardation of change in the 
writing system. People tended to write the way they spoke. When speech 
changed, so did written documents.

The impact of print media on language change will almost certainly be 
reduced in the years to come by the presence of electronic 
communication, where writing conventions are much looser.


On Sunday, April 11, 2004, at 08:54  AM, Carl W. Conrad wrote:

> At 6:51 AM -0400 4/11/04, <bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca> wrote:
>> Carl,you wrote;
>>
>> .... I've argued
>>> often enough on earlier occasions on this list  that students who 
>>> concern
>>> themselves only with a synchronic study of Koine Greek are likely 
>>> not to
>>> appreciate the extent to which Koine Greek is a language in flux, a
>>> language some of whose users/writers who are conscious of the 
>>> heritage of
>>> the tradition will employ constructions and usages that have already 
>>> become
>>> rare if they haven't vanished from the spoken language, while other
>>> users/writers are commonly employing constructions and usages that 
>>> will
>>> become standard in the centuries thereafter.....
>>
>> Several times you have written about Koine being a language in flux. I
>> thought that you meant languages in general.
>> (The Dutch language has undergone some changes in the 25 years since I
>> left The Netherlands)
>> But I am getting the impression that you specifically meant Koine 
>> Greek.
>> Are the changes in koine more drastic than in other Greek, or in 
>> languages
>> in general?




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