[B-Greek] new guy, first question
Barry Hofstetter
nebarry at verizon.net
Sat Apr 23 09:04:03 EDT 2005
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at ioa.com>
To: "Barry Hofstetter" <nebarry at verizon.net>
Cc: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2005 8:49 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] new guy, first question
> But, as I've stated for my own opinion previously, several features of Modern
> Greek that are different from Attic are not uncommonly evident in GNT texts.
> One such feature is obvious: the use of -A endings in tenses which were once
> exclusively thematic; another is the substantive usage of hINA + subj.
> clauses. So, while it may certainly be said that Modern Greek is a different
> language from the Koine, both forms clearly belong to an ongoing diachronic
> development of one Indo-European language. I don't mean to start an argument
> here, simply to reiterate one of my recurrent quibbles.
Carl, if one has a pet peeve, it demands to be petted on a regular basis... :)
Seriously, no argument at all here. Modern Greek is Greek, and there are clear
and evident diachronic developments from the earlier periods of the language in
the total I-E context. But for the purposes of reading ancient literature,
which capture one synchronic point of the language, it is didactically pragmatic
to treat it separately. If the difference between Demotike and Attic is the
difference between Beowulf and and Hemingway, then the difference between Koine
and Attic is the difference between Shakespeare and Hemingway (sort of).
N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Fecisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te...
-- Augustine, Confessions 1:1
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1yfx7/
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