[B-Greek] The Language of the NT
Randall Buth
randallbuth at gmail.com
Sun Jan 20 10:39:29 EST 2008
Yes, it is a good read.
I know Vit, a bright, engaging linguist, and have looked through his
book once upon a time, but do not have it be-heseg yad 'within reach'.
We should probably add to a good reading list his
Hellenistic and Roman Greece as a Sociolinguistic Area (Amsterdam, 1989).
Thank you for mentioning and annotating.
Randall
On Jan 20, 2008 5:22 AM, Kevin Riley <klriley at alphalink.com.au> wrote:
> A good read if you can find it is Vít Bubeník's "The Phonological
> Interpretation of Ancient Greek: A Pandialectal Analysis" (1983). It gives
> a clear idea of what the situation was in classical and pre-classical Greek.
> What is interesting is that almost all the changes from classical Attic to
> Koiné are in place in other dialects in classical times. Not that any
> dialect exhibited all of them, but the changes had occurred in one or more
> of the other dialects. What surprised me most was that there is evidence
> for a stress accent existing in some dialects in pre-classical times. It
> made me realise how important it is to pay attention to location.
> Inscriptions from outside the Attic-Ionic area may not be showing changes
> from Classical Attic to Koiné, but rather changes that happened in the local
> dialect many centuries previously.
>
> Kevin Riley
>
> -------Original Message-------
>
> From: Randall Buth
> Date: 18/01/2008 10:15:02 PM
>
>
> John Sanders egrapse
> >... Phonologically speaking, ... It also
> Appears that although there is no Attic Koine before Alexander, most of the
> Elements that make up Attic Koine exist dispersed among the various Greek
> Dialects.
> ..
> I will posit that the other boundary is that
> "Koine Greek" is spoken in Athens when Aristotle and Demosthenes are
> Chatting up a storm.
> >
>
> You are doing some nice studying and thinking. On your reconstruction --
> The assumption ("boundary") that Aristotle was speaking a non-classical
> Koine
> Is going in the direction of Teodorsson, The Phonemic System of the Attic
> Dialect 400-340 B.C. (1974) and Teodorsson, The Phonology of Ptolemaic Koine
>
> (1977).
>
> Possible, though I think that most Greek historians are happier to
> Place the 'Great
> Vowel Shift' after Aristotle rather than before. The rapid,
> Post-Alexander spread of
> Greek is a convenient and sufficient sociolinguistic catalyst. Of
> Course, historically,
> The fact that Aristotle trained Alexander and that Alexander set up
> The new lingua
> Franca would also lead to a new world-wide situation IF Aristotle were
> already
> Pronouncing a Koine system.
> Most linguists find the data used by Teodorsson too slight for
> The strong thesis that all the changes took place before Aristotle,
> Though there is
> Relative unanimity that during the Ptolemaic period the changes become/
> Were-in-place as the Koine Greek language. A nice summary is available
> In Horrocks, Greek, A Hisotry ... P 102-107. This leaves a seven-vowel Koine
>
> System in PRE-Christian times. PAUL and LUKE would write with it and
> It is behind
> All NT manuscript history. [[NB: Neither Paul nor Luke, not even
> Aristotle or Plato
> Or Homer knew an Erasmian pronunciation.]] Morphologically, though, some
> Koine
> Forms do start to spread in the 4th century (GINWSKW versus GIGNWSKW, EQHKAN
>
> For EQESAN). (If someone wants to see the seven vowel Koine system
> Discussed with
> Sample data, see www.biblicalulpan.org under "courses", "Greek demo"
> "Pronunciation...". Yes, Greek Part 2a is now available, too.)
>
> However, one reads the data, the Koine vowel system was certainly in place
> During Ptolemaic times and MAY have been in place for the masses in Athens
> by
> Aristotle's time. For example, Teodorsson's popular Attic of 350 BCE has
> dropped
> Phonemic length and has the seven-vowel Koine system plus a lower
> Wi [ipa backwards c as in 'awe'] while O-mikron and W-mega were the same,
> Except for being distinguished from Wi. Thus, a mono-length 8-vowel system
> for
> Popular speech in 350 BCE Athens.
>
> As you mentnioned, changes take place over time. However, systems tend to
> Re-orient after any change is made and the result can be a rather
> far-reaching
> Realignment within a generation or two. Note the Great English Vowel shift,
> Rather suddenly after Chaucer, historically speaking.
> With Greek it appears that the first sound to go was EI becoming I,
> And the time
>
> Of Alexander/Aristotle isn't a bad location.
> But H seems to remain stable for several centuries, (as mentioned the
> Greeks never knew Erasmian EI=H, which explains why one could shift before
> The other) and H only followed and merged into
> The I sound of "EI" in the 2-4th c. CE.
>
> ERRWSO
> IWANHS
>
> --
> Randall Buth, PhD
>
--
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
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