[B-Greek] Classical to Koine
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Mar 30 06:25:09 EST 2004
At 11:09 PM -0500 3/29/04, Bradley Dollard wrote:
>I have for the past school year been taking a course in Classical Greek, and
>would like to know if there are any pitfalls for which I ought to especially
>watch out in applying what little training that I have in Classical Greek to
>Hellenistic Greek. I would be especially grateful for any information on
>changes in the language which might lead me to make inaccurate translations.
There are things you'll have to get used to, but generally the Koine is
easier than Classical Attic. There's an article by Jay Treat that is hardly
exhaustive but a very good introduction on the web, "Differences Between
Classical and Hellenistic Greek: A Quick Introduction" at
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~jtreat/koine/classical.html
One ought to recognize that the Koine is a language in flux,that different
stylistic levels are used by different writers, that some writers tend to
use more of the constructions and style of an older literary tradition
(Luke) while others tend to use the kind of Greek you might expect of those
for whom it is a secondary--not their native--tongue.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list