Medieval stage of the Greek language
Medieval Greek
(also known as
Middle Greek
,
Byzantine Greek
, or
Romaic
) is the stage of the
Greek language
between the end of
classical antiquity
in the 5th?6th centuries and the end of the
Middle Ages
, conventionally dated to the
Ottoman conquest of Constantinople
in 1453.
From the 7th century onwards, Greek was the only language of administration and government in the
Byzantine Empire
. This stage of language is thus described as Byzantine Greek. The study of the Medieval Greek language and literature is a branch of
Byzantine studies
, the study of the history and culture of the Byzantine Empire.
The beginning of Medieval Greek is occasionally dated back to as early as the 4th century, either to 330 AD, when the political centre of the
Roman Empire
was moved to
Constantinople
, or to 395 AD, the division of the empire. However, this approach is rather arbitrary as it is more an assumption of political, as opposed to cultural and linguistic, developments. Indeed, by this time the spoken language, particularly pronunciation, had already shifted towards modern forms.
[1]
The conquests of
Alexander the Great
, and the ensuing
Hellenistic period
, had caused Greek to spread to peoples throughout
Anatolia
and the Eastern Mediterranean, altering the spoken language's pronunciation and structure.
Medieval Greek is the link between this
vernacular
, known as
Koine Greek
, and
Modern Greek
. Though Byzantine Greek literature was still strongly influenced by
Attic Greek
, it was also influenced by vernacular Koine Greek, which is the language of the
New Testament
and the liturgical language of the
Greek Orthodox Church
.
History and development
[
edit
]
Constantine
(the Great) moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium (renamed Constantinople) in 330. The city, though a major imperial residence like other cities such as
Trier
,
Milan
and
Sirmium
, was not officially a capital until 359. Nonetheless, the imperial court resided there and the city was the political centre of the eastern parts of the
Roman Empire
where Greek was the dominant language. At first,
Latin
remained the language of both the court and the army. It was used for official documents, but its influence waned. From the beginning of the 6th century, amendments to the law were mostly written in Greek. Furthermore, parts of the Roman
Corpus Iuris Civilis
were gradually translated into Greek. Under the rule of Emperor
Heraclius
(610?641 AD), who also assumed the Greek title
Basileus
(
Greek
:
βασιλε??
, 'monarch') in 610, Greek became the official language of the
Eastern Roman Empire
.
[4]
This was in spite of the fact that the inhabitants of the empire still considered themselves
Rhomaioi
('Romans') until its end in 1453,
[5]
as they saw their State as the perpetuation of Roman rule. Latin continued to be used on the coinage until the ninth century and in certain court ceremonies for even longer.
Despite the absence of reliable demographic figures, it has been estimated that less than one third of the inhabitants of the Eastern Roman Empire, around eight million people, were native speakers of Greek.
[6]
The number of those who were able to communicate in Greek may have been far higher. The native Greek speakers consisted of many of the inhabitants of the southern
Balkan Peninsula
, south of the
Jire?ek Line
, and all of the inhabitants of
Asia Minor
, where the native tongues (
Phrygian
,
Lycian
,
Lydian
,
Carian
etc.), except
Armenian
in the east, had become extinct and replaced by Greek by the 5th century.
In any case, all cities of the Eastern Roman Empire were strongly influenced by the Greek language.
[7]
In the period between 603 and 619, the southern and eastern parts of the empire (
Syria
,
Egypt
,
North Africa
) were occupied by Persian
Sassanids
and, after being recaptured by
Heraclius
in the years 622 to 628, were conquered by the Arabs in the course of the
Muslim conquests
a few years later.
Alexandria
, a centre of Greek culture and language, fell to the Arabs in 642. During the seventh and eighth centuries, Greek was gradually replaced by Arabic as an official language in conquered territories such as Egypt,
[7]
as more people learned Arabic. Thus, the use of Greek declined early on in Syria and Egypt. The invasion of the Slavs into the Balkan Peninsula reduced the area where Greek and Latin was spoken (roughly north of a line from
Montenegro
to
Varna
on the
Black Sea
in
Bulgaria
). Sicily and parts of
Magna Graecia
, Cyprus, Asia Minor and more generally Anatolia, parts of the
Crimean Peninsula
remained Greek-speaking. The southern Balkans which would henceforth be
contested
between Byzantium and various Slavic kingdoms or empires. The Greek language spoken by one-third of the population of Sicily at the time of the Norman conquest 1060?1090 remained vibrant for more than a century, but slowly died out (as did Arabic) to a deliberate policy of Latinization in language and religion from the mid-1160s.
[
citation needed
]
From the late 11th century onwards, the interior of Anatolia was invaded by
Seljuq
Turks, who advanced westwards. With the
Ottoman
conquests of Constantinople in 1453, the Peloponnese in 1459 or 1460, the
Empire of Trebizond
in 1461, Athens in 1465, and two centuries later the
Duchy of Candia
in 1669, the Greek language lost its status as a national language until the emergence of modern Greece in the year 1821. Language varieties after 1453 are referred to as Modern Greek.
Diglossia
[
edit
]
As early as in the
Hellenistic period
, there was a tendency towards a state of
diglossia
between the
Attic
literary language and the constantly developing vernacular
Koine
. By late antiquity, the gap had become impossible to ignore. In the Byzantine era, written Greek manifested itself in a whole spectrum of divergent
registers
, all of which were consciously archaic in comparison with the contemporary spoken vernacular, but in different degrees.
[8]
They ranged from a moderately archaic style employed for most every-day writing and based mostly on the written Koine of the
Bible
and early Christian literature, to a highly artificial learned style, employed by authors with higher literary ambitions and closely imitating the model of classical Attic, in continuation of the movement of
Atticism
in late antiquity. At the same time, the spoken vernacular language developed on the basis of earlier spoken Koine, and reached a stage that in many ways resembles present-day
Modern Greek
in terms of grammar and phonology by the turn of the first millennium AD. Written literature reflecting this
Demotic Greek
begins to appear around 1100.
Among the preserved literature in the Attic literary language, various forms of historiography take a prominent place. They comprise
chronicles
as well as classicist, contemporary works of
historiography
, theological documents, and
saints' lives
. Poetry can be found in the form of hymns and
ecclesiastical
poetry. Many of the Byzantine emperors were active writers themselves and wrote chronicles or works on the running of the
Byzantine state
and strategic or philological works.
Furthermore, letters, legal texts, and numerous registers and lists in Medieval Greek exist. Concessions to spoken Greek can be found, for example, in John Malalas's
Chronography
from the 6th century, the
Chronicle
of
Theophanes the Confessor
(9th century) and the works of Emperor
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus
(mid-10th century). These are influenced by the vernacular language of their time in choice of words and
idiom
, but largely follow the models of written Koine in their
morphology
and
syntax
.
The spoken form of Greek was called
γλ?σσα δημ?δη?
(
gl?ssa d?m?d?s
'vernacular language'),
?πλοελληνικ?
(
haploell?nik?
'basic Greek'),
καθωμιλημ?νη
(
kath?mil?men?
'spoken') or
?ωμαι?κ?
(
Rh?maiik?
'Roman language'). Before the 13th century, examples of texts written in vernacular Greek are very rare. They are restricted to isolated passages of popular
acclamations
, sayings, and particularly common or untranslatable formulations which occasionally made their way into Greek literature. Since the end of the 11th century, vernacular Greek poems from the literary realm of
Constantinople
are documented.
The
Digenes Akritas
, a collection of heroic sagas from the 12th century that was later collated in a
verse epic
, was the first literary work completely written in the vernacular. The Greek vernacular verse epic appeared in the 12th century, around the time of the French romance novel, almost as a backlash to the Attic renaissance during the dynasty of the Komnenoi in works like
Psellos
's
Chronography
(in the middle of the 11th century) or the
Alexiad
, the biography of Emperor
Alexios I Komnenos
written by his daughter
Anna Komnena
about a century later. In fifteen-syllable
blank verse
(versus politicus), the
Digenes Akritas
deals with both ancient and medieval heroic sagas, but also with stories of animals and plants. The
Chronicle of the Morea
, a verse chronicle from the 14th century, is unique. It has also been preserved in French, Italian and
Aragonese
versions, and covers the history of
Frankish
feudalism on the
Peloponnese
during the
Latinokratia
of the
Principality of Achaea
, a crusader state set up after the
Fourth Crusade
and the 13th century
fall of Constantinople
.
The earliest evidence of prose vernacular Greek exists in some documents from southern Italy written in the tenth century. Later prose literature consists of statute books, chronicles and fragments of religious, historical and medical works. The dualism of literary language and vernacular was to persist until well into the 20th century, when the
Greek language question
was decided in favor of the vernacular in 1976.
Dialects
[
edit
]
The persistence until the Middle Ages of a single Greek speaking state, the Byzantine Empire, meant that, unlike
Vulgar Latin
, Greek did not split into separate languages. However, with the fracturing of the Byzantine state after the turn of the first millennium, newly isolated dialects such as
Mariupol Greek
, spoken in Crimea,
Pontic Greek
, spoken along the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor, and
Cappadocian
, spoken in central Asia Minor, began to diverge. In
Griko
, a language spoken in the southern Italian
exclaves
, and in
Tsakonian
, which is spoken on the Peloponnese, dialects of older origin continue to be used today.
Cypriot Greek
was already in a literary form in the late Middle Ages, being used in the
Assizes of Cyprus
and the chronicles of
Leontios Makhairas
and
Georgios Boustronios
.
Phonetics and phonology
[
edit
]
It is assumed that most of the developments leading to the
phonology
of
Modern Greek
had either already taken place in Medieval Greek and its
Hellenistic period
predecessor
Koine Greek
, or were continuing to develop during this period. Above all, these developments included the establishment of dynamic
stress
, which had already replaced the tonal system of Ancient Greek during the Hellenistic period. In addition, the vowel system was gradually reduced to five phonemes without any differentiation in vowel length, a process also well begun during the Hellenistic period. Furthermore, Ancient Greek
diphthongs
became
monophthongs
.
Vowels
[
edit
]
The
Suda
, an encyclopedia from the late 10th century, gives some indication of the vowel inventory. Following the antistoichic
[Note 1]
[
jargon
]
system, it lists terms
alphabetically
but arranges similarly pronounced letters side by side. In this way, for indicating
homophony
,
αι
is grouped together with
ε
/e?/
;
ει
and
η
together with
ι
/i/
;
ο
with
ω
/o?/
, and
οι
with
υ
/y/
. At least in educated speech, the vowel
/y/
, which had also merged with
υι
, likely did not lose lip-rounding and become
/i/
until the 10th/11th centuries. Up to this point, transliterations into Georgian continue using a different letter for
υ/οι
than for
ι/ει/η
,
[11]
and in the year 1030, Michael the
Grammarian
could still make fun of the bishop of
Philomelion
for confusing
ι
for
υ
.
[12]
In the 10th century, Georgian transliterations begin using the letter representing
/u/
(
?
) for
υ/οι
, in line with the alternative development in certain dialects like
Tsakonian
,
Megaran
and South Italian Greek where
/y/
reverted to
/u/
. This phenomenon perhaps indirectly indicates that the same original phoneme had merged with
/i/
in mainstream varieties at roughly the same time (the same documents also transcribe
υ/οι
with
?
/i/
very sporadically).
[13]
In the original closing diphthongs
αυ
,
ευ
and
ηυ
, the
offglide
[u]
had developed into a consonantal
[v]
or
[f]
early on (possibly through an intermediate stage of
[β]
and
[?]
). Before
[n]
,
υ
turned to
[m]
(
ε?νοστο?
['evnostos]
→
?μνοστο?
['emnostos]
,
χα?νο?
['xavnos]
→
χ?μνο?
['xamnos]
,
?λα?νω
[e'lavno]
→
λ?μνω
['lamno]
), and before
[m]
it was dropped (
θα?μα
['θavma]
→
θ?μα
['θama]
). Before
[s]
, it occasionally turned to
[p]
(
?ν?παυση
[a'napafsi]
→
?ν?παψη
[a'napapsi]
).
[14]
Words with initial vowels were often affected by
apheresis
:
? ?μ?ρα
[i
i'mera]
→
? μ?ρα
[i
'mera]
('the day'),
?ρωτ?
[ero'to]
→
ρωτ?
[ro'to]
('(I) ask').
[15]
A regular phenomenon in most dialects is
synizesis
("merging" of vowels). In many words with the combinations
[?ea]
,
[?eo]
,
[?ia]
and
[?io]
, the stress shifted to the second vowel, and the first became a glide
[j]
. Thus:
?ωμα?ο?
[ro'meos]
→
?ωμι??
[ro'm?os]
('Roman'),
?νν?α
[e'nea]
→
?ννι?
[e'?a]
('nine'),
πο?ο?
['pios]
→
ποι??
['pcos]
('which'),
τα παιδ?α
[ta
pe'ðia]
→
τα παιδι?
[ta
pe'ð?a]
('the children'). This accentual shift is already reflected in the
metre
of the 6th century hymns of
Romanos the Melodist
.
[16]
In many cases, the vowel
o
disappeared in the endings
-ιον
[-ion]
and
-ιο?
[-ios]
(
σακκ?ον
[sa'cion]
→
σακκ?ν
[sa'cin]
,
χαρτ?ον
[xar'tion]
→
χαρτ?ν
[xar'tin]
,
κ?ριο?
['cyrios]
→
κ?ρι?
['cyris]
). This phenomenon is attested to have begun earlier, in the Hellenistic
Koine Greek
papyri.
[17]
Consonants
[
edit
]
The shift in the
consonant
system from
voiced
plosives
/b/
(
β
),
/d/
(
δ
),
/?/
(
γ
) and
aspirated
voiceless
plosives
/p?/
(
φ
),
/t?/
(
θ
),
/k?/
(
χ
) to corresponding
fricatives
(
/v,
ð,
?/
and
/f,
θ,
x/
, respectively) was already completed during
Late Antiquity
. However, the original voiced plosives remained as such after nasal consonants, with
[mb]
(
μβ
),
[nd]
(
νδ
),
[ŋ?]
(
γγ
). The
velar
sounds
/k,
x,
?,
ŋk,
ŋ?/
(
κ
,
χ
,
γ
,
γκ
,
γγ
) were realised as
palatal
allophones
(
[c,
c,
?,
?c,
??]
) before front vowels. The fricative
/h/
, which had been present in Classical Greek, had been lost early on, although it continued to be reflected in spelling through the
rough breathing
, a diacritic mark added to vowels.
[18]
Changes in the phonological system mainly affect
consonant clusters
that show
sandhi
processes. In clusters of two different
plosives
or two different
fricatives
, there is a tendency for
dissimilation
such that the first consonant becomes a fricative and/or the second becomes a plosive ultimately favoring a fricative-plosive cluster. But if the first consonant was a fricative and the second consonant was
/s/
, the first consonant instead became a plosive, favoring a plosive-
/s/
cluster.
[19]
Medieval Greek also had cluster voicing harmony favoring the voice of the final plosive or fricative; when the resulting clusters became voiceless, the aforementioned sandhi would further apply. This process of assimilation and sandhi was highly regular and predictable, forming a rule of Medieval Greek
phonotactics
that would persist into Early
Modern Greek
. When dialects started deleting unstressed
/i/
and
/u/
between two consonants (such as when Myzithras became
Mystras
), new clusters were formed and similarly assimilated by sandhi; on the other hand it is arguable that the dissimilation of voiceless
obstruents
occurred before the loss of close vowels, as the clusters resulting from this development do not necessarily undergo the change to [fricative + stop], e.g.
κ(ου)τ?
as
[kti]
not
[xti]
.
[20]
The resulting clusters were:
For plosives:
For fricatives where the second was not
/s/
:
For fricatives where the second was
/s/
:
The disappearance of
/n/
in word-final position, which had begun sporadically in Late Antiquity, became more widespread, excluding certain dialects such as South Italian and Cypriot. The nasals
/m/
and
/n/
also disappeared before voiceless fricatives, for example
ν?μφη
['ny?fi]
→
ν?φη
['nifi]
,
?νθο?
['an?θos]
→
?θο?
['aθos]
.
[22]
A new set of voiced plosives
[(m)b]
,
[(n)d]
and
[(ŋ)?]
developed through
voicing
of voiceless
plosives
after
nasals
. There is some dispute as to when exactly this development took place but apparently it began during the Byzantine period. The graphemes
μπ
,
ντ
and
γκ
for
/b/
,
/d/
and
/?/
can already be found in transcriptions from neighboring languages in Byzantine sources, like in
ντερβ?ση?
[der'visis]
, from
Turkish
:
dervi?
('
dervish
'). On the other hand, some scholars contend that post-nasal voicing of voiceless plosives began already in
the Koine
, as interchanges with
β
,
δ
, and
γ
in this position are found in the papyri.
[23]
The prenasalized voiced spirants
μβ
,
νδ
and
γγ
were still plosives by this time, causing a merger between
μβ/μπ
,
νδ/ντ
and
γγ/γκ
, which would remain except within educated varieties, where spelling pronunciations did make for segments such as
[?v,
n?ð,
ŋ?]
[24]
Grammar
[
edit
]
Many decisive changes between Ancient and Modern Greek were completed by
c.
1100
AD. There is a striking reduction of
inflectional
categories inherited from
Indo-European
, especially in the verbal system, and a complementary tendency of developing new analytical formations and periphrastic constructions.
In
morphology
, the inflectional paradigms of
declension
, conjugation and comparison were regularised through analogy. Thus, in nouns, the Ancient Greek third declension, which showed an unequal number of syllables in the different cases, was adjusted to the regular first and second declension by forming a new
nominative
form out of the oblique case forms: Ancient Greek
? πατ?ρ
[ho
pat??ːr]
→ Modern Greek
? πατ?ρα?
[o
pa'teras]
, in analogy to the accusative form
τ?ν πατ?ρα
[tom
ba'tera]
. Feminine nouns ending in
-ι?
[-is]
and
-α?
[-as]
formed the nominative according to the accusative
-ιδα
[-iða]
-αδα
[-aða]
, as in
?λπ??
[elpis]
→
?λπ?δα
[el?piða]
('hope'),
πατρ??
[patris]
→
πατρ?δα
[pa?triða]
('homeland'), and in
?λλ??
[hellas]
→
?λλ?δα
[e?laða]
('Greece'). Only a few nouns remained unaffected by this simplification, such as
τ? φ??
[to
fos]
(both
nominative
and
accusative
),
το? φωτ??
[tu
fo'tos]
(
genitive
).
The Ancient Greek formation of the
comparative
of adjectives ending in
-ων
,
-ιον
,
[-oːn,
-ion]
which was partly irregular, was gradually replaced by the formation using the more regular
suffix
-τερο?
,
-τ?ρα (-τερη)
,
-τερο(ν)
,
[-teros,
-tera
(-teri),
-tero(n)]
:
με?ζων
[meːzdoːn]
→
μειζ?τερο?
[mi'zoteros]
('the bigger').
The
enclitic
genitive forms of the first and second person
personal pronoun
, as well as the genitive forms of the third person
demonstrative pronoun
, developed into unstressed enclitic possessive pronouns that were attached to nouns:
μου
[mu]
,
σου
[su]
,
του
[tu]
,
τη?
[tis]
,
μα?
[mas]
,
σα?
[sas]
,
των
[ton]
.
Irregularities in verb inflection were also reduced through analogy. Thus, the
contracted
verbs ending in
-?ω
[-aoː]
,
-?ω
[-eoː]
etc., which earlier showed a complex set of vowel alternations, readopted the endings of the regular forms:
?γαπ?
[a?apaːi]
→
?γαπ?ει
[a?a?pai]
('he loves'). The use of the past tense prefix, known as
augment
, was gradually limited to regular forms in which the augment was required to carry word stress.
Reduplication
in the verb stem, which was a feature of the old
perfect
forms, was gradually abandoned and only retained in antiquated forms. The small ancient Greek class of irregular verbs in
-μι
[-mi]
disappeared in favour of regular forms ending in
-ω
[-oː]
;
χ?ννυμι
[k?oːnnymi]
→
χ?νω
['xono]
('push'). The auxiliary
ε?μ?
[eːmi]
('be'), originally part of the same class, adopted a new set of endings modelled on the passive of regular verbs, as in the following examples:
In most cases, the numerous
stem
variants that appeared in the Ancient Greek system of
aspect
inflection were reduced to only two basic stem forms, sometimes only one. Thus, in Ancient Greek the stem of the verb
λαμβ?νειν
[lambaneːn]
('to take') appears in the variants
λαμβ-
[lamb-]
,
λαβ-
[lab-]
,
ληψ-
[l?ːps-]
,
ληφ-
[l?ːp?-]
and
λημ-
[l?ːm-]
. In Medieval Greek, it is reduced to the forms
λαμβ-
[lamb-]
(
imperfective
or present system) and
λαβ-
[lav-]
(
perfective
or
aorist
system).
One of the numerous forms that disappeared was the
dative
. It was replaced in the 10th century by the
genitive
and the prepositional construction of
ε??
[is]
('in, to') +
accusative
. In addition, nearly all the participles and the imperative forms of the 3rd person were lost. The
subjunctive
was replaced by the construction of subordinate clauses with the conjunctions
?τι
[?oti]
('that') and
?να
[?ina]
('so that').
?να
first became
?ν?
[i?na]
and was later shortened to
να
[na]
. By the end of the Byzantine era, the construction
θ?λω να
[?θelo
na]
('I want that…') + subordinate clause developed into
θεν?
[θe?na]
. Eventually,
θεν?
became the Modern Greek future particle
θα
Medieval Greek
:
[θa]
, which replaced the old future forms. Ancient formations like the
genitive absolute
, the
accusative and infinitive
and nearly all common participle constructions were gradually substituted by the constructions of subordinate clauses and the newly emerged
gerund
.
The most noticeable grammatical change in comparison to ancient Greek is the almost complete loss of the
infinitive
, which has been replaced by
subordinate clauses
with the
particle
να. Possibly transmitted through Greek, this phenomenon can also
be found
in the adjacent languages and dialects of the Balkans.
Bulgarian
and
Romanian
, for example, are in many respects typologically similar to medieval and present day Greek, although
genealogically
they are not closely related.
Besides the
particles
να
and
θεν?
, the negation particle
δ?ν
[ðen]
('not') was derived from
Ancient Greek
:
o?δ?ν
[uːden]
('nothing').
Vocabulary, script, influence on other languages
[
edit
]
Intralinguistic innovations
[
edit
]
Lexicographic changes in Medieval Greek influenced by Christianity can be found for instance in words like
?γγελο?
[?a??elos]
('messenger') → heavenly messenger → angel) or
?γ?πη
[a??api]
'love' → 'altruistic love', which is strictly differentiated from
?ρω?
[?eros]
, ('physical love'). In everyday usage, some old Greek stems were replaced, for example, the expression for "wine" where the word
κρασ?ον
[kra?sion]
('mixture') replaced the old Greek
ο?νο?
[oinos]
. The word
?ψον
[?opson]
(meaning 'something you eat with bread') combined with the suffix
-αριον
[-arion]
, which was borrowed from the Latin
-arium
, became 'fish' (
?ψ?ριον
[o?psarion]
), which after apheresis, synizesis and the loss of final
ν
[n]
became the new Greek
ψ?ρι
[?psari]
and eliminated the Old Greek
?χθ??
[ik?t?ys]
, which became an acrostic for Jesus Christ and a symbol for Christianity.
Loanwords from other languages
[
edit
]
Especially at the beginning of the
Byzantine Empire
, Medieval Greek borrowed numerous words from
Latin
, among them mainly titles and other terms of the imperial court's life like
Α?γουστο?
[?av?ustos]
('Augustus'),
πρ?γκιψ
[?pri??ips]
(
Latin
:
princeps
, 'Prince'),
μ?γιστρο?
[?ma?istros]
(
Latin
:
magister
, 'Master'),
κοια?στωρ
[cy?estor]
(
Latin
:
quaestor
, 'Quaestor'),
?φφικι?λο?
[ofi?calos]
(
Latin
:
officialis
, 'official'). In addition, Latin words from everyday life entered the Greek language, for example
?σπ?τιον
[o?spition]
(
Latin
:
hospitium
, 'hostel', therefore "house",
σπ?τι
[?spiti]
in
Modern Greek
),
σ?λλα
[?sela]
('saddle'),
ταβ?ρνα
[ta?verna]
('tavern'),
κανδ?λιον
[kan?dilion]
(
Latin
:
candela
, 'candle'),
φο?ρνο?
[?furnos]
(
Latin
:
furnus
, 'oven') and
φλ?σκα
[?flaska]
(
Latin
:
flasco
, 'wine bottle').
Other influences on Medieval Greek arose from contact with neighboring languages and the languages of Venetian, Frankish and Arab conquerors. Some of the
loanwords
from these languages have been permanently retained in Greek or in its dialects:
Script
[
edit
]
Middle Greek used the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet which, until the end of antiquity, were predominantly used as lapidary and majuscule letters and without a space between words and with diacritics.
Uncial and cursive script
[
edit
]
The first Greek script, a cursive script, developed from quick carving into wax tablets with a slate pencil. This cursive script already showed descenders and ascenders, as well as combinations of letters.
In the third century, the Greek uncial developed under the influence of the Latin script because of the need to write on papyrus with a reed pen. In the Middle Ages, uncial became the main script for the Greek language.
A common feature of the medieval majuscule script like the uncial is an abundance of abbreviations (e.g.
Χ?
for "Christos") and ligatures. Several letters of the uncial (
?
for
Ε
,
?
for
Σ
,
?
for
Ω
) were also used as majuscules especially in a sacral context. The
lunate sigma
was adopted in this form as "
С
" in the Cyrillic script.
The Greek uncial used the
interpunct
in order to separate sentences for the first time, but there were still no spaces between words.
Minuscule script
[
edit
]
The
Greek minuscule
script, which probably emerged from the cursive writing in
Syria
, appears more and more frequently from the 9th century onwards. It is the first script that regularly uses accents and spiritus, which had already been developed in the 3rd century BC. This very fluent script, with ascenders and descenders and many possible combinations of letters, is the first to use gaps between words. The last forms which developed in the 12th century were
Iota subscript
and word-final
sigma
(
?
). The type for Greek majuscules and minuscules that was developed in the 17th century by a printer from the Antwerp printing dynasty, Wetstein, eventually became the norm in modern Greek printing.
Influence on other languages
[
edit
]
As the language of the
Eastern Orthodox Church
, Middle Greek has, especially with the conversion of the Slavs by the brothers
Cyril
and
Methodius
, found entrance into the
Slavic languages
via the religious sector, in particular to the
Old Church Slavonic
and over its subsequent varieties, the different
Church Slavonic
manuscripts
[
clarification needed
]
, also into the language of the countries with an Orthodox population, thus primarily into
Bulgarian
,
Russian
,
Ukrainian
and
Serbian
, as well as on
Romanian
, sometimes partly through South Slavic intermediates. For this reason, Greek loanwords and
neologisms
in these languages often correspond to the Byzantine phonology, while they found their way into the languages of Western Europe over Latin mediation in the sound shape of the classical Greek (
cf.
German
:
Automobil
vs.
Russian
:
автомобиль
a
v
tomobil,
and the
differences in Serbo-Croatian
).
Some words in Germanic languages, mainly from the religious context, have also been borrowed from Medieval Greek and have found their way into languages like German through the
Gothic language
. This includes the word the German word for
Pentecost
,
Pfingsten
(from
πεντηκοστ?
? 'the fiftieth [day after Easter]').
[
citation needed
]
Byzantine research played an important role in the Greek State, which was refounded in 1832, as the young nation tried to restore its cultural identity through antique and orthodox-medieval traditions.
Spyridon Lambros
(1851?1919), later Prime Minister of Greece, founded Greek
Byzantinology
, which was continued by his and Krumbacher's students.
Sample Medieval Greek texts
[
edit
]
The following texts clearly illustrate the case of diglossia in Byzantine Greek, as they date from roughly the same time but show marked differences in terms of grammar and lexicon, and likely in phonology as well. The first selection is an example of high literary classicizing historiography, while the second is a vernacular poem which is more compromising to ordinary speech.
Sample 1 ? Anna Komnena
[
edit
]
The first excerpt is from the
Alexiad
of
Anna Komnena
, recounting the invasion by
Bohemond I of Antioch
, son of Robert Guiscard, in 1107. The writer employs much ancient vocabulary, influenced by Herodotean Ionic, though post-classical terminology is also used (e.g.
δο?ξ
, from
Latin
:
dux
). Anna has a strong command of classical morphology and syntax, but again there are occasional 'errors' reflecting interference from the popular language, such as the use of
ε??
+ accusative instead of classical
?ν
+ dative to mean 'in'. As seen in the phonetic transcription, although most major sound changes resulting in the Modern Greek system (including the merger of
υ/οι
/y/
with
/i/
) are assumed complete by this period, learned speech likely resisted the loss of final
ν
,
aphaeresis
and
synizesis
.
[25]
βασιλε?ουσαν
vasi?levusan
?νδιατρ?βων,
enðja?trivon,
διαπερα?ωσιν
ðjape?reosin
διαπλωσ?μενον
ðjaplo?samenon
μεταπεψ?μενο?
metapem?psamenos
διαπερα?ωσιν
ðjape?reosin
? δ? βασιλε??, ?τι ε?? τ?ν βασιλε?ουσαν ?νδιατρ?βων, μεμαθηκ?? δι? γραφ?ν το? δουκ?? Δυρραχ?ου τ?ν το? Βα?μο?ντου διαπερα?ωσιν ?πετ?χυνε τ?ν ?ξ?λευσιν. ?ν?στακτο? γ?ρ ?ν ? δο?ξ Δυρραχ?ου, μ? διδο?? τ? παρ?παν ?πνον το?? ?φθαλμο??, ?πην?κα δι?γνω διαπλωσ?μενον τ?ν Βα?μο?ντον παρ? τ?ν το? ?λλυρικο? πεδι?δα κα? τ?? νη?? ?ποβεβηκ?τα κα? α?τ?θι που πηξ?μενον χ?ρακα, Σκ?θην μεταπεψ?μενο? ?π?πτερον δ?, τ? το? λ?γου, πρ?? τ?ν α?τοκρ?τορα τ?ν το?του διαπερα?ωσιν ?δ?λου.
o ðe vasi?lefs, ?eti is tim vasi?levusan enðja?trivon, memaθi?kos ðja ?ra?fon tu ðu?kos ðira?ciu tin du vai?mundu ðjape?reosin epe?tacine tin e?kselefsin. a?nistaktos ?ar on o ðuks ðira?ciu, mi ði?ðus to pa?rapan ?ipnon tis ofθal?mis, opi?nika ?ðje?no ðjaplo?samenon tom vai?mundon para tin du iliri?ku pe?ðjaða ce tiz ni?os apovevi?kota ce af?toθi pu pi?ksamenon ?xaraka, ?sciθin metapem?psamenos i?popteron ði, to tu ?lo?u, pros ton afto?kratora tin ?dutu ðjape?reosin e?ðilu.
'When the emperor, who was still in the imperial city, learned of Bohemond's crossing from the letters of the duke (
military commander
) of Dyrrachion, he hastened his departure. For the duke had been vigilant, having altogether denied sleep to his eyes, and at the moment when he learned that Bohemond had sailed over beside the plain of Illyricum, disembarked, and set up camp thereabouts, he sent for a Scythian with "wings", as the saying goes, and informed the emperor of the man's crossing.'
Sample 2 ? Digenes Akritas
[
edit
]
The second excerpt is from the epic of
Digenes Akritas
(manuscript E), possibly dating originally to the 12th century. This text is one of the earliest examples of Byzantine folk literature, and includes many features in line with developments in the demotic language. The
poetic metre
adheres to the fully developed Greek 15-syllable
political verse
. Features of popular speech like synezisis, elision and apheresis are regular, as is recognized in the transcription despite the conservative orthography. Also seen is the simplification of
δι?
to modern
γι?
. In morphology, note the use of modern possessive pronouns, the concurrence of classical
-ουσι(ν)/-ασι(ν)
and modern
-ουν/-αν
3rd person plural endings, the lack of reduplication in perfect passive participles and the addition of ν to the neuter adjective in γλυκ?ν. In other parts of the poem, the dative case has been almost completely replaced with the genitive and accusative for indirect objects.
[26]
Κα? ?? ε?δασιν τ? ?δ?λφια τη? τ?ν κ?ρην μαραμ?νην,
c os ?iðasin t a?ðelfja tis tiŋ ??orin mara?meni(n)
?ντ?μα ο? π?ντε ?στ?ναξαν, τοιο?τον λ?γον ε?παν:
an?dama i ?pende ?stenaksan, ti?uto(n) ?lo?on ?ipa(n):
'?γε?ρου, ? βεργ?λικο?, γλυκ?ν μα? τ? ?δ?λφιν˙
e?jiru, i ver??olikos, ?li?ci(m) mas to a?ðelfi(n);
?με?? γ?ρ ?κρατο?μαν σε ?? γι? ?ποθαμ?νην
e?mis ?ar ekra?tuman se os ja apoθa?meni(n)
κα? ?σ?ν ? Θε?? ?φ?λαξεν δι? τ? ?ρα?α σου κ?λλη.
c e?sen o ?θjos e?filakse(n) (ð)ja t o?rea su ?kali.
Πολ?μου? ο? φοβο?μεθα δι? τ?ν σ?ν ?γ?πην.'
po?lemus u fo?vumeθa ði?a ti ?sin a??api(n)
'And when her brothers saw the girl withered, the five groaned together, and spoke as follows: "Arise, lissom one, our sweet sister; we had you for dead, but you were protected by God for your beautiful looks. Through our love for you, we fear no battles.'
Research
[
edit
]
In the Byzantine Empire,
Ancient
and Medieval Greek texts were copied repeatedly; studying these texts was part of Byzantine education. Several collections of transcriptions tried to record the entire body of Greek literature since antiquity. As there had already been extensive exchange with Italian academics since the 14th century, many scholars and a large number of manuscripts found their way to Italy during the decline of the
Eastern Roman Empire
. Renaissance Italian and Greek
humanists
set up important collections in Rome, Florence and Venice. The conveyance of Greek by Greek contemporaries also brought about the
itacistic
tradition of Greek studies in Italy.
[
citation needed
]
The Greek tradition was also taken to Western and Middle Europe in the 16th century by scholars who had studied at Italian universities. It included Byzantine works that mainly had classical Philology, History and Theology but not Medieval Greek language and literature as their objects of research.
Hieronymus Wolf
(1516?1580) is said to be the "father" of German Byzantism. In France, the first prominent Byzantist was
Charles du Fresne
(1610?1688). As the Enlightenment saw in Byzantium mainly the decadent, perishing culture of the last days of the empire, the interest in Byzantine research decreased considerably in the 18th century.
[
citation needed
]
It was not until the 19th century that the publication of and research on Medieval Greek sources began to increase rapidly, which was particularly inspired by
Philhellenism
. Furthermore, the first texts in vernacular Greek were edited. The branch of
Byzantinology
gradually split from Classical Philology and became an independent field of research. The Bavarian scholar
Karl Krumbacher
(1856?1909) carried out research in the newly founded state of Greece, and is considered the founder of Medieval and Modern Greek Philology. From 1897 onwards, he held the academic chair of Medieval and Modern Greek at the University of Munich. In the same century Russian Byzantinology evolved from a former connection between the Orthodox Church and the Byzantine Empire.
[
citation needed
]
Byzantinology also plays a large role in the other countries on the Balkan Peninsula, as Byzantine sources are often very important for the history of each individual people. There is, therefore, a long tradition of research, for example in countries like Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Further centres of Byzantinology can be found in the United States, Great Britain, France and Italy. Today the two most important centres of Byzantinology in German speaking countries are the Institute for Byzantine Studies, Byzantine Art History and the Institute of Modern Greek Language and Literature at the
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
, and the Institute of Byzantine Studies and of Modern Greek Language and Literature at the
University of Vienna
. The International Byzantine Association is the umbrella organization for Byzantine Studies and has its head office in
Paris
.
[
citation needed
]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Literally, ranged opposite in rows or pairs.
[9]
[10]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Peter Mackridge
,
"A language in the image of the nation: Modern Greek and some parallel cases"
, 2009.
- ^
a proposal to grant separate code gkm was submitted in 2006, but rejected in 2023.
"Change Request Documentation: 2006-084"
.
SIL International
. Retrieved
2023-12-21
.
- ^
Dawkins, R.M.
1916. Modern Greek in Asia Minor. A study of dialect of Silly, Cappadocia and Pharasa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^
Ostrogorsky 1969
, "The Struggle for Existence (610-711)", p. 106.
- ^
≪In that wretched city the reign of Romans lasted for 1143 years≫
(George Sphrantzes,
Chronicle
, ια?, c.1460)
- ^
Mango 1980
, p. 23.
- ^
a
b
Lombard 2003
, p. 93: "Here too Coptic and Greek were progressively replaced by Arabic, although less swiftly. Some dates enable us to trace the history of this process. The conquest of Egypt took place from 639 to 641, and the first bilingual papyrus (Greek and Arabic) is dated 693 and the last 719, while the last papyrus written entirely in Greek is dated 780 and the first one entirely in Arabic 709."
- ^
Toufexis 2008
, pp. 203?217.
- ^
Liddell, Henry George
;
Scott, Robert
(1889). "
?ντ?στοιχο?
".
An Intermediate Greek?English Lexicon
. Oxford University Press. p. 81.
- ^
"Antistœchal".
Oxford English Dictionary
. Oxford University Press.
- ^
Browning, Robert (1983).
Medieval and Modern Greek
. London: Hutchinson University Library. pp. 56?57.
- ^
F. Lauritzen, Michael the Grammarian's irony about Hypsilon. A step towards reconstructing Byzantine pronunciation.
Byzantinoslavica
, 67 (2009)
- ^
Machardse, Neli A. (1980). "Zur Lautung der griechische Sprache in de byzantinischen Zeit".
Jahrbuch der Osterreichischen Byzantinistik
(29): 144?150.
- ^
C.f. dissimilation of voiceless obstruents below.
- ^
Horrocks, Geoffrey C. (2010).
Greek: A history of the language and its speakers
(2nd ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 276?277.
- ^
See Appendix III in
Maas and C.A. Trypanis, Paul (1963).
Sancti Romani melodi cantica: Cantica dubia
. Berlin: De Gruyter.
- ^
Horrocks (2010: 175-176)
- ^
Horrocks (2010: Ch. 6) for a summary of these previous developments in the Koine.
- ^
Horrocks (2010: 281-282)
- ^
See Horrocks (2010: 405.)
- ^
Horrocks (2010: 281)
- ^
Horrocks (2010: 274-275)
- ^
Horrocks (2010: 111, 170)
- ^
Horrocks (2010: 275-276)
- ^
Horrocks (2010: 238-241)
- ^
Horrocks (2010: 333-337)
Sources
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Andriotis, Νicholas P. (1995).
History of the Greek Language
. Thessalonica, Greece: Institute of Neo-Hellenic Studies.
- Browning, Robert (1983).
Medieval and Modern Greek
. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
0-521-29978-0
.
- Horrocks, Geoffrey (2010).
Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers
. John Wiley and Sons.
ISBN
978-1-4051-3415-6
.
- Tonnet, Henri (2003).
Histoire du grec moderne: la formation d'une langue
. L'Asiatheque Langues du monde.
ISBN
2-911053-90-7
.
- Holton, David; Horrocks, Geoffrey; Janssen, Marjolijne; Lendari, Tina; Manolessou, Io; Toufexis, Notis (2020).
The Cambridge Grammar of Medieval and Early Modern Greek
. Cambridge University Press.
doi
:
10.1017/9781316632840
.
ISBN
9781139026888
.
S2CID
222381614
.
External links
[
edit
]
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