Moctezuma II

Dialects

In the beginning, there was a large variety of Dialecte S, gathered in four groups: arcado-cypriote, Westerner, wind and Ionian-attic.

To speak about the old Greek does not have great direction if one wants to refer to one of the ancient idioms: in the facts, however, the Greek indicates the dialect of Athens. The attic (dialect of the Ionian-attic group), language of the ancient Athens, in which is written the majority of the Greek Littérature is the language traditional. Under the influence of Alexandre Large the, the use of the dialects was réfrénée, so that the Greek world used the Koinè , common language (it is the direction of the adjective koinos ) resulting from several dialects of the Ionian-attic group. This one enabled him to communicate with its army and was taught with the inhabitants of the conquered areas, becoming thus the Lingua franca of the Antiquité, in competition with the Latin . The koinè then became Official language of the Roman Empire of the East, before continuing to evolve/move to give rise to the modern Greek of today.

Writings

The first form of writing attested to note a Greek dialect is the Linéaire B, a Syllabaire without relationship with the Greek alphabet, being used to transcribe an antiquated form of a dialect arcado-cypriote used in continental Greece and Crete between approximately -1550 and -1200. Between -800 and -200, a close writing, the Spelling-book cypriote, was used with Cyprus to transcribe of the Greek and étéo-Cypriot (a partially deciphered nonIndo-European language, connected with étéo-Lemnian and the Etruscan). This spelling-book could go down from the cypro-minoéen (see low).

It should be noted that writings older than linear B and the cypriote existed in Greece, but were probably not used to note of the Greek:

the Linéaire has (between -1800 and -1450, in Crete and in islands égée born);
the hieroglyphic Crétois (between -1750 and -1600, in Crete);
the disc of Phaistos (discussed dating) comprises a writing without another example;
the Cypro-minoéen, sometimes called linear C, (between -1500 and -1200, in Cyprus), perhaps derived from linear has; this spelling-book was probably used to note a primitive form of étéo-Cypriot.

All these writings were probably of syllabic nature.

It is then the Greek alphabet, inherited the Phéniciens and of their alphabet, which was used under various versions (known as epichoric) starting from the IX E or of the VIII E then was standardized and imposed on the rest of the world hellénophone by Athens in -403. By adding vowels to this Semitic Abjad, the Greeks are the inventors of the Western alphabets. Indeed, borrowed by the Etruscan (Etruscan cf Alphabet), which transmitted it to the Romains, it gave rise to the Latin alphabet, but also, without passing by the Etruscans, with the gotic Alphabet, the Cyrillic , the Copt alphabet…

The Histoire of the Greek alphabet constitutes a separate article.

Phonology

See also: Pronunciation of the old Greek

The old Greek is a language with Pitch having two (or three, according to interpretations) intonations: acute and circumflexe (cf Stressing of the Greek). He is also characterized by a system of aspired consonants and by a set of vocalic oppositions of quantities. There exist several rules of Sandhi, as well interns as external.

While passing from the Indo-European to the Greek, the language underwent many phonetic Modifications of which most obvious are described by the Loi of Grassmann, the Loi of Osthoff and the Loi of Rix. It is noted in addition that it makes it possible to restore in many cases the coloring of the Laryngale S IE. Lastly, it is a language '' centum ''.

Morphology

The Greek, like others Indo-European Languages old, is highly flexional. In addition to the use of Ending S, the Greek is characterized by processes inherited the Indo-European like the vocalic Alternance, the use of the redoubling and the Augment for the verbs.

Nominal system

Verbal system

Syntax

August 1st Characteristics of the negation in old Greek: to see Negation (linguistic).

The old Greek is also characterized by the maintenance of an old rule, resulting from the Indo-European, which stipulates that a verb whose subject is a plural neutral name combines not in the plural, but in the singular. See the article devoted to with the rule known as “{{Greek old|Τὰ ζῷα τρέχει}}”.

Influence of the old Greek on the modern languages

Erudite and radical words Greek

A great Latin number of words in , French and English, to quote only these languages, are of Greek origin and the majority of the Néologisme S scientists used all over the world is built on radical Greeks (often interfered Latin radicals). Only some languages, like the Icelandic systematically and, in a less share, the German , do not use these radicals but translate by Calque the Greek erudite terms by means of radical which is clean for them.

Current words

Words like “shop”, “character” or “butter” also come from the Greek. Passed through Latin and inherited like such in the French language (via other languages, like the Occitan), they underwent same the phonetic Modifications that the other inherited words and are now very distant from their étymon Greek: it is necessary to recognize behind each one of them: ἀποθήκη / apothếkê , χαρακτήρ / kharaktếr and βούτυρον / boúturon .

The synchronous maze of political cosmos

Here, to illustrate the omnipresence of the Greek in the Western languages, an extract of a text of Xenophón Zolótas ( Ξενοφών Ζολώτας ) in which each word (except the function words) is of Greek origin:

Others

Code ISO 639 -2: grc

See too

Linguistic

Dictionary of the languages

Languages by family

Indo-European Languages

Greek Dialects;
Variations of the old Greek;
Conjugations of the old Greek;
characteristics of the negation in old Greek
Phonology of the old Greek, Stressing of the Greek;
Greek alphabet, Diacritic of the Greek alphabet, additional Letters of the Greek alphabet and History of the Greek alphabet;
Greek modern;

Greek Literature.

External bonds

Latin Authors, Greek Authors - Many Latin texts into juxtalinear (i.e. with a translation sentence by sentence). A good way of learning it Latin for the beginners.
Strongs biblical research of the origin of a biblical Greek word (6000 entries)
Vive-le-grec.com - Good site to learn the bases from the Old Greek, the alphabet (to learn how to trace the letters), many versions, vocabulary, the conjugations, the variations…
Forum devoted to the old languages
Generating of Greek random text in addition to usual the Lorem ipsum .
Freelang Dictionary - Greek-French Dictionary/French-Greek
Freelang Dictionary - Greek old old-French/French-Greek Dictionary
various prepositions of the old Greek: File pdf (Bond diffused with the agreement of the ILove5A.be site)
Interface of access to the digitalization of Old/French Greek the Bailly summary - makes it possible to make research in old Greek but also in French.

Simple: Ancient Greek

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