Dictionary of Meaning
<<Back
Please select a letter:
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
H |
I |
J |
K |
L |
M |
N |
O |
P |
Q |
R |
S |
T |
U |
V |
W |
X |
Y |
Z |
0-9
Click here for Shopping
Ancient greek
*** Shopping-Tip: Ancient greek
{{language
|name=Ancient Greek
|region=eastern
Mediterranean Sea Mediterranean
|extinct=developed into
Greek language Modern Greek by the
15th century
|familycolor=Indo-European
|fam2=
Greek languages Greek
|iso2=grc|iso3=grc}}{{SpecialCharsNote}}
'''Ancient Greek''' refers to the stage in the
history of the
Greek language corresponding to
Classical Antiquity, which normally applies to two periods of
Greek history:
Archaic and
Classic Classical Greece. The
Ancient Greece Ancient era of Greek history normally includes also the
Hellenistic (post-Classic) age; however, that period formally composes its own stage in the Greek Language known as '''
Koine Greek Hellenistic Greek'''. For information on the Greek language prior to the creation of the
Greek alphabet, see articles
Mycenaean language Mycenaean Greek and
Proto-Greek language Proto-Greek.
Dialects of Ancient Greek
{{History of the Greek language}}{{main|Greek dialects}}
The
Greek language had started shaping in local forms even before the settling of the Greek-speaking tribes into
Greece, yet the actual dialectic variation took place afterwards. Throughout history the Greek language is presented in a number of dialects that did not apply on fixed geographical borders, and even if it did, those borders would be constantly altered because of the frequent migrations of the
Hellenic peoples. According to its linguistic variations, the '''Ancient Greek''' language of the
Archaic and
Classic periods is composed by the following symbolic dialectic branches:
The dialects of the pre-classical and classical period appear documented in writing beginning in the 8th century BC, and they certainly developed well before this date.
The most standard formulation currently for the pre-classical and classical dialects is four or five major groups:
*'''Attic-Ionic'''
**
Ionic Greek Ionic
**
Attic Greek Attic
*'''Central'''
**
Arcadocypriot Arcado-Cyprian
**
Aeolic Aeolo-Achaean
***
Aeolic (Boeotian,
Lesbian Greek Lesbian, Thessalian, and Aegean/Asiatic Aeolic subdivisions)
***
Achaean (mainly
Argos Argive)
*'''Western'''
**North-Western (all varieties of
Doric Greek Doric, and possibly
Ancient Macedonian language Ancient Macedonian)
As each of the above dialectic branches is broken down to its individual dialects, each dialect can in turn be divided into countless local idioms. The information provided in the dialect-specific articles is a general linguistic description that is confined to the main characteristics of the '''Common''' form (''Koine'') of each dialect, without getting into detail about their numerous idiomatic variations. In that respect, the article on
Doric describes the "Common" form of Doric as it is seen, e.g., in
Pindar Pindar's poetry (known as ''Choral Doric''), which differs from local forms such as
Spartan Laconian,
Cretan,
Sicilian.
The Arcado-Cyprian group appears to be closest to Mycenaean Greek, and is likely its direct descendant. Northwest/Doric is the most distinct from the others. Controversy on the early history of Greek dialects generally focuses on the nature of Aeolic and Attic-Ionic—with various configurations of independent development or relations to Mycenaean or Northwest/Doric proposed.
The relations between the dialects are likely obscured by significant amounts of influence on each other.
After the conquests of
Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as
Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on
Attic Greek, but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived to the present in the form of the
Tsakonian and
Griko Southern Italian dialects of
Modern Greek. Doric has also passed down its Aorist terminations into most verbs of
Demotic Greek. By about the 7th century AD., the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into
Medieval Greek.
Sound changes
{{Table Greekletters}}
These sound changes since
Proto-Greek affect most or all Ancient Greek dialects:
*Syllabic /r/, /l/ become /ro/ and /lo/ in
Mycenean Greek and
Aeolic Greek; otherwise /ra/ and /la/, but /ar/ and /al/ before resonants and analogously.
*Loss of /h/ from original /s/ (except initially) and of /j/.
*Loss of /w/ in many dialects (later than loss of /h/ and /j/).
*Loss of
labiovelars, which were converted (mostly) into labials, sometimes into dentals or velars.
*Contraction of adjacent vowels resulting from loss of /h/ and /j/ (and, to a lesser extent, from loss of /w/); more in
Attic Greek than elsewhere.
*Rise of a distinctive
circumflex accent, resulting from contraction and certain other changes.
*Limitation of the accent to the last three syllables, with various further restrictions.
*Loss of /n/ before /s/ (incompletely in
Cretan Greek), with
compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel.
Note that /w/ and /j/, when following a vowel and not preceding a vowel, combined early on with the vowel to form a diphthong and were thus not lost.
The loss of /h/ and /w/ after a consonant were often accompanied by
compensatory lengthening of a preceding vowel. The loss of /j/ after a consonant was accompanied by a large number of complex changes, including diphthongization of a preceding vowel or
palatalization or other change to a directly preceding consonant. Some examples:
*/pj/, /bj/, /phj/ -> /pt/
*/lj/ -> /ll/
*/tj/, /thj/, /kj/, /khj/ -> /s/ when following a consonant; otherwise /tt/ (Attic), /ss/ (Ionic)
*/gj/, /dj/ -> /zd/
*/mj/, /nj/, /rj/ -> /j/ is transposed before consonant and forms a diphthong with the preceding vowel
*/wj/, /sj/ -> /j/, forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel
The results of vowel contraction were complex and differed from dialect to dialect. Such contractions occur in the inflection of a number of different noun and verb classes and are among the most difficult aspects of Ancient Greek grammar. They were particularly important in the large class of ''contracted verbs'', denominative verbs formed from nouns and adjectives ending in a vowel. (In fact, the reflex of contracted verbs in
Modern Greek—i.e., the set of verbs derived from Ancient Greek contracted verbs—represents one of the two main classes of verbs in that language.)
Sounds
{{details|Ancient Greek phonology}}
The pronunciation of
Koine Greek Post-Classic Greek changed considerably from Ancient Greek, although the orthography still reflects features of the older language (see W. Sidney Allen, ''Vox Graeca – a guide to the pronunciation of Classical Greek''). For a detailed description on the
phonology changes from Ancient to Hellenistic periods of the
Greek language, see the article on
Koine Greek.
The examples below are intended to represent Attic Greek in the
5th century BC. Although ancient pronunciation can never be reconstructed with certainty, Greek in particular is very well documented from this period, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represented.
Vowels
=Short vowels
=
= Long vowels
=
{{IPA|/oË?/}} probably raised to {{IPA|[uË?]}} by the fourth century BC.
Consonants
{| cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! width="100px"|
!
bilabial consonant Bilabial
!
dental consonant Dental
!
velar consonant Velar
!
glottal consonant Glottal
|-
|
plosive consonant '''Plosive'''
| align="center"| {{IPA|/p/ /b/}}
| align="center"| {{IPA|/t/ /d/}}
| align="center"| {{IPA|/k/ /g/}}
| align="center"|
|-
| '''
Aspirated'''
plosive consonant '''Plosive'''
| align="center"| {{IPA|/pʰ/ }}
| align="center"| {{IPA|/tʰ/ }}
| align="center"| {{IPA|/kʰ/ }}
| align="center"|
|-
|
nasal consonant '''Nasal'''
| align="center"| {{IPA|/m/}}
| align="center"| {{IPA|/n/}}
| align="center"| {{IPA|[ŋ]}}
| align="center"|
|-
|
Trill consonant '''Trill'''
| align="center"|
| align="center"| {{IPA|/r/}} {{IPA|[r̥]}}
| align="center"|
| align="center"|
|-
|
fricative consonant '''Fricative'''
| align="center"|
| align="center"| {{IPA|/s/ [z]}}
| align="center"|
| align="center"| {{IPA|/h/}}
|-
|
Lateral approximant '''Lateral approximant'''
| align="center"|
| align="center"| {{IPA|/l/}}
| align="center"|
| align="center"|
|}
{{IPA|[z]}} was an
allophone of {{IPA|/s/}}, used before voiced consonants; {{IPA|[ŋ]}} was an allophone of {{IPA|/n/}} used before velars, while {{IPA|[r ̥]}}, written ({{polytonic|ῥ}}), was probably a voiceless allophone of {{IPA|/r/}} used word initially.
Consonant classes
There are three main classes of consonants:
*Stops. This include three subclasses: velars ({{IPA|/k/, /g/, /kÊ°/}}), labials ({{IPA|/p/, /b/, /pÊ°/}}), and dentals ({{IPA|/t/, /d/, /tÊ°/}}).
*Sonorants are {{IPA|/m/, /n/, /l/, /r/}}.
*Fricatives are {{IPA|/s/ and /h/}}.
Consonant contractions
In verb conjugation, one consonant often comes up against the other. Various
sandhi rules apply.
Rules:
*'''Most basic rule''': When two sounds appear next to each other, the first assimilates in voicing and aspiration to the second.
**This applies fully to stops. Fricatives assimilate only in voicing, sonorants do not assimilate.
*Before an {{IPA|/s/}} (future, aorist stem), velars become {{IPA|[k]}}, labials {{IPA|[p]}}, and dentals disappear.
*Before a {{IPA|/tÊ°/}} (aorist passive stem), velars become {{IPA|[kÊ°]}}, labials {{IPA|[pÊ°]}}, and dentals become {{IPA|[s]}}.
*Before an {{IPA|/m/}} (perfect middle first-singular, first-plural, participle), velars become {{IPA|[g]}}, nasal+velar becomes {{IPA|[g]}}, labials become {{IPA|[m]}}, dentals become become {{IPA|[s]}}, other sonorants remain the same.
Compensatory lengthening
There are different schemes for compensatory lengthening, depending on where it happens. The differences are in whether {{IPA|/a/}} becomes {{IPA|[aË?]}} or {{IPA|[eË?]}}, and whether {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/o/}} become the closed values {{IPA|/eË?/}} and {{IPA|/oË?/}} or the open ones {{IPA|[É›Ë?]}} and {{IPA|[É”Ë?]}}.
Augment
The indicative of past
tenses adds (conceptually, at least) a prefix /e-/. This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily
aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the
indicative of the
aorist,
imperfect and
pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist).
There are two kinds of augment in Greek, syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes ''e'' (stems beginning with ''r'', however, add ''er''). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel:
*a, Ä?, e, Ä“ -> Ä“
*i, Ä« -> Ä«
*o, Å? -> Å?
*u, Å« -> Å«
*ai -> Ä“i
*ei -> Ä“i or ei
*oi -> Å?i
*au -> Ä“u or au
*eu -> Ä“u or eu
*ou -> ou
Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is ''e'' -> ''ei''. The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of ''s'' between vowels.
Following
Homer's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry, especially
Epic Greek epic poetry.
The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below.
Reduplication
All forms of the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. There are three types of
reduplication:
*Syllabic reduplication: Most verbs beginning with a single consonant, or a cluster of a stop with a sonorant, add a syllable consisting of the initial consonant followed by ''e''. An aspirated consonant, however, reduplicates in its unaspirated equivalent: ''
Grassmann's law''.
*Augment: Verbs beginning with a vowel, as well as those beginning with a cluster other than those indicated previously (and occasionally for a few other verbs) reduplicate in the same fashion as the augment. This remains in all forms of the perfect, not just the indicative.
*Attic reduplication: Some verbs beginning with an ''a'', ''e'' or ''o'', followed by a sonorant (or occasionally ''d'' or ''g''), reduplicate by adding a syllable consisting of the initial vowel and following consonant, and lengthening the following vowel. Hence ''er'' -> ''erÄ“r'', ''an'' -> ''anÄ“n'', ''ol'' -> ''olÅ?l'', ''ed'' -> ''edÄ“d''. This is not actually specific to
Attic Greek, despite its name; but it was generalized in Attic. This originally involved reduplicating a cluster consisting of a
laryngeal and sonorant; hence ''h₃l'' -> ''h₃leh₃l'' -> ''olÅ?l'' with normal Greek development of laryngeals. (Forms with a stop were analogous.)
Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, ''lambanÅ?'' (root ''lab'') has the perfect stem ''eilÄ“pha'' (not *''lelÄ“pha'') because it was originally ''slambanÅ?'', with perfect ''seslÄ“pha'', becoming ''eilÄ“pha'' through (semi-)regular change.
Morphology
:''Main article:''
Ancient Greek grammar
Ancient Greek, like all of the older
Indo-European languages, is highly inflected. Ancient Greek is highly archaic in its preservation of
Proto-Indo-European language Proto-Indo-European forms.
Nouns (including proper nouns) have five
Declension cases (
nominative,
genitive,
dative,
Accusative case accusative and
vocative), three
Grammatical gender genders (
Grammatical gender masculine,
Grammatical gender feminine and
neuter), and three
Grammatical number numbers (
singular,
dual grammatical number dual and
plural).
Verbs have four
Grammatical mood moods (
indicative mood indicative,
imperative mood imperative,
subjunctive mood subjunctive and
optative mood optative), three
Grammatical voice voices (
active voice active,
middle voice middle and
passive voice passive), as well as three
Grammatical person persons (
first person first,
second person second and
third person third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated in four main tenses (
present tense present,
aorist tense aorist,
perfect tense perfect, and
future tense future), with a full complement of moods for each main tense, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. (The distinction of the "tenses" in moods other than the indicative is actually mostly of
Grammatical aspect aspect.) In addition, indicative forms of the
imperfect tense imperfect and
pluperfect tense pluperfect exist, as do infinitives and participles for all corresponding finite combinations of tense and voice, excluding the imperfect and pluperfect.
Example text
{{polytonic|Ὃτι μὲν ὑμεῖς, ὦ ἄνδÏ?ες Ἀθηναῖοι, πεπόνθατε ὑπὸ τῶν á¼?μῶν κατηγόÏ?ων, οá½?κ οἶδα: á¼?γὼ δ' οὖν καὶ αá½?τὸς ὑπ' αá½?τῶν ὀλίγου á¼?μαυτοῦ á¼?πελαθόμην, οὕτω πιθανῶς ἔλεγον. καίτοι ἀληθÎÏ‚ γε ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν οá½?δὲν εἰÏ?ήκασιν.}}
How you, men of Athens, have been affected by my accusers, I do not know; but I, for my part, almost forgot my own identity, so persuasively did they talk; and yet there is hardly a word of truth in what they have said. [http://www.perseus.org/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0169%3Atext%3DApol. Plato, Apology]
External links
{{Wiktionary}}
-
Ancient Greek Grammar on the Web
-
Perseus Greek and Roman Materials
-
Textkit : Greek & Latin Learning Tools
Category:Hellenic languages and dialects
Category:Ancient languages Greek, Ancient
Category:Classical languages Greek, Ancient
Category:Ancient Greece
bg:Старогръцки език
de:Altgriechische Sprache
el:ΑÏ?χαία ελληνική γλώσσα
es:Griego clásico
fr:Grec ancien
ko:ê³ ëŒ€ 그리스어
hi:पà¥?राचीन यूनानी à¤à¤¾à¤·à¤¾
hr:StarogrÄ?ki jezik
la:Lingua Graeca Antiqua
li:Aajdgrieks
nl:Grieks#Oud-Grieks
no:Gammelgresk
ru:ДревнегречеÑ?кий Ñ?зык
simple:Ancient Greek
fi:Muinaiskreikka
sv:Klassisk grekiska
zh:å?¤ä»£å¸Œè…Šè¯
see
Ancient_Greek
*** Shopping-Tip: Ancient greek
