Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek ( / is the stage of Greek history that extends from the ninth to the fourth century BC. AD.
Summary |
Originally, there was a wide variety of dialects , grouped into four groups: Arcado-Cypriot, western wind and Ionic-Attic. Speaking of ancient Greek did not mean much if you want to refer to an ancient idioms: in fact, however, ancient Greek means the Attic (the dialect group Ionian-Attic ) 's language Athens ancient. It is indeed the language is written the majority of Greek literature classic. During the Hellenistic period and mixing the resulting speaking population, the koine , the common language (the meaning of the adjective / koinos) after several dialects Attic-Ionian group, has gradually forced upon the use of dialects, becoming the lingua franca of the ancient world , in competition with the Latin. Koine later became the official language of the Eastern Roman Empire , before continuing to evolve, creating the modern Greek of today.
Scriptures
| History of Greek (See also: Greek alphabet ) |
| Proto-Greek (c. 2000 BC.) |
| Mycenaean (c. 1600-1100 BC.) |
| Ancient Greek (c. 800-300 BC.) Dialects : Wind , Arcado-Cypriot , Ionian-Attic , Dorian , Pamphylian ; Homeric Greek . Dialect possible: former Macedonian . |
| Koine (from 300 BC.) |
| Medieval Greek (c. 330-1453) |
| Modern Greek (from 1453) Dialects : Cappadocian , Cretan , Cypriot , Demotic , Griko , Katharevousa , Pontic , Tsakonian , yvanique |
The first form of writing attested to rate a Greek dialect is the Linear B , a syllabary unrelated to the Greek alphabet , used to transcribe an archaic form of Arcado-Cypriot dialect used in mainland Greece and Crete from about - 1550 and -1200. Between -800 and -200 , writing near the Cypriot syllabary was used in Cyprus to transcribe the Greek and Cypriot Eteo (a non Indo-European language partially deciphered, akin to Eteo-Lemnians and Etruscan). This primer could descend from CYPRO-Minoan (see below).
Entries older than the Linear B and Cypriot have existed in Greece, but were probably not used to note the Greek:
- the Linear A (between -1800 and -1450 , Crete and the islands Aegean );
- the Cretan hieroglyphic (between -1750 and -1600 , Crete);
- the Phaistos disk (discussed dating) has a writing without further example;
- the CYPRO-Minoan , sometimes called linear C (between -1500 and -1200 , Cyprus), perhaps derived from Linear A, the syllabary was probably noticing a primitive form of Eteo-Cypriot.
All these writings were probably syllabic in nature.
It is then the Greek alphabet , inherited the Phoenicians and their alphabet , which has been used in different versions (called pichoriques ) from the ninth century BC. AD or eighth century BC. AD was then standardized and imposed on the rest of the world hellenophone by Athens in -403. By adding vowels in this abjad Semitic, the Greeks are the inventors of Western alphabets. In fact, borrowed by the Etruscans (see Etruscan Alphabet ), which forwarded it to the Romans , he gave birth to the Latin alphabet , but without going through the Etruscans, in the Gothic alphabet , with the Cyrillic alphabet in the Coptic alphabet ...
The history of the Greek alphabet is a separate article.
Phonology
Ancient Greek is a language with pitch accent has two (or three, depending on interpretation) intonation: acute and circumflex. It is also characterized by a system of aspirated consonants and a set of oppositions of vowel quantities. There are several rules of sandhi , both internal and external.
Passing the Indo-European common in ancient Greek, the language has undergone many changes phonetic , the most glaring are described by Grassmann's law , the law of Osthoff and the law of Rix. It further notes that he can return in many cases the staining of laryngeal Indo-European. Finally, it is a centum language.
Morphology
Greek, like other Indo-European past, is highly inflected. Besides the use of endings , Greek is characterized by methods inherited from the Indo-European as the vowel alternation , the use of repetition and the augment for verbs.
Nominal System
The names have five cases ( nominative , vocative , accusative , genitive and dative ), three types (masculine, feminine and neuter, sometimes reduced to an opposition animate / inanimate) and three numbers (singular, dual, plural and collective neutrals). Modern Greek no longer uses the dative , except in some expressions as taxei, but other cases are generally conserved.
There are three main types of variations for both names as adjectives (type- / , such thematic and in-kind athematic), which have several subtypes. Pronouns follow a system of their own and who have influenced the types nominal, are not far apart.
Verbal System
Verbs have three voices (active, average and passive), three persons and three numbers. It is combined into six modes , four staff ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive and optative ), and two impersonal ( infinitive and participates ). There are six time ( present , imperfect , aorist , future simple , perfect , pluperfect ), distributed unevenly among the modes. Some secondary formations exist, as the future perfect.
Besides the time, the verb expresses above all, very precisely, three aspects ( imperfective , aspect zero and static ) and several types of trials ( inchoative , iterative , frequentative , etc..). Only indicative mark the times: in all other modes, only the appearance is shown.
There are two main types of conjugation: the thematic (or -verbs) and athematic (known -verbs). These categories are divided into many sub-categories. The verbal system is very complex because the bending is implementing many processes such as vowel alternation , the suffixation of the game endings , the use of a thematic vowel , one of the augment and repetition. In addition all these methods of phonetic changes important in the same paradigm.
In this way, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that there are more irregular verbs than regular.
Syntax
All this is provided for information because, as any inflected language, ancient Greek accords considerable freedom in the place of groups.
For verbs, Greek often places the verb at the end of proposal, whether primary or subordinate, but less systematically than Latin. Note an exception to the imperatives and verbs fromage (like the verb to be "it is" () translatable "there") that are generally ahead of proposal.
Genitive rule enclave: the genitive is placed between the article and the word denoting the possessor. In the group rated "The son of the citizen" will be written in Greek , literally "The citizen's son" The adjective in turn, is usually placed between the article and the name ( : the little flower) or by name with a repetition of the article ( , literally "the little flower").
For the particularities of negation in Greek: see Negation (linguistics).
Ancient Greek is also characterized by maintaining a rule of the Indo-European, which states that a verb whose subject is a neuter noun plural does not combine the plural but singular. See the article on the so-called " .
Influence of Greek on modern languages
Words Greek scholars and radicals
A large number of words in Latin , French and English , to mention that these languages are of Greek origin and the majority of neologisms used by scientists the world is built on Greek radicals (often mixed with radical Latin). Only a few languages, like Icelandic in a systematic way and to a lesser extent, the German and Turkish , but these radicals do not result in tracing the words with Greek scholars of radicals with their own.
Common words
Words such as " shop "," character "or" butter "also come from ancient Greek. Awarded by the Latin and inherited as such in the French language (through other languages such as Occitan ), they suffered the same phonetic changes as other words inherited and are now far from their Greek etymon: it must be recognized behind each of them: / Apotheker / kharaktr and / botyron.
The maze synchronous cosmos policy
Here, to illustrate the pervasiveness of Greek in Western languages, a text of Xenophon Zolotas ( ) in which each word (except for grammatical words ) is of Greek origin:
"Kyrie, without the apostrophe in my rhetorical emphasis and plethora, I will analyze elliptically, without any Gallicism, the maze of the cosmos synchronous policy characterized by syndromes crisis paralyzing the systematic organization of our economy. Periodically, we are skeptical and neurasthenic before these paroxysms periphrastic, this surfeit of demagogues, such hyperbole, these paradoxes hypocrites and cynics who symbolizes a outdated and chaotic democracy. Phenomena fantastic that we prophesy to overtake the time astronomical programs rickety, hybrid and sporadic our atomic cycle. Only a genuine panacea and draconian metamorphose this agony prodrome of the Apocalypse and Genesis counterpart of the Phoenix. Economists are technocrats strategists theater controversy and dynamic, not proselytes of the doldrums. Aboriginal Hellenic, in an apology cathartic chant theorems democracy hoarding and heroic, let us allergic to alien parasites whose sophistry too have a hyaline pseudodialectique. An Epilogue to these feasts, my amphora at the peak, I prophesy any euphoria and apotheosis in Mr. Giscard d'Estaing, prototype exciting neo-orthodoxy and economic symbol of Gallic palingenesis his ethnicity. "
Notes
- IETF language code : grc
Related articles
- Language
- Ancient Greek dialects ;
- versions of the ancient Greek ;
- conjugations of the ancient Greek ;
- particularities of negation in Greek
- Phonology of ancient Greek , the Greek accent ;
- Greek alphabet , diacritical marks of the Greek alphabet , additional letters of the Greek alphabet and history of the Greek alphabet ;
- Greek numerals
- Greek literature.
External Links
- Authors Latin Authors Greek - Many Latin texts in interlinear (that is to say, with a translation sentence by sentence).
- Access interface to digitization the abstract Bailly Ancient Greek / French - can do research in ancient Greek but also in French.
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