GREEK LANGUAGE
Greek inscriptions from the Hellenistic and Roman periods present the typical features of Koine Greek. The term Koine refers to ἡ κοινή διάλεκτος (hē koinē dialektos), the Attic-based 'common language', the lingua franca used for the communication among Greek speakers throughout the eastern Mediterranean during these periods. During the Archaic and Classical periods, Greece was both politically and linguistically fragmented, with each city-state functioning as an independent speech community. Different poleis used only their local dialects for communication in both public and private spheres. However, some dialects acquired a Panhellenic status by becoming literary languages associated with specific genres. Attic was the standard for prose, drama, and philosophy; Aeolic for lyric poetry; Doric for choral poetry; Aeolic and Ionic for epic poetry.
The situation changed after the Persian wars (5th cent. BC), when the Athenian Maritime League was founded and Athens developed into a major commercial, political, and cultural centre. The Great Attic (the Attic dialect with Ionic influence) became the administrative language of the Athenian empire and the prestigious language of Greek literary culture throughout the Greek-speaking world. During the reign of Philip II of Macedon (360/59‒336 BC) Great Attic was adopted as the official language of the Macedonian court. From there, it gradually evolved into a common written and spoken language of the Hellenistic world. It was employed both within Greece, at the expense of local dialects, and in the conquered territories ruled by the Macedonian aristocracy.
In the Roman period, Koine Greek continued to be the prestigious language of culture and education. Many people of non-Greek origin acquired knowledge of Greek as a second language and were educated in classical Greek literature, philosophy, and rhetoric.
At the same time, inscriptions attest to the development of regional varieties of Common Greek, especially in the East, where widespread bilingualism arose from daily contact between Greek-speaking and non-Greek-speaking populations.
The key phonological changes that shaped Koine Greek include the following:
As а consequence of these changes, the following interchanges are observed in the inscriptions from the PROMETHEUS Project Database:
The important morpho-syntactic changes in Koine Greek include:
Despite the regular use of spoken Koine in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, archaisms and dialectal forms are also attested, particularly on verse inscriptions. Such inscriptions often quote or reproduce poetic language from the Archaic and Classical periods. Therefore, it is not unusual to find forms such as βιότοι[ο] (IGBulg1632.1) instead of βιότου, archaic genitive singular of βίοτος 'life' or θείοιο (IG X 2, 2, 27.4) instead of θείου, genitive singular of θεῖος 'divine, excellent'; υἱέος (IGBulg_5930.10), genitive singular and υἱέϊ (IGBulg_5930.14), dative singular of archaic u-stem υἱύς instead of thematic υἱός 'son'.
Елена Џукеска
Further reading:
Adrados, F. R. A history of the Greek language. Brill, 2005. Especially Part Two: From Koine to the Present, Chapter 1 'Koine and its Relation to Other Languages (1.1‒4), pp. 175‒196.
Bubenik, V. 'The Rise of Koine' in Christidis, A. F. (Ed.), with the assistance of M. Arapopoulou, & M. Chriti. A history of ancient Greek: From the beginnings to late antiquity (English translation). Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 342‒345.
Bubenik, V. 'Origins of Koine' in G. K. Giannakis (Ed.), Encyclopedia of ancient Greek language and linguistics (Vol. 2). Brill, 2014, pp. 277‒285.
Colvin, S. A brief history of ancient Greek. Wiley Blackwell. 2014. Especially Chapter 'The Koine: A Common Language', pp. 168‒171.
Horrocks, G. Greek: A history of the language and its speakers (2nd ed.). Wiley Blackwell, 2010. Especially Chapter 4 'Greek in the Hellenistic World', pp. 79‒123; Chapter 5 'Greek in the Roman Empire', pp. 124 ‒ 159 and Chapter 6 'Spoken Koine in the Roman Period (6.1-6.4)', pp. 160‒172.
Kyrtatas, D. J. 'The Greek World during the Roman Empire' in Christidis, A. F. (Ed.), with the assistance of M. Arapopoulou, & M. Chriti. A history of ancient Greek: From the beginnings to late antiquity (English translation). Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 346‒355.
McLean, B. H. An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy of the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: From Alexander the Great to the Reign of Constantine (323 BC-AD 337). University of Michigan Press, 2002. Especially Chapter 15 'Orthography', pp. 346‒357.
Palmer, L. R. The Greek language. Faber and Faber, 1980. Especially Chapter VI 'Post-Classical Greek (1‒4)', pp. 174‒193.
Slavova, M. Phonology of the Greek inscriptions in Bulgaria, Palingenesia Bd. 83. Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH, 2004.
Torallas Tovar, S. 'Features of Koine' in G. K. Giannakis (Ed.), Encyclopedia of ancient Greek language and linguistics (Vol. 2). Brill, 2014, pp. 273‒277.
BRIEFLY ON EPIGRAPHIC LATINITY
Roman inscriptions are, among other things, an important source of knowledge about the Latin language in antiquity. In accordance with the purpose of epigraphic monuments, the Latinity of Roman inscriptions aims at monumentality. In practice, this means that it is stylised with conciseness and elevated simplicity, as well as some features of ritual language. Therefore, many Roman inscriptions are read as exemplary models of a specific style which is literary in its essence.
On the other hand, inscriptions in the Roman world were a ubiquitous phenomenon which was expanded and sustained by various social classes and groups; therefore, not all epigraphs, especially private inscriptions, were composed by individuals familiar with the “epigraphic idiom,” or even accurate and skilful expression in general. Thus, many epigraphic texts are preserved, which testify to a relatively weak linguistic competence and/or a modest educational level of their authors. Features of this kind are usually classed under the broad term of “vulgarisms,” so Roman inscriptions are also studied as monuments of “vulgar,” i.e. substandard Latin.
Epigraphic poetry (i.e. inscriptions, mostly epitaphs, composed in verse) constitutes a special group within the corpus of ancient inscriptions. Latin epigraphic poetry, which is linked to the models of classical Latin poetry on one hand and to verbal and notional stereotypes passed down across cemeteries and generations on the other, represents the richest and most significant corpus of subliterary works preserved from Classical Antiquity.
Vojin Nedeljković