Attic Greek Vs Koine Greek

ελληνιστική κοινή ellinistikí koiní elinistiˈci ciˈni also known as alexandrian dialect common attic hellenistic or biblical greek was the common supra regional form of greek spoken and written during the hellenistic period the roman empire and the early.

Attic greek vs koine greek.

Having studied classical i e. It is said that koine greek was developed within the armies of alexander the great. Koine greek was developed from the attic dialect. ˈ k ɔɪ n iː us.

Koine can be said to be the first supra regional dialect in greece and served as a colloquial speech for the near east and eastern mediterranean region during the roman period. Attic greek in school it is very easy to study koine or read the new testament. If attic greek is the horse and koine greek is the donkey well septuagint greek is something of a mule. The koine replaced the attic tt with the ss characteristic of ionic and other dialects e g glōssa for glōtta tongue at an early date but its main phonological characteristic is the gradual simplification of the rich vowel system of classical greek.

Actually over time the language simplified as many languages do the the later koine is simpler than earlier attic. Ancient closed and open long ē ει and η and i ι merged as i and ai αι monophthongized to e. K ɔɪ ˈ n eɪ ˈ k ɔɪ n eɪ k iː ˈ n iː. If you had choice between learning ancient greek attic or koine hellenistic what would you choose.

Koine is easier and a lot closer to modern greek attic was the prestige greek dialect and if you want to read classical works you d need it. As for koine greek it is virtually identical to the modern language it preserves certain archaisms and it sounds prestigious but even children can understand much less read koine greek. Technically both ancient and koine are hellenistic hellenistic simply means greek in origin. Here s the thing the new testament was mostly written in a type of greek known as koine this is an easy greek for the most part a low style.

The difference is mainly between an older and more formal greek with the every day greek informal spoken and written by greek speakers during the time the new testament was being written. Attic greek is the greek dialect of the ancient city state of athens of the ancient dialects it is the most similar to later greek and is the standard form of the language that is studied in ancient greek language courses attic greek is sometimes included in the ionic dialect together attic and ionic are the primary influences on modern greek. So many students go straight to biblical greek bypassing attic the greek dialect prevalent in and around athens during the time of aristotle plato and the like. Biblical greek is the form of koine greek that was used to write that christian new testament and koine greek is a particular dialect of ancient greek that was spoken from the beginning of the hellenistic era around 323 bc until the end of antiqui.