A History of the Greek Language: From Its Origins to the Present (Greek Edition)

Greek is one of the few languages still known to us after three thousand years that are still spoken today. In this English translation of Francisco Rodríguez Adrados’s Historia de lengua griega , an overview is presented of the development of the Greek language at its different stages. Professor Adrados touches on a rich variety of topics, making A History of the Greek Language into a colourful collection of linguistic ideas. A History of the Greek Language: From Its Origins to the Present / Francisco Rodríguez Adrados......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 A History of Greek......Page 12 Fragmentations and Unifications......Page 13 Is a History of Greek Possible?......Page 15 The Present Book......Page 17 Part One: From Indo-European to Attic......Page 20 The Indo-Europeans and Greek......Page 22 Diverse theories......Page 24 2. From Indo-European culture and lexicon to Greek lexicon......Page 27 The Different Indo-Europeans......Page 29 Indo-European IIIa and Greek......Page 31 1. Moore specifications on Greek......Page 35 2. Common Greek (CG)......Page 36 3. Essential charactersistics of common Greek......Page 38 1. Variants within common Greek......Page 41 The diffusion of the Greek dialects......Page 44 Greek in the second millennium......Page 48 The arrival of the Dorians......Page 51 3. Greek and the non-Greek languages in the second millennium......Page 53 Pre-Greek elements adopted by Greek......Page 56 1. East Greek......Page 61 What kind of language is Mycenaean?......Page 64 Linguistic characteristics......Page 67 Diverse theories on the Homeric language......Page 69 Our view of the Homeric language......Page 71 4. Para-Mycenaean in the second millennium......Page 75 The first expansion......Page 78 Colonization......Page 80 The alphabet and its diffusion......Page 83 Inscriptions, literature and hellenisation......Page 86 Generalities......Page 91 Ionic-Attic......Page 94 Arcado-Cyprian and Pamphylian......Page 96 Aeolic......Page 97 The Doric dialects......Page 100 4. The unifying isogloses......Page 101 5. Secondary differences......Page 103 1. The literary languages as general languages......Page 106 Innovations in epic language......Page 108 Formulaic diction and the renovation of epic language......Page 110 More on the epic language of the eighth century......Page 114 General overview......Page 116 The different genres......Page 118 Elegy......Page 121 Epigram......Page 124 General ideas......Page 125 Analysis of the fundamental elements of the language of choral lyric......Page 130 The evolution and variants of choral lyric language......Page 133 1. General overview......Page 137 2. The Lesbian language of monodic poetry......Page 138 3. Corinna's Boeotian......Page 140 4. The Doric of Syracuse......Page 141 1. Ionic in the iambographers and in general poetry......Page 145 Generalities and beginnings......Page 148 Herodotus......Page 154 The ancient Hippocratics......Page 159 Attic as an oral dialect......Page 161 Sources......Page 163 Characteristics......Page 164 The oldest Attic prose......Page 168 Mature Attic prose......Page 173 Variants within Attic prose......Page 176 The Presocratics......Page 180 The Hippocratics......Page 185 Attic literature......Page 187 Example of a lexical system......Page 189 Conclusion......Page 190 Part Two: From Koine to the Present......Page 192 1. Origin, definition and levels......Page 194 The diffusion......Page 199 The 'koinisation' of the dialects......Page 202 Colloquial 'koine'......Page 203 The influence of other languages......Page 204 Variants of colloquial 'koine'......Page 208 4. Colloquial koine: general description......Page 211 The first stage......Page 215 Atticism......Page 217 Sources......Page 222 Description......Page 223 The contact of Greek with other languages......Page 226 Greek in Rome......Page 228 8. Hellenised Latin and Greek-Latin......Page 232 The languages revolving around Greek......Page 239 Germanic, Slavic and Arabic......Page 242 Historical data......Page 245 Popular and higher literature until 1453......Page 248 Literature from 1453......Page 254 Phonetics and morphology (until the eleventh century)......Page 256 Examples of popular texts......Page 259 Phonetics and morphology (from the twelfth to the fifteenth century)......Page 261 Examples of popular texts......Page 264 3. The development of the Byzantine lexicon......Page 266 Latin borrowings......Page 269 Borrowings from Gothic and eastern languages......Page 271 Borrowings from western languages......Page 273 General ideas......Page 274 Borrowings in western languages......Page 276 Borrowings in Slavic......Page 283 Borrowings in Arabic......Page 286 Generalities......Page 288 Hellenisms in the high Middle Ages......Page 289 In Castilian......Page 291 In French......Page 294 In Italian......Page 295 In Castilian......Page 297 In other languages......Page 299 Hellenisms in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries......Page 300 Origins and characteristics of this lexicon......Page 303 Importance for the Spanish lexicon......Page 306 An international character......Page 308 1. The history of Modern Greek (MG)......Page 310 2. Description of Modern Greek......Page 316 3. Borrowers and culture words in the Modern Greek lexicon......Page 320 General considerations......Page 323 Characteristics of the principle dialects......Page 326 Dialects and MG......Page 328 Conclusion......Page 331 Abbreviations......Page 336 Bibliography......Page 338 Index......Page 362