"Koine" redirects here. For other uses, see Koine (disambiguation).
Koine Greek
ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος
Pronunciation
(h)e̝ kyˈne̝ diˈalektos ~ i cyˈni ðiˈalektos
Region
eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East
Ethnicity
Greeks
Era
300 BC – 600 AD (Byzantine official use until 1453); developed into Medieval Greek, survives as the liturgical language of the Greek Orthodox and the Greek Catholic churches[1]
Language family
Indo-European
Hellenic
Greek
Attic–Ionic
Koine Greek
Early forms
Proto-Greek
Ancient Greek
Writing system
Greek alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-2
grc
ISO 639-3
(a proposal to use ecg was rejected in 2023[2])
Linguist List
grc-koi
Glottolog
koin1234
Koine Greek (UK: /ˈkɔɪni/KOY-nee;[3]US: /ˈkɔɪneɪ/KOY-nay, /kɔɪˈneɪ/koy-NAY;[4][5] Koine Greek: ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, romanized: hē koinè diálektos, lit. 'the common dialect'),[a] also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic period, the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire. It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries. It was based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect levelling with other varieties.[6]
Koine Greek included styles ranging from conservative literary forms to the spoken vernaculars of the time.[7] As the dominant language of the Byzantine Empire, it developed further into Medieval Greek, which then turned into Modern Greek.[8]
Literary Koine was the medium of much post-classical Greek literary and scholarly writing, such as the works of Plutarch and Polybius.[6] Koine is also the language of the Septuagint (the 3rd century BC Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), the Christian New Testament, and of most early Christian theological writing by the Church Fathers. In this context, Koine Greek is also known as "Biblical", "New Testament", "ecclesiastical", or "patristic" Greek.[9] The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote his private thoughts in Koine Greek in a work that is now known as Meditations.[10] Koine Greek continues to be used as the liturgical language of services in the Greek Orthodox Church and in some Greek Catholic churches.[11]
^Demetrios J. Constantelos, The Greek Orthodox Church: faith, history, and practice, Seabury Press, 1967
^"Change Request Documentation: 2009-060". SIL International. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
^ abBubenik, V. (2007). "The rise of Koiné". In A. F. Christidis (ed.). A history of Ancient Greek: from the beginnings to late antiquity. Cambridge: University Press. pp. 342–345.
^Horrocks, Geoffrey (1997). "4–6". Greek: a history of the language and its speakers. London: Longman.
^Horrocks, Geoffrey (2009). Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers. Wiley. p. xiii. ISBN 978-1-4443-1892-0.
^Chritē, Maria; Arapopoulou, Maria (11 January 2007). A history of ancient Greek. Thessaloniki, Greece: Center for the Greek Language. p. 436. ISBN 978-0-521-83307-3.
^"Maintenance". www.stoictherapy.com.
^Makrides, Vasilios N; Roudometof, Victor (2013). Orthodox Christianity in 21st Century Greece: The Role of Religion in Culture, Ethnicity and Politics. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-4094-8075-4. "A proposal to introduce Modern Greek into the Divine Liturgy was rejected in 2002"
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KoineGreek grammar is a subclass of Ancient Greek grammar peculiar to the KoineGreek dialect. It includes many forms of Hellenistic era Greek, and authors...
changes during the KoineGreek period concerned vowels: these were the loss of vowel length distinction, the shift of the Ancient Greek system of pitch accent...
Jewish KoineGreek, or Jewish Hellenistic Greek, is the variety of KoineGreek or "common Attic" found in a number of Alexandrian dialect texts of Hellenistic...
variety of KoineGreek may be referred to as New Testament Greek or sometimes Biblical Greek. Medieval Greek (also known as Byzantine Greek): the continuation...
Achaean Doric koine appeared, exhibiting many peculiarities common to all Doric dialects, which delayed the spread of the Attic-based KoineGreek to the Peloponnese...
literary Greek. Likewise, Modern Greek is divided into several dialects, most derived from KoineGreek. The earliest known Greek dialect is Mycenaean Greek, the...
Attic Greek, and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek. There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient...
(Δημοτική), refers to all popular varieties of Modern Greek that followed a common evolutionary path from Koine and have retained a high degree of mutual intelligibility...
levelling to form KoineGreek which was used as a lingua franca throughout the eastern Roman Empire, and later grew into Medieval Greek. For much of the...
books of the Hebrew Bible were translated from Biblical Hebrew into KoineGreek by Jews living in the Ptolemaic Kingdom, probably in the early or middle...
both long [iː] and short [i] versions, but this distinction was lost in KoineGreek. Iota participated as the second element in falling diphthongs, with...
were written in Greek for Greek-speaking audiences. See Greek primacy for further details. KoineGreek was the popular form of Greek which emerged in...
KoineGreek, the variety of Greek used after the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC, is sometimes included in Ancient Greek, but...
and structure. Medieval Greek is the link between this vernacular, known as KoineGreek, and Modern Greek. Though Byzantine Greek literature was still strongly...
Bible itself. Whereas the Classical Greek city states used different dialects of Greek, a common standard, called Koine (κοινή "common"), developed gradually...
KoineGreek. While the bulk of surviving public and private inscriptions found in ancient Macedonia were written in Attic Greek (and later in Koine Greek)...
became the Koine-speaking core of Early Christianity centered on Antioch and its traditions, such as the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox...
name comes from the KoineGreek αμέθυστος amethystos from α- a-, "not" and μεθύσκω (Ancient Greek) methysko / μεθώ metho (Modern Greek), "intoxicate", a...
of Old Testament references in the New Testament are taken from the KoineGreek Septuagint (LXX), editions of which include the deuterocanonical books...
other parts of Northern Greece. The Tsakonian language, a distinct Greek language deriving from Doric Greek instead of KoineGreek, is still spoken in villages...
Greek dialect, known as KoineGreek, which became the lingua franca throughout the ancient world. During the Hellenistic period, Greek cultural influence and...
Demotic Greek. The linguistic lineage of Pontic Greek stems from Ionic Greek via Koine and Byzantine Greek, and contains influences from Russian, Turkish...
Mycenaean Greek, most ancient attested form of the language (16th to 11th centuries BC) Ancient Greek, forms of the language used c. 1000–330 BC KoineGreek, common...
romanization as ⟨ph⟩. During the later part of Classical Antiquity, in KoineGreek (c. 4th century BC to 4th century AD), its pronunciation shifted to that...
the Second Temple period. Ben Sira's grandson translated the text into KoineGreek and added a prologue sometime around 117 BCE. Although the Book of Sirach...
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