Beginning of Homer's Odyssey

The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage of the Greek language^[1] as it existed during the Archaic (9th–6th centuries BC) and Classical (5th–4th centuries BC) periods in Ancient Greece. The Hellenistic (post-Classic) period of Ancient Greece formally constitutes its own stage in the Greek language known as Koine Greek. Mediterranean redirects here. ... An extinct language is a language which no longer has any native speakers, in contrast to a dead language, which is is a language which has stopped changing in grammar, vocabulary, and the complete meaning of a sentence. ... Koine redirects here. ... The 4th century BC started the first day of 400 BC and ended the last day of 301 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... Writing systems of the world today. ... The Greek alphabet (Greek: ) is an alphabet consisting of 24 letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 8th or early 8th century BC. It was the first alphabet in the narrow sense, that is, a writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Odyssey (disambiguation). ... Greek ( IPA: or simply IPA: — Hellenic) has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single natural language in the Indo-European language family. ... The archaic period in Greece is the period during which the ancient Greek city-states developed, and is normally taken to cover roughly the 9th century to the 6th century BCE. The Archaic period followed the dark ages, and saw significant advancements in political theory, and the rise of democracy... AD redirects here. ... Parthenon This article is on the term Classical Greece itself. ... The term ancient Greece refers to the periods of Greek history in Classical Antiquity, lasting ca. ... The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance... Koine redirects here. ...

Ancient Greek is subdivided into various dialects, including the Homeric Greek of the Homeric poems, and the Attic Greek of great works of literature and philosophy of the Athenian Golden Age. Ancient Greek, in classical antiquity before the development of the Koiné as the lingua franca of Hellenism, was divided into several dialects. ... Homeric Greek is the form of Ancient Greek that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. ... For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of the Greek language that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. ...

For information on the Hellenic language family prior to the creation of the Greek alphabet, see articles Mycenaean Greek and Proto-Greek. The Greek alphabet (Greek: ) is an alphabet consisting of 24 letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 8th or early 8th century BC. It was the first alphabet in the narrow sense, that is, a writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel... Mycenaean is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the 16th to 11th centuries BC, before the Dorian invasion. ... The Proto-Greek language is the common ancestor of the Greek dialects, including the Mycenean language, the classical Greek dialects Attic-Ionic, Aeolic, Doric and North-Western Greek, and ultimately the Koine and Modern Greek. ...

Dialects of Ancient Greek

Main article: Ancient Greek dialects

The origins, early forms, and early development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood, owing to the lack of contemporaneous evidence. There are several theories about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Indo-European language (not later than 2000 BC), and about 1200 BC. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period^[2] is Mycenaean, but its relationship to the historical dialects and the historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. This article is an overview of the history of Greek. ... Greek ( IPA: or simply IPA: — Hellenic) has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single natural language in the Indo-European language family. ... The Greek alphabet (Greek: ) is an alphabet consisting of 24 letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 8th or early 8th century BC. It was the first alphabet in the narrow sense, that is, a writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel... The Proto-Greek language is the common ancestor of the Greek dialects, including the Mycenean language, the classical Greek dialects Attic-Ionic, Aeolic, Doric and North-Western Greek, and ultimately the Koine and Modern Greek. ... Mycenaean is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the 16th to 11th centuries BC, before the Dorian invasion. ... Ancient Greek, in classical antiquity before the development of the Koiné as the lingua franca of Hellenism, was divided into several dialects. ... Aeolic Greek is a linguistic term used to describe a set of rather archaic Greek sub-dialects, spoken mainly in Boeotia (a region in Central Greece), in Lesbos (an island close to Asia Minor) and in other Greek colonies. ... Arcadocypriot was an ancient Greek dialect spoken in Arcadia and Cyprus between ca. ... Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of the Greek language that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ... Pamphylian is a little-attested dialect of Ancient Greek which was spoken in Pamphylia, on the southern coast of Asia Minor. ... Homeric Greek is the form of Ancient Greek that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. ... Koine redirects here. ... Medieval Greek (Μεσαιωνική Ελληνική) is a linguistic term that describes the fourth period in the history of the Greek language. ... Main article: Greek language Modern Greek (Νέα Ελληνικά or Νεοελληνική, lit. ... The linguistic varieties of Modern Greek can be classified along two principal dimensions. ... Cappadocian, also known as Cappadocian Greek or Asia Minor Greek, is a dialect of the Greek language, formerly spoken in Cappadocia (Central Turkey). ... Cretan Greek (Cretan dialect, Greek: Κρητική διάλεκτος or Kritika Κρητικά) is a dialect of the Greek language, spoken by more than half a million people in Crete and several thousands in the diaspora. ... Dhimotiki (Greek Δημοτική, IPA //) or Demotic Greek is the standard language of Greece. ... Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is a Modern Greek dialect which is spoken by people in the Magna Graecia region in southern Italy and Sicily, and it is otherwise known as the Grecanic language. ... Katharevousa (Greek Καθαρεύουσα, IPA: ) is a form of the Greek language, created during the early 19th century by Adamantios Korais (1748-1833). ... Pontic Greek is a form of the Greek language originally spoken on the shores of the Black Sea, the Pontus, today mainly in Greece. ... Tsakonian (also Tsakonic) (Standard Greek Τσακωνική Διάλεκτος — Tsakonic language — is a dialect of, or language closely related to, Standard Modern Greek, spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece. ... Yevanic, otherwise known as Yevanika, Romaniote and Judeo-Greek, was the language of the Romaniotes, the group of Greek Jews whose existence in Greece is documented since the 4th century BCE. Its linguistic lineage stems from Attic Greek and the Hellenistic Koine (Κοινή Ελληνική) and includes Hebrew elements as well. ... Ancient Greek, in classical antiquity before the development of the Koiné as the lingua franca of Hellenism, was divided into several dialects. ... Hellenic may refer to: the Hellenic Republic (the modern Greek state) the Hellenes, itself a term for either ancient or modern Greeks anything related to Greece in general or Ancient Greece in particular. ... The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. ... Mycenaean is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the 16th to 11th centuries BC, before the Dorian invasion. ...

The major dialect groups of the Ancient Greek period can be assumed to have developed not later than 1100 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasion(s), and their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th Century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to the historical Dorians; moreover, the invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. This article or section should be merged with Dorian The Dorian invasion is one of the theories advanced to explain the decline of the Mycenaean civilization in ancient Greece. ... (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) Ruins of the training grounds at Olympia, Greece. ...

The ancient Greeks themselves considered there to be three major divisions of the Greek people, into Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cyprian, far from the center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. This is very important to realize because of the content and the change that has occurred.

One standard formulation for the dialects is:^[3]

Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. 400 BC.

• West Group
  • Northwest Greek
  • Doric

• Aeolic Group
  • Aegean/Asiatic Aeolic
  • Thessalian
  • Boeotian

• Ionic-Attic Group
  • Attica
  • Euboea and colonies in Italy
  • Cyclades
  • Asiatic Ionia

• Arcado-Cypriot
  • Arcadian
  • Cypriot
  • Pamphylian

West and non-west Greek is the strongest and earliest division, with the non-west in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcado-Cyprian, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cyprian vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-west is called East Greek. The Celtics claim Vienna, Austria. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ... Aeolic Greek is a linguistic term used to describe a set of rather archaic Greek sub-dialects, spoken mainly in Boeotia (a region in Central Greece), in Lesbos (an island close to Asia Minor) and in other Greek colonies. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ... Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of the Greek language that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. ... Arcadocypriot was an ancient Greek dialect spoken in Arcadia and Cyprus between ca. ...

The Arcado-Cyprian group is descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Mycenaean Greece, the last phase of the Bronze Age in ancient Greece, is the historical setting of the epics of Homer and much other Greek mythology. ...

Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree.

Pamphylian, spoken in a small area on the south-western coast of Asia Minor and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Pamphylian is a little-attested dialect of Ancient Greek which was spoken in Pamphylia, on the southern coast of Asia Minor. ...

The highly controversial native language of Ancient Macedonia may have been a non-Greek Indo-European language, or a highly-divergent branch of Northwest Greek, or an additional major dialect group of Ancient Greek. This article is about the language used in antiquity. ...

Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian, the dialect of Sparta), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian). The Lesbian dialect was a member of the Aegean/Asiatic Aeolic sub-group. All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. Crete, sometimes spelled Krete (Greek Κρήτη / Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ...

The dialects outside the Ionic group are known mainly from inscriptions, notable exceptions being fragments of the works of the poetess from the island of Lesbos, Sappho, and the poems of the Spartan poet, Pindar. Lesbos may refer to: Lesbos Island, a large Greek island in the Aegean Sea Lesbos Prefecture, the Greek prefecture that contains the island Slang word for Lesbians. ...

After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek, but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived to the present in the form of the Tsakonian and Southern Italian dialects of Modern Greek. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek. By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek. For the film of the same name, see Alexander the Great (1956 film). ... The literal meaning of the Greek word koine (κοινή) is common. It is used in several senses: Koiné Greek (Κοινή Ἑλληνική), a Greek dialect that developed from the Attic dialect (of Athens) and became the spoken language of Greece at the time of the Empire of Alexander the Great. ... Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of the Greek language that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. ... Tsakonian is a Greek language spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece. ... Location map of the Griko-speaking areas in Salento and Calabria Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is a language combining ancient Greek, Byzantine Greek and Italian elements. ... Main article: Greek language Modern Greek (Νέα Ελληνικά or Νεοελληνική, lit. ... Dhimotiki (Greek Δημοτική, IPA //) or Demotic Greek is the standard language of Greece. ... Medieval Greek (Μεσαιωνική Ελληνική) is a linguistic term that describes the fourth period in the history of the Greek language. ...

Sound changes

Greek alphabet
Αα Alpha	Νν Nu
Ββ Beta	Ξξ Xi
Γγ Gamma	Οο Omicron
Δδ Delta	Ππ Pi
Εε Epsilon	Ρρ Rho
Ζζ Zeta	Σσς Sigma
Ηη Eta	Ττ Tau
Θθ Theta	Υυ Upsilon
Ιι Iota	Φφ Phi
Κκ Kappa	Χχ Chi
Λλ Lambda	Ψψ Psi
Μμ Mu	Ωω Omega
Obsolete letters
Digamma	Qoppa
San	Sampi
Greek diacritics

These sound changes since Proto-Greek affect most or all Ancient Greek dialects: Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Greek alphabet (Greek: ) is an alphabet consisting of 24 letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 8th or early 8th century BC. It was the first alphabet in the narrow sense, that is, a writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel... Alpha (uppercase Α, lowercase α) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. ... For other uses, see Nu. ... Beta (upper case Î’, lower case β) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. ... Look up Ξ, ξ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Gamma (uppercase Γ, lowercase γ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. ... Look up Ο, ο in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Δ, δ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Pi (disambiguation) Pi (upper case Π, lower case Ï€ or Ï–) is the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. ... Look up Ε, ε in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Ρ, ρ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Zeta or ZETA can refer to: // Zeta (letter), of the Greek alphabet Zeta functions, in mathematics Riemann zeta function Tropical Storm Zeta (2005), formed in December 2005 and lasted through January 2006 Z-pinch, in fusion power Zeta (Mexico), a magazine from Tijuana, Mexico Zeta River, in Montenegro Zeta plain... For other uses, see Sigma (disambiguation). ... Look up Η, η in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Τ, Ï„ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Θ, θ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Upsilon (upper case , lower case ) is the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet. ... Look up Ι, ι in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Φ, φ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Kappa (disambiguation). ... Look up Χ, χ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Λ, λ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Ψ, ψ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Îœ, μ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up Ω, ω in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Digamma (upper case , lower case ) is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet, used primarily as a Greek numeral. ... Qoppa Qoppa is an obsolete letter of the Greek alphabet and has a numeric value of 90. ... San (uppercase , lowercase ) was a letter of the Greek alphabet, appearing between Pi and Qoppa in alphabetical order, corresponding in position although not in name to the Phoenician tsade. ... Sampi (Upper case Ϡ, lower case ϡ) is an obsolete letter of the Greek alphabet and has a numeric value of 900. ... The Proto-Greek language is the common ancestor of the Greek dialects, including the Mycenean language, the classical Greek dialects Attic-Ionic, Aeolic, Doric and North-Western Greek, and ultimately the Koine and Modern Greek. ...

• Syllabic /r/, /l/ become /ro/ and /lo/ in Mycenean Greek and Aeolic Greek; otherwise /ra/ and /la/, but /ar/ and /al/ before resonants and analogously. Example: Indo-European *str-to- becomes Aeolic strotos, otherwise stratus, "army".
• Loss of /h/ from original /s/ (except initially) and of /j/. Examples: treis "three" from *treyes; Doric nikaas "having conquered" for nikahas from nikasas.
• Loss of /w/ in many dialects (later than loss of /h/ and /j/). Example: etos "year" from wetos.
• Loss of labiovelars, which were converted (mostly) into labials, sometimes into dentals or velars.
• Contraction of adjacent vowels resulting from loss of /h/ and /j/ (and, to a lesser extent, from loss of /w/); more in Attic Greek than elsewhere.
• Rise of a distinctive circumflex accent, resulting from contraction and certain other changes.
• Limitation of the accent to the last three syllables, with various further restrictions.
• Loss of /n/ before /s/ (incompletely in Cretan Greek), with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel.

Note that /w/ and /j/, when following a vowel and not preceding a vowel, combined early on with the vowel to form a diphthong and were thus not lost. A syllabic consonant is a consonant which either forms a syllable of its own, or is the nucleus of a syllable. ... ... Aeolic Greek is a linguistic term used to describe a set of rather archaic Greek sub-dialects, spoken mainly in Boeotia (a region in Central Greece), in Lesbos (an island close to Asia Minor) and in other Greek colonies. ... In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract. ... A labiovelar sound is one produced with the lips and velum simultaneously. ... Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of the Greek language that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. ... The circumflex ( ˆ ) (often called a caret, a hat or an uppen) is a diacritic mark used in written Greek, French, Dutch, Esperanto, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Vietnamese, Japanese romaji, Welsh, Portuguese, Italian, Afrikaans and other languages, and formerly in Turkish [citation needed]. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus (bent... Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda. ...

The loss of /h/ and /w/ after a consonant were often accompanied by compensatory lengthening of a preceding vowel. The loss of /j/ after a consonant was accompanied by a large number of complex changes, including diphthongization of a preceding vowel or palatalization or other change to a directly preceding consonant. Some examples: Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda. ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ...

• /pj/, /bj/, /phj/ -> /pt/
• /lj/ -> /ll/
• /tj/, /thj/, /kj/, /khj/ -> /s/ when following a consonant; otherwise /ss/ or /tt/ (Attic)
• /gj/, /dj/ -> /zd/
• /mj/, /nj/, /rj/ -> /j/ is transposed before consonant and forms a diphthong with the preceding vowel
• /wj/, /sj/ -> /j/, forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel

The results of vowel contraction were complex with dialect to dialect. Such contractions occur in the inflection of a number of different noun and verb classes and are among the most difficult aspects of Ancient Greek grammar. They were particularly important in the large class of contracted verbs, denominative verbs formed from nouns and adjectives ending in a vowel. (In fact, the reflex of contracted verbs in Modern Greek—i.e., the set of verbs derived from Ancient Greek contracted verbs—represents one of the two main classes of verbs in that language.) Main article: Greek language Modern Greek (Νέα Ελληνικά or Νεοελληνική, lit. ...

Phonology

For more details on this topic, see Ancient Greek phonology.

The pronunciation of Post-Classic Greek changed considerably from Ancient Greek, although the orthography still reflects features of the older language (see W. Sidney Allen, Vox Graeca – a guide to the pronunciation of Classical Greek). For a detailed description on the phonology changes from Ancient to Hellenistic periods of the Greek language, see the article on Koine Greek. Ancient Greek phonology is the study of the phonology, or pronunciation, of Ancient Greek. ... Koine redirects here. ... Phonology (Greek phonÄ“ = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ... Greek ( IPA: or simply IPA: — Hellenic) has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single natural language in the Indo-European language family. ... Koine redirects here. ...

The examples below are intended to represent Attic Greek in the 5th century BC. Although ancient pronunciation can never be reconstructed with certainty, Greek in particular is very well documented from this period, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represented. The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC. // The Parthenon of Athens seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ...

Vowels

Short vowels

Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... Exolabial and endolabial [ʏ] in Swedish. ... Exolabial and endolabial [ʏ] in Swedish. ... Exolabial and endolabial [ʏ] in Swedish. ... Exolabial and endolabial [ʏ] in Swedish. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ...

Long vowels

/oː/ probably raised to [uː] by the fourth century BC. Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... Exolabial and endolabial [ʏ] in Swedish. ... Exolabial and endolabial [ʏ] in Swedish. ... Exolabial and endolabial [ʏ] in Swedish. ... Exolabial and endolabial [ʏ] in Swedish. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... The open-mid vowels make a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ...

Compensatory lengthening

There are different schemes for compensatory lengthening, depending on where it happens. The differences are in whether /a/ becomes [aː] or [eː], and whether /e/ and /o/ become the closed values [eː] and [oː] or the open ones [ɛː] and [ɔː].

Consonants

[z] was an allophone of /s/, used before voiced consonants;^{[citation needed]} [ŋ] was an allophone of /n/ used before velars, while [r̥], written (ῥ), was probably a voiceless allophone of /r/ used word initially. Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... A stop or plosive or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. ... A stop or plosive or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ...

Consonant classes

There are three main classes of consonants:

• Stops. This include three subclasses: velars (/k/, /g/, /kʰ/), labials (/p/, /b/, /pʰ/), and dentals (/t/, /d/, /tʰ/).
• Sonorants are /m/, /n/, /l/, /r/.
• Fricatives are /s/ and /h/.

Contractions

In verb conjugation, one consonant often comes up against the other. Various sandhi rules apply. Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. ...

Rules:

• Most basic rule: When two sounds appear next to each other, the first assimilates in voicing and aspiration to the second.
  • This applies fully to stops. Fricatives assimilate only in voicing, sonorants do not assimilate.
• Before an /s/ (future, aorist stem), velars become [k], labials become [p], and dentals disappear.
• Before a /tʰ/ (aorist passive stem), velars become [kʰ], labials become [pʰ], and dentals become [s].
• Before an /m/ (perfect middle first-singular, first-plural, participle), velars become [g], nasal+velar becomes [g], labials become [m], dentals become [s], other sonorants remain the same.

Morphology

Main article: Ancient Greek grammar

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Ancient Greek grammar. (Discuss)

Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages, is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In Ancient Greek nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative), three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), and three numbers (singular, dual and plural). Verbs have four moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, and optative), three voices (active, middle and passive), as well as three persons (first, second and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven tenses: the present, future and imperfect tenses are imperfective in aspect; the aorist tense (perfective aspect); a present-perfect, pluperfect and future perfect (all with perfect aspect). Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. There are infinitives and participles corresponding to the finite combinations of tense, aspect and voice. Ancient Greek grammar is morphologically complex and preserves several features of Proto-Indo-European morphology. ... Image File history File links Merge-arrows. ... Ancient Greek grammar is morphologically complex and preserves several features of Proto-Indo-European morphology. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. ... In linguistics, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ... In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns and adjectives to indicate such features as number (typically singular vs. ... The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun. ... The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. ... Dative has several meanings. ... The accusative case (abbreviated ACC) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. ... The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed, found in Latin among other languages. ... In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... The word neuter can refer to: the property of being neither biologically male or female: being asexual the sterilization (castration, spaying, etc. ... For other uses of number, see number (disambiguation). ... Dual is the grammatical number used for two referents. ... Look up plural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... It has been suggested that Verbal agreement be merged into this article or section. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood (or mode), which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... In grammar, the subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a verb mood that exists in many languages. ... The optative mood is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope. ... In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc. ... Voice, in grammar, is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ... Voice, in grammar, is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ... In grammar, voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ... For other uses, see Point of view (literature). ... Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... For referencing in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Citing sources. ... It has been suggested that Future perfect tense be merged into this article or section. ... The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a past tense with an imperfective aspect. ... The perfective aspect is a grammatical aspect. ... In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ... The aorist aspect was one of the three original aspects that defined the Indo_European verbal paradigm. ... The perfective aspect is a grammatical aspect. ... The perfect tenses are verb tenses showing actions completed at or before a specific time. ... The pluperfect tense exists in most Indo-European languages, including English. ... For the VNV Nation album, see Futureperfect For the writing tense, see Future perfect tense Future Perfect is the debut full-length album by Autolux, released September 21, 2004. ... The perfect aspect is a grammatical aspect that refers to a state resulting from a previous action (also described as a previous action with relevance to a particular time, or a previous action viewed from the perspective of a later time). ...

Augment

The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least) a prefix /e-/. This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... Aspect is a piece of information about a topic, usually on look and appearance. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... Aorist (from Greek αοριστος, indefinite) is a term used in certain Indo-European languages to refer to a particular grammatical tense and/or aspect. ... Imperfect has several meanings: The imperfect tense in linguistics an imperfect cadence in music theory This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The pluperfect tense exists in most Indo-European languages, including English. ...

There are two kinds of augment in Greek, syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r, however, add er). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel:

• a, ā, e, ē -> ē
• i, ī -> ī
• o, ō -> ō
• u, ū -> ū
• ai -> ēi
• ei -> ēi or ei
• oi -> ōi
• au -> ēu or au
• eu -> ēu or eu
• ou -> ou

Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e -> ei. The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels.

Following Homer's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry, especially epic poetry. For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... Epic Greek is the dialect of Ancient Greek that was used to compose epic poetry, typically in dactylic hexameter. ...

The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below.

Reduplication

Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (Note that a few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) There are three types of reduplication: Reduplication, in linguistics, is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word, or only part of it, is repeated. ...

• Syllabic reduplication: Most verbs beginning with a single consonant, or a cluster of a stop with a sonorant, add a syllable consisting of the initial consonant followed by e. An aspirated consonant, however, reduplicates in its unaspirated equivalent: Grassmann's law.
• Augment: Verbs beginning with a vowel, as well as those beginning with a cluster other than those indicated previously (and occasionally for a few other verbs) reduplicate in the same fashion as the augment. This remains in all forms of the perfect, not just the indicative.
• Attic reduplication: Some verbs beginning with an a, e or o, followed by a sonorant (or occasionally d or g), reduplicate by adding a syllable consisting of the initial vowel and following consonant, and lengthening the following vowel. Hence er -> erēr, an -> anēn, ol -> olōl, ed -> edēd. This is not actually specific to Attic Greek, despite its name; but it was generalized in Attic. This originally involved reduplicating a cluster consisting of a laryngeal and sonorant; hence h₃l -> h₃leh₃l -> olōl with normal Greek development of laryngeals. (Forms with a stop were analogous.)

Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab) has the perfect stem eilēpha (not *lelēpha) because it was originally slambanō, with perfect seslēpha, becoming eilēpha through (semi-)regular change. Grassmanns Law is a rule of phonology in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit which states that if an aspirated consonant is followed by an aspirated consonant in the next syllable, the first one loses the aspiration. ... Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of the Greek language that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. ... The laryngeals were three consonant sounds that appear in most current reconstructions of the Proto-Indo-European language. ...

Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i. A nasal consonant appears after the reduplication in some verbs.^[4]

Writing system

Main article: Greek orthography

Ancient Greek was written in the Greek alphabet, with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrephedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of Ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks, interword spacing, modern punctuation, and sometimes mixed case, but these were all introduced later. The orthography of the Greek language ultimately has its roots in the adoption of the Greek alphabet in the 9th century BC. Early Greek writing was phonetic, and different in each dialect. ... The Greek alphabet (Greek: ) is an alphabet consisting of 24 letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 8th or early 8th century BC. It was the first alphabet in the narrow sense, that is, a writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel... The Forum inscription (one of the oldest known Latin inscriptions) is written boustrophedon, albeit irregularly: reading from top to bottom, lines 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16 run from right to left; lines 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, and 15, from left to right; 8, 9... It has been suggested that Diacritics (Greek alphabet) be merged into this article or section. ... Interword separation is the act and the effect of mutually separating the written representations of words. ... The term punctuation has two different linguistic meanings: in general, the act and the effect of punctuating, i. ... Capitalization (or capitalisation) is writing a word with its first letter as a majuscule (upper case letter) and the remaining letters in minuscules (lower case letters), in those writing systems which have a case distinction. ...

Example text

The following polytonic Greek text is from the Apology by Plato: (The) Apology (of Socrates) is Platos version of the speech given by Socrates as he defends himself against the charges of being a man who corrupted the young, did not believe in the gods, and created new deities. Apology here has its earlier meaning (now usually expressed by the... For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ...

Ὅτι μὲν ὑμεῖς, ὦ ἄνδρες Άθηναῖοι, πεπόνθατε ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμῶν κατηγόρων, οὐκ οἶδα: ἐγὼ δ' οὖν καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπ' αὐτῶν ὀλίγου ἐμαυτοῦ ἐπελαθόμην, οὕτω πιθανῶς ἔλεγον. Καίτοι ἀληθές γε ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν οὐδὲν εἰρήκασιν.

Transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme: This article describes the way in which Ancient Greek has been pronounced by those studying Ancient Greek literature, in particular in schools and colleges. ...

Hóti mèn humeîs, ô ándres Athēnaîoi, pepónthate hupò tôn emôn katēgórōn, ouk oîda: egṑ d' oûn kaì autòs hup' autōn olígou emautoû epelathómēn, hoútō pithanôs élegon. Kaítoi alēthés ge hōs épos eipeîn oudèn eirḗkasin.

Translated into English:

What you, men of Athens, have learned from my accusers, I do not know: but I, for my part, nearly forgot who I was thanks to them since they spoke so persuasively. And yet, of the truth, they have spoken, one might say, nothing at all.

See also

• Greek alphabet
• Diacritics (Greek alphabet)
• Polytonic orthography
• Koine Greek
• Medieval Greek
• Modern Greek
• Greek language
• List of Greek phrases (mostly Ancient Greek)

The Greek alphabet (Greek: ) is an alphabet consisting of 24 letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 8th or early 8th century BC. It was the first alphabet in the narrow sense, that is, a writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel... In the Greek alphabet, vowels can carry diacritics, namely accents and breathings. ... It has been suggested that Diacritics (Greek alphabet) be merged into this article or section. ... Koine redirects here. ... Medieval Greek (Μεσαιωνική Ελληνική) is a linguistic term that describes the fourth period in the history of the Greek language. ... Main article: Greek language Modern Greek (Νέα Ελληνικά or Νεοελληνική, lit. ... Greek ( IPA: or simply IPA: — Hellenic) has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single natural language in the Indo-European language family. ... List of Greek Phrases/Proverbs (h)a Ageōmetrētos mēdeis eisitō. Let no-one without knowledge of geometry enter. Motto over the entrance to Platos Academy (quoted in Elias commentary on Aristotles Categories). ...

External links

Ancient Greek test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

Look up Ancient Greek in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Texts in Ancient Greek

• Recitation of classics books
• Perseus Greek and Roman Materials
• Perseus Greek dictionaries
• Ancient Greek Tutorials8

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References

This article is about the ancient syllabary. ...