Re: Help with Greek was Re: Babel Text in Obrenje

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On Monday 11 March 2002 12:25 pm, John Cowan wrote:
> Koine (common) Greek arose as a fusion of dialects (mostly Attic
> and Ionic, with contributions from other dialects) around Alexander's time,
> and was substantially complete by about the year +300.  It is the immediate
> ancestor of today's spoken and written Greek.  However, because of the
> prestige of Classical Attic, the Koine was rarely represented in writing.
> The Bible is an exception because it was meant to be accessible to
> everyone, not just the educated.
>
> Note that in Classical times different dialects were used for different
> literary purposes.
>
> >         Here are some questions I have:
> >         1. What "flavor" of Greek is the LXX? I assume that, since it is
> > a translation, it would be translated into Classical Greek, being more
> > literary, as opposed to Koine Greek.
>
> Not at all.  Don't be deceived by the flavor of the KJV: back in 1611,
> it was a fairly modern translation, with even some resemblance to
> Basic English (only about 8000 distinct words, IIRC).
        So you're saying that the LXX is written in Koine? I was just assuming, that
similar to what you said, Classical Attic would have been used, as it was
considered prestigious. (The situation with KJV never occured to me--rather,
I was considering that since the LXX was a formal translation, the language
used would have been whatever was considered prestigious.)

> >         2. Is Byzantine Greek (let's say the Greek that was spoken in
> > Constantinople from the third to the tenth century) Koine Greek?
>
> Spoken yes, written no.
        So the written language (official documents, but probably not personal
letters) was Classical Attic? Do you know of any examples from other
languages that borrowed from Greek at that time, whether they borrowed the
written or spoken form?

        :Peter
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