Note: This article contains special characters.

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. Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the The Odyssey ( Greek: Ὀδύσσεια or Odússeia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The archaic period in Greece ( 750 BC 480 BC) is a period of Ancient Greek history In the context of the art architecture and culture of Ancient Greece, the classical period corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca The Hellenistic (post-Classic) period of Ancient Greece formally constitutes its own stage in the Greek language known as Koine Greek. This article focuses on the cultural aspects of the Hellenistic age for the historical aspects see Hellenistic period. Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in

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 (κοινή as the Lingua franca of Hellenism, was divided Homeric Greek is the form of Ancient Greek that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Attic Greek is the Prestige dialect of Ancient Greece that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. The Golden Age is the term used to denote the historical period in Ancient Greece lasting roughly from the end of the Persian Wars in 448 BC to either the

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 (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 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 The Proto-Greek language is the assumed last common ancestor of all known varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean, the classical Greek dialects

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. Modern Greek (el Νέα Ελληνικά or el 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 &mdash in Greek, Kritikí diálektos &ndash Κρητική διάλεκτος or Kritiká Κρητικά The Cypriot Dialect of Greek ( Cypriot Greek ( Κυπριακή διάλεκτος) or Kypriaka ( Greek: Κυπριακά Dimotiki (δημοτική, " of the people" or Demotic is the modern Vernacular form of the Greek language. Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is a Modern Greek dialect which is spoken by people in the Magna Graecia region in southern Italy, and it Katharevousa (Καθαρεύουσα, lit "the purified one" is a form of the Greek language conceived in the early 19th century by Greek intellectual Pontic Greek is a form of the Greek language originally spoken in the Pontus area on the southern shores of the Black Sea, and today mainly in Greece Tsakonian, Tzakonian or Tsakonic ( Greek Τσακωνικά) is a dialect of modern Greek spoken in the Tsakonian region Yevanic, otherwise known as Romaniote and Judeo-Greek, was the Dialect of the Romaniotes, the group of Greek Jews whose existence in Ancient Greek, in Classical antiquity before the development of the Koiné (κοινή as the Lingua franca of Hellenism, was divided 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. 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

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 Dorian invasion is a concept devised by historians of Ancient Greece to explain the replacement of pre-classical dialects and traditions in southern Greece by The 8th century BC started the first day of 800 BC and ended the last day of 701 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.

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. Events By place Persian Empire Artaxerxes II King of Persia appoints Tissaphernes to take over all the districts in

• 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. For the modern Doric dialect of Scotland see Doric dialect (Scotland Doric was a dialect of ancient Greek. Aeolic Greek (also known as Lesbian Greek) is a linguistic term used to describe a set of rather archaic Greek sub- Dialects spoken Ionic Greek was a sub-dialect of the Attic-Ionic dialectal group of Ancient Greek (see Greek dialects) Attic Greek is the Prestige dialect of Ancient Greece that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Arcadocypriot or southern Achaean was an ancient Greek dialect spoken in Arcadia in the central Peloponnese and Cyprus. Arcado-Cyprian, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cyprian vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-west is called East Greek.

The Arcado-Cyprian group is descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Mycenaean Greece is a cultural period of ancient Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese

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 and isolated dialect of Ancient Greek which was spoken in Pamphylia, on the southern coast of Asia Minor

Ancient Macedonian was an Indo-European language closely related to Greek, but its exact relationship is unclear: possibly a dialect of Greek; a sibling language to Greek; or a close cousin to Greek, and perhaps related to some extent, to Thracian and Phrygian languages. For the unrelated modern Slavic language see Macedonian language. Ancient Greek, in Classical antiquity before the development of the Koiné (κοινή as the Lingua franca of Hellenism, was divided The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians a people from Thrace who later migrated to Asia Minor.

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). Crete ( Greek: Κρήτη transliteration: Krētē, modern transliteration Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the For the modern Doric dialect of Scotland see Doric dialect (Scotland Doric was a dialect of ancient Greek. The city of Sparta ( Doric Σπάρτα Attic Σπάρτη 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.

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 (Λέσβος also transliterated Lesvos, Midilli is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea.

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. Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ' Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in Attic Greek is the Prestige dialect of Ancient Greece that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. 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. Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is a Modern Greek dialect which is spoken by people in the Magna Graecia region in southern Italy, and it Modern Greek (el Νέα Ελληνικά or el Νεοελληνική lit Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek. Dimotiki (δημοτική, " of the people" or Demotic is the modern Vernacular form of the Greek language. By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek. 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:

• 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. The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early Alpha (uppercase Α, lowercase α; Αλφα is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Nu (uppercase Ν, lowercase ν; Νι Ni is the 13th letter of the Greek alphabet. Beta (uppercase Β, lowercase β, internal ϐ; Βήτα Vita is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. Xi (uppercase Ξ, lowercase ξ) is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet. Gamma (uppercase &Gamma, lowercase γ Γάμμα is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. Omicron or Omikron (uppercase Ο, lowercase ο, literally "small o": Όμικρον o mikron, micron meaning 'small' in contrast Delta (uppercase Δ, lowercase δ; Δέλτα Thelta is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. Pi (uppercase &Pi, lower case &pi) is the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. Epsilon (uppercase Ε, lowercase ε; Έψιλον is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a Close-mid front unrounded Rho (uppercase Ρ, lowercase ρ or ϱ) is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet. See also Principality of Zeta Zeta (uppercase Ζ, lowercase ζ; Ζήτα Zita is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. Sigma (upper case Σ, lower case σ; Greek Σιγμα lower case in word-final position ς) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek Eta (uppercase &Eta, lowercase η Ήτα) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet. Tau (uppercase Τ, lowercase τ; Ταυ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet. Theta (uppercase Θ, lowercase θ or ϑ; Θήτα is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth Upsilon (uppercase &Upsilon, lowercase υ Ύψιλον is the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet. Iota (uppercase &Iota, lowercase ι Ιώτα Yota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. Phi (uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ) pronounced in modern Greek and as in English is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet Kappa (uppercase &Kappa, lowercase &kappa or ϰ; Κάππα is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet, used to represent the Voiceless Chi ( Uppercase Χ, Lowercase χ; Χι He is the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet, pronounced as in English Lambda (uppercase Λ, lowercase λ; Λάμβδα or el Λάμδα Lamda is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet. For other uses see Psi. Psi (uppercase Ψ, lowercase ψ) is the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet and has a Mu (uppercase Μ, lowercase μ; Μι or el Μυ) is the 12th letter of the Greek alphabet. OMEGA is the premier Counter-terrorism unit of Latvia. Founded in 1992 OMEGA cooperates with many other counter-terrorism units over the world Digamma (uppercase Ϝ, lowercase ϝ) is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet, used primarily as a Greek numeral. Qoppa or Koppa ( Ϙ) is a letter that was used in early forms of the Greek alphabet, derived from Phoenician Qoph. San (uppercase Ϻ lowercase ϻ was a letter of the Greek alphabet, appearing between Pi and Qoppa in alphabetical Sampi (Ϡ is an obsolete letter of the Greek alphabet and has a numeric value of 900 when used as a mathematical character. The Proto-Greek language is the assumed last common ancestor of all known varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean, the classical Greek dialects A syllabic consonant is a Consonant which either forms a Syllable of its own or is the nucleus of a syllable 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 Aeolic Greek (also known as Lesbian Greek) is a linguistic term used to describe a set of rather archaic Greek sub- Dialects spoken In Phonetics and Phonology, a sonorant is a Speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the Vocal tract. Example: Indo-European *str-to- becomes Aeolic strotos, otherwise stratos, "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. The term labiovelar is ambiguous It may mean labial-velar (a Consonant made at two places of articulation, one at the lips and the other at the soft
• 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. Attic Greek is the Prestige dialect of Ancient Greece that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens.
• Rise of a distinctive circumflex accent, resulting from contraction and certain other changes. Pitch The circumflex accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, where it occurred (subject to certain rules on the accented syllable
• 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. Compensatory lengthening in Phonology and Historical linguistics is the lengthening of a Vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following Consonant

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.

The loss of /h/ and /w/ after a consonant were often accompanied by compensatory lengthening of a preceding vowel. Compensatory lengthening in Phonology and Historical linguistics is the lengthening of a Vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following Consonant 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. Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process Some examples:

• /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. Modern Greek (el Νέα Ελληνικά or el Νεοελληνική lit e. , the set of verbs derived from Ancient Greek contracted verbs—represents one of the two main classes of verbs in that language. )

Phonology

For more details on this topic, see Ancient Greek phonology. Ancient Greek phonology is the study of the Phonology, or Pronunciation, of Ancient Greek.

The pronunciation of Post-Classic Greek changed considerably from Ancient Greek, although the orthography still reflects features of the older language (see W. Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in 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. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in

The examples below are intended to represent Attic Greek in the 5th century BC. The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 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.

Vowels

Short vowels

Long vowels

/oː/ probably raised to [uː] by the fourth century BC. A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as A close-mid vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as A close-mid vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds The open-mid vowels make a class of Vowel sounds used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as

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; [ŋ] was an allophone of /n/ used before velars, while [r̥], written (ῥ), was probably a voiceless allophone of /r/ used word initially. A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Glottal consonants are Consonants articulated with the Glottis. A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. Fricatives 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 In Phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds ( 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 ( Sanskrit saṃdhi sa संधि "joining" is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at Morpheme

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

Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages, is highly inflected. Ancient Greek grammar is morphologically complex and preserves several features of Proto-Indo-European morphology 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). In Linguistics, declension (or declination) is the occurrence of Inflection in Nouns Pronouns and Adjectives indicating The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive The vocative case is the case used for a Noun identifying the person (animal object etc In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" Dual is a Grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and Plural. Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world 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. For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. The imperative mood is a Grammatical mood that expresses direct commands or requests 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 (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified Grammatical person, in Linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event such as the speaker the Addressee, or others 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). Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs Present Tense is the first Sagittarius album released in 1968 by Columbia Records. In Grammar, the future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet but expected to happen in the future (in an Absolute tense The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a Past tense with an Imperfective aspect. The imperfective aspect is a Grammatical aspect. It refers to an action that is viewed from a particular viewpoint as ongoing habitual repeated or generally containing internal In Linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a Verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof in the described event or state In Grammar, the perfective aspect is an aspect that exists in many languages The perfect aspect is variously considered either an aspect or tense which calls a listener's attention to the consequences generated by an action rather than the The pluperfect tense (from Latin plus quam perfectum more than perfect also called past perfect in English, is a Perfective The perfect aspect is variously considered either an aspect or tense which calls a listener's attention to the consequences generated by an action rather than the 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.

Augment

The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least) a prefix /e-/. Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs 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 mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a Past tense with an Imperfective aspect. The pluperfect tense (from Latin plus quam perfectum more than perfect also called past perfect in English, is a Perfective

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. Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Homeric Greek is the form of Ancient Greek that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey.

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:

• 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. Reduplication, in Linguistics, is a morphological Process by which the root or stem of a Word, or part of it is repeated An aspirated consonant, however, reduplicates in its unaspirated equivalent: Grassmann's law. Grassmann's law, named after its discoverer Hermann Grassmann, is a Dissimilatory Phonological process in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit
• 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. Attic Greek is the Prestige dialect of Ancient Greece that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. 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.

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. The Orthography of the Greek language ultimately has its roots in the adoption of the Greek alphabet in the 9th century BC. The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early Early texts are written in boustrephedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Boustrophedon (ˌbustroʊˈfiːdən from Greek βουστροφηδόν "ox-turning"&mdashthat is turning like Oxen in Ploughing 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. Interword separation is the act and the effect of mutually separating the written representations of Words The early Semitic languages mdashwhich had no vowel Capitalization (or capitalisation &mdash see spelling differences) is writing a word with its first letter as a Majuscule (upper case letter

Example text

The following polytonic Greek text is from the Apology by Plato:

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. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Καίτοι ἀληθές γε ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν οὐδὲν εἰρήκασιν.

Transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme:

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. Ancient Greek has been pronounced in various ways by those studying Ancient Greek literature in various times and places 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.

Modern use of Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is often used in the coinage of modern technical terms in the European languages: see English words of Greek origin. The Greek language has contributed to the English vocabulary in three ways directly as an immediate donor indirectly through other intermediate language(s

Modern authors rarely write in Ancient Greek, though Jan Křesadlo wrote some poetry and prose in Ancient Greek, some volumes of Asterix have been written in Attic Greek [1] and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone has been translated into Ancient Greek. Jan Křesadlo was the primary pseudonym used by Václav Jaroslav Karel Pinkava ( December 9, 1926 in Prague - August 13, 1995 The Adventures of Asterix ( French: Astérix or Astérix le Gaulois) is a series of French Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) is the first novel in ^[5]

it is also used to write news in web sites like Akropolis World News, and in.gr

See also

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

External links

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

References