At 1:25 pm -0500 11/3/02, John Cowan wrote:
>Peter Clark scripsit:
>
>> 'Course, this means I need to brush up on my Greek.
>
>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.

A lot of papyri from Egypt are Koine.  But the language never had an
official, standardized form.  It was influenced at the colloquial level by
native languages around; many Koine speakers were bilingual.  There were
also different registers; the more educated were influnced by classical
Attic Greek.

>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).

Certainly not Classical.   There was always a tendancy (lasting till quite
recent times) to translate scripture as literally as possible.  LXX Greek
has a _strongly_ Semitic flavor.  It was also important in that it
influenced early Christian writers.

>>         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.

Depends who was speaking it.  Written Byzantine Greek has very Atticizing
features and I'm sure the educated speakers affected an Atticist style.
Diglossia goes back a long way in Greek.

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                     [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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