Attic Greek

Attic Greek
Ἀττική Ἑλληνική
Region	Attica, Aegean Islands
Era	c. 500–300 BC; evolved into Koine
Language family	Indo-European Hellenic Ancient Greek Eastern Attic Greek
Early form	Proto-Greek
Writing system	Greek alphabet Old Attic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	grc-att
Glottolog	atti1240
Distribution of Greek dialects in Greece in the classical period.[1] Western group:   Doric proper   Northwest Doric   Achaean Doric (probably Northwest Doric) Central group:   Aeolic   Arcado-Cypriot Eastern group:   Attic   Ionic Distribution of Greek dialects in Magna Graecia (Southern Italy and Sicily) in the classical period. Western group:   Doric proper   Northwest Doric   Achaean Doric (probably Northwest Doric) Eastern group:   Attic-Ionic

Attic Greek is the

The earliest Greek literature, which is attributed to Homer and is dated to the eighth or seventh centuries BC, is written in "Old Ionic" rather than Attic. Athens and its dialect remained relatively obscure until the establishment of its democracy following the reforms of Solon in the sixth century BC; so began the classical period, one of great Athenian influence both in Greece and throughout the Mediterranean.

The first extensive works of literature in Attic are the plays of dramatists

Students who learn Ancient Greek usually begin with the Attic dialect and continue, depending upon their interests, to the later Koine of the New Testament and other early Christian writings, to the earlier Homeric Greek of Homer and Hesiod, or to the contemporaneous Ionic Greek of Herodotus and Hippocrates.

Alphabet

In the fifth century, Athenian writing gradually switched from this local system to the more widely used Ionic alphabet, native to the eastern Aegean Islands and Asia Minor. By the late fifth century, the concurrent use of elements of the Ionic system with the traditional local alphabet had become common in private writing, and in 403 BC, it was decreed that public writing would switch to the new Ionic orthography, as part of the reform following the Thirty Tyrants. This new system, also called the "Eucleidian" alphabet, after the name of the archon Eucleides, who oversaw the decision,^[5] was to become the Classical Greek alphabet throughout the Greek-speaking world. The classical works of Attic literature were subsequently handed down to posterity in the new Ionic spelling, and it is the classical orthography in which they are read today.

Phonology

Vowels

Long a

Proto-Greek long ā → Attic long ē, but ā after e, i, r. ⁓ Ionic ē in all positions. ⁓ Doric and Aeolic ā in all positions.

• Proto-Greek and Doric mātēr → Attic mētēr "mother"
• Attic chōrā ⁓ Ionic chōrē "place", "country"

However, Proto-Greek ā → Attic ē after w (

• Proto-Greek korwā[7] → early Attic-Ionic *korwē → Attic korē (Ionic kourē)

Short a

Proto-Greek ă → Attic ě. ⁓ Doric: ă remains.

• Doric Artamis ⁓ Attic Artemis

Sonorant clusters

Compensatory lengthening of vowel before cluster of sonorant (r, l, n, m, w, sometimes y) and s, after deletion of s. ⁓ some Aeolic: compensatory lengthening of sonorant.^[8]

PIE VsR or VRs → Attic-Ionic-Doric-Boeotian VVR.

VsR or VRs → Lesbian-Thessalian VRR.^[9]

• Proto-Indo-European *es-mi (athematic verb) → Attic-Ionic ēmi (= εἰμί) ⁓ Lesbian-Thessalian emmi "I am"

Upsilon

Proto-Greek and other dialects' /u/ (English food) became Attic /y/ (pronounced as German ü, French u) and represented by y in Latin transliteration of Greek names.

• Boeotian kourios ⁓ Attic kyrios "lord"

In the diphthongs eu and au, upsilon continued to be pronounced /u/.

Contraction

Attic contracts more than Ionic does. a + e → long ā.

• nika-e → nikā "conquer (thou)!"

e + e → ē (written ει: spurious diphthong)

• PIE *trey-es → Proto-Greek trees → Attic trēs = τρεῖς "three"

e + o → ō (written ου: spurious diphthong)

• early *genes-os → Ionic geneos → Attic genous "of a kind" (genitive singular: Latin generis, with r from
  rhotacism
  )

Vowel shortening

Attic ē (from ē-grade of ablaut or Proto-Greek ā) is sometimes shortened to e:

1. when it is followed by a short vowel, with lengthening of the short vowel (quantitative metathesis): ēo → eō
2. when it is followed by a long vowel: ēō → eō
3. when it is followed by u and s: ēus → eus (Osthoff's law):

• basilēos → basileōs "of a king" (genitive singular)
• basilēōn → basileōn (genitive plural)
• basilēusi → basileusi (dative plural)

Hyphaeresis

Attic deletes one of two vowels in a row, called hyphaeresis (ὑφαίρεσις).

• Homeric boē-tho-os → Attic boēthos "running to a cry", "helper in battle"

Consonants

Palatalization

PIE *ky or *chy → Proto-Greek ts (palatalization) → Attic and Euboean Ionic tt — Cycladean/Anatolian Ionic and Koine ss.

• Proto-Greek *glōkh-ya → Attic glōtta — East Ionic glōssa "tongue"

Sometimes, Proto-Greek *ty and *tw → Attic and Euboean Ionic tt — Cycladean/Anatolian Ionic and Koine ss.

• PIE *kwetwores → Attic tettares — East Ionic tesseres "four" (Latin quattuor)

Proto-Greek and Doric t before i or y → Attic-Ionic s (palatalization).

• Doric ti-the-nti → Attic tithēsi = τίθεισι "he places" (compensatory lengthening of e → ē = spurious diphthong ει)

Shortening of ss

Doric, Aeolian, early Attic-Ionic ss → Classical Attic s.

• PIE *medh-yos → Homeric μέσσος (messos) (palatalization) → Attic μέσος (mesos) "middle"
• Homeric ἐτέλεσσα → Attic ἐτέλεσα "I performed (a ceremony)"
• Proto-Greek *podsi → Homeric ποσσί → Attic ποσί "by foot"
• Proto-Greek *hopot-yos → dialectal ὁπόσσος → Attic ὁπόσος

Loss of w

Proto-Greek w (digamma) was lost in Attic before historical times.

• Proto-Greek korwā^[10] Attic korē "girl"

Retention of h

Attic retained Proto-Greek h- (from debuccalization of Proto-Indo-European initial s- or y-), but some other dialects lost it (psilosis "stripping", "de-aspiration").

• Proto-Indo-European *si-sta-mes → Attic histamen — Cretan istamen "we stand"

Movable n

Attic-Ionic places an n (

• pāsin élegon "they spoke to everyone" vs. pāsi legousi
• pāsi(n) dative plural of "all"
• legousi(n) "they speak" (third person plural, present indicative active)
• elege(n) "he was speaking" (third person singular, imperfect indicative active)
• titheisi(n) "he places", "makes" (third person singular, present indicative active: athematic verb)

Rr instead of rs.

Attic and Euboean Ionic use rr in words, when Cycladean and Anatolian Ionic use rs:

• Attic χερρόνησος → East Ionic χερσόνησος "peninsula"
• Attic ἄρρεν → East Ionic ἄρσεν "male"
• Attic θάρρος → East Ionic θάρσος "courage".

Attic replaces the Ionic -σσ with -ττ

Attic and Euboean Ionic use tt, while Cycladean and Anatolian Ionic use ss:

• Attic γλῶττα → East Ionic γλῶσσα "tongue"
• Attic πράττειν → East Ionic πράσσειν "to do, to act"
• Attic θάλαττα → East Ionic θάλασσα "sea".^[11]

Morphology

• Attic tends to replace the -ter "doer of" suffix with -tes: dikastes for dikaster "judge".
• The Attic adjectival ending -eios and corresponding noun ending, both having two syllables with the diphthong ei, stand in place of ēios, with three syllables, in other dialects: politeia, Cretan politēia, "constitution", both from politewia whose w is dropped.

Grammar

Attic Greek grammar follows Ancient Greek grammar to a large extent. References to Attic Grammar are usually in reference to peculiarities and exceptions from Ancient Greek Grammar. This section mentions only some of these Attic peculiarities.

Number

In addition to singular and plural numbers, Attic Greek had the dual number. This was used to refer to two of something and was present as an inflection in nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs (any categories inflected for number). Attic Greek was the last dialect to retain it from older forms of Greek, and the dual number had died out by the end of the 5th century BC. In addition to this, in Attic Greek, any plural neuter subjects will only ever take singular conjugation verbs.

Declension

With regard to declension, the stem is the part of the declined word to which case endings are suffixed. In the alpha or first declension feminines, the stem ends in long a, which is parallel to the Latin first declension. In Attic-Ionic the stem vowel has changed to ē in the singular, except (in Attic only) after e, i or r. For example, the respective nominative, genitive, dative and accusative singular forms are ἡ γνώμη τῆς γνώμης τῇ γνώμῃ τὴν γνώμην gnome, gnomes, gnome(i), gnomen, "opinion" but ἡ θεᾱ́ τῆς θεᾶς τῇ θεᾷ τὴν θεᾱ́ν thea, theas, thea(i), thean, "goddess".

The plural is the same in both cases, gnomai and theai, but other sound changes were more important in its formation. For example, original -as in the nominative plural was replaced by the diphthong -ai, which did not change from a to e. In the few a-stem masculines, the genitive singular follows the second declension: stratiotēs, stratiotou, stratiotēi, etc.

In the omicron or second declension, mainly masculines (but with some feminines), the stem ends in o or e, which is composed in turn of a root plus the thematic vowel, an o or e in Indo-European ablaut series parallel to similar formations of the verb. It is the equivalent of the Latin second declension. The alternation of Greek -os and Latin -us in the nominative singular is familiar to readers of Greek and Latin.

In Attic Greek, an original

Classical Attic

Classical Attic may refer either to the varieties of Attic Greek spoken and written in Greek

Attic replaces the Ionic -σσ with -ττ :

• Attic γλῶττα → Ionic γλῶσσα "tongue"
• Attic πράττειν → Ionic πράσσειν "to do, to act, to make"
• Attic θάλαττα → Ionic θάλασσα "sea"

Varieties

• The vernacular and poetic dialect of Aristophanes.
• The dialect of
  neologisms
  ).
• The dialect and the orthography of Old Attic inscriptions in Attic alphabet before 403 BC. The Thucydidean orthography is similar.
• The conventionalized and poetic dialect of the Attic tragic poets, mixed with
  Epic and Ionic Greek and used in the episodes. (In the choral odes, conventional Doric
  is used).
• Formal Attic of
  Atticists
  or Neo-Attic writers, and considered to be good or Standard Attic.

Wiktionary has a category on Attic Ancient Greek.

Notes

References

• Buck, Carl Darling (1955). The Greek Dialects. The University of Chicago Press.
• Goodwin, William W. (1879). Greek Grammar.
  ISBN 0-89241-118-X
  .
• Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920). Greek Grammar.
  ISBN 0-674-36250-0
  .
• Threatte, Leslie (1980). The grammar of Attic inscriptions. Vol. I: Phonology. Berlin: De Gruyter.

• English-Attic Dictionary (Woodhouse)
• Perseus Digital Library
• Greek Word Study Tool (Perseus)
• A Greek Grammar for Colleges (Smyth) Archived 2015-05-01 at the Wayback Machine
• Syntax of Classical Greek (Gildersleeve) Archived 2015-05-01 at the Wayback Machine
• Ancient Greek Tutorials – Provides Attic Greek audio recordings
• Classical (Attic) Greek Online