(from ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος; hē koinḕ diálektos, ‘the common language’). Term adopted into Greek linguistic history which refers primarily to a relatively uniform post-classical Greek based on Attic but interspersed with numerous Ionian influences said to have replaced the Ancient Greek dialects and to be the ancestor of modern Greek. The sources consist of a number of no longer Attic but not yet Atticist prose authors in the Hellenistic and Imperial periods (such as Polybius, the NT, or Epictetus), also papyrus and inscriptions.
One must, however, give special atte…