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See Vowel Changes

Abstract The analysis of ancient Greek medical terminology allows for the identification of technical occurrences resulting from a morphological or semantic genesis. The first category includes both suffixation and composition of verbs; the second category comprises medical terms derived from a semantic drift process, particularly active in the oldest treatises of the Corpus Hippocraticum. The most vivid and expressive items in the Hippocratic lexicon arise from terms attested in the common language that later acquired a specifically medical meani…

Abstract Hyperbaton refers to discontinuous syntactic structure which crosscuts all phrasal levels. It has been described as both a syntactic phenomenon and a rhetorical device. Two major types of hyperbaton have been identified in Classical Greek: the Y1 hyperbaton and the Y2 hyperbaton, the former being a formal reversal of the latter. The mirror-image relation between the two can be accounted for by primitives of information structure like topic and focus. Phrasal discontinuity is also manipulated for clause demarcation in discourse structuring. 1. Introduction The term ‘hype…

Abstract The Greek language in Sicily in Late Antiquity is characterized by two main peculiarities. First, it represents the result of the interaction between the Attic Koine, predominant in Sicily since the Hellenistic Age, and the previous local Greek varieties. In particular, some typical features of the Doric dialect appear here as a consequence of the linguistic standardization following the political supremacy of Syracuse. Secondly, we must underline its interaction with other linguistic va…

Abstract The process by which a monophthong like i or u becomes a diphthong like ai or au (sometimes known as vowel breaking). Diphthongization is the process by which a monophthong becomes a diphthong. There are two processes of diphthongization in Ancient Greek, both of which are diachronic (for a general discussion of the phenomenon, see Andersen 1972).  The first results from the intervocalic loss of w, y, or s, which results in hiatus, i.e., two adjacent vowels in distinct syllables. They then fuse together to form one syllable, as illustrated by the word for ‘child,’ páis > paîs (see f…

Abstract An infinitive is an indeclinable form, derived from a verbal stem, whereas a verbal noun is a declinable substantive derived from the root of the verb. In Greek, infinitives were integrated into the tense-aspect and voice systems. In historical Greek it is synchronically far from obvious that the infinitival endings have anything to do with nominal morphology. Nevertheless, it is possible to analyze most of the infinitival morphemes as originally nominal suffixes or nominal suffix combin…

Abstract This entry provides an illustration of the main ways to encode spatial relations through primary prepositions in Greek. More specifically, the function of the prepositional phrases by which Greek encodes the semantic roles of Location, Direction, Source and Path will be described. Particular attention will be devoted to the semantic role (SR) of Location, which seems to be preponderant since it can be encoded by almost all the Greek prepositions if constructed with a predicate of rest. I…

Abstract Riddles ( ainígmata, grîphoi) are known from all periods of Greek from Homer onward; the most famous example is that of the Sphinx. These linguistically playful questions or statements requiring ingenuity to answer or interpret play a role in the classical symposium and are considered in connection with metaphors by Aristotle. Riddles ‒ linguistically playful questions or statements that require ingenuity to answer or interpret ‒ are found the world over, part of both the carefree language of children and the most serious and elaborate f…

Abstract This article discusses the Ancient Greek Perfect from both a synchronic and a diachronic point of view, from Archaic to post-Classical Greek. After giving an overview of three main approaches towards the semantics of this grammatical category, it focuses on the cross-linguistic approach, showing that the Perfect has undergone a semantic shift from resultative to perfective past.  1. Introduction The term ‘Perfect’ is commonly used to refer to a morphological category of Ancient Greek. Of course, what is called ‘Perfect’ by traditional grammar…

Abstract Allegory ( all ēgoría) in Greek is a philosophical and rhetorical method in the reading of literary, especially poetic, texts since the 6th c. BCE. This article discusses its various names, its development in relation to Greek cult, exegesis and philosophy, and its relationship to etymology and language theories. The Greek word allēgoría was thought in antiquity to come from álla agoreúein ‘to say something else’ than what one really means (Heraclitus Quaestiones Homericae 5.2), and is not attested before the 1st c. BCE (Plutarch De audiendis poetis 19e-f still presents it…

Abstract Greek belongs to the Indo-European language family, whose lengthy history is reconstructable by the methodologies of historical and comparative linguistics. One of the enduring fascinations of Indo-European studies is the puzzle of where the historically attested languages came from, how they came to be where they were (or are), when, and under what conditions. Scholars have developed several useful techniques to answer these questions, but solutions to many problems associated with the …

Abstract In Ancient Greek, conditionals, i.e., constructions of the form ‘if p, (then) q’, are typically introduced by the subordinator ei. Dependent on the mood used and the time referred to, conditionals express conditions whose realization is presented as possible in various degrees, or, in the case of a general or iterative context, as sometimes realized in the situation at hand. Conditionals may be linked to different levels of the main clause (predication, proposition or illocution). Conditionals are subject …

Abstract Koine Greek is the Greek language commonly spoken and written in the eastern Mediterranean in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. It is impossible to describe fully the characteristics of a language spoken over so wide a geographical area, across a period of several centuries, and utilized across all levels of speech, from the most erudite philosopher to the barely literate peasant. However, there are trends and features of both literary and colloquial speech that appear regularly in the …

Babeu, Alison Computational Linguistics and Greek Babiniotis, Georgios Intralingual Translation into Modern Greek | Macedonian | Pronominal System Babylonia Greek and Aramaic Babylonian Semitic Loanwords in Greek Bacchius of Tanagra Dictionaries of Scientific Vocabulary: Antiquity and Byzantine Period | Lexicography, History of Bacchylides Bridges | Choral Poetry, Diction of | Deixis (including 1st and 2nd Person) | Dialects, Classification of | Greek Lyric Poetry, Translation | Lyric Poetry, Diction of | Papyrology | Responsion | Song and Recitation | Verse Bacharakis, M. …

Abstract   See Verbal System (Tense, Aspect, Mood) Bibliography  

Abstract Punning ( paronomasía) is a play on words based on similarity in sound. Examples abound in Aristophanic comedy and Gorgias but are also well attested in periods and genres from Homeric epic to the Late Antique jokebook known as the Philogelos. The line between puns and ancient etymologizing is not clearly drawn. The Greek word for ‘pun’ ‒ that is to say, a play on words based on similarity in sound ‒ is paronomasía (Lausberg 1990³:322-325), a term whose first certain attestation is in a Roman work, Cic. De or. 2.256, where it is used to characterize such “a small change in wording” ( par…

Abstract ‘Deixis’ (from the Greek verb deı́knumi ‘show’, Lat. demonstratio) is the phenomenon according to which specific words direct one’s attention to some extralinguistic entity (somebody, something, some place, some moment) whose ultimate referent remains unspecified; communication participants have to rely on the extralinguistic context to assign the intended referent. In Ancient Greek deixis often leads to complex interpretations of messages because of our insufficient knowledge about the ad hoc extra-linguistic context and because of its variations in sco…

Abstract Bilingualism and multilingualism were normal conditions for the urban societies in the Ancient World. Among the languages in contact with Greek in the Mediterranean basin, Latin has been the most influential as well as the most influenced by Greek itself, an influence resulting in a considerable amount of literary and epigraphic evidence. Greek and Latin bilingualism was the condition of users of Greek and Latin who mastered varieties of both languages to some degree, authored texts displaying elements belonging to these varieties, and possibly used …

See Derivational Morphology

Abstract “Grassmann’s Law” describes the dissimilatory loss of aspiration in one of two non-adjacent aspirated consonants, e.g. Proto-Gk. *hékhō > Gk. ékhō ‘I have’. Grassmann’s Law alternations sometimes remain intact, but are often removed by analogy. Grassmann’s Law in Greek was independent from Grassmann’s Law in Sanskrit, and is probably a post-Mycenaean development. “Grassmann’s Law” (Grassmann 1863, cf. Collinge 1985:47-61 for a detailed survey of initial reaction and subsequent debate) is a phonological rule within the history of Greek that des…