A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity. Edited
by A.-F. CHRISTIDIS. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press,
2007. Pp. xli + 1617. Cloth, $250.00. ISBN 978–0–521–83307–3.
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-Transliterated Greek has been set off within double asterisks
-Aspiration and accent (in that order) follow their vowel
CJ Online 2009.05.02
This monumental interdisciplinary volume is a translation of the Modern
Greek edition (**Istori/as tes ellenike/s glo/ssas**) published in 2001
under the editorial eye of the late A.-F. Christidis, Professor of
Linguistics at the University of Thessaloniki. Designed as a comprehensive
survey of Ancient Greek, it contains contributions by some 75 scholars (the
majority Greek, and the balance predominantly from other European
countries), including archaeologists and historians as well as linguists
and philologists specializing in a variety of ancient languages. As such,
it is an indispensable treasure-chest of information not only on ancient
Greek and its historical development, but on linguistic and cultural
contact between Greeks and other neighboring peoples.
The main body of the book is divided into nine clearly articulated and
organized sections, each followed by a full bibliography. Many individual
chapters within these units are followed by a selection of exemplary
primary texts.
The first section is introductory, covering language as a general
phenomenon, with chapters on the nature of language, the units of
linguistic analysis, the relationship of language to the brain and to
thought, and language acquisition and linguistic change. The second section
focuses more particularly on the development of Greek as a language from
Proto-Indo-European through the Roman Empire; here, particular attention is
paid to the relationship between language change and historical and social
conditions. The range is admirable: individual contributions include
multiple chapters on the evidence for Indo-European language and culture,
on the origins of Greek and its early written forms, on pre-Greek
languages, and on the introduction and development of writing, as well as
on orality and literacy in the Classical Period.
The third section focuses on the Greek dialects, with individual chapters
devoted to the classification of the dialects and the relation of Mycenean
Greek to the dialects of later periods, as well as synoptic discussions of
the phonology and morphology of individual dialects. The inclusion of
Macedonian among the Greek dialects makes sense in the larger organization
of the volume, though given how politically charged the question is (and
given the frankness and balance with which the volume elsewhere deals with
the ideological importance of Ancient Greek for the modern Greek state),
one might wish that the “fierce debate over whether or not Macedonian
should be classed among the Greek dialects” were passed by less quickly.
The fourth section deals with Greek phonology, morphology, syntax,
pronunciation and vocabulary, and their development over time. Individual
chapters consider the various “Koines” of the Greek East, Jewish Greek,
and the Greek of the New Testament, as well as personal names and the
traces of movement toward Modern Greek.
The fifth section offers a particularly valuable assembly of separate
chapters on the points of contact between Greek and other ancient
languages, including Thracian, Illyrian, Phrygian, Carian, Lycian, Lydian,
Iranian, Etruscan, Latin, Hebrew, Egyptian and Coptic, Syriac, Celtic,
Indian languages and Arabic. These discussions lead nicely, in the sixth
section, to a discussion of translation and bilingualism in antiquity, with
individual chapters on the Septuagint, the Greek of Roman texts, Phoenician
bilingualism and Greek translation of Lycian and Syriac.
The seventh section, on language and culture, is divided into three
subparts. The first treats the enormous topic of the language of literary
texts, with (unavoidably cursory) discussions of a range of ancient genres
and periods. Included here is a chapter on the use of dialects in literary
texts, unfortunately treating only the Archaic and Classical periods with
no mention of post-Classical poetry; Hellenistic literature is consigned to
a very short chapter of its own. The second subsection surveys specialized
and technical languages, including those of law, medicine and philosophy,
as well as the vocabularies of democracy and early Christianity, and the
semantic development of select words, including **e(llenismo/s, a(/gios,
psyche/, philotimi/a** and **para/deisos**.
The eighth section, entitled “Ancient Greeks and Language,” includes a
discussion of ancient education, an all-too-brief chapter on ancient
grammarians, and a useful survey of Atticism from the Hellenistic period
on.
The final section briefly covers the fortune of Ancient Greek from the
medieval period to modernity, concluding with a fascinating treatment of
the ideologically complex place of Ancient Greek in the development of
Modern Greek and of the Greek state.
An extremely useful set of appendixes includes discussions of diacritics
and punctuation as well as a wide range of other important issues,
including proverbs, maxims and riddles, spells, prophetic discourse, the
language of the gods in Homer, obscenity, the representation of foreign
speech in literature, music, non-verbal communication, texts preserved on
lead tablets, and analogy and sound change. Although some of these make
good sense as appendixes, many would have been better incorporated as
chapters in the main body of the book. The volume concludes with a useful
glossary and comprehensive indexes of proper names, words in Greek and
other languages, and terms and subjects.
In sum, this monumental volume will serve as an important resource for
students and scholars in a variety of fields. Students looking for an
easily manageable overview of Ancient Greek and its development may find it
easier to start with a handbook like L.R. Palmer’s classic The Greek
Language or G. Horrock’s Greek: A History of Its Language and its
Speakers. But no other volume of a comparable range or scope exists, and
this book should and will be widely consulted by anyone interested in the
history of Ancient Greek and its afterlife in the Byzantine, Renaissance
and Modern periods.
ALEXANDER SENS
Georgetown University
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