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Attic Greek is the
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
dialect of the ancient region of
Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
, including the ''
polis ''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...
'' of
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
. Often called classical Greek, it was the
prestige Prestige refers to a good reputation or high esteem; in earlier usage, ''prestige'' meant "showiness". (19th c.) Prestige may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Films * ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnet ...
dialect of the
Greek world In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in History of the Mediterranean region, Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as sig ...
for centuries and remains the standard form of the language that is taught to students of
ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
. As the basis of the Hellenistic
Koine Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
, it is the most similar of the ancient dialects to later Greek. Attic is traditionally classified as a member or sister dialect of the Ionic branch.


Origin and range

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
is the primary member of the Hellenic branch of the
Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch ...
language family. In ancient times, Greek had already come to exist in several dialects, one of which was Attic. The earliest attestations of Greek, dating from the 16th to 11th centuries BC, are written in
Linear B Linear B was a syllabic script used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1400 BC. It is descended from ...
, an archaic writing system used by the
Mycenaean Greeks Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland ...
in writing their language; the distinction between
Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...
and Western Greek is believed to have arisen by Mycenaean times or before.
Mycenaean Greek Mycenaean Greek is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, on the Greek mainland and Crete in Mycenaean Greece (16th to 12th centuries BC), before the hypothesised Dorian invasion, often cited as the ''terminus ad quem'' for the ...
represents an early form of Eastern Greek, the group to which Attic also belongs. Later Greek literature wrote about three main dialects:
Aeolic In linguistics, Aeolic Greek (), also known as Aeolian (), Lesbian or Lesbic dialect, is the set of dialects of Ancient Greek spoken mainly in Boeotia; in Thessaly; in the Aegean island of Lesbos; and in the Greek colonies of Aeolis in Anatolia ...
,
Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...
, and Ionic; Attic was part of the Ionic dialect group. "
Old Attic Old or OLD may refer to: Places * Old, Baranya, Hungary * Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, ...
" is used in reference to the dialect of
Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientifi ...
(460–400 BC) and the dramatists of 5th-century Athens whereas "
New Attic New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
" is used for the language of later writers following conventionally the accession in 285 BC of Greek-speaking
Ptolemy II ; egy, Userkanaenre Meryamun Clayton (2006) p. 208 , predecessor = Ptolemy I , successor = Ptolemy III , horus = ''ḥwnw-ḳni'Khunuqeni''The brave youth , nebty = ''wr-pḥtj'Urpekhti''Great of strength , gol ...
to the throne of the
Kingdom of Egypt The Kingdom of Egypt ( ar, المملكة المصرية, Al-Mamlaka Al-Miṣreyya, The Egyptian Kingdom) was the legal form of the Egyptian state during the latter period of the Muhammad Ali dynasty's reign, from the United Kingdom's recog ...
. Ruling from
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, Ptolemy launched the Alexandrian period, during which the city of Alexandria and its expatriate Greek-medium scholars flourished. The original range of the spoken Attic dialect included
Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
and a number of the Aegean Islands; the closely related Ionic was also spoken along the western and northwestern coasts of
Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
in modern
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, in
Chalcidice Chalkidiki (; el, Χαλκιδική , also spelled Halkidiki, is a peninsula and regional unit of Greece, part of the region of Central Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia in Northern Greece. The autonomous Mount Athos region c ...
,
Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to t ...
,
Euboea Evia (, ; el, Εύβοια ; grc, Εὔβοια ) or Euboia (, ) is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only at its narrowest poin ...
, and in some colonies of
Magna Graecia Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; these re ...
. Eventually, the texts of literary Attic were widely studied far beyond their homeland: first in the classical civilizations of the Mediterranean, including in
Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...
and the larger
Hellenistic world In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...
, and later in the
Muslim world The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. I ...
, Europe, and other parts of the world touched by those civilizations.


Literature

The earliest
Greek literature Greek literature () dates back from the ancient Greek literature, beginning in 800 BC, to the modern Greek literature of today. Ancient Greek literature was written in an Ancient Greek dialect, literature ranges from the oldest surviving writte ...
, which is attributed to
Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
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 Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
following the reforms of
Solon Solon ( grc-gre, Σόλων;  BC) was an Athenian statesman, constitutional lawmaker and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in Archaic Athens.Aristotle ''Politics'' ...
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
Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...
,
Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or co ...
,
Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...
, and
Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states ...
dating from the fifth century BC. The military exploits of the Athenians led to some universally read and admired history, as found in the works of
Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientifi ...
and
Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, wikt:Ξενοφῶν, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Anci ...
. Slightly less known because they are more technical and legal are the orations by
Antiphon An antiphon (Greek ἀντίφωνον, ἀντί "opposite" and φωνή "voice") is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain. The texts of antiphons are the Psalms. Their form was favored by St Ambrose and they feature prominently ...
,
Demosthenes Demosthenes (; el, Δημοσθένης, translit=Dēmosthénēs; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prow ...
,
Lysias Lysias (; el, Λυσίας; c. 445 – c. 380 BC) was a logographer (speech writer) in Ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace i ...
,
Isocrates Isocrates (; grc, Ἰσοκράτης ; 436–338 BC) was an ancient Greek rhetorician, one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education throu ...
, and many others. The Attic Greek of philosophers
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
(427–347 BC) and his student
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
(384–322 BC) dates to the period of transition between Classical Attic and Koine. 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 The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
and other early Christian writings, to the earlier
Homeric Greek Homeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the ''Iliad'', ''Odyssey'', and Homeric Hymns. It is a literary dialect of Ancient Greek consisting mainly of Ionic, with some Aeolic forms, a few from Arcadocypriot, and ...
of
Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
and
Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...
, or to the contemporaneous
Ionic Greek Ionic Greek ( grc, Ἑλληνικὴ Ἰωνική, Hellēnikē Iōnikē) was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic or Eastern dialect group of Ancient Greek. History The Ionic dialect appears to have originally spread from the Greek mainland ac ...
of
Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
and
Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of ...
.


Alphabet

Attic Greek, like other dialects, was originally written in a local variant of the Greek alphabet. According to the classification of
archaic Greek alphabets Many local variants of the Greek alphabet were employed in ancient Greece during the archaic and early classical periods, until around 400 BC, when they were replaced by the classical 24-letter alphabet that is the standard today. All forms ...
, which was introduced by
Adolf Kirchhoff Johann Wilhelm Adolf Kirchhoff (6 January 1826 – 26 February 1908) was a German classical scholar and epigraphist. Biography The son of historical painter Johann Jakob Kirchhoff, he was born in Berlin, and educated there. He then taught in va ...
, the old-Attic system belongs to the "eastern" or "blue" type, as it uses the letters and with their classical values ( and ), unlike "western" or "red" alphabets, which used for and expressed with . In other respects, Old Attic shares many features with the neighbouring
Euboea Evia (, ; el, Εύβοια ; grc, Εὔβοια ) or Euboia (, ) is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only at its narrowest poin ...
n alphabet (which is "western" in Kirchhoff's classification). Like the latter, it used an L-shaped variant of
lambda Lambda (}, ''lám(b)da'') is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant . In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is derived from the Phoenician Lamed . Lambda gave rise ...
() and an S-shaped variant of
sigma Sigma (; uppercase Σ, lowercase σ, lowercase in word-final position ς; grc-gre, σίγμα) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200. In general mathematics, uppercase Σ is used as ...
(). It lacked the consonant symbols xi () for and
psi Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviatio ...
() for , expressing these sound combinations with and , respectively. Moreover, like most other mainland Greek dialects, Attic did not yet use
omega Omega (; capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and final letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value of 800. The wo ...
() and
eta Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...
() for the long vowels and . Instead, it expressed the vowel phonemes with the letter (which corresponds with classical , , ) and with the letter (which corresponds with , , and in later classical orthography). Moreover, the letter was used as
heta Heta is a conventional name for the historical Greek alphabet letter Eta (Η) and several of its variants, when used in their original function of denoting the consonant . Overview The letter Η had been adopted by Greek from the Phoenician lett ...
, with the consonantal value of rather than the vocalic value of . 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 ''Archon'' ( gr, ἄρχων, árchōn, plural: ἄρχοντες, ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem αρχ-, mean ...
Eucleides Eucleides ( grc-gre, Εὐκλείδης) was archon of Athens towards the end of the fifth century BC. He contributed towards the re-establishment of democracy during his years in office (403–402 BC). He is also believed to have contributed to ...
, who oversaw the decision, 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 The Proto-Greek language (also known as Proto-Hellenic) is the Indo-European language which was the last common ancestor of all varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean Greek, the subsequent ancient Greek dialects (i.e., Attic, Ionic, Ae ...
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'' (
digamma Digamma or wau (uppercase: Ϝ, lowercase: ϝ, numeral: ϛ) is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet. It originally stood for the sound but it has remained in use principally as a Greek numeral for 6. Whereas it was originally called ''waw' ...
), deleted by the Classical Period. * Proto-Greek ''korwā'' → 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 Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda, or of a vowel in an adjacent syllable. Lengthening triggered ...
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. :
PIE A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...
''VsR'' or ''VRs'' → Attic-Ionic-Doric-Boeotian ''VVR''. : ''VsR'' or ''VRs'' → Lesbian-Thessalian ''VRR''. * Proto-Indo-European ''*es-mi'' (athematic verb) → Attic-Ionic ''ēmi'' (= εἰμί) ⁓ Lesbian-Thessalian ''emmi'' "I am"


Upsilon

Proto-Greek and other dialects' (English ''food'') became Attic (pronounced as German ''ü'', French ''u'') and represented by ''y'' in Latin transliteration of Greek names. * Boeotian kourios ⁓ Attic kyrios "lord" In the
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
s ''eu'' and ''au'', upsilon continued to be pronounced .


Contraction

Attic contracts more than Ionic does. ''a'' + ''e'' → long ''ā''. * ''nika-e'' → ''nikā'' "conquer (thou)!" ''e'' + ''e'' → ē (written ''ει'':
spurious diphthong A spurious diphthong (or false diphthong) is an Ancient Greek vowel that is etymologically a long vowel but written exactly like a true diphthong (''ei, ou''). Origin A spurious diphthong has two origins: from compensatory lengthening of short ...
) * 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 Rhotacism () or rhotacization is a sound change that converts one consonant (usually a voiced alveolar consonant: , , , or ) to a rhotic consonant in a certain environment. The most common may be of to . When a dialect or member of a language ...
)


Vowel shortening

Attic ''ē'' (from ''ē''-grade of
ablaut In linguistics, the Indo-European ablaut (, from German '' Ablaut'' ) is a system of apophony (regular vowel variations) in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). An example of ablaut in English is the strong verb ''sing, sang, sung'' and its ...
or Proto-Greek ''ā'') is sometimes shortened to ''e'': # when it is followed by a short vowel, with lengthening of the short vowel ( quantitative metathesis): ''ēo'' → ''eō'' # when it is followed by a long vowel: ''ēō'' → ''eō'' # when it is followed by ''u'' and ''s'': ''ēus'' → ''eus'' (
Osthoff's law Osthoff's law is an Indo-European sound law which states that long vowels shorten when followed by a resonant (Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) *''m'', *''n'', *''l'', *''r'', *''y'', *''w''), followed in turn by another consonant (i.e. in a cl ...
): * ''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 (). * 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 ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
-nti'' → Attic ''tithēsi'' = τίθεισι "he places" (
compensatory lengthening Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda, or of a vowel in an adjacent syllable. Lengthening triggered ...
of ''e'' → ''ē'' =
spurious diphthong A spurious diphthong (or false diphthong) is an Ancient Greek vowel that is etymologically a long vowel but written exactly like a true diphthong (''ei, ou''). Origin A spurious diphthong has two origins: from compensatory lengthening of short ...
ει)


Shortening of ''ss''

Doric, Aeolian, early Attic-Ionic ''ss'' → Classical Attic ''s''. * PIE → Homeric (''messos'') (palatalization) → Attic (''mesos'') "middle" *Homeric → Attic "I performed (a ceremony)"'' *Proto-Greek → Homeric → Attic "by foot" *Proto-Greek → dialectal → Attic


Loss of ''w''

Proto-Greek ''w'' (
digamma Digamma or wau (uppercase: Ϝ, lowercase: ϝ, numeral: ϛ) is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet. It originally stood for the sound but it has remained in use principally as a Greek numeral for 6. Whereas it was originally called ''waw' ...
) was lost in Attic before historical times. * Proto-Greek ''korwā'' Attic ''korē'' "girl"


Retention of ''h''

Attic retained Proto-Greek ''h-'' (from
debuccalization Debuccalization or deoralization is a sound change or alternation in which an oral consonant loses its original place of articulation and moves it to the glottis (usually , , or ). The pronunciation of a consonant as is sometimes called aspir ...
of Proto-Indo-European initial ''s-'' or ''y-''), but some other dialects lost it (''
psilosis Psilosis () is the sound change in which Greek lost the consonant sound /h/ during antiquity. The term comes from the Greek ''psílōsis'' ("smoothing, thinning out") and is related to the name of the smooth breathing (ψιλή ''psilḗ''), ...
'' "stripping", "de-aspiration"). * Proto-Indo-European ''*si-sta-mes'' → Attic ''histamen'' — Cretan ''istamen'' "we stand"


Movable ''n''

Attic-Ionic places an ''n'' (
movable nu In ancient Greek grammar, movable nu, movable N or ephelcystic nu ( grc, νῦ ἐφελκυστικόν ''nû ephelkustikón'', literally "nu dragged onto" or "attracted to") is a letter nu (written ; the Greek equivalent of the letter ''n'') pl ...
) at the end of some words that would ordinarily end in a vowel, if the next word starts with a vowel, to prevent ''
hiatus Hiatus may refer to: *Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure *Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy *''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species ''Hiatus fulvipes'' *Globa ...
'' (two vowels in a row). The movable nu can also be used to turn what would be a short syllable into a
long syllable In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. In classical Indo-European verse, as developed in Greek, Sanskrit, and Latin, distinctions of syllable ...
for use in
meter The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...
. * ''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".


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 A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
''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 Ancient Greek grammar is morphologically complex and preserves several features of Proto-Indo-European morphology. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, articles, numerals and especially verbs are all highly inflected. A complication of Greek grammar is th ...
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 In algebra, the dual numbers are a hypercomplex number system first introduced in the 19th century. They are expressions of the form , where and are real numbers, and is a symbol taken to satisfy \varepsilon^2 = 0 with \varepsilon\neq 0. Du ...
. 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 In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ar ...
, 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 In Indo-European studies, a thematic vowel or theme vowel is the vowel or from ablaut placed before the ending of a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) word. Nouns, adjectives, and verbs in the Indo-European languages with this vowel are thematic, and tho ...
, an ''o'' or ''e'' in
Indo-European ablaut In linguistics, the Indo-European ablaut (, from German ''Ablaut'' ) is a system of apophony (regular vowel variations) in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). An example of ablaut in English is the strong verb ''sing, sang, sung'' and its ...
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
genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
singular ending ''*-osyo'' after losing the ''s'' (like in the other dialects) lengthens the stem ''o'' to the spurious diphthong ''-ou'' (see above under Phonology, Vowels): logos "the word" ''logou'' from *''logosyo'' "of the word". The dative plural of Attic-Ionic had ''-oisi'', which appears in early Attic but later simplifies to ''-ois'': ''anthropois'' "to or for the men".


Classical Attic

Classical Attic may refer either to the varieties of Attic Greek spoken and written in Greek
majuscule Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...
in the 5th and 4th centuries BC ( Classical-era Attic) or to the Hellenistic and Roman era standardized Attic Greek, mainly on the language of
Attic orators The ten Attic orators were considered the greatest orators and logographers of the classical era (5th–4th century BC). They are included in the "Canon of Ten", which probably originated in Alexandria. A.E. Douglas has argued, however, that it w ...
and written in Greek
uncial Uncial is a majuscule Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. (1996) ''Encyclopedia of the Book''. 2nd edn. New Castle, DE, and London: Oak Knoll Press & The British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one ...
. Attic replaces the Ionic ''-σσ'' with ''-ττ'' : * Attic → Ionic "tongue" * Attic → Ionic "to do, to act, to make" * Attic → Ionic "sea"


Varieties

* The
vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
and poetic dialect of
Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states ...
. * The dialect of
Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientifi ...
(mixed Old Attic with
neologisms A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
). * 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 Greek, Epic and
Ionic Greek Ionic Greek ( grc, Ἑλληνικὴ Ἰωνική, Hellēnikē Iōnikē) was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic or Eastern dialect group of Ancient Greek. History The Ionic dialect appears to have originally spread from the Greek mainland ac ...
and used in the episodes. (In the choral odes, conventional
Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...
is used). * Formal Attic of
Attic orators The ten Attic orators were considered the greatest orators and logographers of the classical era (5th–4th century BC). They are included in the "Canon of Ten", which probably originated in Alexandria. A.E. Douglas has argued, however, that it w ...
,
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
,Platonic style is poetic
Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, wikt:Ξενοφῶν, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Anci ...
and
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
, imitated by the
Atticist Atticism (meaning "favouring Attica", the region of Athens in Greece) was a rhetorical movement that began in the first quarter of the 1st century BC; it may also refer to the wordings and phrasings typical of this movement, in contrast with variou ...
s or Neo-Attic writers, and considered to be ''good'' or ''Standard'' Attic.


See also


Notes


References

* * * *


Further reading

*Allen, W. Sidney. 1987. ''Vox Graeca: The pronunciation of Classical Greek.'' 3rd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. *Bakker, Egbert J., ed. 2010. ''A companion to the Ancient Greek language.'' Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. *Christidis, Anastasios-Phoivos, ed. 2007. ''A history of Ancient Greek: From the beginnings to Late Antiquity.'' Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. *Colvin, Stephen C. 2007. ''A historical Greek reader: Mycenaean to the koiné.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. *Horrocks, Geoffrey. 2010. ''Greek: A history of the language and its speakers.'' 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. *Palmer, Leonard R. 1980. ''The Greek language.'' London: Faber & Faber. *Teodorsson, Sven-Tage. 1974. ''The phonemic system of the Attic dialect 400–340 BC.'' Gothenburg, Sweden: Institute of Classical Studies, University of Göteborg. *Threatte, Leslie. 1980–86. ''The grammar of Attic inscriptions.'' 2 vols. Berlin: de Gruyter. *Γεώργιος Μπαμπινιώτης, Συνοπτική Ιστορία τής Ελληνικής γλώσσας, Athens 2002.


External links


English-Attic Dictionary (Woodhouse)

Perseus Digital Library

Greek Word Study Tool (Perseus)

A Greek Grammar for Colleges (Smyth)

Syntax of Classical Greek (Gildersleeve)


- Provides Attic Greek audio recordings

{{Authority control Varieties of Ancient Greek
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
Languages of ancient Macedonia Languages attested from the 5th century BC 5th-century BC establishments in Greece Languages extinct in the 3rd century BC