This article is about the language. For Ancient Greek culture in general see Ancient Greece. For Ancient Greek population groups see List of Ancient Greek tribes. "Classical Greek" redirects here. For the culture see Classical Greece. Ancient Greek test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator Ancient Greek Hellnik Spoken in eastern Mediterranean Language extinction developed into Koin Greek by the 4th century BC Language family Indo-European Hellenic Ancient Greek Writing system Greek alphabet Language codes ISO 639-2 grc ISO 639-3 grc Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Beginning of Homer's Odyssey

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning the Archaic (c. 9th6th centuries BC) Classical (c. 5th4th centuries BC) and Hellenistic (c. 3rd century BC 6th century AD) periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek. Its Hellenistic phase is known as Koine ("common") or Biblical Greek and its late period mutates imperceptibly into Medieval Greek. Koine is regarded as a separate historical stage of its own although in its earlier form it closely resembles Classical Greek. Prior to the Koine period Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects.

Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of classical Athenian historians playwrights and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a standard subject of study in Western educational institutions since the Renaissance. Latinized forms of Ancient Greek roots are used in many of the scientific names of species and in scientific terminology.

This article treats primarily the Epic and Classical phases of the language see also the articles on Mycenaean Greek and on Koine Greek. Contents 1 Dialects 2 Sound changes 3 Phonology 3.1 Vowels 3.2 Consonants 3.2.1 Assimilation 4 Morphology 4.1 Augment 4.2 Reduplication 5 Writing system 6 Example text 7 Modern use 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links 11.1 Grammar learning 11.2 Classical texts Dialects Main article: Ancient Greek dialects

The origins early forms and early development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood owing to the lack of contemporaneous evidence. There are several theories about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period1 is Mycenaean but its relationship to the historical dialects and the historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. History of the Greek language (see also: Greek alphabet) Proto-Greek (c. 30001600 BC) Mycenaean (c. 16001100 BC) Ancient Greek (c. 800330 BC) Dialects: Aeolic Arcadocypriot Attic-Ionic Doric Locrian Pamphylian; Homeric Greek. Macedonian. Koine Greek (c. 330 BC330) Medieval Greek (3301453)

Modern Greek (from 1453) Dialects: Cappadocian Cheimarriotika Cretan Cypriot Demotic Griko Katharevousa Pontic Tsakonian Maniot Yevanic This box: view talk

*Dates (beginning with Ancient Greek) from Wallace D. B. (1996). Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. p. 12. ISBN 0310218950. 

The major dialect groups of the Ancient Greek period can be assumed to have developed not later than 1120 BC at the time of the Dorian invasion(s) and their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to the historical Dorians; moreover the invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians.

The ancient Greeks themselves considered there to be three major divisions of all the other Greek peopleDorians Aeolians and Ionians (including Athenians) each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian an obscure mountain dialect and Cyprian far from the center of Greek scholarship this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation.

One standard formulation for the dialects is:2 Distribution of Greek dialects in the classical period.3 Western group:   Doric proper   Northwest Doric Greek Central group:   Aeolic   Arcado-Cypriot Eastern group:   Attic   Ionic   Achaean Doric Greek West Group Northwest Greek Doric Aeolic Group Aegean/Asiatic Aeolic Thessalian Boeotian Ionic-Attic Group Attica Euboea and colonies in Italy Cyclades Asiatic Ionia Arcadocypriot Greek Arcadian Cypriot West vs. non-west Greek is the strongest marked and earliest division with non-west in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcado-Cyprian or Aeolic and Arcado-Cyprian vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-west is called East Greek. The Arcado-Cyprian group apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence though to a lesser degree. Pamphylian spoken in a small area on the south-western coast of Asia Minor and little preserved in inscriptions may be either a fifth major dialect group or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric with a non-Greek native influence. Ancient Macedonian was an Indo-European language closely related to Greek but its exact relationship is unclear because of insufficient data: possibly a dialect of Greek; a sibling language to Greek; or a close cousin to Greek and perhaps related to some extent to Thracian and Phrygian languages. The Pella curse tablet is one of the many clear finds which support the idea that the Ancient Macedonian language is closely related to the Doric Greek dialect. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric) Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian the dialect of Sparta) and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian). The Lesbian dialect was a member of the Aegean/Asiatic Aeolic sub-group. All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well and these colonies generally developed local characteristics often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. The dialects outside the Ionic group are known mainly from inscriptions notable exceptions being fragments of the works of the poetess Sappho from the island of Lesbos and the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 300's BC a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed largely based on Attic Greek but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects although Doric dialect has survived to the present in the form of the Tsakonian dialect of Modern Greek spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek. By about the 500's AD the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek. Sound changes Greek alphabet Alpha Nu Beta Xi Gamma Omicron Delta Pi Epsilon Rho Zeta Sigma Eta Tau Theta Upsilon Iota Phi Kappa Chi Lambda Psi Mu Omega Other characters Digamma Stigma Heta San Qoppa Sampi Greek diacritics Main article: Proto-Greek See Proto-Greek for a description of sound changes from Proto-Indo-European up through attested Ancient Greek. Phonology For more details on this topic see Ancient Greek phonology. The pronunciation of Post-Classic Greek changed considerably from Ancient Greek although the orthography still reflects features of the older language (see W. Sidney Allen Vox Graeca  a guide to the pronunciation of Classical Greek). For a detailed description on the phonology changes from Ancient to Hellenistic periods of the Greek language see the article on Koine Greek. The examples below are intended to represent Attic Greek in the 5th century BC. Although ancient pronunciation can never be reconstructed with certainty Greek in particular is very well documented from this period and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represented. Vowels Front Back   unrounded rounded Close i i y y Close-mid e e o o Open-mid Open a a /o/ raised to u probably by the 4th century BC. Certain vowels historically underwent compensatory lengthening in certain contexts. /a/ sometimes lengthened to a or and /e/ and /o/ become the closed values e and o and the open ones and depending on time period. Consonants Bilabial Dental Velar Glottal Nasal m n () Plosive voiced b d g voiceless p t k aspirated p t k Fricative s h Trill r Lateral l occurred as an allophone of /n/ used before velars and as an allophone of // before nasals. /r/ was probably voiceless when used word-initial (written ) Assimilation In verb conjugation one consonant often comes up against the other. Various sandhi rules apply. Rules: Most basic rule: When two sounds appear next to each other the first assimilates in voicing and aspiration to the second. This applies fully to stops. Fricatives assimilate only in voicing sonorants do not assimilate. Before an /s/ (future aorist stem) velars become k labials become p and dentals disappear. Before a /t/ (aorist passive stem) velars become k labials become p and dentals become s. Before an /m/ (perfect middle first-singular first-plural participle) velars become nasal+velar becomes labials become m dentals become s other sonorants remain the same. Morphology Main article: Ancient Greek grammar Greek like all of the older Indo-European languages is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In Ancient Greek nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases (nominative genitive dative accusative and vocative) three genders (masculine feminine and neuter) and three numbers (singular dual and plural). Verbs have four moods (indicative imperative subjunctive and optative) three voices (active middle and passive) as well as three persons (first second and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"): the present future and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist (perfective aspect); a present perfect pluperfect and future perfect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also there is no imperfect subjunctive optative or imperative. There are infinitives and participles corresponding to the finite combinations of tense aspect and voice. Augment The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually at least) a prefix /e-/. This was probably originally a separate word meaning something like "then" added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist imperfect and pluperfect but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). There are two kinds of augment in Greek syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment is added to stems beginning with consonants and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r however add er). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels and involves lengthening the vowel: a e i o u ai i ei i or ei oi i au u or au eu u or eu ou ou Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e ei. The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels. In verbs with a prefix the augment is placed not at the start of the word but between the prefix and the original verb. For example (-) (I attack) goes to o in the aorist. Following Homer's practice the augment is sometimes not made in poetry especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Reduplication Almost all forms of the perfect pluperfect and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (Note that a few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) There are three types of reduplication: Syllabic reduplication: Most verbs beginning with a single consonant or a cluster of a stop with a sonorant add a syllable consisting of the initial consonant followed by e. An aspirated consonant however reduplicates in its unaspirated equivalent: Grassmann's law. Augment: Verbs beginning with a vowel as well as those beginning with a cluster other than those indicated previously (and occasionally for a few other verbs) reduplicate in the same fashion as the augment. This remains in all forms of the perfect not just the indicative. Attic reduplication: Some verbs beginning with an a e or o followed by a sonorant (or occasionally d or g) reduplicate by adding a syllable consisting of the initial vowel and following consonant and lengthening the following vowel. Hence er err an ann ol oll ed edd. This is not actually specific to Attic Greek despite its name; but it was generalized in Attic. This originally involved reduplicating a cluster consisting of a laryngeal and sonorant; hence hl hlehl oll with normal Greek development of laryngeals. (Forms with a stop were analogous.) Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example lamban (root lab) has the perfect stem eilpha (not *lelpha) because it was originally slamban with perfect seslpha becoming eilpha through (semi-)regular change. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i. A nasal consonant appears after the reduplication in some verbs.4 Writing system Main article: Greek orthography Ancient Greek was written in the Greek alphabet with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of Ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks interword spacing modern punctuation and sometimes mixed case but these were all introduced later. Example text The following polytonic Greek text is from the beginning of Apology by Plato: : ' ' . . Transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme: Hti mn humes ndres Athnaoi pepnthate hup tn emn katgrn ouk oda: eg d' on ka auts hup' autn olgou emauto epelathmn hot pithans legon. Katoi alths ge hs pos eipen oudn eirkasin. Translated into English: What you men of Athens have learned from my accusers I do not know: but I for my part nearly forgot who I was thanks to them since they spoke so persuasively. And yet of the truth they have spoken one might say nothing at all. Another example from the beginning of Homer's Iliad: . Modern use The study of Ancient Greek in European countries in addition to Latin occupied an important place in the syllabus until the beginning of the 20th century. Ancient Greek is still taught as a compulsory or optional subject especially at traditional or elite schools throughout Europe such as public schools and grammar schools in the United Kingdom. It is compulsory in the Liceo classico in Italy and optional in the Humanistisches Gymnasium in Germany (usually as a third language after Latin and English from the age of 14 to 18). In 2006/07 15000 pupils studied Ancient Greek in Germany according to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany and 280000 pupils studied it in Italy.5 Ancient Greek is also taught at most major universities worldwide often combined with Latin as part of Classics. It will also be taught in state primary schools in the UK to boost childrens language skills.678 Ancient Greek is also taught as a compulsory subject in Gymnasia and Lycia in Greece.910 Ancient Greek is often used in the coinage of modern technical terms in the European languages: see English words of Greek origin. Modern authors rarely write in Ancient Greek though Jan Kesadlo wrote some poetry and prose in the language and some volumes of Asterix have been written in Attic Greek 2 and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone has been translated into Ancient Greek.11 Ancient Greek is also used by mainly Greek organizations and individuals who wish to denote their respect admiration or preference for the use of this language. This use is sometimes considered graphical nationalistic or funny. In any case the fact that modern Greeks can still wholly or partly understand texts written in non-archaic forms of ancient Greek shows the affinity of modern Greek language to its ancestral predecessor.12 An isolated community near Trabzon Turkey an area where Pontic Greek is spoken has been found to speak a variety of Greek that has parallels both structurally and in its vocabulary to Ancient Greek not present in other varieties.13 As few as 5000 people speak the dialect but linguists believe that it is the closest living language to Ancient Greek.1415 See also Exploring the Ancient Greek Language and Culture (competition) Greek alphabet Greek declension Greek diacritics Mycenaean Greek language Koine Greek Medieval Greek Modern Greek Greek language List of Greek phrases (mostly Ancient Greek) References Imprecisely attested and somewhat reconstructive due to its being written in an ill-fitting syllabary (Linear B). This one is to be found in recent versions of the Encyclopedia Britannica which also lists the major works defining the subject.page needed Roger D. Woodard (2008) "Greek dialects" in: The Ancient Languages of Europe ed. R. D. Woodard Cambridge: Cambridge University Press p. 51. Palmer Leonard (1996). The Greek Language. Norman OK: University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 262. ISBN 0806128445.  1 Ancient Greek 'to be taught in state schools' "Primaries go Greek to help teach English" - Education News - 30 July 2010. "Now look Latin's fine but Greek might be even Beta" TES Editorial 2010 - TSL Education Ltd. http://www.fa3.gr/physeduc2/33-orologio-programma-Gymnasiou.htm http://edu.klimaka.gr/leitoyrgia-sxoleivn/lykeio/755-wrologio-programma-genika-lykeia.html Areios Potr kai tu philosophu lithos Bloomsbury 2004 ISBN 1-58234-826-X Akropolis World News and Tech news in Ancient Greek Jason and the argot: land where Greek's ancient language survives The Independent 3 January 2011 Against all odds: archaic Greek in a modern world University of Cambridge Archaic Greek in a modern world video from Cambridge University on You Tube Further reading P. Chantraine (1968) Dictionnaire tymologique de la langue grecque Klincksieck Paris. Athenaze A series of textbooks on Ancient Greek published for school use External links Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Ancient Greek Ancient Greek test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator Look up ancient greek in Wiktionary the free dictionary. Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article: Texts in Ancient Greek Ancient Greek Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh list appendix) Grammar learning A more extensive grammar of the Ancient Greek language written by J. Rietveld Recitation of classics books Ancient Greek Language Teaching Podcast Perseus Greek dictionaries Greek-Language.com Information on the history of the Greek language application of modern Linguistics to the study of Greek and tools for learning Greek Free Lessons in Ancient Greek Bilingual Libraries Forum Ancient Greek Tutorials Berkeley Language Center of the University of California New Testament Greek Acropolis World News A summary of the latest world news in Ancient Greek Juan Coderch University of St Andrews Classical texts Perseus Greek and Roman Materials Ancient Greek Texts v d eAges of Greek c. 3rd millenium BC c. 16001100 BC c. 800300 BC c. 300 BC  AD 330 c. 3301453 since 1453 Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Greek Koine Greek Medieval Greek Modern Greek v d eGreek language  E History Proto-Greek (c. 30001600 BC)  Mycenaean (c. 16001000 BC)  Ancient Greek (c. 1000330 BC)  Koine Greek (c. 330 BC330)  Medieval Greek (3301453)  Modern Greek (from 1453) Alphabet Orthography  Diacritics  History  Romanization  Numerals  Linear B  Kai  Dipylon inscription  Cypriot syllabary Letters Alpha  Beta  Gamma  Delta  Epsilon  Zeta  Eta  Theta  Iota  Kappa  Lambda  Mu  Nu  Xi  Omicron  Pi  Rho  Sigma  Tau  Upsilon  Phi  Chi  Psi  Omega  Obsolete: Digamma  Heta  Koppa  Stigma  San  Sampi Phonology Ancient Greek (accent)  Koine Greek  Modern Greek Grammar Ancient Greek (tables)  Modern Greek Dialects Cappadocian  Cretan  Cypriot  Chalkidiki  Demotic  Greek-Calabrian  Griko  Katharevousa  Misthiotica  Pontic  Tsakonian  Yevanic Literature Ancient Greek  Byzantine  Modern Greek Related Topics Greek Wikipedia  Exonyms  Morphemes  Terms of Endearment  Place names  Proverbs  Greek language question  Graeco-Armenian  Graeco-Aryan  Western Greek alphabet  Greeklish  A Greek-English Lexicon  Hellenic Quest  Pre-Greek substrate Promotion and Study Hellenic Foundation for Culture  Center for the Greek language v d eAncient Greece Outline       Timeline Periods Cycladic civilization  Minoan civilization  Mycenaean civilization  Greek Dark Ages  Archaic period  Classical Greece  Hellenistic Greece  Roman Greece Geography Aegean Sea  Hellespont  Macedonia  Sparta  Athens  Corinth  Thebes  Thermopylae  Ionian Sea  Ionia  Aeolis  Doris  Antioch  Alexandria  Pergamon  Miletus  Ephesus  Delphi  Delos   Olympia  Troy  Rhodes  Crete  Peloponnesus  Epirus  Cyprus  Pontus  Magna Graecia  Ancient Greek Colonies Politics Apella  Ecclesia  Heliaia  Boule  Agora  Graph paranmn  Areopagus  League of Corinth  Diadochi Rulers Kings of Sparta  Kings of Athens  Archons of Athens  Kings of Macedon  Kings of Pontus  Kings of Paionia  Roman Emperors  Kings of Kommagene  Kings of Lydia  Attalid Kings of Pergamon  Diadochi   Kings of Argos  Tyrants of Syracuse Life Agriculture  Clothing  Cuisine  Democracy  Economy  Education  Festivals  Homosexuality  Law  Marriage  Mourning ritual  Olympic Games  Pederasty  Philosophy  Prostitution  Religion  Slavery  Warfare  Wine Military Wars  Army of Macedon  Antigonid Macedonian army  Pezhetairoi  Hoplite  Seleucid army  Hellenistic armies  Phalanx formation  Peltast  Sarissa  Xyston  Sacred Band of Thebes People Philosophers Anaxagoras  Anaximander  Anaximenes  Antisthenes  Aristotle  Democritus  Diotima of Mantinea  Diogenes of Sinope  Epicurus  Empedocles  Heraclitus  Hypatia  Leucippus  Gorgias  Parmenides  Plato  Protagoras  Pythagoras  Socrates  Thales  Themistoclea  Zeno Authors Aeschylus  Aesop  Aristophanes  Euripides  Herodotus  Hesiod  Homer  Lucian  Menander  Pindar  Plutarch  Polybius  Sappho  Sophocles  Thucydides  Xenophon Others Alexander the Great  Alcibiades  Archimedes  Aspasia  Demosthenes  Euclid  Hipparchus  Hippocrates  Leonidas  Lycurgus  Milo of Croton  Pericles  Ptolemy  Solon  Themistocles Buildings Parthenon  Temple of Artemis  Acropolis  Ancient Agora  Temple of Zeus at Olympia  Temple of Hephaestus  Samothrace temple complex Arts Architecture  Coinage  Literature  Music  Pottery  Sculpture  Theatre Sciences Astronomy  Mathematics  Medicine  Technology Language Proto-Greek  Mycenaean  Homeric  Dialects (Aeolic  Arcadocypriot  Attic  Doric  Ionic  Locrian  Macedonian  Pamphylian)  Koine Writing Linear A  Linear B  Greek alphabet Lists Ancient Greek tribes  Greeks  Thracian Greeks  Cities in Epirus  Ancient Macedonians  Playwrights  Theatres  Poets  Tyrants  Philosophers  Cities  Mythological figures  Place names Portal