Description
Book SynopsisA Companion to the Ancient Greek Language gives a comprehensive account of the language of Ancient Greek civilization in a single volume with contributions from leading international scholars. This collection of 36 original essays covers the historical, geographical, sociolinguistic, and literary perspectives of the language.
Trade Review"The work is wonderfully clear, informative, and engaging. Students and scholars will enjoy consulting it. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." (
Choice, 1 May 2011)
"It has become customary for reviews of handbooks to express misgivings toward the genre and its ever-increasing presence. But whatever one might think of companion volumes, this is a useful book. It boasts a wide range of generally high-quality essays by a parade of eminent scholars. Perhaps its most praiseworthy feature is the clarity and accessibility of many of its contributions, which makes them ideal starting points for the non-specialist." (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 7 May 2011)
"One doesn't have to be a student of Greek to enjoy this informative compendium." (Book News Inc, November 2010)
Table of ContentsList of Figures viii
List of Tables ix
Notes on Contributors xii
Symbols Used xviii
Abbreviations of Ancient Authors and Works xix
Abbreviations of Modern Sources xxviii
Linguistic and Other Abbreviations xxxv
1 Introduction 1
Egbert J. Bakker
PART I The Sources 9
2 Mycenaean Texts: The Linear B Tablets 11
Silvia Ferrara
3 Phoinikēia Grammata: An Alphabet for the Greek Language 25
Roger D. Woodard
4 Inscriptions 47
Rudolf Wachter
5 Papyri 62
Arthur Verhoogt
6 The Manuscript Tradition 69
Niels Gaul
PART II The Language 83
7 Phonology 85
Philomen Probert
8 Morphology and Word Formation 104
Michael Weiss
9 Semantics and Vocabulary 120
Michael Clarke
10 Syntax 134
Evert van Emde Boas and Luuk Huitink
11 Pragmatics: Speech and Text 151
Egbert J. Bakker
PART III Greek in Time and Space: Historical and Geographical Connections 169
12 Greek and Proto-Indo-European 171
Jeremy Rau
13 Mycenaean Greek 189
Rupert Thompson
14 Greek Dialects in the Archaic and Classical Ages 200
Stephen Colvin
15 Greek and the Languages of Asia Minor to the Classical Period 213
Shane Hawkins
16 Linguistic Diversity in Asia Minor during the Empire: Koine and Non-Greek Languages 228
Claude Brixhe
17 Greek in Egypt 253
Sofía Torallas Tovar
18 Jewish and Christian Greek 267
Coulter H. George
19 Greek and Latin Bilingualism 281
Bruno Rochette
PART IV Greek in Context 295
20 Register Variation 297
Andreas Willi
21 Female Speech 311
Thorsten Fögen
22 Forms of Address and Markers of Status 327
Eleanor Dickey
23 Technical Languages: Science and Medicine 338
Francesca Schironi
PART V Greek as Literature 355
24 Inherited Poetics 357
Joshua T. Katz
25 Language and Meter 370
Gregory Nagy
26 Literary Dialects 388
Olga Tribulato
27 The Greek of Epic 401
Olav Hackstein
28 The Language of Greek Lyric Poetry 424
Michael Silk
29 The Greek of Athenian Tragedy 441
Richard Rutherford
30 Kunstprosa: Philosophy, History, Oratory 455
Victor Bers
31 The Literary Heritage as Language: Atticism and the Second Sophistic 468
Lawrence Kim
PART VI The Study of Greek 483
32 Greek Philosophers on Language 485
Casper C. de Jonge and Johannes M. van Ophuijsen
33 The Birth of Grammar in Greece 499
Andreas U. Schmidhauser
34 Language as a System in Ancient Rhetoric and Grammar 512
James I. Porter
PART VII Beyond Antiquity 525
35 Byzantine Literature and the Classical Past 527
Staffan Wahlgren
36 Medieval and Early Modern Greek 539
David Holton and Io Manolessou
37 Modern Greek 564
Peter Mackridge
Bibliography 588
Index 639
