The Greek Language

367 Pages·1980·21.869 MB·

by  Leonard R. Palmer

THE
GREEK
LANGUAGE
LEONARD R. PALMER
THE GREAT LANGUAGES
Joint General Editors
L. R. PALMER, M.A., D.PHIL., PH.D.
formerly Professor of Comparative Philology in the University of Oxford
A. E. MORPURGO DAVIES, M.A.
Professor of Comparative Philology in the University of Oxford
The French Language
A. EWERT, M.A., LITT.D.
The Spanish Language
together with Portuguese, Catalan, Basque
WILLIAM F. ENTWISTLE, M.A., LITT.D., LL.D.
The Chinese Language
R. A. D. FORREST, M.A.
Russian and the Slavonic Languages
WILLIAM F. ENTWISTLE, M.A., LITT.D.
and W. A. MORRISON, B.A., PH.D.
The Latin Language
L. R. PALMER, M.A., D.PIIIL., PH.D.
The Sanskrit Language
T. BURROW, M.A., PH.D.
The Romance Languages
W. D. ELCOGK, M.A., L.ES.L., D.DE L'U. TOULOUSE
(revised with a new introduction by
JOHN N. GREEN, M.A., D.PHIL.)
The Scandinavian Languages
EINAR IIAUGEN
The German Language
R. E. KELLER, DR.PHIL., M.A.
Other titles are in preparation
THE
GREEK L A N G U A GE
Leonard R. Palmer
FABER AND FABER
London • Boston
First published in ig8o
by Faber and Faber Limited
3 Queen Square London WCiN3AU
Printed in Great Britain at the
University Press, Cambridge
All rights reserved
© Leonard R. Palmer ig8o
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Palmer, Leonard Robert
The Greek language. - (The great languages).
1. Greek language
I. Title II. Series
DAnnn
To Elisabeth

CONTENTS
List of Figures in the Text page x
Preface xi
Part I
An Outline History of the Greek Language
I THE PREHISTORY OF THE GREEK
LANGUAGE 3
1. Greek and Indo-European 3
2. The Greekness of Greek 4
3. Greeks and Pre-Greeks 9
4. The Anatolian Languages 10
5. The Coming of the Greeks 16
II THE EARLIEST TEXTS: THE LINEAR B
TABLETS 27
1. The Aegean Scripts 27
2. Personal Names 34
3. Mycenaean Grammar 38
4. Dialect Variation and Chronology 53
III THE GREEK DIALECTS 57
1. Introductory 57
2. Dialect Characteristics 59
3. Dialect Interrelations and Historical Interpretation 64
4. The Second Colonial Period 80
IV THE LITERARY LANGUAGES: POETRY 83
1. Homer 83
2. Hesiod 101
3. Elegy and Iambos 105
4. Melic Poetry 113
5. Choral Poetry 119
6. Tragedy 130
V THE LITERARY LANGUAGES: PROSE page 142
1. Herodotus and Early Ionic Prose 142
2. Thucydides and Early Attic Prose 152
3. Classical Attic Prose: Peak and Decline 167
VI POST-CLASSICAL GREEK 174
1. The Common Dialect 174
2. Grammatical Developments 176
3. The Koine and the Ancient Dialects 189
4. The Genesis of the Koine 191
5. Christian Greek 194
6. The Establishment and the Popular Language 196
Part II
Comparative-Historical Grammar
VII WRITING AND PRONUNCIATION 201
VIII PHONOLOGY 212
1. Introductory 212
2. Vowels and Diphthongs 213
3. Sonants 215
4. Sonants as Consonants 223
5. Consonants 228
6. Syntagmatic Phenomena 239
7. Prosodies 242
IX MORPHOLOGY 246
1. Some Preliminary Notions 246
2. Stem Formation 247
(a) Nouns 247
i. Substantives 247
ii. Adjectives 254
iii. Compound Stems 258
(b) Verbs 261
3. Inflexion 266
(a) The Declensional Classes and the Case Inflexions 266
(b) Indeclinables: Adverbs and Particles 283
(c) Pronouns 285
CONTENTS ix
(d) Numerals page 289
(e) The Verb 292
i. Introductory 292
ii. The Personal Endings 295
iii. The Tenses 299
iv. The Moods 307
v. Verbal Nouns and Adjectives 312
Bibliography 316
List of Abbreviations 321
List of Symbols 322
Subject Index 323
Index of Greek Words and Affixes 333
Index of Linear B Words 352
FIGURES IN THE TEXT
Fig. i. The Distribution of the Indo-European Languages in
the Third Millennium B.G. page 8
Fig. 2. The Linear B Syllabary 30
Fig. 3. The Distribution of the Greek Dialects c. 1300 B.G. 75
Fig. 4. The Distribution of the Greek Dialects in the Alphabetic
Period 76
Fig. 5. A Proposed Genealogy of the 'North Mycenaean'
Dialect 101
Fig. 6. The Greek Alphabet 203
r T