The phonology of Attic in the Hellenistic period

127 Pages·1978·1.899 MB·English

by  Sven-Tage Teodorsson

THE PHONOLOGY OF ATTIC
IN THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD

STUDIA GRAECA ET LATINA
GOTHOBURGENSIA
XL
THE PHONOLOGY OF ATTIC
IN THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD
BY
SVEN-TAGE TEODORSSON
ACTA UNIVERSITATIS GOTHOBURGENSIS
C Sven-Tage Teodol'88on
Printed with the aid of the
Humaniatiak-Sarnbi11avetenskapliga Fonkningsrldet
Distributon:
ACTA UNIVERSITATIS GOTHOBURGENSIS
Box 5096, S-402 22 Goteborg 5, Sweden
ISBN 91-7346-059-1 (pb)
ISBN 91-7346-060-5 (cloth)
ISSN 0081-6450
Printed in Sweden by
. A,lm~t & W~R,.,:Q~~ 1?~8. .
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pre/ooe ..• 6
Introductory. 7
Chapter 1
Th6 Ba8t,8 of the Relational Study . 11
Chapter 2
A. Phonemic-Graphemic Relational Study of Helleniatic Attic. 14
Non-Phonetic Factors of Orthographic Variation ..• 14
Context-Sensitive Factors of Orthographic Variation 17
The Corpus ....• 17
Operational Principles. 18
Orthographic Data • 20
Chapter 3
Phonetic Eooluation 67
PreJiroinaries. . . 67
Phonetic Evaluation 68
Chapter 4
Phonemic A.nalyBia 91
General Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . 91
Development of the Two Phonemic Subsystems of Attic 94
Chapter 5
Oonduding Oonaiderationa 99
The Historical Setting. • 103
Parallels in Other Languages 107
Attic and Koine . . . . . . 111
BibUography 114:
Souroes of the Data Collection . 114:
Other Literature . • 114:
Notaliona and A~ 118
120
Subject Index • 120
List of Orthographic Variations 122
PREFACE
In 1974 my first study of Attic phonology was published. The aim of the
work was to investigate the range and position of the innovative popular
phonological system of Attic, an entity familiar to all Greek historical
linguists. This "vulgar" Attic pronunciation has generally been looked
upon as used mainly or exclusively by minor groups (tradefolk, work
men, slaves, etc.), and it was also thought to have been caused by
external, Boeotian or other, influence.
A revision of current methods in this field of research seemed desir
able. Two demands should be met: the collection of infrequent ortho
graphic variants ought to comprise all extant instan088, and the data
should be evaluated systematically. These methodological principles
have been fundamental to all three studies alike.
The comprehensive study of orthographic variation in Attic showed
that "vulgar" orthographic variants are rather frequent even in official
documents, which suggests that the innovative pronunciation was more
widespread in late classical times than has hitherto been recognized.
Other kinds of evidence also supported this conclusion but showed
especially clearly that the conservative pronunciation was still used for
centuries after the classical period.
These results inspired my investigation of the Ptolemaic orthography
(1977). Like F. Gignac (1976) I left out the 8800ndary material as being
of limited value for the exploration of the history of the language. As a
result of the study it could be established that the phonology of Ptolemaic
Koine was in some respects more conservative than late classical Attic.
The present study differs considerably from the previous ones in that
the sociolinguistic aspect is much more prominent. The relative ranges of
the two major phonological subsystems form a main subject for discus
sion in Chapters 3 and 4 and in part of Chapter 5.
One aim of this book-and of the project as a whole-was to clarify
the relations between Attic and Koine. The results attained made poss-
ible the outline of the evolution of Koine presented. at the end of Chap
ter 5.
The work was supported by the Humanistisk-Samhallsvetenskapliga
Fol'Akoin~d.det, which also defrayed the expense of printing.
Thanks are due, above all, to Professor Cajus Fabricius for reading
large parts of the manuscript and offering valuable criticism. I also thank
Fil. kand. Ferenc Tafferner who typed the rather difficult manuscript.
Goteborg, November 1978 Sven-T<VJeT eodorsson
INTRODUCTORY
The origin of Koine, the Common Greek language, and its relation to
the Attic dialect are important issues in the history of Greek. Con
sidering that Modem Greek, with all its contemporary variation, derives
ultimately from Hellenistic Koine, 1 the transition from Attic to Koine
appears especially interesting. The present study is the third and last
part of a project on Attic and Ptolemaic phonology designed to contri
bute to the knowledge and understanding of the development of Attic
and the relations between Attic and Koine.1 Since the present investiga
tion is a direct sequel to the first part, it should be studied in close con
nection with that work.
Knowledge of the phonological history of a language is fundamental
for any adequate and total description of its development. The phonetic
evolution and the nature, order, and chronology of the phonological
changes that have taken place in the language are of basic importance to
anyone who wants to write the history of its morphology or describe its
dialectology.
Phonological research on remote language stages is never an easy
task. The information available is mostly fragmentary and often am
biguous. The case of Greek, however, is certainly less problematic than
most other languages thanks to the rich stock of extant primary written
documents from various periods and regions. This is especially true of
Attic and Ptolemaic Koine and, consequently, this was another in
centive, besides the central problem of the relation Attic--Koine as
such, to undertake the investigation project.
Like the first two studies, the present one is an orthographic study.
The underlying theory is that, on condition that there exists a suffi-
1 Beside Tsakonian there are remnants of the old dialects in various Modem Greek
dialects. Cf., for example, Debrunner 1969: 48-50; Taopanakis 1955; Newton 1967;
Rohlfs 1973; And.riotis 1974.
1 Teodoraaon 1974 and 1977.
8
ciently large corpus of primary written documents from the period and
area under investigation, a comprehensive study of the orthography of
those texts can provide the most reliable information about the phonetic
and phonological patterns of the language. The Attic of the classical and
Hellenistic periods, as well as the Ptolemaic Greek, can be regarded as
fu]filling this requirement.
The most conspicuous orthographic variations and alternations found
in Ancient Greek documents have been studied thoroughly by many
scholars for a long time. The more infrequent ones have also generally
been observed and discussed. Unfortunately, however, there has always
been a lack of a systematic approach to the material, which, among
other factors, has given rise to quite diverging opinions on Ancient
Greek pronunciation.
The starting-point of this project was the idea that the traditional
orthographic norm must not be presupposed to reflect the pronunciation
but rather to disguise the actual phonetic and phonological state of the
language, while infrequent orthografic variants should in principle be
looked upon as caused by a changed correspondence between phoneme
and grapheme.8 By collecting instances of infrequent orthographic
variants as completely as possible and evaluating this material in a
systematic way, it is likely that the judgments made about the phono
logy of the language investigated will be more exact than those based
on a selective and widely <Mhl oe method.
Besides the internal, orthographic, data there is also the secondary
material, orthophonic information, rhymes, allusions, onomatopoeia,
and loan-words. This type of evidence may also be of value for the
phonologist in reconstructing the phonology of a language at a point of
time in the past. But there are often serious difficulties in using that
material. It can hardly be evaluated in a statistical way. It is often im-
1 Teodorsson 1974: 172, Princtp'le 3, and 173.-In research on the historical pho
nology of other languages than Greek this basic principle seems to have been
more generally made use of. "Occasional or naive spellings render most readily all
distributional changes found in colloquial speech . • • The traditional orthography
usually reflects the forms of slow, careful speech •.• Occasional spellings indicate
general (unconditioned) or limited (conditioned) phonemic merger. They may do
this preceding to a general orthographic change. They may reveal the phonemic
change the orthography does not show through any adjustment" (Penzl 1967:
202-203). For examples of practical application of this principle, cf. Braune 1891:
38-39; Behaghel 1911: 84-85; Zachrisaon 1913: 62-91, 165-161, and 224-225;
Wyld 1920: 65-73 and 113-117; Penzl 1947: 34-36.-See further disouaaion below,
pp. 99-103.