'Evidence for the Influence of Atticist Lexica on Non-literary Papyri of the Koine Period', A Koine Greek Colloquium, Macquarie University, Sydney, 19 May 2017 (original) (raw)

Evidence for the Influence of Atticist Lexica on Non-Literary Papyri of the Koine Period

Emmanuel Roumanis (PhD Candidate, Macquarie University)
Koine Greek Colloquium, Macquarie University, 19 May 2017
(1) Excerpt from the introductory letter of the Ecloga, addressed to a certain Cornelianus:

From the edition of Fischer (1974)
ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '́' at position 138: …alpha v \tau o ̲́ s ~ \sigma o v… με˙v\mu \dot{\varepsilon} v oú χ\chi oĩós τ\tau ’ ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '́' at position 42: …varepsilon v o ̲́ \mu \eta v \ta… ’ ε˙πıπoλα˙ζ∘∪σαςμα˙λıστα\dot{\varepsilon} \pi \imath \pi o \lambda \dot{\alpha} \zeta \circ \cup \sigma \alpha \varsigma \mu \dot{\alpha} \lambda \imath \sigma \tau \alpha ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '̀' at position 12: x \alpha i ̲̀ ~ \tau \eta ́ … … ημεı~ςδε\eta \mu \varepsilon \tilde{\imath} \varsigma \delta \varepsilon oú ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '̀' at position 15: \pi \varrho o ̲̀ \varsigma \tau… ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '́' at position 13: \tau \omega ̲́ v \alpha \dot{… ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '́' at position 142: … \chi \alpha i ̲́ \omega \varsig… τις\tau \iota \varsigma oũ̃ ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '́' at position 87: …arsigma \omega ̲́ \varsigma \tau….

Translation (Strobel 2011)
Hence you have asked me to collect all improper linguistic forms, but it is not possible for me to include all now, but (I shall point out) the most common (mistakes) and those that jumble up the old dialect and inflict much shame/embarrassment … but we are not focusing on the mistakes that have been made, but upon the most acceptable words of the old. For after all, if anyone proposes a choice to these people, whether they preferred to discourse in an ancient and correct/precise way or in a new and careless way, they would give anything to become fellow-voters with us and to join the better party; for there is no one so very wretched as to prefer the ugly to the beautiful.
(2) Gloss 311, Ecloga:

From the edition of Fischer (1974) (trans. Lee 2013)
ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '́' at position 57: …h \sigma \mu o ̲́ \varsigma \cdo… oũ̃ ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '́' at position 286: …a \sigma \mu o ̲́ \varsigma \lam….
empurismós (‘burning’): so Hyperides carelessly, when one ought to say emprēsmós.
(3) Gloss 306, Ecloga:

From the edition of Fischer (1974) (trans. Lee 2013)
ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '́' at position 8: \psi v ̲́ \lambda \lambd….
[The form] psúllos (masc.) is barbarous; but psúlla (fem.) is approved because it is also ancient.

(4) Lee (2013: 287-8), The Atticist Grammarians (emphasis is mine):
‘We can confidently say that the original form ψλ˙λλα\psi \dot{\lambda} \lambda \lambda \alpha [psúlla] had competition as early as the Classical period from the masculine ψλ˙λλ0ς\psi \dot{\lambda} \lambda \lambda 0 \varsigma [psúllos], which may have been in Attic already in the time of Aristotle; it was well established by the early Koine (cf. the LXX) and continued to be used in the spoken language from then until modern times; the Atticists revived ψλ˙λλα\psi \dot{\lambda} \lambda \lambda \alpha and caused it to be used artificially by educated writers of their time; it then persisted in puristic writing for centuries. The actual attestation of the words in this case is meagre, but we can do a lot with it. What we are doing is reconstructing the full history of the forms from whatever clues and evidence we have. The statements of the Atticists are, or may be, useful clues to the general direction, even if they are not fully accurate as to the facts.’
(5) Gloss 93, Ecloga:

From the edition of Fischer (1974) (trans. Lee 2013)
ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '̀' at position 58: …lpha} v \tau i ̲̀ ~ \tau o \tild… (Anab. 4.3.26) ατ˙τω˙ϰεχϱη~σθα1\alpha \dot{\tau} \tau \dot{\omega} \varkappa \varepsilon \chi \varrho \tilde{\eta} \sigma \theta \alpha 1, σı˙δε˙φιλατ˙τ∘∪χϱη~σθα1,λε˙γεδε˙εετ1\sigma \dot{\imath} \delta \dot{\varepsilon} \varphi \iota \lambda \alpha \dot{\tau} \tau \circ \cup \chi \varrho \tilde{\eta} \sigma \theta \alpha 1, \lambda \dot{\varepsilon} \gamma \varepsilon \delta \dot{\varepsilon} \varepsilon \varepsilon \tau 1.
akmên (‘still’) instead of éti: they say Xenophon once used it, but you beware of using it and say éti.
(6) Gloss 247, Ecloga:

From the edition of Fischer (1974) (trans. E. Roumanis)
παλ˙λ⋅\pi \alpha \dot{\lambda} \lambda \cdot оūтo λε˙γouσıv\lambda \dot{\varepsilon} \gamma o u \sigma ı v oì vūv η˙ητ˙τoρες\dot{\eta} \eta \dot{\tau} \tau o \rho \varepsilon \varsigma xai ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '́' at position 31: … \tau \alpha i ̲́, δε˙∘vμετα˙τov~vπαα˙λv,ω˙ς\delta \dot{\varepsilon} \circ v \mu \varepsilon \tau \dot{\alpha} \tau o \tilde{v} v \pi \alpha \dot{\alpha} \lambda v, \dot{\omega} \varsigma oì ParseError: KaTeX parse error: Expected 'EOF', got '̃' at position 36: … \chi \alpha i ̲̃ o ı \lambda \d….
páli: the present orators and poets say (it) so; one should (say it) with the nn (as) pálin, as the ancients say.
(7) Labov (1994: 78), Principles of Linguistic Change: Internal Factors:
‘Changes from above are introduced by the dominant social class, often with full public awareness … Such borrowings do not immediately affect the vernacular patterns of the dominant class or other social classes, but appear primarily in careful speech, reflecting a superposed dialect learned after the vernacular is acquired.’
‘Changes from below are systematic changes that appear first in the vernacular, and represent the operation of internal, linguistic factors … Changes from below may be introduced by any social class, although no cases have been recorded in which the highest-status social group acts as the innovating group.’

(8) Browning (1983: 4-5), Medieval and Modern Greek:
‘Thus in spite of the large number of texts surviving from all periods, it is often extremely difficult to trace the development of the language as it was actually used in most situations. The real process of change is masked by a factitious, classicising uniformity … This evidence [sc. ancient grammars] can be supplemented for the earlier part of the period-up to the middle of the seventh century-by that of nonliterary papyri from Egypt, containing letters, shopping lists, tax receipts, petitions, and the like.’
(9) Bentein (2013: 6), ‘Register and the Diachrony of Post-Classical and Early Byzantine Greek’:
‘Scholars have tried to overcome this difficulty by focusing almost exclusively on ‘authentic’, ‘spoken-like’ texts … It may be clear that such an approach is not unproblematic. Firstly, the proposed ‘reconstruction’ of the spoken language must remain approximative, a fact which is recognized by most scholars … Variation pervades both the written and the spoken language.’

Glossary

Katharevousa: A written form of Greek, consisting of both ancient and modern features, that was the official language of the Greek state between 1911 and 1976. The term itself, which alludes to the ‘purification’ of Greek from foreign influences accumulated over the course of a millennium, was first used in the late 18th 18^{\text {th }} and early 19th 19^{\text {th }} centuries, but did not become common until the ‘language question’ reached its peak at the end of the latter.

Koine (after Mackridge 2009: 337): the geographically non-specific variety of Ancient Greek used in writing throughout the Greek world in Hellenistic and Roman times (IV BCE-IV CE)\mathrm{CE}); (in modern times) spoken variety that is claimed to be common to all areas of the Greek-speaking world, or else local variant of spoken Greek that is in wider geographical use than a particular dialect.

Vernacular: the language that was spoken by all social classes, i.e. all social dialects. The vernacular, or vernaculars, would have likely displayed a level of variation that the artificiality of the learned language did not permit, although the language of the educated classes, despite being influenced by Atticism, should not be excluded from any discussion of this issue.

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Acknowledgements: I thank here A/Prof Trevor Evans, for his marvellous supervision of my MRes thesis, and Dr John Lee; their support during its writing was a sine qua non.