Attic Greek

Attic Greek is the Greek dialect spoken in the ancient region of Attica, which includes the important city of Athens. This dialect is often called Classical Greek and was highly respected throughout the Greek world for many centuries. It is the form of Ancient Greek that students usually learn today.

Because Attic Greek became the basis for a later form of Greek called the Hellenistic Koine, it is the ancient dialect that looks most like the Greek spoken in later times. Attic Greek is closely related to another group of dialects called the Ionic branch. This makes it an important part of understanding how the Greek language developed and changed over time.

Origin and range

Greek is part of the Hellenic branch of the Indo-European language family. In ancient times, Greek had several dialects, and one of these was Attic. The oldest writings in Greek, from around the 16th to 11th centuries BC, were made using a special writing system called Linear B by the Mycenaean Greeks. Attic belonged to a group called Eastern Greek, which also included Mycenaean Greek.

Attic was one of the main dialects, along with Aeolic, Doric, and Ionic. The area where people originally spoke Attic included Attica and some of the Aegean Islands. Later, during the 4th century BC, Attic became the official language in the kingdom of Macedon. Over time, Attic influenced many places, from the Mediterranean, including Ancient Rome and the Hellenistic world, to later parts of the Muslim world, Europe, and beyond.

Literature

The earliest Greek literature, written by Homer in the 8th or 7th centuries BC, used a dialect called "Old Ionic," not Attic. Athens and its special way of speaking became more important after Solon helped start a new government in the 6th century BC. This began a time known as the Classical period, when Athens had great influence in Greece and around the Mediterranean Sea.

The first big pieces of literature written in Attic Greek are the plays by famous writers like Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes from the 5th century BC. Athenian adventures in war also led to important history books by Thucydides and Xenophon. There are also speeches by people like Antiphon, Demosthenes, Lysias, and Isocrates, though they are a bit harder to understand. Famous thinkers like Plato and Aristotle also wrote in Attic Greek.

Students learning Ancient Greek often start with the Attic dialect. Depending on their interests, they might later study other forms of the language, like the style used in the New Testament, the older words of Homer and Hesiod, or the Ionic Greek used by writers like Herodotus and Hippocrates.

Alphabet

Attic Greek was originally written with its own version of the Greek alphabet. Unlike some other alphabets, it used special letters for certain sounds. Over time, around the 5th century BC, Athens began using a different alphabet called the Ionic alphabet, which came from the eastern Aegean Islands. By 403 BC, it was officially decided that public writing would use this new Ionic system. This change helped create the classical Greek alphabet that we use today to read ancient Greek literature.

The Ionic alphabet became the standard across the Greek-speaking world.

Phonology

Vowels

Long a

The long vowel ā from older Greek changed to ē in Attic Greek, except after the sounds e, i, or r. Other Greek dialects kept ā in all places.

• Older Greek and Doric māter became Attic mēter meaning "mother"
• Attic chōrā matched Ionic chōrē meaning "place" or "country"

However, after the sound w (which disappeared by Classical times), ā became ē in Attic.

• Older Greek korwā became early Attic-Ionic *korwē and then Attic korē (Ionic kourē)

Short a

The short vowel ă from older Greek became ĕ in Attic Greek. In Doric, it stayed ă.

• Doric Artamis matched Attic Artemis

Sonorant clusters

When a vowel was followed by a group of sounds including r, l, n, m, w, or sometimes y and then s, the vowel got longer in Attic Greek. In some other dialects, the sound group itself got longer.

• An old Indo-European word *es-mi became Attic-Ionic ēmi (εἰμί) matching Lesbian-Thessalian emmi meaning "I am"

Upsilon

The sound /u/ from older Greek and other dialects became the Attic sound /y/ (like German ü or French u) and was written as y in Latin versions of Greek names.

• Boeotian kourios matched Attic kyrios meaning "lord"

In the combinations eu and au, the u sound stayed as /u/.

Contraction

Attic Greek combined vowels more often than Ionic. a + e became the long ā.

• nika-e became nikā meaning "conquer (thou)!"

e + e became ē (written ει: spurious diphthong).

• PIE *trey-es became older Greek tree-s and then Attic trēs (τρεῖς) meaning "three"

e + o became ō (written ου: spurious diphthong).

• Early *genes-os became Ionic geneos and then Attic genous meaning "of a kind"

Vowel shortening

The Attic long vowel ē (from older forms or ā) sometimes became short e:

1. when followed by a short vowel, stretching the short vowel (quantitative metathesis): ēo → eō
2. when followed by a long vowel: ēō → eō
3. when followed by u and s: ēus → eus (Osthoff's law):

• basilēos became basileos meaning "of a king" (genitive singular)
• basilēon became basileon (genitive plural)
• basilēusi became basileusi (dative plural)

Hyphaeresis

Attic Greek dropped one of two vowels in a row, a process called hyphaeresis (ὑφαίρεσις).

• Homeric boē-thoo-s became Attic boēthos meaning "running to a cry" or "helper in battle"

Consonants

Palatalization

Old Indo-European *ky or *chy became older Greek ts (palatalization) and then Attic and Euboean Ionic tt — Cycladean/Anatolian Ionic and Koine ss.

• Older Greek *glōkh-ya became Attic glōtta — East Ionic glōssa meaning "tongue"

Sometimes, older Greek *ty and *tw also became Attic and Euboean Ionic tt — Cycladean/Anatolian Ionic and Koine ss.

• PIE *kwe-twores became Attic tettares — East Ionic tesseres, meaning "four" (Latin quattuor)

Older Greek and Doric t before i or y became Attic-Ionic s (palatalization).

• Doric ti-the-nti became Attic tithēsi = (τίθεισι) meaning "he places" (compensatory lengthening of e → ē = spurious diphthong (ει))

Shortening of ss

Doric, Aeolian, and early Attic-Ionic ss became Classical Attic s.

• PIE *medh-yos → Homeric (μέσσος), messos ("palatalization") → Attic (μέσος), mesos ("middle")
• Homeric (ἐτέλεσσα) → Attic (ἐτέλεσα), meaning "I performed (a ceremony)"
• Older Greek *podsi → Homeric (ποσσί) → Attic (ποσί), meaning "by foot"
• Older Greek *hopot-yos → dialectal (ὁπόσσος) → Attic (ὁπόσος)

Loss of w

The older Greek sound w (digamma) disappeared in Attic before historical times.

• Older Greek korwā → Attic korē, meaning "girl"

Retention of h

Attic kept the older Greek h- (from debuccalization of older Indo-European starting s- or y-), but some other dialects dropped it (psilosis, "stripping", "deaspiration").

• Older Indo-European *si-sta-mes → Attic histamen — Cretan istamen, meaning "we stand"

Movable n

Attic-Ionic added an n (movable nu) at the end of some words ending in a vowel, if the next word started with a vowel, to avoid hiatus (two vowels together). The movable nu could also make a short syllable long for use in meter.

• pāsin elegon, meaning "they spoke to everyone", vs. pāsi legousi
• pāsin, dative plural of "all"
• legousin, meaning "they speak" (third person plural, present indicative active)
• elege(n), meaning "he was speaking" (third person singular, imperfect indicative active)
• titheisin, meaning "he places", "makes" (third person singular, present indicative active: athematic verb)

Rr instead of rs

Attic and Euboean Ionic used rr in words, when Cycladean and Anatolian Ionic used rs:

• Attic (χερρόνησος) → East Ionic (χερσόνησος), meaning "peninsula"
• Attic (ἄρρην) → East Ionic (ἄρσην), meaning "male"
• Attic (θάρρος) → East Ionic (θάρσος), meaning "courage"

Attic replaces the Ionic -σσ with -ττ

Attic and Euboean Ionic used tt, while Cycladean and Anatolian Ionic used ss:

• Attic (γλῶττα) → East Ionic (γλῶσσα), meaning "tongue"
• Attic (πράττειν) → East Ionic (πράσσειν), meaning "to do, to act"
• Attic (θάλαττα) → East Ionic (θάλασσα), meaning "sea"

Morphology

Attic Greek has some special ways of forming words. For example, it often uses the ending "-tes" instead of "-ter" for words that mean "doer of" something. So, it says "dikastes" for "judge" instead of "dikaster."

Attic Greek also uses certain endings for adjectives and nouns that other dialects do not. It uses endings with two syllables, like in the word "politeia" meaning "constitution," instead of longer three-syllable endings used in places like Crete. This shows how Attic Greek was unique compared to other ancient Greek dialects.

Grammar

Attic Greek grammar is very similar to Ancient Greek grammar, but it has some special rules and exceptions. This section talks about a few of these special rules.

Number

Main article: Attic numerals

Attic Greek had three ways to count things: singular (one), plural (many), and dual (exactly two). The dual number was used for counting pairs and was part of the way words changed their endings. Attic Greek was the last dialect to keep this dual number, but it disappeared by the end of the 5th century BC. Also, when the subject of a sentence was more than one and neuter (like "stones" or "trees"), the verb would still be in the singular form.

Declension

Main article: Attic declension

Declension is how words change their endings to show their role in a sentence. In Attic Greek, the part of the word that stays the same is called the stem, and the endings that change are called case endings.

For words that end in a long a sound in the feminine form, like "opinion" or "goddess," the stem changes in the singular form but stays the same in the plural. For example, "opinion" changes from γνώμη (gnome) in the nominative to γνώμης (gnomes) in the genitive, and so on.

For words that end in o or e, like "word" or "man," the stem also changes in certain ways. For example, "word" changes from logos in the nominative to logou in the genitive.

Classical Attic

See also: Classical Athens

Classical Attic refers to the form of the Attic Greek language spoken and written in the 5th–4th centuries BC during the Classical era, and also to the later standardized form used in the Hellenistic and Roman times, especially in the works of Attic speakers and writers.

One key difference between Attic and Ionic Greek is in how certain sounds are made. For example, Attic uses -ττ where Ionic uses -σσ, as seen in words like "tongue," "to do," and "sea." There were many types of Attic Greek, including everyday speech, poetic styles, and formal writing used by famous speakers and writers.