Medieval Greek

Medieval Greek, also called Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic, is the form of the Greek language used between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, ending with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

From the 7th century on, Greek was the main language for government and administration in the Byzantine Empire. Because of this, this stage of the language is often called Byzantine Greek. Studying Medieval Greek is part of the larger field of Byzantine studies, which looks at the history and culture of the Byzantine Empire.

The spread of Greek began with the conquests of Alexander the Great and continued during the Hellenistic period. It became common throughout Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean. Some people say Medieval Greek started as early as the 4th century, around 330 AD when the Roman Empire moved its center to Constantinople, or 395 AD when the empire split in two. But these dates are more about political changes than language changes. By then, people were already speaking a form of Greek that was shifting toward what we now call Modern Greek.

Medieval Greek connects older everyday speech, known as Koine Greek, with Modern Greek. While books and writing in this time were often based on Attic Greek, they were also shaped by the everyday language of Koine, which is used in the New Testament and in services of the Greek Orthodox Church.

History and development

Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople, in 330. Even though the city was an important place, it was not officially the capital until 359. The imperial court lived there, and the city became the main political center for the eastern parts of the Roman Empire, where Greek was the main language. At first, Latin was used for the court, the army, and official documents, but its importance slowly decreased. By the beginning of the 6th century, changes to the law were mostly written in Greek. Some parts of the Roman Corpus Iuris Civilis were also translated into Greek over time. Under Emperor Heraclius, who ruled from 610 to 641 AD, Greek became the official language of the Eastern Roman Empire. Even though the people still thought of themselves as Rhomaioi ('Romans'), Latin was still used on coins and in some court ceremonies until the 11th century.

By the 8th century, the empire had lost many areas where people spoke other languages, and Greek became the main language spoken by most people. Greek culture and language remained strong in places like Alexandria, but as new groups like the Arabs took over areas such as Egypt and Syria, Arabic started to replace Greek as the official language there. Over time, Greek was also replaced in other places, like Sicily and parts of Magna Graecia. Even though Greek was still spoken in some areas, its role as a national language ended when the Ottomans took over Constantinople in 1453. After that, the language that developed is called Modern Greek.

Diglossia

Even in ancient times, there was a difference between the formal literary language and the everyday spoken language in Greek. By the time of the Byzantine Empire, this difference became very clear. Writers used a style that was inspired by older classical Greek for formal writing, while everyday speech had changed over time. This everyday spoken form of Greek was quite similar to what we now call Modern Greek.

Some important writings from this time were written in the formal style, but others showed influences from the spoken language. For example, works by John Malalas and Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus mixed formal writing with words and expressions from everyday speech.

The everyday spoken form of Greek was also used in some poems and stories. One famous example is Digenes Akritas, a collection of heroic tales from the 12th century, written completely in the everyday language of the time.

Dialects

Even though the Byzantine Empire kept Greek as one language, as the empire broke apart, different areas started to develop their own versions of Greek. For example, in places like Crimea, along the Black Sea coast, and in central Asia Minor, people developed their own dialects. Some of these dialects, like Griko in southern Italy and Tsakonian in the Peloponnese, are still spoken today. Cypriot Greek was also used in writing during the late Middle Ages.

Phonetics and phonology

Most of the changes that shaped the sounds of Modern Greek started in Medieval Greek or earlier. One big change was how stress worked. In older Greek, words had a special pitch, but by Medieval Greek, stress became more important.

The vowels also changed a lot. The system simplified to just five main sounds, losing some differences in length. Words began to shift sounds in certain ways, like turning some ending sounds into softer ones.

Grammar

Many important changes in Greek happened between ancient times and today, mostly by around 1100 AD. One big change was simpler ways of changing words to show their meaning, like making verbs easier to use.

Nouns and adjectives changed too. For example, old forms like "ὁ πατήρ" became "ὁ πατέρας," and old comparisons like "µείζων" turned into "µειζότερος." Verbs also became simpler, with old tricky patterns replaced by more regular ones. Over time, many older ways of speaking disappeared, such as special forms for showing "to" or "for," and new ways using words like "να" took their place.

Vocabulary, script, influence on other languages

Medieval Greek, the form of Greek spoken during a long period of history, saw many changes in its words and how they were written. Some old Greek words changed meaning because of the rise of Christianity. For example, the word for "messenger" came to mean "angel," and a word for "love" came to mean a special kind of caring love.

The language also picked up many words from other places. In the early days of the Byzantine Empire, Greek borrowed many words from Latin, such as words for important titles and everyday items like "house" and "candle." Later, Greek also took in words from nearby languages like Italian, French, Turkish, and Arabic. Some of these words, like "stocking" or "market," are still used in Greek today.

See also: List of Greek words of Byzantine Latin origin

Script

Middle Greek used the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet. These letters were mainly used for writing on stone and looked very big, called majuscule, without spaces between words.

Uncial and cursive script

The first Greek writing style, called cursive, started from quickly carving into wax tablets with a slate pencil. This cursive style already had special shapes of letters that went above and below the normal line, and letters could be joined together.

In the third century, a new style called Greek uncial came from the Latin way of writing. This was because people needed to write on papyrus paper with a reed pen. In the Middle Ages, uncial became the main style for writing Greek.

A special thing about the medieval big-letter writing style, like the uncial, was that it used many short forms of words (like ХϹ for Christos) and joined letters together. Some letters in the uncial (Є for Ε, Ϲ for Σ, Ꞷ for Ω) were also used in big-letter writing, especially in holy texts. The lunate sigma was used in this way as "С" in the Cyrillic script.

The Greek uncial used a dot called the interpunct to separate sentences for the first time, but there still were no spaces between words.

Minuscule script

The Greek minuscule script, which likely started from cursive writing in Syria, became more common from the 9th century onward. This is the first writing style that regularly used marks above the letters and special signs, which were created as early as the 3rd century BC. This smooth writing style, with letters that went above and below the normal line and many ways to join letters, was the first to use small spaces between words. The last changes that happened in the 12th century were Iota subscript and word-final sigma (ς). The style for Greek big letters and small letters that was made in the 17th century by a printer from the Antwerp printing family, Hendrik Wetstein, finally became the normal way in modern Greek printing.

Influence on other languages

Medieval Greek, used by the Eastern Orthodox Church, helped shape many Slavic languages. When brothers Cyril and Methodius converted Slavic peoples to Christianity, they used Medieval Greek words. These words entered languages like Old Church Slavonic, and later Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian, and Serbian. Even Romanian picked up some Greek words, sometimes through Slavic languages.

Some Germanic languages also borrowed words from Medieval Greek. For example, the German word for Pentecost, Pfingsten, comes from a Medieval Greek word meaning "the fiftieth [day after Easter]". Later, as Greece became a nation again in 1832, studying Byzantine history helped the country reconnect with its past. A leader named Spyridon Lambros started serious study of this history.

Sample Medieval Greek texts

Here are two examples of Medieval Greek writing that show how the language changed over time.

Sample 1 – Anna Komnena

The first example is from a book called the Alexiad by Anna Komnena. It tells the story of an invasion by Bohemond I of Antioch in the year 1107. The writing uses many old words and follows ancient rules, but it also includes some newer words and ideas.

Sample 2 – Digenes Akritas

The second example is from an old story called Digenes Akritas (manuscript E), which might have been written in the 1100s. This story is one of the earliest examples of everyday Byzantine writing, and it uses words and ways of speaking that were common at the time. The story follows special rules for its rhythm and includes changes to older grammar patterns.

Research

In the Byzantine Empire, people studied Ancient and Medieval Greek texts as part of their education. Many of these texts were copied many times. As the empire declined, many scholars and manuscripts moved to Italy. Italian and Greek thinkers during the Renaissance collected these works in cities like Rome, Florence, and Venice.

Later, scholars from Western and Middle Europe began studying these Greek works. Interest in Byzantine research grew slowly, especially in the 19th century. Researchers started focusing more on Medieval Greek language and literature. Today, many countries have centers for studying Byzantine history and Greek language, with important institutes in Germany, Austria, and other places. The International Byzantine Association helps organize these studies around the world.