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Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers, Second Edition reveals the trajectory of the Greek language from the Mycenaean period of the second millennium BC to the current day.
* Offers a complete linguistic treatment of the history of the Greek language
* Updated second edition features increased coverage of the ancient evidence, as well as the roots and development of diglossia
* Includes maps that clearly illustrate the distribution of ancient dialects and the geographical spread of Greek in the early Middle Ages
List of contents
Preface to the First Edition xii
Preface to the Second Edition xv
IPA Chart xvii
The Greek Alphabet xviii
Introduction: The Scope and Purpose of This Book 1
PART I Ancient Greek: From Mycenae to the Roman Empire 7
1 The Ancient Greek Dialects 9
2 Classical Greek: Official and Literary 'Standards' 43
3 The Rise of Attic 67
4 Greek in the Hellenistic World 79
5 Greek in the Roman Empire 124
6 Spoken Koine in the Roman Period 160
PART II Byzantium: From Constantine I to Mehmet the Conqueror 189
7 Historical Prelude 191
8 Greek in the Byzantine Empire: The Major Issues 207
9 Byzantine Belles Lettres 231
10 The Written Koine in Byzantium 244
11 Spoken Greek in the Byzantine Empire: The Principal Developments 273
12 Texts in the 'Vernacular' 325
PART III Modern Greek: From the Ottoman Empire to the European Union 371
13 Ottoman Rule and the War of Independence 373
14 Spoken Greek in the Ottoman Period 379
15 Written Greek in the Turkish Period 413
16 The History of the Modern Greek State 428
17 The 'Language Question' and its Resolution 438
Bibliography 471
Index 493
About the author
Geoffrey Horrocks is Professor of Comparative Philology at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Fellow of St John's College. His previous books include
Space and Time in Homer (1981),
Generative Grammar (1987),
Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers (1997), and
The Blackwell History of the Latin Language (with James Clackson, 2007).
Summary
This new edition of Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers reveals the trajectory of the Greek language from the Mycenaean period of the second millennium BC to the current day.
Report
"Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers." (Choice, 1 February 2011)
"...one of Horrocks' greatest achievements is the skill with which he demonstrates the special value of the history of Greek, thinking about the Greek language in terms of breadth and depth that are unusual among linguists working on Greek." (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 9 May 2011)
