Koine Greek

It was based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect levelling with other varieties.

[6] Koine Greek included styles ranging from conservative literary forms to the spoken vernaculars of the time.

[9] The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote his private thoughts in Koine Greek in a work that is now known as Meditations.

[13] Under the leadership of Macedon, their newly formed common variety was spoken from the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt to the Seleucid Empire of Mesopotamia.

The passage into the next period, known as Medieval Greek, is sometimes dated from the foundation of Constantinople by Constantine the Great in 330 AD, but often only from the end of late antiquity.

During the Hellenistic period, most scholars thought of Koine as the result of the mixture of the four main Ancient Greek dialects, "ἡ ἐκ τῶν τεττάρων συνεστῶσα" (the composition of the Four).

The degree of importance of the non-Attic linguistic elements on Koine can vary depending on the region of the Hellenistic world.

The most significant ones are the inscriptions of the post-Classical periods and the papyri, for being two kinds of texts which have authentic content and can be studied directly.

Other sources can be based on random findings such as inscriptions on vases written by popular painters, mistakes made by Atticists due to their imperfect knowledge of Attic Greek or even some surviving Greco-Latin glossaries of the Roman period,[16] e.g.: Καλήμερον, ἦλθες;Bono die, venisti?Good day, you came?

Linguistic phenomena like the above imply that those characteristics survived within Koine, which in turn had countless variations in the Greek-speaking world.

Its main sources are: There has been some debate to what degree Biblical Greek represents the mainstream of contemporary spoken Koine and to what extent it contains specifically Semitic substratum features.

Some of the features discussed in this context are the Septuagint's normative absence of the particles μέν and δέ, and the use of ἐγένετο to denote "it came to pass".

Old Testament scholar James Barr has been critical of etymological arguments that ekklēsía refers to "the community called by God to constitute his People".

Therefore, etymologizing this word could be needless, or even misleading, when it could guide to false meanings, for example that ἐκκλησία is a name used for the people of God, Israel.

Another group of scholars believed the historical present tense was used to heighten the dramatic effect, and this interpretation was favored in the New American Bible translation.

Howard argues that the heavy use of the historical present in Herodotus and Thucydides, compared with the relatively infrequent usage by Polybius and Xenophon was evidence that heavy use of this verb tense is a feature of vernacular Koine, but other scholars have argued that the historical present can be a literary form to "denote semantic shifts to more prominent material.

The realizations of most phonemes reflect general changes around the Greek-speaking world, including vowel isochrony and monophthongization, but certain sound values differ from other Koine varieties such as Attic, Egyptian and Anatolian.

[27] φ, θ and χ still preserve their ancient aspirated plosive values, while the unaspirated stops π, τ, κ have perhaps begun to develop voiced allophones after nasals.

Influence of the Aramaic substrate could have also caused confusion between α and ο, providing further evidence for the back vowel realization.

περὶperiὧνhoːnΘισ[β]εῖςtʰizbîːsλόγουςlóɡuːsἐποιήσαντο·epojéːsanto;περὶperiτῶνtoːnκαθ᾿katʰαὑ[τ]οὺςhautùːsπραγμάτων,praːɡmátoːn,οἵτινεςhoítinesἐνenτῇtiːφιλίᾳpʰilíaːiτῇtiːἡμετέρᾳheːmetéraːiἐνέμειναν,enémiːnan,ὅπωςhópoːsαὐτοῖςautoisδοθῶσινdotʰôːsin[ο]ἷςhoisτὰtaκαθ᾿katʰαὑτοὺςhautùːsπράγματαpráːɡmataἐξηγήσωνται,ekseːɡéːsoːntai,περὶperiτούτουtúːtuːτοῦtuːπράγματοςpráːɡmatosοὕτωςhúːtoːsἔδοξεν·édoksen;ὅπωςhópoːsΚόιντοςˈkʷintosΜαίνιοςˈmainiosστρατηγὸςstrateːɡòsτῶνtoːnἐκekτῆςteːsσυνκλήτουsyŋkléːtuː[π]έντεpénteἀποτάξῃapotáksiː,οἳhoiἂνanαὐτῷautoːiἐκekτῶνtoːnδημοσίωνdeːmosíoːnπρα[γμ]άτωνpraːɡmátoːnκαὶkaiτῆςteːsἰδίαςidíaːsπίστεωςpísteoːsφαίνωνται.pʰaínoːntaiπερὶ ὧν Θισ[β]εῖς λόγους ἐποιήσαντο· περὶ τῶν καθ᾿ αὑ[τ]οὺς πραγμάτων, οἵτινες ἐν τῇ φιλίᾳ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ ἐνέμειναν, ὅπως αὐτοῖς δοθῶσιν [ο]ἷς τὰ καθ᾿ αὑτοὺς πράγματα ἐξηγήσωνται, περὶ τούτου τοῦ πράγματος οὕτως ἔδοξεν· ὅπως Κόιντος Μαίνιος στρατηγὸς τῶν ἐκ τῆς συνκλήτου [π]έντε ἀποτάξῃ οἳ ἂν αὐτῷ ἐκ τῶν δημοσίων πρα[γμ]άτων καὶ τῆς ἰδίας πίστεως φαίνωνται.peri hoːn tʰizbîːs lóɡuːs epojéːsanto; peri toːn katʰ hautùːs praːɡmátoːn, hoítines en tiː pʰilíaːi tiː heːmetéraːi enémiːnan, hópoːs autois dotʰôːsin hois ta katʰ hautùːs práːɡmata ekseːɡéːsoːntai, peri túːtuː tuː práːɡmatos húːtoːs édoksen; hópoːs ˈkʷintos ˈmainios strateːɡòs toːn ek teːs syŋkléːtuː pénte apotáksiː, hoi an autoːi ek toːn deːmosíoːn praːɡmátoːn kai teːs idíaːs písteoːs pʰaínoːntaiConcerning those matters about which the citizens of Thisbae made representations.

Concerning their own affairs: the following decision was taken concerning the proposal that those who remained true to our friendship should be given the facilities to conduct their own affairs; that our praetor/governor Quintus Maenius should delegate five members of the senate who seemed to him appropriate in the light of their public actions and individual good faith.The following excerpt, the beginning of the Gospel of John, is rendered in a reconstructed pronunciation representing a progressive popular variety of Koiné in the early Christian era.

[34] Modernizing features include the loss of vowel length distinction, monophthongization, transition to stress accent, and raising of η to /i/.