22
votes
To what extent are Koine and modern Greek mutually intelligible?
It's anecdotal, but whenever I taught ancient Greek, my modern Greek students were usually the first to drop. It is not at all what they expected, and they were not happy about the ancient ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
20
votes
To what extent are Koine and modern Greek mutually intelligible?
Quite difficult. The pronunciation has changed significantly from Koine to Modern Greek, and anecdotally, my Modern-Greek-speaking friends and I usually have to write out words when discussing them: ...
- 69.3k
17
votes
Accepted
Are "μπ" and "ντ" indicators that the word didn't exist in Koine/Ancient Greek?
Koiné Greek & earlier lacked initial <μπ>, <ντ>, or <γκ> although these strings are commonplace word-internally. There are however a small number of Modern Greek words beginning &...
- 1,295
16
votes
Are "μπ" and "ντ" indicators that the word didn't exist in Koine/Ancient Greek?
No, there are plenty of ancient Greek words that have μπ and ντ in there somewhere.
Two common words off the top of my head are ἀντί and πέμπω, thoroughly attested throughout ancient Greek.
If you ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
13
votes
Is this bible in Koine Greek?
Yes, it is Koine instead of modern Greek.
You can tell by some of the additional marks around the letters:
Koine Greek has breathing marks, while modern does not. Both rough and smooth breathing ...
- 116k
11
votes
Are "μπ" and "ντ" indicators that the word didn't exist in Koine/Ancient Greek?
CMW is completely correct, but to add on a bit:
The reason ΜΠ and ΝΤ are used for /b/ and /d/ nowadays is because, historically, the voiced stops Β Δ Γ turned into fricatives, and then later the ...
- 69.3k
11
votes
Why no relative pronoun in ἄνθρωπος ἐξηραμμένην ἔχων τὴν χεῖρα?
Whether a relative pronoun is ‘needed’ depends, in part, on how the participles ἔχων and ἐξηραμμένην are functioning.
ἐξηραμμένην (withered) is functioning as a verbal adjective, modifying τὴν χεῖρα (...
- 8,741
11
votes
Accepted
Which forms of a noun do I have to memorise when learning Koine Greek?
As Mounce said, it's important to learn the articles of all the nouns because it's not always obvious what they should be from just the lexical form. A good example of that is ἡ ἔρημος (the desert, ...
- 11k
9
votes
Accepted
What source does "PMag.Osl." refer to?
It is shameful for such a comprehensive dictionary to offer so poorly compiled references, indeed.
I suppose the reference might be to Papyri Osloenses: Magical Papyri published by Samson Eitrem in ...
- 615
8
votes
Accepted
Is there a Latin parallel to the TLG website?
No, there is not an exact equivalent, as far as I'm aware. The TLG is a real treasure and Latin would definitely benefit from a sister site.
The closest thing is probably PHI Latin Texts, which has a ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
8
votes
Are "μπ" and "ντ" indicators that the word didn't exist in Koine/Ancient Greek?
A small correction to a near mis-statement in the question. (I'm a native MG speaker.)
μπ and ντ are not always pronounced as [b] and [d]! In fact, the "traditional" pronunciation is [mb] ...
- 1,216
7
votes
To what extent are Koine and modern Greek mutually intelligible?
@Draconis pointed out that Homer is apparently a particularly hard to read example, and instead pointed me to what I believe is an example of Koine Greek (here) which I find relatively easy to read. ...
- 173
7
votes
Accepted
Why no relative pronoun in ἄνθρωπος ἐξηραμμένην ἔχων τὴν χεῖρα?
Greek loves its participles, and often uses participles where English would use relative clauses. This sometimes leads to multiple participles in a single phrase, as here:
καὶ ἦν ἐκεῖ ἄνθρωπος ...
- 69.3k
6
votes
αναβαινω aorist active indicative 2nd athematic
It's not the case that all Greek verbs with thematic presents form thematic aorists, nor that all verbs with athematic presents form athematic aorists. There are exceptions both ways: for example ...
- 31.5k
6
votes
αναβαινω aorist active indicative 2nd athematic
As best I can tell, this is due to a mild case of suppletion.
In Classical Greek, the verb system hadn't gotten as thoroughly regularized as it was in e.g. Latin (with its four-and-a-half nicely-...
- 69.3k
6
votes
How can I find a verb root in ancient greek?
Welcome to the site! I'm afraid there isn't exactly one way to rule them all. But there are various phonological rules by which you can guess the roots of a significant number of verbs.
For example, -...
- 20.3k
6
votes
Which forms of a noun do I have to memorise when learning Koine Greek?
The stem can't always be derived from the lexical form. For example, in the third declension, the nominative singular (i.e. the lexical form) is usually formed by adding an -s, which often obscures ...
- 69.3k
6
votes
Accepted
"Lead us not into temptation" or "put us not to the test"?
The short version of my answer is yes, I believe it's safe to say that temptatio and temptation with respect to its modern secular usage can be, for the most part, considered false friends. However, ...
- 11k
5
votes
Accepted
Difference between ἑβδομάς and Σάββατον?
I think most of your questions are addressed here:
https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/calendars-ancient-medieval-project/2015/07/15/the-etymology-of-sabbath/
Very briefly: hebdomas means “group of seven” (...
- 18k
5
votes
Accepted
Translation of Meditations 1.4-5
Your translations are both quite good, but there are a few inaccuracies, especially in the first passage.
In the first passage, there isn't anything in the Greek corresponding to "strut and preen&...
- 31.5k
5
votes
How can I find a verb root in ancient greek?
Greek verbs have six principal parts, meaning that to be able to conjugate a verb in all of its tenses, you need to know all six different roots with their conjugations. Sometimes the roots used in ...
- 1,332
4
votes
Accepted
When do the earliest rhymes appear in Koine or Medieval Greek?
The earliest example of rhyme in Greek that I was able to find is from Gorgias, who deliberately used rhyme in his rhetoric:
"In the fifth century BC the sophist Gorgias used such blatant rhyme
...
- 11k
4
votes
Koine Greek for “a capella”?
Ἀνόργανη as in ἀνόργανη μελῳδία (singing without instruments) in order to express unaccompanied vocal music; this is not an attestation but a reconstruction (e.g. based on ὄργανον and placing ἀν in ...
- 474
4
votes
How did Αμμόχωστος become Famagusta?
It is a corruption of Αμμόχωστος. I'm organizing my non-expert comments here, hoping a linguist (Should this be posted in the Linguistics SE?) could put the rare initial F in some context—the 500lb ...
- 1,216
3
votes
Koine Greek for “a capella”?
There's no such word. ᾠδή - ōdē and ᾄδω - adō means noun:Song and verb:to sing.
Psalm means song of praise with or without instrument but it's etymology is from vigration of instruments, so ...
- 163
3
votes
To what extent are Koine and modern Greek mutually intelligible?
I actually am greek (and my mother language is greek and I've lived in Greece all my life) and was taught ancient greek for some years in high school. The conclusion? It was like a foreign language.
...
- 131
3
votes
Is this bible in Koine Greek?
It's Koine Greek. Top right, second line you see the word οὗτος, it's not used in modern Greek. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=ou(=tos
3
votes
Patristic philology - editions of byzantine texts
I presume the following three sites, used together, could provide a fairly large part of the relevant corpus (the original Greek texts and translations):
The Christian Classics Ethereal Library
...
- 615
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