Language That Dominated Byzantine Attic Greek

Koine greek included styles ranging from more conservative literary forms to the spoken vernaculars of the time.

Language that dominated byzantine attic greek.

It is this archaizing style that is often referred to as byzantine greek. With the ascendance of the athenian empire in the course of the 5th century bc attic became the most prestigious of the greek dialects and as a result was adopted later as the standard language by the macedonian kings. The study of the medieval greek language and literature is a branch of byzantine studies or byzantinology the study of the history and culture of the byzantine empire. Greek literature and themes dominated roman writing until the mid third century b c which is about a century after alexander the greathad started the spread of hellenism including the greek koine language throughout the vast areas that he had conquered.

Biblical greek is the form of koine greek that was used to write that christian new testament and koine greek is a particular dialect of ancient greek that was spoken from the beginning of the hellenistic era around 323 bc until the end of antiqui. Alexander carried the attic ionic form of the language along with greek culture more generally far into the near east where it became the standard language of commerce and government existing along side many local languages. Attic greek is the greek dialect of the ancient city state of athens of the ancient dialects it is the most similar to later greek and is the standard form of the language that is studied in ancient greek language courses attic greek is sometimes included in the ionic dialect together attic and ionic are the primary influences on modern greek. Byzantine greek during the period of the byzantine empire i e until the fall of constantinople in 1453 the language of administration and of most writing was firmly rooted in the atticist tradition.

Medieval greek also known as byzantine greek is the stage of the greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th 6th centuries and the end of the middle ages conventionally dated to the ottoman conquest of constantinople in 1453. Literary koine was the medium of much of post classical greek literary and scholarly writing such as the works of plutarch and polybius. Moreover it became in hellenistic times the language of the macedonian rulers in the middle east and egypt. This stage of language is thus described as byzantine greek.

From the 7th century onwards greek was the only language of administration and government in the byzantine empire. Atticism was a movement that was developed during the hellenistic period as a reaction against koine greek which treated the attic dialect as the sole acceptable standard language for prose writing which dominated the composition of literature in the byzantine years until the fall of constantinople in 1453. As the dominant language of the byzantine empire it developed further into medieval greek which then turned into modern greek.