On 14/04/2007 21:22, Yohanan bin-Dawidh wrote:
> Dear Harold,
>
> Note that this cited text from Wikipedia refers to Koine Greek as
> Alexandrian, Hellenistic, Common or New Testament, and states that it is
the
> Greek dialect that arose within the Meditteranean, i.e. mainly Semitic
> lands, where Semitic language was spoken, and thus a dialect of
> Greek/Semitic language arose. This reminds of the perversions of Yiddish
and
> Ladino that my people speak, which are dialects of Hebrew mixed with
other
> languages. It is likewise reported that Koine while taking from Semitic
> languages also carries Latin variants within. Basically, it is trash
talk,
> as testified to by those who spokeAttic Greek.
>
>
Yohanan, do you actually know any Koine Greek? Can you read it? Do you
know what proportion of Semitic, or Latin, words are found in typical
texts? Do you really have any evidence to suggest that it is a mixed
language of the time you claim? It was indeed a mixture of Greek
dialects, but not of Greek and Semitic, except for a rather small number
of Semitic loan words. Yes, the intellectual snobs who still tried to
speak Attic, rather like some people today who claim to speak
Shakespearean English but don't, looked down on the common people who
spoke a less literary dialect.
--
Peter Kirk
E-mail: peter AT qaya.org
Blog: http://www.qaya.org/blog/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/
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