Koine Greek

Koine Greek

Koine (from κοινή "common", also known as "Alexandrian dialect", "common Attic" or "Hellenistic Greek") was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during hellenistic and Roman antiquity. It developed through the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, and served as the common lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries. Based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect levelling with other varieties, Koiné Greek displayed a wide spectrum of different styles, ranging from more conservative literary forms to the spoken vernaculars of the time. As the dominant language of the Byzantine Empire it developed further into Medieval Greek and became the main ancestor of present-day Modern Greek.

Literary Koiné was the medium of much of post-classical Greek literary and scholarly writing, such as the works of Plutarch and Polybius. Koiné is also the language of the Christian New Testament, of the Septuagint (the 3rd century BC Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), and of most early Christian theological writing by the Church Fathers. In this context, Koiné Greek is also known as "Biblical", "New Testament" or "patristic Greek".

Read more about Koine Greek:  Name, Origins and History, Sources, Differences Between Attic and Koine Greek, Sample Koine Texts, Further Reading

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