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 linguistic roots of the Common Greek dialect had been unclear since ancient times. The post-Classical period of Greek thus refers to the creation and evolution of Koine Greek throughout the entire Hellenistic and Roman eras of history until the start of the Middle Ages. 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. Though elements of Koine Greek took shape in Classical Greece, the post-Classical period of Greek is defined as beginning with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, when cultures under Greek sway in turn began to influence the language. It replaced existing ancient Greek dialects with an everyday form that people anywhere could understand. Under the leadership of Macedon, their newly formed common variety was spoken from the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt to the Seleucid Empire of Mesopotamia. Koine Greek arose as a common dialect within the armies of Alexander the Great. Light blue: areas that were significantly Hellenized. Dark blue: areas where Greek speakers probably were a majority.Modern classicists have often used the former sense. Others chose to refer to Koine as "the dialect of Alexandria" or "Alexandrian dialect" ( ἡ Ἀλεξανδρέων διάλεκτος), or even the universal dialect of its time. When Koine Greek became a language of literature by the first century BC, some people distinguished two forms: written as the literary post-classical form (which should not be confused with Atticism), and vernacular as the day-to-day vernacular. Scholars such as Apollonius Dyscolus (second century AD) and Aelius Herodianus (second century AD) maintained the term koine to refer to the Proto-Greek language, while others used it to refer to any vernacular form of Greek speech which differed somewhat from the literary language. Īncient scholars used the term koine in several different senses. In Modern Greek, the language is referred to as Ελληνιστική Κοινή, "Hellenistic Koiné", in the sense of "Hellenistic supraregional language"). The pronunciation of the word koine itself gradually changed from (close to the Classical Attic pronunciation ) to (close to the Modern Greek ). The word is pronounced / k ɔɪ ˈ n eɪ/, / ˈ k ɔɪ n eɪ/, or / k iː ˈ n iː/ in US English and / ˈ k ɔɪ n iː/ in UK English. The Greek word κοινή ( koinḗ) itself means "common". The English-language name Koine is derived from the Koine Greek term ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος ( hē koinḕ diálektos), meaning "the common dialect". Koine Greek continues to be used as the liturgical language of services in the Greek Orthodox Church and in some Greek Catholic churches. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius also wrote his private thoughts in Koine Greek in a work that is now known as The Meditations. In this context, Koine Greek is also known as "Biblical", "New Testament", "ecclesiastical", or "patristic" Greek. Koine is also the language of the Septuagint (the 3rd century BC Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), the Christian New Testament, and of most early Christian theological writing by the Church Fathers. Literary Koine was the medium of much post-classical Greek literary and scholarly writing, such as the works of Plutarch and Polybius. As the dominant language of the Byzantine Empire, it developed further into Medieval Greek, which then turned into Modern Greek. Koine Greek included styles ranging from conservative literary forms to the spoken vernaculars of the time. It was based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect levelling with other varieties. It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries. Koine Greek ( UK: / ˈ k ɔɪ n i/ KOY-nee US: / ˈ k ɔɪ n eɪ/ KOY-nay, / k ɔɪ ˈ n eɪ/ koy- NAY Koine Greek: ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, romanized: hē koinè diálektos, lit.'the common dialect'), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic period, the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire.
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