Katonis, A.L., The Greek language through the centuries. (English. Lecture given at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies, New Delhi, on 19th November 2008.)
Katonis, A.L., The Greek language through the centuries. (English. Lecture given at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies, New Delhi, on 19th November 2008.)
Katonis, A.L., The Greek language through the centuries. (English. Lecture given at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies, New Delhi, on 19th November 2008.)
genitive. The verb here is volvō 3, ('to turn [or: 'to make to turn']
round'); and annus means 'year'. From Latin annus derives, e.g.,
English annual ('yearly'). The Latin formula might, after all, be a
translation from Greek since in Latin literature almost everything stood
under Greek influence. But the expression is found also in Sanskrit
poetry, and this cannot be a borrowing on either side, and is also very
unlikely to be a translation. The word here, indicating the turning or
revolving is cakra. Cakra has several meanings in later Sanskrit but the
basic meaning is 'wheel', involving the same semantics: that of turning
round, revolving, time is revolving. The Sanskrit word is an
etymological cognate of Greek kyklos (κύκλος) ('wheel') which
ultimately gave English "cycle". Cf. also Sanskrit carati ('he moves'). 2,
the other one is a poetic device: when there are enumerations
whatever, then, in a row, there are three of them - three cities e.g. -
and the last one receives an epithet. E.g.: "Argos and Sparta and the
broad-wayed Mycenae" (Iliad, IV 52). This is less familiar in Indo-Aryan
but is quite frequent in Homer, and Latin epic poetry, e.g. in Ovid's
Metamorphoses. The device could be called "the Behaghel formula"
(after the German O. Behaghel who first described it systematically) or
"the third scheme". I would like to cite a very nice example from
Modern Greek folk-poetry, proving, at the same time, the inner
coherence of the Greek language and oral tradition. This is the song of
Vlachopoulo recalling to mind the fights for freedom throughout
history: "Ὁ Κωσταντίνος ὁ μικρὸς (epithet) κ᾽ ὁ Ἀλέξης ὁ
ἀντρειωμένος (epithet), | καὶ τὸ μικρὸ (epithet) Βλαχόπουλο, ὁ
καστροπολεμίτης (epithet)". In translation: "Constantinos the little and
Alexis the gallant | and the little Vlachopoulo, the raider of citadels".viii
The basic structure is the same but the scheme is an extended one.
There are two lines instead of one, conceived as a unit; each noun has
an epithet, and, accordingly, the third noun has an epithet more. The
result is an enhanced effect, which, perhaps, corresponds to the
emotions a historical context evokes.
The next period belongs to the the well known, rich and admired
classical tradition. It is impossible to speak about this in detail. The
names are revered and numerous. There is the so-called Tragic Triad
in drama, there are the historians like Herodotus, philosophers, poets,
and many more. As to language, this is a demanding, well elaborated
section in the literary tradition. This is what we call, in general,
"Ancient Greek", and first of all, the Attic prose of the 5th-4th c. B.C. I
would remark that if someone wants to learn Ancient Greek, then after
having mastered the basics, the best way is to begin to read the Attic
historian Xenophon, and typically, his Apomnemoneumata (or
Memorabilia Socratis), or, perhaps, the Anabasis. The topic of the first
is the life, the teaching and the execution of Socrates, teacher of Plato,
and perhaps the first systematic thinker in Greece. Xenophon's
language is well balanced, demanding but not too difficult. In any
case, much easier than the complicated, idiosyncratic, over-
demanding language of Thucydides. As to philosophy, it is generally
known that Plato was not only a thinker but also a master of language.
6
name "Kini" (i.e. Koine) is still being used indicating the Common
Language as opposed to any dialect or lingo (special language). This
Kini or Standard Modern Greek (SMG) is typically the language an
educated person in the Greek capital speaks. The principal linguist in
Greece today, who also uses a carefully formulated and demanding
language, is Georgios Babiniotis, the former Director of the University
of Athens, now in retirement, also the author of a very good one-
language dictionary of Standard Modern Greek. In the beginning of the
third millennium, we are able to declair that SMG, in which
unfortunately no leading scholarship or culture is produced in our
days, is an increasingly demanding, increasingly carefully shaped
medium, capable more and more, to respond to modern requirements,
its scholarly register being open to assume elements of Ancient Greek
wheras modern literature and poetry still preserve many vernacular
elements. I think the language is ready; it's now the turn of scholarship
and science to take action.
References
Andriotis, N.P.
2005 Ν.Π. Ανδριώτης, Ιστορία της ελληνικής γλώσσας.
(Τέσσερις μελέτες). Θεσσαλονίκη: Αριστοτέλειο
Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης, ΙΝΣ (©1995)
Bartoněk, A.
2003 Handbuch des mykenischen Griechisch. Heidelberg:
Winter
Christidis, A.-F. (ed.)
2007 A History of Ancient Greek. From the Beginnings to
Late Antiquity. Cambridge: University Press
Gimbutas, Marija
1991 The Civilization of the Goddess. San Francisco:
HarperSanFracisco
Hamerton-Kelly, G. (ed)
1987 Violent Origins [...]. Stanford, California: Stanford
University Press
Kakridis, J.Th.
1971 Homer Revisited. Lund: Gleerup
Mallory, J.P.
1992 In Search of the Indo-Europeans. Language,
Archaeology, Myth. London: Thames & Hudson
(©1989)
Sakellariou, M.
1980 Les proto-grecs. Athens: Ekdotikè Athenon
9
*
This is an expanded version of a lecture at the Jawaharlal Nehru
University, School of Language, Literatures and Cultural Studies, New
Delhi, given on the 19th November 2008.
i
Cf. e.g. Bartoněk 2003: 70.
ii
Cf. Fr. Staal in: Hamerton-Kelly 1987: 225.
iii
Cf. e.g. the surveys by S.L. Tsohatzidis and K. Kotsakis in: Christidis
2007: 93 ff., 105 ff.
iv
Mallory 1992: 14.
v
Gimbutas 1991: 307-321.
vi
This is the communis opinio, shared, among others, by the historian
Michael Sakellariou (cf. 1980: 31.50-51.71 ff.).
vii
The word still exists in Modern Greek dialects. I met it in A.
Papadiamandis' novel "The Murderess" (Ἡ φόνισσα, written in 1904) in
Chapter 15, where the writer uses the dialect of his native island
Skiathos: "Τόμ᾽ σ᾽ ἀγροίκησα, ταμὰμ σὲ προσήφερα", i.e. 'As soon as
I saw you I knew who there was'. It is this " Τόμ᾽ " which interests us:
the prefix ὁμ(οῦ) with the definite article τὸ in front of it.
viii
Kakridis 1971: 126.
ix
Andriotis may be sound reckoning the medieval period from 330
A.D. to 1453 (2005: 71). In this case, Koine ends with 330 A.D. when
Constantinople (former Byzantion), instead of Rome, became the
capital of the Roman Empire.
x
"Demophilus scripsit, Maccus vortit barbare", i.e. 'Demophilus wrote
it: Maccus translated it into a foreign [lit. "Barbarian"] tongue' (Asinaria
or the Comedy of Asses, Prologus 11; Plautus I, LCL, P. Nixon, 1916,
pp. 126-127).
xi
See a short review of this question in the posthumously published
Andriotis volume (2005: 145-159).