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,[1] Koiné Greek displayed a wide spectrum of different styles, ranging from more conservative literary forms to the spoken vernaculars of the time.[2] As the dominant language of the Byzantine Empire it developed further into Medieval Greek, the main ancestor of Modern Greek.[3]

Literary Koiné was the medium of much of post-classical Greek literary and scholarly writing, such as the works of Plutarch and Polybius.[1] 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”

These are other Web sites and pages that may be useful for on-line learning. By referencing these here, I don’t mean to say that I necessarily endorse everything on these pages. (Please note that, except for the first one, these links will open a new browser window.)

Learn New Testament Greek (this web site), by Corey Keating

Beginning Greek Courses that you can take ‘on-line’ over the Internet

Little Greek‘ and Learning NT Greek 101, by Jonathan Robie

Resources for Teaching NT Greek (and Latin) to Children

Ancient Greek Pronounciation, from Berkeley

Learning Greek, by the Institute of Biblical Greek

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The usual Greek layout follows the U.S. layout for letters related to Latin letters (ABDEHIKLMNOPRSTXYZ, ΑΒΔΕΗΙΚΛΜΝΟΠΡΣΤΧΥΖ, respectively), substitutes visually or phonetically similar letters (Φ at F; Γ at G) and uses the remaining slots for the remaining Greek letters: Ξ at J; Ψ at C; Ω at V; Θ at U).

Greek has two fewer letters than English, but has two accents which, because of their frequency, are placed on the home row at the U.K. “;” position; they are dead keys. Word-final sigma has its own position as well, substituting W, and semicolon (which is used as a question mark in Greek) and colon move to the position of Q.

Typing in Greek

Most letters correspond directly to their English counterparts (i.e. a returns α [alpha], e returns
ε [epsilon], etc.). Others are less obvious: u returns θ (theta), y returns υ (upsilon), w returns ς (final sigma), v returns ω (omega), j returns ξ (ksi), c returns ψ (psi), h returns η (eta).

Accents:

Type the key given, then the letter you want the accent to attach to. so ;a returns ά.
All combinations also work with capital letters.
; = acute accent ά
: = umlaut ϊ
‘ = smooth breathing (no h sound) ἀ
” = rough breathing (initial h sound) ἁ
[ = circumflex ᾶ
{ = iota subscript ᾳ
] = grave accent ὰ
/ = acute accent and smooth breathing ἄ
? = acute accent and rough breathing ἅ
= grave accent and smooth breathing ἂ
| = grave accent and rough breathing ἃ
= = circumflex and smooth breathing ἆ
+ = circumflex and rough breathing ἇ
Some combinations of accents (those requiring an accent, breathing mark and subscript, or a
must be found through the character menu.