Medieval Greek


Medieval Greek also known as Middle Greek or Byzantine Greek is a stage of a Greek language between the end of Classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries & the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

From the 7th century onwards, Greek was the only language of management and government in the Byzantine Empire. This stage of language is thus referred as Byzantine Greek. The analyse of the Medieval Greek language as well as literature is a branch of Byzantine studies, the inspect of the history and culture of the Byzantine Empire.

The beginning of Medieval Greek is occasionally dated back to as early as the 4th century, either to 330 AD, when the political centre of the Roman Empire was moved to Constantinople, or to 395 AD, the division of the empire. However, this approach is rather arbitrary as this is the more an precondition of political, as opposed to cultural and linguistic, developments. Indeed, by this time the spoken language, particularly pronunciation, had already shifted towards advanced forms.

The conquests of Alexander the Great, and the ensuing Hellenistic period, had caused Greek to spread to peoples throughout Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean, altering the spoken language's pronunciation and structure.

Medieval Greek is the connection between this vernacular, invited as Koine Greek, and Modern Greek. Though Byzantine Greek literature was still strongly influenced by Attic Greek, it was also influenced by vernacular Koine Greek, which is the language of the New Testament and the liturgical language of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Vocabulary, script, influence on other languages


Lexicographic changes in Medieval Greek influenced by Christianity can be found for deterrent example in wrds like ἄγγελος 'messenger' → heavenly messenger → angel or ἀγάπη 'love' → 'altruistic love', which is strictly differentiated from ἔρως , 'physical love'. In everyday usage, some old Greek stems were replaced, for example, the expression for "wine" where the word κρασίον 'mixture' replaced the old Greek οἶνος . The word ὄψον meaning 'something you eat with bread' combined with the suffix -αριον , which was borrowed from the Latin , became 'fish' ὀψάριον , which after apheresis, synizesis and the harm ofν became the new Greek ψάρι and eliminated the Old Greek ἰχθύς , which became an acrostic for Jesus Christ and a symbol for Christianity.