Koine Greek

Koine Greek was the common language of the eastern Mediterranean from the Hellenistic period through the early Byzantine era, emerging from shared Greek dialects and spreading through conquest, trade, and administration.

Attic Greek: The Greek dialect of ancient Athens that became the principal basis of Koine Greek. Koine drew heavily on Attic while simplifying and leveling features across Greek dialects.
Ancient Greek: The language of ancient Greek communities, preserved in regional varieties and texts from the Mycenaean era onward. Koine is a historical stage within the development of Ancient Greek.
Septuagint: An ancient Greek translation of Jewish scriptures, produced in stages in the Hellenistic period. Its books preserve a major body of Jewish religious writing in Koine.
Iotacism: A sound change in Greek in which several vowel sounds converged toward the pronunciation of iota. This merger is among the conspicuous pronunciation changes in Koine.
Hellenization: The spread or adoption of Greek language and cultural practices beyond traditionally Greek communities. Koine gave Hellenization a shared language across diverse eastern Mediterranean societies.
Alexander the Great: King of Macedon who conquered the Persian Empire and created a vast Hellenistic realm. His conquests spread Greek-speaking institutions across regions where Koine became widely used.
Greek alphabet: The alphabet used to write Greek, adapted from the Phoenician script and influential in later writing systems. Koine texts use this script, including forms adapted for manuscripts and inscriptions.
New Testament: The collection of early Christian writings that forms the second part of the Christian Bible. Most of its books were composed in Koine Greek.
Greek diglossia: The coexistence of distinct high and everyday varieties of Greek in a speech community. Literary Atticism and spoken Koine illustrate contrasting registers in later Greek use.
Byzantine Greek: The forms of Greek used in the Eastern Roman Empire from late antiquity through the medieval period. It developed from late Koine and carried Greek into the Byzantine era.

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