Medieval and Modern Greek

by Robert Browning

To speakers of modern Greek the Homeric poems of the 7th century BC are not written in a foreign language. The Greek language has enjoyed a continuous tradition from earliest times until now. This book traces its history from the immediately post-classical or Hellenistic period to the present day. The aim is both to analyse the changing structure of a language stabilised by a peculiarly long and continuous literary tradition, and to show how changing historical circumstances are reflected in its development. In particular the historical roots of modern Greek's internal bilingualism are traced.

Genres: Language, History, Linguistics

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Robert Browning, Greek historian, translator, Byzantinist, and professor was born in Glasgow in 1914. He graduated from Glasgow University in 1931, acquiring several prizes and honors. He also learned several Eastern European languages, beginning with Albanian. In 1939, he acquired a second degree from the university and joined the Royal Artillery, where he mastered Georgian.

Browning returned to academia from WWII to teach and work in several universities, including Merton College, Oxford, London University, University College, and Birkbeck, University of London, from which he retired as Professor of Classics and Ancient History in 1981.

Browning remained active, serving in an advisory capacity at Dumbarton Oaks and the University of Cyprus, and receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Birmingham.

Reviews

[Elio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un libro sencillo y buenísimo sobre el griego desde la koiné hasta hoy. Ha resuelto mis dudas y sobre todo me ha llenado de cariño por el griego postclásico. Estoy contento.

[Barry J Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been studying Ancient Greek and I have also been learning modern Greek. On the one hand, many things are different between Ancient and Modern Greek, but on the other hand, a lot of the vocabulary is the same or similar.

This book is very helpful and explaining how and when certain differences in Greek came about over the course of thousands of years from Homer, classical Athens, Koine Greek of the Hellenistic period, The Byzantine Empire, all through to the present day (of the book's publication at least.)

[Pinko Palest · Rating 5 out of 5]

very heavy going for the general reader in places. But very useful and actually quite enjoyable when discussing the evolution of the language in more general terms. Makes the very intriguing point that diglossy, one of the main features of Greek, was actually well established by the onset of the christian era, and is by no means a latter day development. In fact, the establishment of a Greek state has served to put a stop to diglossy rather than the opposite

[Rhomboid Goatcabin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute gem crammed with information!

[Ciara · Rating 1 out of 5]

shite

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Browning’s Medieval and Modern Greek is a survey of the changes that the Greek language went through after the classical variety of the 5th century BC, written with the assumption that the reader already has a thorough grounding in Classical Greek. The book was first published in 1969 by Hutchinson, but in 1983 a second edition was published by Cambridge University Press to represent the outcome of the great changes of the previous decade, which saw the artificial literary norm Katharevousa finally dismissed in all spheres of activity in favour of a standard language closer to Demotic, or popular, Greek.

So Browning proceeds chronologically, noting when classical constructions fell out of use or innovative formation arose. He ascribes the major pronunciation changes to earliest times, and after that his comments are mainly on morphology and lexicon. This presentation of the post-classical Greek language is divided into 6 periods: the Hellenistic world and the Roman empire, the early middle ages (from the 6th century to 1100), the late middle ages (1100–1453), the period of the Turkish occupation, and finally the development of the modern language. In the last chapter there is a quite detail survey of the dialects of Modern Greek. Following the text is an enormous bibliography and an index of Greek words mentioned in the text.

My only complaint is the lack of a topical index or some clearer outline, so that one could more quickly look up information. Each chapter presents the developments of the era in one steady flow without section headings. Still, as a graduate in Classics who would like to learn how to communicate with the Greeks of today, I found Browning's book very useful in explaining just how some of these strange new forms in my Modern Greek textbooks came about.