Attic Greek

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Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. 400 BC.

Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of Greek that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Of the ancient dialects, it is the most similar to later Greek. It differs from most Greek dialects, including Doric, by frequently changing long ā to ē; from Ionic in not changing all of them. The Homeric dialect was an artificial compound, which resembled Ionic; but it also differed from Attic in losing the augment on the past tenses, and much more frequent use of the dual and other archaic forms. The later Koiné was largely Attic but Attic differed from it and most other dialects in saying "tt" for "ss" (e.g. tettares tattomenoi for tessares tassomenoi).

Grammar

Nouns

Attic Greek nouns have three numbers (singular, dual, and plural), three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and five cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative). There are three major divisions of noun declension: the "First Declension", more aptly called the alpha-declension, which in Attic is divided into five subdivisions; the "Second Declension", or omicron-declension (also known as the thematic declension); and the "Third Declension", an umbrella grouping of a large and reasonably diverse assortment of consonant-stem paradigms.

Alpha Declension

The alpha declension is predominantly, but not exclusively, feminine. Nouns belonging to the alpha declension have stems ending in alpha, short or long. In certain circumstances the alpha may change its length or become eta.

In the table below of feminine nouns there are three examples: long-alpha stem (ᾱ-stems), short-alpha stems (α-stems), and a stems which can end in eta (η-stems).

	Feminine
	ᾱ-stems (χώρᾱ 'land')			α-stems (Μοῦςα 'Muse')			η-stems (τῑμή 'honor')
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	χώρᾱ	χώρᾱ	χώραι	Μοῦσα	Μούσᾱ	Μοῦσαι	τῑμή	τῑμᾱ́	τῑμαί
Vocative	χώρᾱ	χώρᾱ	χώραι	Μοῦσα	Μούσᾱ	Μοῦσαι	τῑμή	τῑμᾱ́	τῑμαί
Accusative	χώρᾱν	χώρᾱ	χώρᾱς	Μοῦσαν	Μούσᾱ	Μούσᾱς	τῑμήν	τῑμᾱ́	τῑμᾱ́ς
Genitive	χώρᾱς	χώραιν	χώρῶν	Μούσης	Μούσαιν	Μουσῶν	τῑμῆς	τῑμαιν	τῑμῶν
Dative	χώρᾳ	χώραιν	χώραις	Μούσῃ	Μούσαιν	Μούσαις	τῑμῇ	τῑμαιν	τῑμαῖς

The short alpha stem is not present in masculine nouns, thus only ᾱ-stems and η-stems are declined.

	Masculine
	ᾱ-stems (ταμίᾱς steward)			η-stems (ποιητής poet)
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ταμίᾱς	ταμίᾱ	ταμίαι	ποιητής	ποιητᾱ́	ποιηταί
Vocative	ταμίᾱ	ταμίᾱ	ταμίαι	ποιητά	ποιητᾱ	ποιηταί
Accusative	ταμίᾱν	ταμίᾱ	ταμίᾱς	ποιητήν	ποιητᾱ́	ποιητάς
Genitive	ταμίου	ταμίαιν	ταμίῶν	ποιητοῦ	ποιηταῖν	ποιητῶν
Dative	ταμίᾳ	ταμίαιν	ταμίαις	ποιητῇ	ποιηταῖν	ποιηταῖς

Omicron Declension

Nouns in the omicron declension can be masculine, feminine, or neuter, though they are predominantly masculine and neuter. Masculine and feminine nouns are declined alike.

	Masculine and Feminine stems (λόγος 'word')			Neuter stems (δῶρον 'gift')
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	λόγος	λόγω	λόγοι	δῶρον	δώρω	δῶρα
Vocative	λόγε	λόγω	λόγοι	δῶρον	δώρω	δῶρα
Accusative	λόγον	λόγω	λόγους	δῶρον	δώρω	δῶρα
Genitive	λόγου	λόγοιν	λόγων	δώρου	δώροιν	δῶρων
Dative	λόγῳ	λόγοιν	λόγοις	δώρῳ	δώροιν	δῶροις

The Article

Attic Greek has only a definite article, which declines with its noun. It does not have an indefinite article which can be translated as "a(n)," "some," or "a certain." Frequently proper names take the definite article.

The definite article in Greek admits certain constructions that are now found in familiar modern European languages. A common construction is a definite article followed by a definite article in the genitive, the noun in the genitive, and finally the noun of the first article. For example: τὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἔργον. Literally "the (of the man) deed", the English sense is "the deed of the man." This sort of construction is a relic of the definite article's earlier status -- clearly evident in the Homeric texts -- as a demonstrative pronoun. Attic also makes frequent use of this sort of construction with prepositional phrases and even with adverbs (e.g., αἱ νῦν γυναῖκες, literally "the now women", i.e., "modern women"). The demonstrative force is so strong that the noun can often be dispensed with altogether: e.g., οἱ μετά τινός, literally "the (MASC. PL.) with someone", i.e., "the comrades of" so-and-so.

The definite article is declined thus:

	Masculine			Feminine			Neuter
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Verbs

Verbs have three numbers (singular, dual, plural), three persons (first person, second person, third person), seven tenses (present, imperfect, aorist, future, present perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect), two aspects (simple (or aorist) and continuous), three voices (active voice, middle voice, passive voice), and four moods (indicative mood, imperative mood, subjunctive mood, optative mood). Note that the aorist construction is more than a tense: with the augment it is a tense and an aspect: past simple; without the augment (as is the case for participles, infinitives, and imperatives) it signifies simple aspect only.

See also

References

External links

• [Greek Grammar on the Web]
• [Ancient Greek Tutorials]
• [Textkit - Greek and Latin Learning Tools]

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