Koine Greek | |
---|---|
Region | Eastern Roman Empire |
Era | 300 BC – 300 AD (Byzantine official use until 1453) |
Early forms
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 |
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ISO 639-3 |
(includes all pre-modern stages) |
Linguist list
|
grc-koi |
Glottolog | None |
Koine Greek (UK English /ˈkɔɪniː/, US English /kɔɪˈneɪ/, /ˈkɔɪneɪ/ or /kiːˈniː/; from Koine Greek ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, "the common dialect"), also known as Alexandrian dialect, common Attic, Hellenistic or Biblical Greek (Modern Greek: Ελληνιστική Κοινή, "Hellenistic Koiné", in the sense of "Hellenistic supraregional language"), was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during Hellenistic and Roman antiquity and the early Byzantine era, or Late Antiquity. It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries. It was based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect levelling with other varieties.