Attic dialect

 

 

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Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of the Greek language 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

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). The two major noun declensions are the vowel declension and the consonant declension. The vowel declension is split into the alpha-declension and the omicron-declension (the alpha declension is predominantly, but not exclusively, feminine, and the omicron declension is predominantly, but not exclusively, masculine and neuter). There is also the minor Attic declension.

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. A common construction is a definite article followed by a definite article in the gentive, the noun in the genitive, and finally the noun of the first article. For example: τὸ &οῦ ἀνθρώπου ?ργον. Translated literally as "the (of the man) deed", or more clearly rendered in English: "The deed of the man."

The definite article is declined thus:

	Masculine			Feminine			Neuter
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ	τώ	οἱ	ἡ	τά	αἱ	τό	τώ	τά
Genitive	τοῦ	τοῖν	τῶν	τῆς	ταῖν	τῶν	τοῦ	τοῖν	τῶν
Dative	τῷ	τοῖν	τοῖς	τῇ	ταῖν	ταῖς	τῷ	τοῖν	τοῖς
Accusative	τόν	τώ	τούς	τήν	τά	τάς	τό	τώ	τά

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.

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