The artificial "Greek" Koine Language

The roots of the Koine language may have started in one of the more progressive City States, most probably Athens, but by the time it made its way to the Eastern Mediterranean, it had become the language of administration and commerce, common to all Mediterranean nations.
Koine in those days was like English is today. In Europe for example, counties have their own languages which they use to communicate at home, but internationally they use English to communicate with other countries.

Koine was spoken by Roman intellectual even in Rome. Almost all ancient literary works were written in Koine

Interestingly, Koine also became the administrative and commercial language of the Ottoman Empire and continued to exist in a commercial and administrative capacity during Ottoman rule
The Ottomans employed Christians to administer foreign affairs, banking and trade with the outside world. And yes you guest it, the Christians continued to employ the Koine language throughout Ottoman rule

The keepers of the Ottoman administrative and commercial services as well as the rulers of the Christian world inside the Ottoman empire were known as the Phanariots.
The Phanariots were the Christian educated and professionals middle class or the bourgeoisie of the Ottoman world. They were people from various nationalities from every corner of the Eastern world. They were the clerics, the translators (dragoman), the merchants and the captains of ships and of industry and they all spoke Koine. They were called Phanariots because they lived in a district of Tsari Grad (Constantinople or Istanbul) known as the Phanar.
In the 19th century, during the Ottoman decline, the Phanariots were much in favour of toppling the Ottoman administration. The idea was to overthrow the Ottoman Sultan and his Muslim rule and replace it with Christian rule. Unfortunately, the Great Powers did not favour the idea and it failed. After that, the Phanariots worked closely with the Great Powers to establish the Greek Kingdom.
Even though the people of the newly established Greek Kingdom were of many different ethnicities including Albanians, Vlahs, Slavs, Turks, etc, each with a unique language and culture, the Great Powers instilled upon them the idea that they were the descendents of the ancient people who lived in that region over two millenniums ago.

After nearly a decade of contemplation as to which language to use, Greek authorities finally decided to adopt the Koine language as the liturary language of their new nation. They disregarded all vibrant and living peoples' languages in favour of the ancient administrative and commercial Koine.
Unfortunately, after two millennium of evolution, the modern version of Koine contained many foreign elements and proved distasteful to the Greek purists who wanted a pure language which was close to those of the ancient City States
After nearly a century of using Koine, the purists finally got their chance to replace it. Their new choice was an old dead Attic language used by the ancient Athenians 2,500 years ago. The Greeks called their new language the Catharevoussa for its linguistic purity.
Unfortunately, this language had been dead for two thousand years and the Greek literary world which was used to the bastardized impure Koine, found it very difficult to understand and impossible to express emotion. Its use was finally terminated in the 1970's in favour of the bastardized Koine (Dimotiki).

Category:

Education

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• proud
• Greek
• liers
• language
• koine
• athens
• hellas
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• eprius

[teologen]

This video is just pure crap. First; Koine Greek wasn't in use after 1970's. Modern greek dates to the 15th century, but it is influenced by Koine.

And please learn to write english. I 'guest' that you arent't exactly fluent...

[granitus]

@teologen That that you call koine is an artificial language the modern greek koine is just a bastardized koine artificial language with some albanian and turkish words !

[nickpafras]

yes, the ancient Greeks spoke albanian and the Ancient Japanese spoke spanish and the Ancient Romans spoke Russian. And the Americans speak Portuguese....you are an idiot.

[granitus]

Becasue they were clerics

[nickpafras]

The new testament of the Bible was written in Koine Greek. Why would saint Paul write a letter to the poor peasant Christians in Ephesus in Koine greek if they could not speak or understand the language?? please, I would lilke to hear your answer. How was it that the apostles Peter, mark and luke who were all poor fisherman and carpenters write in koine Greek and understand the language with no formal education? please tell me...

[2005defender]

@ShpresPerShqipni ...Your ancestors came to Macedonia and the rest of Hellas and did us great harm, though we had done them no prior injury. I have been appointed leader of the Greeks, and wanting to punish the Persians I have come to Asia, which I took from you..."

Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander II, 14, 4 (Loeb, P. A. Brunt) - 95-175 AD

Is there anything else to say ??

??

[ShpresPerShqipni]

are there any "greeks" out there who know their own history? I think they have their own schools to learn "greek' history & language...they are desperately trying to hold on to the shredded lies they've built around them...why? These people are not natives of Greece. the truth has to come out. do they think the truth will be hidden forever?

[JamesGREEK26]

If you don't believe me look it up what Pharaoh means if translated in english. It means "Great house" because at first it was refered to the Egyptian king's palace. And no i didn't say that the Egyptians were Greeks, the Egyptians were Egyptians but the kingdom of Egypt (Ptolemaic kingdom) founded by Ptolemy (a Greek general of Alexander the Great) was Greek, not the people of the kingdom but the king Ptolemy and the generals. The Ptolemy Greeks ruled Egypt till the Roman invasion (of Egypt)

[granitus]

but pharaons were not houses but humans and you sayd egyptian were greek dont you ???

[JamesGREEK26]

First of all i dont speak albanian. Second of all the word Pharaoh is not Greek it is Egyptian and it means "Great House". i do not think the albanian word Fara jon has anything to do with the egyptian one because they have different meanings. The word "koine" is a Greek word. We Greeks use that word it means common, That's why it is known as koine Greek but most people just use the word koine to describe it, look it up on wikipedia! Finally the Greeks spoke Greek not albanian, lol