Koine Greek phonology
Encyclopedia
Koine Greek
is phonologically
a transition period: at the start of the period, the language was generally virtually identical to Classical Ancient Greek
, whereas in the end the language had phonologically a lot more in common with Modern Greek
than Ancient Greek.
s: these were the loss of vowel length
distinction, the substitution of the Ancient Greek system
of pitch accent
with a stress accent system, and the monophthong
alization of diphthong
s (except and ). These changes seem widely attested from the 2nd century BC in Egyptian Greek, and in the early 2nd century AD in learned Attic inscriptions; it is therefore likely that they were already common in the 2nd century BC and generalized no later than the 2nd century AD.
Another change was the fricatization of the second element of diphthongs and . This change likely took place after the vocalic changes described above occurred. It is attested in Egyptian Greek starting from the 1st century AD, and seems to have been generalized in the late Roman period.
Another series of changes was the fricatization of voiced plosives, which is widely attested in Egyptian Greek starting from the 1st century AD, but may have been generalized at a later date, possibly in the late Roman or early Byzantine periods.
Yet another series of changes was the fricatization of aspirated voiceless plosives, which is attested in several locations from the 1st century AD, but seems to have been generalized at a later date, possibly in the late Roman or early Byzantine period.
A last change (possibly related to fricatization of aspirated plosives) is the loss of aspirate, which may have begun as soon as the late 1st century BC in Egyptian Greek, seems to have taken place no earlier than the 2nd century AD in learned Attic inscription, and had most probably been generalized by the late Roman times.
An opposition between learned language and vulgar language has been claimed for the corpus of Attic inscriptions. Some phonetic changes are attested in vulgar inscriptions since the end of the Classical period; still they are not generalized until the start of the 2nd century AD in learned inscriptions. While orthographic conservatism in learned inscriptions may account for this, contemporary transcriptions from Greek into Latin might support the idea that this is not just orthographic conservatism, but that learned speakers of Greek retained a conservative phonological system into the Roman period. On the other hand, Latin transcriptions, too, may be exhibiting orthographic conservatism.
Interpretation is more complex when different dating is found for similar phonetic changes in Egyptian papyri and learned Attic inscriptions. A first explanation would be dialectal differences (influence of foreign phonological systems through non-native speakers); changes would then have happened in Egyptian Greek before they were generalized in Attic. A second explanation would be that learned Attic inscriptions reflect a more learned variety of Greek than Egyptian papyri; learned speech would then have resisted changes that had been generalized in vulgar speech. A last explanation would be that the orthography in learned Attic inscriptions was artificially conservative; changes may then have been generalized no later than they are attested in Egyptian papyri. All these explanations are plausible to some degree, but would lead to different dating for the generalization of the same changes.
To sum this up, there is some measure of incertitude in dating of phonetic changes; indeed, the exact dating and the rapidity of the generalization of Koine Greek phonological changes are still matters of discussion among researchers. Orthographic variants in contemporary written sources is the most direct evidence, but it is not enough to date a change in every context. Testimony of grammarians and, to a lesser extent, transcriptions into foreign language are interesting because they can indicate which pronunciation was regarded as standard by learned speakers; however, it has been argued that transcriptions may in some cases be conventional rather than phonetic, and Greek grammarians appear to describe learned pronunciation while ignoring established vulgar pronunciation.
Diphthongs collapsed into single vowels. Βy the 1st century BC the process of monophthongalization was over (see diachronic description below for more details).
Consonants
By the 1st century the voiced consonants became fricatives [β, ð, ɣ]. The voiceless aspirates were starting to become fricatives in the north of the Mediterranean [ɸ, θ, x].
Other consonants
Nasals /m/ μ /n/ ν
(/ŋ/) γ
Liquids /l/ λ /r/ ρ
Sibilant /s/ σ /z/ ζ, σ
Aspiration
had probably dropped out of popular speech.
Accentuation lost distinctions of high and high-low tones, leaving only a high tone for a "stress" accent.
The "learned pronunciation" described here is mostly pre-Koine Attic.
The pseudo-diphthong was confused with , except before vowel, where it was confused with .
Long first element diphthongs are written in parentheses because they were gradually monophthongalized starting from the classical period; Dionysios Thrax mentions that they were no longer pronounced. By the 1st century BC the process of monophthongalization was over (see diachronic description below for more details).
Ancient grammarians and transcriptions suggest that voiced and aspirated plosive consonants were retained until the beginning of the Roman period. The voiced plosives became fricatives before the voiceless aspirates.
Some scholars regard [ŋ] as an allophone of [n], others as a separate phoneme, which is why it is put in parentheses.
What exact sound represented is a matter of discussion, but it should probably be regarded as an allophone of the /r/ notated by .
notates a [zz] geminate.
By the 4th century BC, Boeotian had monophthongalized most diphthongs, and featured a fricative . Note that, in contrast with Ionic-Attic and Koine, had remained a back vowel in Boeotian (written ). Apparently, the Boetian monophthongisation was not accompanied by a disposal of vowel length distinction.
Starting from the end of the 4th century, vulgar Attic seems to display similar values (except for which was a front vowel).
The /yː/ value for is attested later, in the 3rd century BC. An intermediate value of /øː/ has been suggested by some.
No reference has been found on the status of the and diphthongs in Boeotian.
Fricative values for , , , and are not unlikely, but are not attested in Boeotian at this time. (A fricative value for is attested in Laconian in the late 5th century BCE. It is also attested for Doric/Spartan in some plays by Aristophanes [late 5th c. BCE].)
No reference has been found on the status of the aspirate in Boeotian at this period.
The transition of and from [au], [eu] to [aβ], [eβ] was likely already in progress. A probable intermediate stage is therefore presented here.
There is little evidence of fricative pronunciation of β and γ in Egyptian Greek before the 1st century AD. Fricative pronunciation for aspirates may have been generalized even later in Egyptian Greek.
The aspirate may have already been in the process of disappearing in Egyptian Greek, which is why it is put in parentheses.
The confusion between /y/ and /i/ had begun as early as the 2nd century AD in Egyptian Greek, but it was most probably not generalized yet.
From the 2nd century BC, spelling errors in non-literary Egyptian papyri suggest stress accent and loss of vowel length distinction. The widespread confusion between and in Attic inscriptions starting in the 2nd century AD was probably caused by a loss of vowel length distinction.
to stress, meaning that the accented syllable had only one tone option (high) and was presumably louder and/or stronger.
From the 2nd century BC, spelling errors all over the Mediterranean suggest a loss of vowel length distinction, which is commonly thought to result in the loss of tonal accent. More evidence of stress accent appears in poetry starting from the late 2nd century AD – early 3rd century AD.
still has in modern Greek).
Before vowel, diphthong did not follow the same evolution as pre-consonantic . One theory to explain this difference is that pre-vocalic may have kept a diphthongal value [ej] until the 4th century BC, the [j] being progressively perceived as a glide from [e] to the next vowel. From the late 4th century BC, pre-vocalic diphthong came to be confused with , which implies that, unlike before consonant, it conserved a value of [eː], with probably a loss of openness distinction with ; for later evolution, refer to below.
Starting from the 6th century in Attic, diphthong had been monophthongized and confused with . While its initial value had probably been [oː], it must have evolved to [uː] quite early (possibly in the 6th century BC, and at any rate before 350 BC); this later value was preserved through modern times, as far as vowel quality is concerned.
Diphthong was monophthongalized as [yː] or [y] (depending on when the loss of vowel length distinction took place). This is attested in Boeotian in the early as the 3rd century BC with a spelling of for , but this was probably a dialectal trait. Still, diphthong must have kept a diphthongal value at least in learned language until Roman times, as it is transcribed as oe in Latin. Further evidence of monophthongalization is found from the early 1st century BC in Egyptian Greek, as well as in the early 2nd century AD in Palestine. Monophthongalization in learned language seems attested by a spelling for found in a text dated from early 2nd century AD and another from c. 240 AD. (Look up note on evolution of for subsequent evolution.)
Koine Greek initially seems to feature diphthong , which had been progressively monophthongalized to [yː] (written for ) in Attic from the 6th century BC to the 4th century BC but retained in other Greek dialects. It was later monophthongalized as [yː] or [y] (depending on when the loss of vowel length distinction took place). (The author of these lines has not found any reference on when this change took place, but this transition may be phonologically linked to, and at any rate is quite unlikely to have taken place after, the similar transition of to [yː]~[y]). (See discussion on below for subsequent evolution.)
Other long-first-element diphthongs ( and became monophthongal by the 2nd century BC, as they were written and ; the former was probably pronounced [aː], while the later may have been pronounced [ɔː] at first if openness distinction had not been lost yet, and was eventually pronounced [oː] at any rate (look up discussion of single vowels and below for details).
Other long-first-element diphthongs had become monophthongal from the 1st century BC, as they were written as , and ; the first was probably pronounced [aː], while the two later may have been pronounced [ɛː] and [ɔː] at first if openness distinction had not been lost yet ([eː] and [oː] otherwise), and were eventually pronounced [iː] and [oː] at any rate (look up discussions of single vowels and and single vowel below for details).
As noted above, at the start of the Koine Greek period, pseudo-diphthong before consonant had a value of [iː], whereas pseudo-diphthong had a value of [uː]; these vowel qualities have remained unchanged through Modern Greek. Diphthong before vowel had been generally monophthongalized to a value of [eː] and confused with , thus sharing later developments of .
The quality of vowels , and have remained unchanged through Modern Greek, as [a], [e] and [i].
Vowels and started to be regularly confused in Attic inscriptions starting in the 2nd century AD, which may indicate that the quality distinction was lost around this time. However, this may as well indicate the loss of length distinction, with an earlier or simultaneous loss of quality distinction. Indeed, the fact that some less systematic confusion is found in Attic inscriptions from the 4th century BC may alternatively point to a loss of openness distinction in the 4th century BC, and the systematization of the confusion in the 2nd century AD would then have been caused by the loss of length distinction.
The quality distinction between and may have been lost in Attic in the late 4th century BCE, when pre-consonantic pseudo-diphthong started to be confused with and pre-vocalic diphthong with . C. 150 AD, Attic inscriptions started confusing and , indicating the appearance of a [iː] or [i] (depending on when the loss of vowel length distinction took place) pronunciation that is still in usage in standard Modern Greek; however, it seems that some locutors retained the [eː]~[e] pronunciation for some time, as Attic inscriptions continued to in parallel confuse and , and transcriptions into Gothic and, to some extent, old Armenian transcribe as e.
Koine Greek adopted for vowel the pronunciation [y] of Ionic-Attic. Confusion of with appears in Egyptian papyri from the 2nd century AD, suggesting a pronunciation of [i], but this is probably a regional trait. Transcriptions into Gothic and, to some extent, Armenian suggest that still retained a [y] pronunciation, and the transition to [i] in mainstream Greek is thought to have taken place at the end of the 1st millennium.
), which was already lost in the Ionic
idioms of Asia Minor
and the Aeolic
of Lesbos
, later stopped being pronounced in Koine Greek. Spelling errors in Egyptian papyri suggest that this loss was already under way in Egyptian Greek in the late 1st century BC. Transcriptions into foreign languages and consonant changes before aspirate testify that this transition must not have been generalized before the 2nd century AD, but transcriptions into Gothic show that it was at least well under way in the 4th century AD.
The consonant , which had probably a value of [zd] in Classical Attic (though some scholars have argued in favor of a value of [dz], and the value probably varied according to dialects – see Zeta (letter)
for further discussion), acquired the sound [z] that it still has in Modern Greek, seemingly with a geminate pronunciation [zz] at least between vowels. Attic inscriptions suggest that this pronunciation was already common by the end of the 4th century BC.
The digraph is much more frequent than Attic in Koine Greek.
Consonants , , which were initially pronounced as aspirates [pʰ] and [tʰ], developed into fricatives [f] and [θ]. On the other hand, there is no specific evidence of the transition of consonant from aspirate [kʰ] to fricative [x]~[ç] in the Koine Greek period. There is evidence for fricative in Laconian in the 5th century BC, but this is unlikely to have influenced Koine Greek which is largely based on Ionic-Attic. The first clear evidence for fricative and in Koine Greek dates from the 1st century AD in Pompeian inscriptions. Yet, evidence suggest an aspirate pronunciation for in Palestine in the early 2nd century, and Jewish catacomb inscriptions of the 2nd–3rd century AD suggest a pronunciation of [f] for , [tʰ] for and [kʰ] for , which would testify that the transition of to affricate was not yet general at this time, and suggests that the transition of to affricate may have happened before the transition of and . Armenian transcriptions transcribe as [kʰ] until the 10th century AD, so it seems that was pronounced as aspirate by at least some locutors until then.
It is not known with accuracy when consonants , and , which were originally pronounced [b], [ɡ], [d], acquired the value of [v], [ɣ], and [ð] that they have in Modern Greek. Though some evidence of fricative after a front vowel go as far back as the 4th century BC, it does not seem to have been a standard pronunciation. Ancient grammarians describe the plosive nature of these letters, is transcribed as b, not v, in Latin, and Cicero still seems to identify with Latin b. Evidence from non-literary papyri suggests a fricative pronunciation in some contexts (mostly intervocalic) from about the 1st century AD; however, this pronunciation was not necessarily generalized yet. Increasingly common confusion of and with and in late Roman and early Byzantine times suggests that the fricative pronunciation of was common if not general by this time. Yet, it is not before the 10th century AD that transcriptions of as fricative v or as voiced velar l are found in Armenian, which suggests that the transition was not general before the end of the 1st millennium; however, previous transcriptions may have been learned transcriptions.
Koine Greek
Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....
is phonologically
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
a transition period: at the start of the period, the language was generally virtually identical to Classical Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
, whereas in the end the language had phonologically a lot more in common with Modern Greek
Modern Greek
Modern Greek refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic...
than Ancient Greek.
Overview
The most significant changes during the Koine Greek period concerned vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s: these were the loss of vowel length
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
distinction, the substitution of the Ancient Greek system
Ancient Greek accent
In Ancient Greek, accent varies from word to word, but there are rules of accent determining where it can fall and what type it can be. The rules depend on the length of the vowel in the last syllable and in the syllable being accented.-Mora:...
of pitch accent
Pitch accent
Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words...
with a stress accent system, and the monophthong
Monophthong
A monophthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation....
alization of diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s (except and ). These changes seem widely attested from the 2nd century BC in Egyptian Greek, and in the early 2nd century AD in learned Attic inscriptions; it is therefore likely that they were already common in the 2nd century BC and generalized no later than the 2nd century AD.
Another change was the fricatization of the second element of diphthongs and . This change likely took place after the vocalic changes described above occurred. It is attested in Egyptian Greek starting from the 1st century AD, and seems to have been generalized in the late Roman period.
Another series of changes was the fricatization of voiced plosives, which is widely attested in Egyptian Greek starting from the 1st century AD, but may have been generalized at a later date, possibly in the late Roman or early Byzantine periods.
Yet another series of changes was the fricatization of aspirated voiceless plosives, which is attested in several locations from the 1st century AD, but seems to have been generalized at a later date, possibly in the late Roman or early Byzantine period.
A last change (possibly related to fricatization of aspirated plosives) is the loss of aspirate, which may have begun as soon as the late 1st century BC in Egyptian Greek, seems to have taken place no earlier than the 2nd century AD in learned Attic inscription, and had most probably been generalized by the late Roman times.
Issues with reconstructions
The primary issue comes from the diversity of the Greek-speaking world: evidence suggests that phonological changes occurred at different times according to location and/or speaker background. It appears that many phonetic changes associated with the Koine period had already occurred in some varieties of Greek during the Classical period.An opposition between learned language and vulgar language has been claimed for the corpus of Attic inscriptions. Some phonetic changes are attested in vulgar inscriptions since the end of the Classical period; still they are not generalized until the start of the 2nd century AD in learned inscriptions. While orthographic conservatism in learned inscriptions may account for this, contemporary transcriptions from Greek into Latin might support the idea that this is not just orthographic conservatism, but that learned speakers of Greek retained a conservative phonological system into the Roman period. On the other hand, Latin transcriptions, too, may be exhibiting orthographic conservatism.
Interpretation is more complex when different dating is found for similar phonetic changes in Egyptian papyri and learned Attic inscriptions. A first explanation would be dialectal differences (influence of foreign phonological systems through non-native speakers); changes would then have happened in Egyptian Greek before they were generalized in Attic. A second explanation would be that learned Attic inscriptions reflect a more learned variety of Greek than Egyptian papyri; learned speech would then have resisted changes that had been generalized in vulgar speech. A last explanation would be that the orthography in learned Attic inscriptions was artificially conservative; changes may then have been generalized no later than they are attested in Egyptian papyri. All these explanations are plausible to some degree, but would lead to different dating for the generalization of the same changes.
To sum this up, there is some measure of incertitude in dating of phonetic changes; indeed, the exact dating and the rapidity of the generalization of Koine Greek phonological changes are still matters of discussion among researchers. Orthographic variants in contemporary written sources is the most direct evidence, but it is not enough to date a change in every context. Testimony of grammarians and, to a lesser extent, transcriptions into foreign language are interesting because they can indicate which pronunciation was regarded as standard by learned speakers; however, it has been argued that transcriptions may in some cases be conventional rather than phonetic, and Greek grammarians appear to describe learned pronunciation while ignoring established vulgar pronunciation.
Popular pronunciation, 1st century ΒC – 2nd century AD
The loss of length in the popular 4th century BC Attic and the spread of Greek under Alexander the Great led to a reorganization of the vowels in the phonology of Koine Greek. There were no longer distinctions of long and short vowels in popular speech.| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | rounded | |
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
/i/ , | /y/ , | /u/ |
| Mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
/e/ | ||
| Open Mid Open-mid vowel An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel... |
/ɛ/ , | /o/ , | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
/a/ | ||
Diphthongs collapsed into single vowels. Βy the 1st century BC the process of monophthongalization was over (see diachronic description below for more details).
Consonants
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental | Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ |
| voiced fricative | /β/ | /ð/ | /ɣ/ |
| voiceless fricative | /f/ | /θ/ | /x/ |
By the 1st century the voiced consonants became fricatives [β, ð, ɣ]. The voiceless aspirates were starting to become fricatives in the north of the Mediterranean [ɸ, θ, x].
Other consonants
Nasals /m/ μ /n/ ν
(/ŋ/) γ
Liquids /l/ λ /r/ ρ
Sibilant /s/ σ /z/ ζ, σ
Aspiration
Spiritus asper
In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing , is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, diphthong, or rho. It remained in the polytonic orthography even after the Hellenistic period, when the sound disappeared from the Greek language...
had probably dropped out of popular speech.
Accentuation lost distinctions of high and high-low tones, leaving only a high tone for a "stress" accent.
Learned pronunciation, 4th century BC until early Roman period
Until the beginning of Roman times, some learned speakers may have retained a conservative pronunciation that preserved many traits of the Ancient Greek phonological system. However, already in the 4th century BC, the popular dialect in Athens was moving in the direction of the Koine without differences in vowel length. See above. Even in Attic learned inscriptions, the learned pronunciation appears to have disappeared by the mid 2nd century AD.The "learned pronunciation" described here is mostly pre-Koine Attic.
Short vowels
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | rounded | |
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
/i/ | /y/ | |
| Mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
/e/ | /o/ | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
/a/ | ||
Long vowels
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | rounded | |
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
/iː/ , | /yː/ | /uː/ |
| Mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
/eː/ , | /oː/ | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
/a/ | ||
The pseudo-diphthong was confused with , except before vowel, where it was confused with .
Diphthongs
| Front offglide | Back offglide | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short first element | /ai/ |
/oi/ |
/yi/ |
/au/ |
/eu/ |
|
| (Long first element) | (/aːi/) () |
(/oːi/) () |
(/aːu/) () |
(/eːu/) () |
(/oːu/) () |
Long first element diphthongs are written in parentheses because they were gradually monophthongalized starting from the classical period; Dionysios Thrax mentions that they were no longer pronounced. By the 1st century BC the process of monophthongalization was over (see diachronic description below for more details).
Plosive consonants
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental | Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ |
| voiced | /b/ | /d/ | /ɡ/ |
| aspirated voiceless | /pʰ/ | /tʰ/ | /kʰ/ |
Ancient grammarians and transcriptions suggest that voiced and aspirated plosive consonants were retained until the beginning of the Roman period. The voiced plosives became fricatives before the voiceless aspirates.
Other consonants
| Nasals Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
/m/ | /n/ (/ŋ/) |
|---|---|---|
| Liquids | /l/ | /r/ (~ [r̥ʰ] ?) () |
| Sibilant | /s/ | /z/ , |
| Aspirate Spiritus asper In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing , is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, diphthong, or rho. It remained in the polytonic orthography even after the Hellenistic period, when the sound disappeared from the Greek language... |
/h/ |
Some scholars regard [ŋ] as an allophone of [n], others as a separate phoneme, which is why it is put in parentheses.
What exact sound represented is a matter of discussion, but it should probably be regarded as an allophone of the /r/ notated by .
notates a [zz] geminate.
Boeotian, 4th century BC
Although it belongs to the late classical period rather than the Koine Greek period, Boeotian phonology is shown here as it prefigures several traits of later Koine phonology.By the 4th century BC, Boeotian had monophthongalized most diphthongs, and featured a fricative . Note that, in contrast with Ionic-Attic and Koine, had remained a back vowel in Boeotian (written ). Apparently, the Boetian monophthongisation was not accompanied by a disposal of vowel length distinction.
Starting from the end of the 4th century, vulgar Attic seems to display similar values (except for which was a front vowel).
Short vowels
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... unrounded |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... rounded |
|
|---|---|---|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
/i/ | /u/ |
| Mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
/e/ | /o/ |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
/a/ | |
Long vowels
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | rounded | |
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
/iː/ , | /yː/ (?) | /uː/ , , |
| Close-Mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
/eː/ | /oː/ | |
| Open-Mid Open-mid vowel An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel... |
/ɛː/ | ||
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
/aː/ | ||
The /yː/ value for is attested later, in the 3rd century BC. An intermediate value of /øː/ has been suggested by some.
Diphthongs
| /au/(?) |
/eu/(?) |
No reference has been found on the status of the and diphthongs in Boeotian.
Plosive and former plosive consonants
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental | Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ |
| voiced | /b/ (?) | /d/ (?) | /ɣ/ |
| aspirated voiceless | /pʰ/ (?) | /tʰ/ (?) | /kʰ/ (?) |
Fricative values for , , , and are not unlikely, but are not attested in Boeotian at this time. (A fricative value for is attested in Laconian in the late 5th century BCE. It is also attested for Doric/Spartan in some plays by Aristophanes [late 5th c. BCE].)
Other consonants
| Nasals Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
/m/ | /n/ (/ŋ/) |
|---|---|---|
| Liquids | /l/ | /r/ (~ [r̥ʰ] ?) () |
| Sibilant | /s/ | /z/ , |
| Aspirate Spiritus asper In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing , is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, diphthong, or rho. It remained in the polytonic orthography even after the Hellenistic period, when the sound disappeared from the Greek language... (?) |
/h/(?) |
No reference has been found on the status of the aspirate in Boeotian at this period.
Egyptian Greek, early 1st century BC
From the 2nd century BC, Egyptian Greek had monophthongalized diphthongs and lost vowel length distinction.Vowels
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | rounded | |
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
/i/ , | /y/ , , | /u/ |
| Close-Mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
/e/ | ||
| Open-Mid Open-mid vowel An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel... |
/ɛ/ , | /o/ , | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
/a/ | ||
Diphthongs
| /aw/(?) |
/ew/(?) |
The transition of and from [au], [eu] to [aβ], [eβ] was likely already in progress. A probable intermediate stage is therefore presented here.
Plosive consonants
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental | Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ |
| voiced | /b/ | /d/ | /ɡ/ |
| aspirated voiceless | /pʰ/ | /tʰ/ | /kʰ/ |
There is little evidence of fricative pronunciation of β and γ in Egyptian Greek before the 1st century AD. Fricative pronunciation for aspirates may have been generalized even later in Egyptian Greek.
Other consonants
| Nasals Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
/m/ | /n/ /ŋ/ |
|---|---|---|
| Liquids | /l/ | /r/ (~ [r̥ʰ] ?) () |
| Sibilant | /s/ | /z/ , |
| (Aspirate Spiritus asper In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing , is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, diphthong, or rho. It remained in the polytonic orthography even after the Hellenistic period, when the sound disappeared from the Greek language... ) |
(/h/) |
The aspirate may have already been in the process of disappearing in Egyptian Greek, which is why it is put in parentheses.
4th century AD
By the 4th century AD, the loss of vowel length distinction and aspiration was most probably generalized. Η was often confused with ι (hence pronounced /i/?), but still occasionally with ε (as it still is today in Eastern (i.e. Pontic and Cappadocian) Greek dialects). Fricative values for former voiced and aspirate plosive consonants were probably already common; however, some dialects and/or learned speech may have retained voiced and aspirate plosive consonants until the end of the 1st Millennium.Vowels
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | rounded | |
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
/i/ , , | /y/ , , | /u/ |
| Mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
/e/ , , some (dialectal?) | /o/ , | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
/a/ | ||
The confusion between /y/ and /i/ had begun as early as the 2nd century AD in Egyptian Greek, but it was most probably not generalized yet.
Plosive and former plosive consonants
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental | Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| voiceless | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ |
| voiced | /β/ | /ð/ | /ɣ/ |
| formerly aspirated voiceless | /ɸ/ | /θ/ | /x/ |
Other consonants
| Nasals Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
/m/ | /n/ /ŋ/ |
|---|---|---|
| Liquids | /l/ | /r/ |
| Sibilant | /s/ | /z/ , |
Loss of vowel quantity distinction
The ancient distinction between long and short vowels was lost in popular speech at the beginning of the Koine period. "By the mid-second century [BCE] however, the majority system had undergone important changes, most notably monophthongization, the loss of distinctive length, and the shift to a primary stress accent."From the 2nd century BC, spelling errors in non-literary Egyptian papyri suggest stress accent and loss of vowel length distinction. The widespread confusion between and in Attic inscriptions starting in the 2nd century AD was probably caused by a loss of vowel length distinction.
Transition to stress accent
The means of accenting words changed from pitchPitch accent
Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words...
to stress, meaning that the accented syllable had only one tone option (high) and was presumably louder and/or stronger.
From the 2nd century BC, spelling errors all over the Mediterranean suggest a loss of vowel length distinction, which is commonly thought to result in the loss of tonal accent. More evidence of stress accent appears in poetry starting from the late 2nd century AD – early 3rd century AD.
Pseudo-diphthongs
Before consonant, diphthong had started to become monophthongal in Attic as early as the 6th century BC, and pronounced like , probably as [eː]. From the late 4th century BC in Attic, pseudo-diphthong (now notating both etymological and etymological ) came to be pronounced like , probably as [iː] (with the quality that the digraphDigraph (orthography)
A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
still has in modern Greek).
Before vowel, diphthong did not follow the same evolution as pre-consonantic . One theory to explain this difference is that pre-vocalic may have kept a diphthongal value [ej] until the 4th century BC, the [j] being progressively perceived as a glide from [e] to the next vowel. From the late 4th century BC, pre-vocalic diphthong came to be confused with , which implies that, unlike before consonant, it conserved a value of [eː], with probably a loss of openness distinction with ; for later evolution, refer to below.
Starting from the 6th century in Attic, diphthong had been monophthongized and confused with . While its initial value had probably been [oː], it must have evolved to [uː] quite early (possibly in the 6th century BC, and at any rate before 350 BC); this later value was preserved through modern times, as far as vowel quality is concerned.
Short-first-element i diphthongs
Diphthong was probably monophthongalized at first as [ɛː]. This value is attested in Boeotian in the early 4th century BC with the Boeotian spelling of for . Confusion of with suggests that this transition had taken place by the mid 2nd century BC in Egyptian Greek. Further confusion between and is found in Palestine in the early 2nd century, and the confusion between and starting from c. 125 AD in Attic suggests that the monophthongalization took place in the early 2nd century AD in learned Attic. Allen thinks the transition to [e] (i.e. loss of openness distinction with ) to have taken place later; while Allen is not very explicit on this point, this theory seems based on the observation that while both and are confused with , is not confused with . However, not all scholars seem to agree. No reference on this point of debate has been found.Diphthong was monophthongalized as [yː] or [y] (depending on when the loss of vowel length distinction took place). This is attested in Boeotian in the early as the 3rd century BC with a spelling of for , but this was probably a dialectal trait. Still, diphthong must have kept a diphthongal value at least in learned language until Roman times, as it is transcribed as oe in Latin. Further evidence of monophthongalization is found from the early 1st century BC in Egyptian Greek, as well as in the early 2nd century AD in Palestine. Monophthongalization in learned language seems attested by a spelling for found in a text dated from early 2nd century AD and another from c. 240 AD. (Look up note on evolution of for subsequent evolution.)
Koine Greek initially seems to feature diphthong , which had been progressively monophthongalized to [yː] (written for ) in Attic from the 6th century BC to the 4th century BC but retained in other Greek dialects. It was later monophthongalized as [yː] or [y] (depending on when the loss of vowel length distinction took place). (The author of these lines has not found any reference on when this change took place, but this transition may be phonologically linked to, and at any rate is quite unlikely to have taken place after, the similar transition of to [yː]~[y]). (See discussion on below for subsequent evolution.)
Short-first-element u diphthongs
Diphthongs and lost their ancient value of [au] and [eu] and acquired a fricative pronunciation of [aβ] and [eβ] or [av] and [ev]. Confusion of and with and is found as early as the beginning of the 1st century AD in Egyptian papyri, which attests a fricative pronunciation. Yet, this fricative pronunciation was likely not generalized at once; for instance, Jewish catacombs inscriptions still show a diphthongal value in the 2nd–3rd century AD. Confusion of and with and becomes increasingly common in late Roman and early Byzantine times, which suggests that it had been generalized by this time.Long-first-element i diphthongs
Diphthong had started to become monophthongal in Attic at least as early as the 4th century BC as it was often written and probably pronounced [eː]. In Koine Greek, most were therefore subjected to the same evolution as other classical [eː] and came to be pronounced [iː]. However, in some inflexional endings (mostly 1st declension dative singular and subjunctive 3S), the evolution was partially reverted from c. 200 BC, probably by analogy of forms of other cases/persons, to and was probably pronounced [eː] at first (look up note on evolution of for subsequent evolution).Other long-first-element diphthongs ( and became monophthongal by the 2nd century BC, as they were written and ; the former was probably pronounced [aː], while the later may have been pronounced [ɔː] at first if openness distinction had not been lost yet, and was eventually pronounced [oː] at any rate (look up discussion of single vowels and below for details).
Long-first-element u diphthongs
When augmented from in verbs, diphthong had been altered to from the 4th century BC.Other long-first-element diphthongs had become monophthongal from the 1st century BC, as they were written as , and ; the first was probably pronounced [aː], while the two later may have been pronounced [ɛː] and [ɔː] at first if openness distinction had not been lost yet ([eː] and [oː] otherwise), and were eventually pronounced [iː] and [oː] at any rate (look up discussions of single vowels and and single vowel below for details).
Single vowel quality
Apart from , simple vowels have better preserved their ancient pronunciation than diphthongs.As noted above, at the start of the Koine Greek period, pseudo-diphthong before consonant had a value of [iː], whereas pseudo-diphthong had a value of [uː]; these vowel qualities have remained unchanged through Modern Greek. Diphthong before vowel had been generally monophthongalized to a value of [eː] and confused with , thus sharing later developments of .
The quality of vowels , and have remained unchanged through Modern Greek, as [a], [e] and [i].
Vowels and started to be regularly confused in Attic inscriptions starting in the 2nd century AD, which may indicate that the quality distinction was lost around this time. However, this may as well indicate the loss of length distinction, with an earlier or simultaneous loss of quality distinction. Indeed, the fact that some less systematic confusion is found in Attic inscriptions from the 4th century BC may alternatively point to a loss of openness distinction in the 4th century BC, and the systematization of the confusion in the 2nd century AD would then have been caused by the loss of length distinction.
The quality distinction between and may have been lost in Attic in the late 4th century BCE, when pre-consonantic pseudo-diphthong started to be confused with and pre-vocalic diphthong with . C. 150 AD, Attic inscriptions started confusing and , indicating the appearance of a [iː] or [i] (depending on when the loss of vowel length distinction took place) pronunciation that is still in usage in standard Modern Greek; however, it seems that some locutors retained the [eː]~[e] pronunciation for some time, as Attic inscriptions continued to in parallel confuse and , and transcriptions into Gothic and, to some extent, old Armenian transcribe as e.
Koine Greek adopted for vowel the pronunciation [y] of Ionic-Attic. Confusion of with appears in Egyptian papyri from the 2nd century AD, suggesting a pronunciation of [i], but this is probably a regional trait. Transcriptions into Gothic and, to some extent, Armenian suggest that still retained a [y] pronunciation, and the transition to [i] in mainstream Greek is thought to have taken place at the end of the 1st millennium.
Loss of aspiration
The aspirate breathing (aspirationAspiration (phonetics)
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
), which was already lost in the Ionic
Ionic Greek
Ionic Greek was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic dialect group of Ancient Greek .-History:Ionic dialect appears to have spread originally from the Greek mainland across the Aegean at the time of the Dorian invasions, around the 11th Century B.C.By the end of the Greek Dark Ages in the 5th Century...
idioms of Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
and the Aeolic
Aeolic Greek
Aeolic Greek is a linguistic term used to describe a set of dialects of Ancient Greek spoken mainly in Boeotia , Thessaly, and in the Aegean island of Lesbos and the Greek colonies of Asia Minor ....
of Lesbos
Lesbos Island
Lesbos is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with 320 kilometres of coastline, making it the third largest Greek island. It is separated from Turkey by the narrow Mytilini Strait....
, later stopped being pronounced in Koine Greek. Spelling errors in Egyptian papyri suggest that this loss was already under way in Egyptian Greek in the late 1st century BC. Transcriptions into foreign languages and consonant changes before aspirate testify that this transition must not have been generalized before the 2nd century AD, but transcriptions into Gothic show that it was at least well under way in the 4th century AD.
Consonants
Among consonants, only , , , , and are certain to have changed from Classical Greek. Consonants (and, with lesser probability) are likely to have changed, too, but there is no clear evidence of this in the Koine Greek period.The consonant , which had probably a value of [zd] in Classical Attic (though some scholars have argued in favor of a value of [dz], and the value probably varied according to dialects – see Zeta (letter)
Zeta (letter)
Zeta is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 7. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Zayin...
for further discussion), acquired the sound [z] that it still has in Modern Greek, seemingly with a geminate pronunciation [zz] at least between vowels. Attic inscriptions suggest that this pronunciation was already common by the end of the 4th century BC.
The digraph is much more frequent than Attic in Koine Greek.
Consonants , , which were initially pronounced as aspirates [pʰ] and [tʰ], developed into fricatives [f] and [θ]. On the other hand, there is no specific evidence of the transition of consonant from aspirate [kʰ] to fricative [x]~[ç] in the Koine Greek period. There is evidence for fricative in Laconian in the 5th century BC, but this is unlikely to have influenced Koine Greek which is largely based on Ionic-Attic. The first clear evidence for fricative and in Koine Greek dates from the 1st century AD in Pompeian inscriptions. Yet, evidence suggest an aspirate pronunciation for in Palestine in the early 2nd century, and Jewish catacomb inscriptions of the 2nd–3rd century AD suggest a pronunciation of [f] for , [tʰ] for and [kʰ] for , which would testify that the transition of to affricate was not yet general at this time, and suggests that the transition of to affricate may have happened before the transition of and . Armenian transcriptions transcribe as [kʰ] until the 10th century AD, so it seems that was pronounced as aspirate by at least some locutors until then.
It is not known with accuracy when consonants , and , which were originally pronounced [b], [ɡ], [d], acquired the value of [v], [ɣ], and [ð] that they have in Modern Greek. Though some evidence of fricative after a front vowel go as far back as the 4th century BC, it does not seem to have been a standard pronunciation. Ancient grammarians describe the plosive nature of these letters, is transcribed as b, not v, in Latin, and Cicero still seems to identify with Latin b. Evidence from non-literary papyri suggests a fricative pronunciation in some contexts (mostly intervocalic) from about the 1st century AD; however, this pronunciation was not necessarily generalized yet. Increasingly common confusion of and with and in late Roman and early Byzantine times suggests that the fricative pronunciation of was common if not general by this time. Yet, it is not before the 10th century AD that transcriptions of as fricative v or as voiced velar l are found in Armenian, which suggests that the transition was not general before the end of the 1st millennium; however, previous transcriptions may have been learned transcriptions.