Friday, April 26, 2024

The Graecance language

One holdout of Marcion's tongue survives: the Romayka.

Sinope was founded by Ionic Milesians. Alexander brought the Attic variant of Ionian; this "correct" Greek became the koine (not koina). Then came Paul's Church. Finally the Byzantines brought a "correct" update to all the Greeks under its sway, including Miletus and Athens herself. The Spartans kept Doric which by then was so different from Koine, and so isolated, there was no correcting that.

We're learning here that although Sinope perhaps allowed a correction to Attic, and certainly to Church Koine; Byzantine Greek was one step too far. Romayka maintained, they point out, the infinitive construction. By Latin analogy, Romayka is a "Romance" based on Roman-era Greek. (The Spartan survival would fall somewhere between Sardinian and Irish. Think, if the Faliscan community found some valley or island as a refuge against Latin.)

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