6. The influence of foreign languages. — The Koine may thus be defined as a development of Attic under the influence of Ionic. But as it spread to non-Hellenic lands, such as Asia Minor and Egypt, we must, finally, inquire as to the in- fluence upon it of the languages of these countries, and as to foreign influence generally. Just as the Celts of Gaul exercised an influence upon the grammar and vocabulary of French (the vulgar Latin of Gaul), so, we might expect, would the Koine be affected by the native populations of Asia Minor and Egj-pt. The Greek spoken by these ' barbarians ' shows traces of their own manner of speech in the confusion of i and e sounds, and of tenues, medite, and aspirates (r, 5, d). Of such modification, however, very little found its way into the general development of Greek. Probably the pronunciation of irevTe as pende, and of Xa/xirpos as lambros, and the like, which make their first appearance in the dialect of Pamphylia, as also the development of i; into t, arose in Asia Minor ; the disregard of the distinction between long and short vowels (w and o, etc.) perhaps in Asia Minor and Egypt. It was once more the vocabulary that was appreciably affected by foreign languages — the natural result of intercourse. Yet, after all — apart from the local use of Egyptian words in Egyptian Greek — the Oriental languages contri- buted to the Greek vocabulary in Hellenistic times hardly any more than in the classical period ; the converse influence, e.g. in Rabbinical Hebrew, was incomparably greater. In Biblical Greek likewise, Semitic elements are scarcely more prominent than elsewhere. We note, e.g., dyyapeuu) and -n-apddeKxos, which are of Persian origin ; dppa^uv, drj^-q, /cd^os,
* There exist as yet no works (except those of Schlageter, mentioned above) dealing specially with the vocabulary of the papyri and the inscriptions. For the NT of. T. Naegeli, Der Wortschatz des Apostels Paulxis, Gottingen, 1905.
vd3\a, cihpaKos (Sem.), and ^d'iov, (ttIhixi (Egypt.); but these words are also found in otiier documents of the Koine; while, of course, words like d^^ds, o-M", yeevva, Trdcrxo-, crd^^cLTov {(Tdp.^a.Tov) found their way into the Greek world through the Jewish Christian sphere of ideas. It was from this sphere also that the names of the days of the week [rjkLov ^/j.€pa, cre\riv7]s VjJ-ipa, etc.), together with the week of seven days itself, came to the Greeks, and then spread to the rest of Europe.*
As contrasted with the Oriental, the Latin con- tribution forms a noticeable element in the Koine. Again, it is true, the grammatical influence was of the slightest. A number of suffixes, such as -aros, -apis, -ovpa, -laios (Lat. -atus, -arms, -ura, -ensis), were introduced into Greek through the medium of Lat. loan-words, and came to be used with Gr. stems. From the beginning of the Roman SAvay in Greece to the close of the ancient period, Roman politics and traffic imported a constantly increas- ing number of Latin words into Greek, and how effectively many of these became naturalized is shown by their survival in Modern Greek. In this respect likewise Biblical Greek reflects the condi- tions of the common Hellenistic language ; in the NT we find, e.g., Koicrap, KevTvpiwv, \eyedjv, irpaiTijbpLov, KTjvcros, KoopdvTTjs, o-qvdpiov, fj.L\iov, \ivTiov, croiddpLov, cppayeXKiov. That ih.Q influence of Latin on Pales- tinian Greek was by no means slight is attested indirectly by the number of Lat. words more or less naturalized in the Rabbinical literature, and, as appears from theu- form, introduced through the medium of Greek. Latinisms were occasion- ally formed by translation ('loan-renderings'), and just as the KevTvpiuv is called a sKaTdvrapxos in Lk 23*', so we may regard to Uavbv iroielv (Mk 1.5^') and ipyacriav oovvai as translations of Lat. satisfacere and oj^eram dare respectively. The extra-biblical literature of early Christianity likewise shoMS the influence of Latin, and is as yet free from puristic tendencies ; thus, e.g., Ignatius does not hesitate to adopt oeadpTup, oeirocnTa ('pledge') from military usage, or i^eixir\dpLov ('legally valid copy') from the language of law.+
7. Local variations of the Koine. — In order to answer the question whether Biblical Greek shows a definite local character, we must first of all in- quire whether local variations or even dialects existed in the colloquial Koine. We certainly cannot look for such diflerences in the written texts of a cosmopolitan language, as it lies in the very nature of a written language to tend towarcis uniformity. Our investigation must therefore carefully take account of all phenomena that could be regarded as pointing to local variation. In view of the wide expansion of the Koine, it is natural to suppose that local varieties would exist, i.e. that the common language would not be spoken in exactly the same way in Egypt, Asia Minor (Syria), and in the ancient Attic, Ionic, and Doric areas, since the ancient dialects themselves or the lan- guages of the barbarians who had just learned to speak Greek would lend a certain colouring, in pro- nunciation at least, to the Koine of the various regions. And, as a matter of fact, we are able, partly with the help of Modem Greek, to deter-
* Cf. Thumb, ' Die Namen der Wochentage im Griechischen, in Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Wortforschttng, i. [1900] 163 ff.; Schiirer, 'Die siebentagitre Woche in der christL Kircbe des ersten Jahrhunderts,' in ZSTW vi. [1905] Iff.