Purism is a sociolinguistic phenomenon that attempts to counter the undesirable transformation or perceived decline of a language. Several examples of it are to be found in the history of the world’s languages, and one of the earliest is Greek Atticism: the promotion of Attic, the dialect of Classical Athens, as a prestige variety in opposition to common Greek (‘koine’). The means to achieve Attic purity were expounded in lexica such as Phrynichus’ Eclogue (2nd c. CE), which collected features to be cultivated or avoided in correct language. These works and their linguistic rules survived throughout Antiquity and later contributed to shaping the relationship between literary Byzantine Greek and spoken Medieval Greek.
Purism
O. Tribulato
2024-01-01
Abstract
Purism is a sociolinguistic phenomenon that attempts to counter the undesirable transformation or perceived decline of a language. Several examples of it are to be found in the history of the world’s languages, and one of the earliest is Greek Atticism: the promotion of Attic, the dialect of Classical Athens, as a prestige variety in opposition to common Greek (‘koine’). The means to achieve Attic purity were expounded in lexica such as Phrynichus’ Eclogue (2nd c. CE), which collected features to be cultivated or avoided in correct language. These works and their linguistic rules survived throughout Antiquity and later contributed to shaping the relationship between literary Byzantine Greek and spoken Medieval Greek.
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