A.-F. Christidis: A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity, Cambridge 2007

Conceived on a vast scale, this history of Ancient Greek offers an exceptionally wide-ranging overview, with contributions by an international team of scholars. As might be expected from such a volume, an account is given of the development of Greek from its Indo-European origins to the end of the Roman Empire, but this is amplified by an astonishingly varied array of supplementary chapters on all aspects of the Greek language, from its contacts with other languages to its later fortunes from the Middle Ages to the present day. The book represents an encyclopaedic reference work, but beyond that it seems as a whole to have been admirably planned to encourage the reader to make connections between language and history, to see Greek in its wider linguistic context, and above all to become alert to the fascinating wealth of material that makes the history of this language especially exciting. No single volume could do complete justice to so immense a subject, but this one provides a way of approaching almost all aspects of it and is in that sense a comprehensive survey and an excellent first port of call for anyone wanting to explore further.

After a general introduction by A.-F. Christidis, the volume is divided into nine major parts and a set of appendices; the introductions to all of these are also written by Christidis, which gives an overall unity and sense of direction to the whole volume. Ample bibliographies are provided at the end of each part, and there are full indices.

Part I deals with language as a phenomenon, with chapters on such topics as linguistic analysis, language and the brain, the origins of language, language acquisition and language change. These are all large subject areas in their own right which can hardly receive wholly adequate treatment in a few pages, and some of the chapters make rather hard reading. This will not be the first place that students of linguistics will go for information, and others may find it all somewhat forbidding. But the accounts here do give a lot of information and should stimulate curiosity, which is presumably the main object, and together they certainly make the point that the study of Greek belongs firmly within the purview of Linguistics as much as within the sphere of Classical studies.

Part II, the longest, with twenty-five chapters, is devoted to language and history. The Indo-European family of languages is introduced, accompanied by discussions of when the parent language, Proto-Indo-European, may have been spoken, where its speakers may have lived, and what can be reconstructed of their culture; the following chapter traces Greek back to this parent language, listing the characteristic changes that distinguish Greek from its Indo-European sister languages. Next comes discussion of writing and writing systems, with chapters more specifically on the scripts found in the Greek world: Linear A, the Cypro-Minoan scripts, the Cypriot syllabary, Linear B, and the alphabet; attention is also paid to the non-Greek languages that may be written in some of these scripts ('Pre-Greek', Eteocypriot, Eteocretan, etc.). Also in this part, strategically interspersed amongst the more linguistic material and offering a helpful historical setting, are chapters on various periods from proto-history through the classical period to the Greek world under the Roman Empire. Imaginative additions to this historical overview are the discussions of Greeks and barbarians and of literacy and orality in the classical period. The blend of topics in this Part allows for a properly connected view of the grand sweep of the history of Ancient Greek, from its first emergence from Indo-European through the beginnings of literacy and the first texts to the classical language and then the development of the koine: the interplay of historical developments within Greek society and the history of the language can be clearly observed.

In Part III, on the Greek dialects, a more conventional path is followed but the result is still an admirably clear and useful survey. After a good presentation of dialect classification there come excellent and detailed chapters devoted to the principal dialect groups (including Macedonian, but with a sober discussion of the legitimacy of this), to the language of Homer, and to the decline of the ancient dialects. (There are sample texts with English translations but no glossing of forms.) A final somewhat subversive chapter by C. Brixhe questions the prevailing methodology in Greek dialect studies and is an invitation to serious reflection.

The linguistic core of this History comes in Part IV, where there are chapters on both synchronic and diachronic grammar - the structures of Ancient Greek and the changes they underwent. Some of these chapters, especially the ones on phonology and syntax (morphology does not seem to require quite so many special terms), are fairly technical and aimed essentially at linguists - and indeed linguists with some knowledge of Greek, since syntactic examples are translated into English but the reader is expected to be able to identify which form is which. Others, however, can be read with enjoyment and profit by anyone with an interest in Ancient Greek. These include the discussions of the pronunciation of Greek in the classical and Hellenistic periods (and the nature of our evidence for recovering it), the chapters on the Greek vocabulary and semantic change, and the accounts of Jewish Greek (often given rather short shrift) and of the language of the New Testament. A particularly welcome chapter is the one on personal names by A. Thompson; the topic is usually neglected in general histories of Greek but is a fascinating and important aspect of the history of the language which here receives its due.

An exceptional feature of this History is the amount of space allotted to the coverage of contacts between Greek and other languages. Part V offers a splendid array of short chapters detailing relations between Greek and the Semitic languages, Thracian, Illyrian, Phrygian, Carian, Lycian, Lydian, Iranian, Etruscan, Latin, Hebrew, Egyptian and Coptic, Syriac, Celtic, Indian languages, and Arabic. All of these are written by specialists in the languages concerned and give wonderfully succinct but authoritative accounts.

The companion Part VI deals with translation practices in antiquity - again an important area usually neglected in general histories of Greek: a theoretical discussion is followed by chapters dealing with the Septuagint, Greek alongside Latin, bilingualism amongst the Phoenicians, Greek translation of Lycian, and aspects of translation between Greek and Syriac.

More familiar ground is regained with Part VII Language and Culture. This is divided into three sections, the first of which covers the enormous topic of language and literature, which might merit a volume in its own right: the solution adopted here is to offer a brisk survey of the use of dialects, the characteristics of epic language, language in tragedy and comedy, and the language of Hellenistic literature. Useful enough in themselves, these chapters can readily be supplemented with the help of the bibliography. The second section on specialised vocabularies is a decidedly more novel feature and very successful: there are short accounts of the vocabularies of slavery, democracy, religion, early Christianity, law, philosophy, and medicine, which will be of great interest to a wide classical readership. The third section consists of five brief studies of the changes of meaning in particular words - fascinating examples of how language can be affected by cultural change and how cultural change can be recovered by close attention to linguistic nuances.

The three chapters of Part VIII concern aspects of the Greeks' attitudes to their language, with respect to education, the work of the grammarians, and Atticism - an increasing interest in the language and how it should be taught being accompanied by an urge to linguistic purism. This finds an echo in some of the chapters of Part IX on the fortunes of Ancient Greek, where the struggle between the purists and the proponents of demotic in early Modern Greece are described. Other chapters in this Part describe how Ancient Greek was regarded in mediaeval times and in the Renaissance, how it was taught during the Enlightenment, and how language played its part in the forging of the Greek nation in Modern Greece. These chapters obviously owe a great deal to current interest in reception studies, but represent a wonderful extension of the normal boundaries of a history of Greek and make very enjoyable reading.

The Appendices cover a range of topics, mainly offering supplements to some of the subjects dealt with in the earlier chapters. Thus there is an account of accentuation to fill out the earlier chapters on phonology and pronunciation (some might indeed question the relegation of this important topic to an appendix) and a discussion of punctuation in inscriptions and other written documents that goes well with the chapters on writing. There are interesting and valuable descriptions of the language of particular types of text (proverbs and riddles, magical papyri, letters on lead) or particular styles and registers (prophetic discourse, obscene language, the language of Homer's gods, foreigner talk and child talk in literature), and even non-verbal communication and music. Finally there are three studies of language change, one general account of the operations of analogy in Greek, and two particular studies of syntactic and semantic change.

From the above summary it is possible to get some impression of the sheer scale of this history of Ancient Greek. At 1617 pages it far outstrips all others in length, but what makes it truly outstanding is that the extra space is devoted not to more elaborate accounts of the usual, and of course essential, core topics but to broadening the scope of the subject. The chapters are not designed to be the last word on any topic but rather to introduce it and show why it is important, encouraging the reader then to explore further in the specialist literature at will. So, for instance, the Indo-European origins of Greek are treated briefly and clearly but for a full account recourse must be had to a number of other works that deal only with this aspect of Greek; or for a thorough description of the language of a given author, the reader will want more than the few paragraphs on offer here and must turn to the bibliography. In a general history, things could hardly be otherwise, and the emphasis on breadth of coverage is wholly commendable.

The English edition of the book differs from the Greek in having four supplemetary chapters: II.8, "History of the alphabet: some guidelines for avoiding oversimplification" by C. Brixhe; VI.5 "The bilingualism of the Phoenicians in the Ancient Greek world" by M.-F. Baslez; IX.2, "Greek and the Western Renaissance: between humanism and heresy" by J.-C. Saladin and APP.II.5, "The language of the Gods in Homer" by F. Bader. In addition, the bibliography has been brought up to date.

With the very few exceptions of chapters where technical terminology may prove forbidding (e.g. those on phonology and syntax noted above, and perhaps some of those in Part I), the contributions to this volume are written in an accessible manner so that students and indeed anyone interested in Ancient Greek can readily find answers to questions and better still can happen upon discussions of other unfamiliar questions that can stimulate and engage the interest. Browsing in this magnificent book is an enlightening experience and I thoroughly recommend it.