Pronomen Abundans and Pronomen Coniunctum. A ... - DWC

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22 PRONOMEN AlIUNDANS AND PRONOMEN CONIUNCTUM instances of the pronomen ahundans pale into insignificance besides the great mass of examples of the other idiom? And, of course, there is a difference: in a sentence where a pronomen abundans occurs one gets the impression that the relat. pronoun is very weak and has to be reinforced by the abundant pers. pronoun. When, however, the second idiom occurs, it is the noun at the beginning of the sentence which is strong and the resumpt. pronoun which is weak. Is this an actual difference and was it feIt as such by the people living then or was the pronomen ahundans a common idiom in the spoken language, being suppressed, however, in the written texts? We shall find the final answer, if there is one, in the third part of this study, in the chapter on relat. connection 53. 2.1.2.5. Vulgar texts. It has not been discovered yet whether the pronomen ahundans is an idiom that belongs to common speech or not, but is it true that the Koine offers us such vulgar texts? It is true, of course, that almost all the Ancient Greek texts are literary and that we have only a few sources by means of which we can get a very faint idea of the spoken language of that period. Compared to this, the situation in the Koine is much brighter: we possess masses of non-literary papyri, the texts of the LXX and the NT and those written by professional men (the so-called "Fachprosa"), all written in a rather simple and nonliterary sort of Greek etc. etc. And there is something else: during the classic period the literary language must have influenced colloquial speech; it may have even slowed down its natural development. In the Koine-period, especially aftar the Atticistic movement set in, a yawning chasm started separating the higher intallectual classes from the lower ones, and thus the spoken language was freed from the influences of the literary language, being able now to follow its own course 54. Are the so-called "vulgar" texts actually so vulgar? And what is meant by the word "vulgar" ? It may be suspected that the term "vulgar text" is used for all those texts which are commonly regarded as not belonging to literature and where occur linguistic phenomena which are not found in Classic Greek. Sometimes, however, one feels that these texts are being considered as representing colloquial speech or, at least, something very close to it. This would be wrong, for speaking thus we forget that colloquial speech is spoken language and that what has been left to us of the language used during the period of the Koine' consists of texts, and, therefore, written language. Rydbeck, in his book on "Fachprosa", makes similar objections 55 : "Was ich hier ausgeführt habe, bedeutet, das ich weder die Papyri noch das NT, im ganzen, sprachlich-grammatisch gesehen, als Volkstümliche Texte rubrizieren will", and "Der Versuch, aus Schriftstüoken der Vergangenheit die lebendige Rede hervorzuziehen, 53 See III 5 etc. 54 See Trenkner, p. 60. 55 Rydbeck, p. 194.
PRONOMEN ABUNDANS AND PRONOMEN CONIUNCTUM 23 wird immer eine fast unmögliche Aufgabe sein. Für frühere Perioden gibt es nul' Geschriebenes". Rydbeek, therefore, rather uses terms like "Zwisehensehiehtsprosa" and "sprachliche Zwischenschicht", terms which are defined by him as follows 56: "Diese Ausdrüeke haben keinen Wertinhalt, sondern dienen nur einem besehreibenden Zweek. Ieh meine mit ihnen Texte und Verfasser aus früher Römerzeit, die in ihrer sprachlieh-grammatischen, stilistisehen und allgemein literarisehen Haltung niveaumässig unter (a) den eigentliehen Klassizisten, (b) den Vertretern einer mehr sehönliterariseh ambitiösen hellenistisehen Literatursprache vom Typus Polybios-Diodoros liegen". This "Zwischensehicht" should not be viewed, I think, as some sort of "standard Koine", as a "linguistic sub-class", but rather as a very large spaee, in between the literary Koine and the spoken language, a space within which many varieties of language can be expected 57. Needless to say that, exactly because it is a "Zwisehenschicht", it can undergo influences from two sides, from above or underneath, and also from both sides at the same time. This is exactly what makes research in the Koine so difficult: it is very of ten almost impossible to decide where the different influenees come from. The pronomen abundans constitutes a good example. Instances of it are found in what is called by Rydbeek "Zwischenschichtsprosa", but also in Polybius, a representative of the literary Koine. Whether it occurred in colloquial speech, we do not know. Thus one might be inclined to regard this idiom as a characteristic of the literary Koine. Or does it perhaps belong to the spoken language and did Polybius admit it in his text as some sort of personal usage? Our conclusion may be that the Koine may provide us with a few real vulgar papyri, where we find Greek as it actually was spoken, but that for the rest we must be very careful with using words like "vulgar" and "vulgarism" . 2.2. Examples In this ehapter all sorts of examples will be discussed except those occurring in the LXX and the NT, which, for special reasons, will be dealt with in a separate chapter. It goes without saying that at the transition from Classic Greek to the Koine - this is only a way of speaking - the idiom of the pronomen abundans did not undergo any sudden changes. One finds many examples which are very similar to the ones occurring in Ancient Greek. There are, however, other instances which seem to be different. They will be discussed in due time. 56 Rydbeck, p. 177. 57 These words are also meant as a criticism upon a review of Rydbeck's book, written by H. Thesleff, Gnomon 42,6 (1970), pp. 551-5.
Page 1 and 2: VERHANDELINGEN DER KONINKLIJKE NEDE
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. Definition
Page 5 and 6: PRONOMEN ABUNDANS AND PRONOMEN CONI
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PART III BYZANTINE PERIOD 1. INTROD
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92 PRONOMEM ABUNDANS AND PRONOMEN C
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98 PRONOMEN ABUNDAN8 AND PRONOMEN C
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100 PRONOMEN ABUNDANS AND PRONOMEN
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A. TEXTS Achi
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