koine

koine

See also: Koine, koiné, and koinè

English

WOTD – 20 November 2012

Alternative forms

• koiné

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κοινή (koinḗ), feminine form of κοινός (koinós, “common, general”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔɪniː/, /ˈkɔɪneɪ/

Noun

koine (plural koines)

1. A lingua franca.

   Synonym: interlanguage

   • 2004, Steven Roger Fischer, A History of Language, Reaktion Books, page 178:

     If a dominant language was spoken in the area of such trade routes, then this dominant language became the ‘interlanguage’, as it is called. Such an interlanguage, or koiné, is a simplified dialect with which speakers of two or more quite different dialects communicate with one another.

   • 2013, J. E. Wansborough, Lingua Franca in the Mediterranean, Routledge, page 153:

     Now, another term for that product is koine, which, however, I have regularly […] employed in reference to the infrastructure (procedural, juridical, formal, cultural) that enables and informs composition of a lingua franca. […] In linguistic scholarship koine mostly (!) refers to a standard language expanded by input from several dialectal sources with concomitant levelling of morphological and syntactic differences and adoption of a general and possibly restricted lexicon.

2. A regional language that becomes standard over time.

Derived terms

• koinëisation (linguistics)

Translations

lingua franca

Catalan: koiné (ca) f Norwegian: Bokmål: koinéspråk n Nynorsk: koinéspråk n

regional language that becomes standard

German: Koine (de) f Norwegian: Bokmål: koinéspråk n Nynorsk: koinéspråk n

Portuguese: koiné (pt) m or f

Further reading

• koiné language on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• eikon, enoki

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Portuguese

Noun

koine f or m (in variation) (plural koines)

1. Alternative form of koiné