koine

See also: Koine, koiné, and koinè

English

WOTD – 20 November 2012

Alternative forms

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

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams


Portuguese

Noun

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

  1. Alternative form of koiné
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