Latin overtook Greek as the primary language of the eastern Roman Empire?

[proximefactum]

It's well known that Hellenistic culture did not cease after Roman domination of Greece, Asia Minor, Judaea, and adjacent regions. Many still spoke the common or Koine Greek (i.e. New Testament Greek). Educated ethnic Romans, even those before the principate such as Cicero, were fluent in Greek as well as their native Latin and freely mixed the two languages together in their letters. Well into the imperial period large numbers of immigrant Greek speakers lived in Rome and its environs. The Roman Empire was truly bilingual in a quite integrated manner.

WI the ethnic Romans (Carthaginians and Italians, for example) effectively destroyed Hellenistic culture and Koine Greek in the eastern provinces? What type of Latin would take the place of the common Greek? Would more Greek loanwords survive, given that these areas were previously populated with Greek speakers? In OTL, early Latin works of Christian scripture, apology, and commentary often contain many Greek loanwords.

 

[Zuvarq]

It would be a Latin language with the 'flavor' of Greek. Probably called Griegos or Grecios or something.

Would be like most Latin languages but some words would be suffixed with stuff like 'ae' and 'os', and prefixed with 'ae' and 'ach'. And some words would be brought from Greek or Romanized from Greek.

Thessaloniki would be Tesaloniqui. Athens would be Atens. Kokkino would be Coquino.

Disclaimer: I have no idea how Greek is pronounced, I assume that all the vowels are like Latin... Spanish in particular.

 

[carlton_bach]

I couldn't even begin to imagine by what cultural mechanism they would do that. Physically exterminating the entire Greek-speaking upper class and setting up a Latin-speaking one might do it, or maybe - just maybe - a missionary religion that considers Latin a sacred language.

There really isn't anything in the Latin parts that the Greek parts want. Greek is a lingua franca far beyond the frontiers of the Roman empire at its greatest. I don't see it getting replaced for a long time. Even with the powerful impetus of a missionary religion and a useful new language that combined social and religious status, it took the Muslim conquest centuries.

 

[proximefactum]

I couldn't even begin to imagine by what cultural mechanism they would do that. Physically exterminating the entire Greek-speaking upper class and setting up a Latin-speaking one might do it, or maybe - just maybe - a missionary religion that considers Latin a sacred language.

There really isn't anything in the Latin parts that the Greek parts want. Greek is a lingua franca far beyond the frontiers of the Roman empire at its greatest. I don't see it getting replaced for a long time. Even with the powerful impetus of a missionary religion and a useful new language that combined social and religious status, it took the Muslim conquest centuries.

Quite true. Also, the morphology and vocabulary of even Koine Greek far outstrip that of Latin. Jerome could not fully capture the participial nuances of the New Testament. Instead he resorted to grammatical circumlocutions that often unnecessarily complicate the text. I always remind myself that even the most common transitions in New Testament Greek are difficult to render in Latin. Mark 2:14 kai paragon eiden (walking along, Jesus said ...) versus Jerome's inelegant bodge et cum praeteriret vidit (while Jesus was walking along, he said) demonstrates this difficulty. In many instances, the economy of Koine lends itself to greater clarity than the Latin language. (I'm sure I'm going to get some argument on the last point.)

 

[Dan1988]

(N.B.IPA used here)

Even if you tried to destroy Koiné Greek, the Greek substratum would exhibit a powerful influence on the type of Vulgar Latin being spoken, since a lot of the changes in the Koiné were already in the works and were almost completed in several areas and, therefore, would affect Vulgar Latin in Greece. Considering that, in OTL, the Koiné /'ci.ni/ was a transitional period between Ancient and Modern Greek, looking more similar to Modern Greek, it is very conceivable that:

*In terms of the sound system, it would bear a great similarity to Modern Greek which, in a way, are similar to that found in OTL Spanish. This means that Elliniko-Roman would have a very simple system of five vowels - /a, e, i, o, u/, maybe /y/ in some holdhouts, but it wouldn't count as standard - plus a consonant inventory similar to the conservative Sardinian: i.e. Vulgar Latin consonants */b, d, g/ = Elliniko-Roman /β~v, ð, ɣ/, Ancient Greek/Classical Latin consonants PH, TH, CH */pʰ, tʰ, kʰ/ = Elliniko-Roman F, TH, H /f, θ, χ/, velar consonants C, GH, H, G /k/, /g/, /χ/, /ɣ/ palatalizing to C [c], G [ɟ], H [ç], J [ʝ] instead of /(t)ʃ/ and /(d)ʒ/, unlike other Romance languages (hence, /k/, /g/, and /χ/ would more or less sound the same, i.e. /k/, /g/, and /χ/, to native Elliniko-Roman speakers, though /ɣ/'s palatal pronunciation would sound like /j/) - this means that Thessaloniki would remain as Thesaloníci (since the c/qu~ch distinction would be useless), Athens would remain as Athína, and the Kokkino Horio in Chania province, Crete, would remain as the Cócino Hório in Haniá province, Críti. This does not mean that /(t)ʃ/ and /(d)ʒ/ would not exist - they do exist in some OTL Modern Greek varieties, and OTL Standard Modern Greek only has the affricates /ts/ and /dz/ - it's just that they would be perceived as foreign (though it could be possible, for the fricatives, to have [ç] > [ʃ] and [ʝ] > [ʒ], as alternate pronunciations, but that's another story).
*The Greek substratum would also influence the grammar greatly. The case system, including the Greek vocative, would be retained, as would the usage of the articles and aspects of the Greek verbal system (cf. Aromanian). Here, the Balkan sprachbund could easily show up in several ways, i.e. the loss of the infinitive.
*Words of Greek origin would be found in abundance in Elliniko-Roman, for sure.

Just some food for thought.

 

[Konstantin Paleolog]

For an example of a Romance language with a Greek substratum, look at Aromanian. Most Aromanians consider themselves (ourselves ) "Romanized Hellenes."

 

[Dan1988]

For an example of a Romance language with a Greek substratum, look at Aromanian. Most Aromanians consider themselves (ourselves ) "Romanized Hellenes."

I knew that.