Page:Vocabulary of Menander (1913).djvu/30

26 Among the types of words which are said to be characteristic of the Koine the most prominent are perhaps the following:

noun-suffixes: ;

adjective suffixes: (verbal adjectives in  );

verb suffixes: ;

double compounds.

Of this list, and  are very common in the classical period as well, and are therefore of minor importance in determining a writer's connection with the common dialect. The rest, however, became far more frequent in later times, and may fairly be said to furnish as trustworthy criteria as can be found. They will be taken up in the order named.

.

The use of nouns formed with the suffix is admitted to be a characteristic of the Koine. Most scholars have regarded the Ionic dialect as the source from which the later language derived its fondness for words of this type, but Fränkel takes issue with this view, regarding the suffix as well established in old Attic, and as advancing by natural steps to its later