A Grammar of the Greek Papyri of the Roman and Byzantine Periods: Morphology

"Volume I, Phonology, begins with an introduction which emphasizes the significance of orthography for the interpretation of the sounds of the language as they were during this period. This is followed by the core of the book dealing with consonants and vowels. A section at the end treats of quantity and accent. After this we have a summary of vowels with instructive diagrams. At the end we have a full index of Greek words and forms. Volume II, Morphology, has a similar structure. It contains a brief and informative introduction followed by the treatment of declension and conjugation and finally a full Greek index. In looking at these two volumes together we see one thing as particularly important: the Grammar is really concerned with the Greek of Egypt during this period. It is true that three volumes are listed as giving papyri found outside Egypt, but that nonetheless the Grammar is really conceived in terms of Egypt is shown by the fact that the discussion of bilingualism is in terms of Greek and Coptic. It could not be otherwise because it is almost exclusively from Egypt that our text come, and if we are to have a grammar of the papyri it can only be in these terms. If we think of a grammar of the inscriptions of the period, we have the difficulty that the language of inscriptions is inevitably more formal and correct that the language of some of the papyri"--G.D. Kilpatrick, Novum Testamentum.