Phrynichus Arabius (; , lit. 'Phrynichus “the Arab”') or Phrynichus of Bithynia () was a grammarian of the

Greek language Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), south ...

who flourished in 2nd century

Bithynia Bithynia (; ) was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast a ...

, writing works on proper Attic usage. His name is also

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

as Phrynichos or Phrynikhos. His ethnic background is disputed, mainly between an

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

and

Bithynian Bithynia (; ) was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast a ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

descent.

Life

The ''

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...

'' states:

Phrynichus of Bithynia, sophist. He wrote * ''Atticist'', or ''On Attic Words'' () in two books; * ''Collection of Usages'' () * ''Sophistic Preparations'' ( (47 books, but some say 74)

(Of the ''Sophistic Preparations'' only some fragments and

Photius Photius I of Constantinople (, ''Phōtios''; 815 – 6 February 893), also spelled ''Photius''Fr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., and Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Mate ...

' summary survive.) The work was learned, but prolix and garrulous. A fragment contained in a Paris MS. was published by B. de Montfaucon, and by I. Bekker.I. Bekker, editor. ''Anecdota graeca'' (1814) Another work of Phrynichus, not mentioned by

, but perhaps identical with the Atticist mentioned by Suidas, the ''Selection () of Attic Words and Phrases'', is extant. It is dedicated to Cornelianus, a man of literary tastes, and one of the imperial secretaries, who had invited the author to undertake the work; it is a collection of current words and forms which deviated from the Old Attic standard, the true Attic equivalents being given side by side. The work is thus a prescriptive and reforming ''lexicon antibarbarum'', and is interesting as illustrating the changes through which the Greek language had passed between the 4th century B.C. and the 2nd century A.D. As models of Attic style Phrynichus assigns the highest place to

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

Demosthenes Demosthenes (; ; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide insight into the politics and cu ...

, and Aeschines the Socratic, and also uses the other

Attic orators The ten Attic orators were considered the greatest Greek orators and logographers of the classical era (5th–4th century BC). They are included in the "Canon of Ten", which probably originated in Alexandria. A.E. Douglas has argued, however, t ...

Thucydides Thucydides ( ; ; BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts Peloponnesian War, the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been d ...

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

, and

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

, though he does not accept their usage uncritically: in the letter to Cornelianus which forms the introduction to the ''Eclogē'', he criticizes some words used by classical Attic authors as un-Attic "mistakes" (). Editions of the ''Eklogê'', with valuable notes, have been published by C. A. Lobeck (1820) and W. G. Rutherford (1881); Lobeck devotes his attention chiefly to the later, Rutherford to the earlier usages noticed by Phrynichus. See also J. Brenous, ''De Phrynicho Atticista'' (1895).

Notes

References

* I. Avotins "The sophist Aristocles and the grammarian Phrynichus", ''Parola del Passato'' 33 (1978), 181–91 * J. de Borrie
''Phrynichi Sophistae Praeparatio Sophistica''
(Leipzig 1911) * E. Fischer ''Die Ekloge des Phrynichos'' (SGLG 1, Berlin 1974) *

External links

*
Phrynichi eclogae nominum et verborum atticorum
', Chr. Augus. Lobeck (ed.), Lipsiae, in libraria weidmannia, 1820. *
The new Phrynichus, being a revised text of The Ecloga of the grammarian Phrynichus
', W. Gunion Rutherford (ed.), London, Macmillan and Co., 1881. {{DEFAULTSORT:Arabius, Phrynichus 2nd-century Greek writers Ancient linguists Ancient Greek grammarians Atticists (grammarians) Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 2nd-century Arab people Arabs in the Roman Empire