'Dionysius Thrax' () (
170 BC‑
90 BC) was a
Hellenistic grammarian who lived and is thought by some to have worked in
Alexandria and later at
Rhodes.
The first extant grammar of
Greek, '"
Art of Grammar"' (''Tékhnē grammatiké'') is attributed to him but many scholars today doubt that the work really belongs to him. It concerns itself primarily with a
morphological description of Greek, lacking any treatment of
syntax. The work was translated into
Armenian and
Syriac in the early
Christian era.
Thrax defines grammar at the beginning of the ''Tékhnē'' as "the practical knowledge of the general usages of
poets and
prose writers." Thus Thrax, like contemporary Alexandrian scholars who edited
Attic Greek and
Homeric texts, was concerned with facilitating the teaching of classic Greek literature to an audience who spoke
Koine Greek.
References
★ Dionysios Thrax,
Art of Grammar
★ Robins, R. H. ''A Short History of Linguistics'' (Indiana UP, 1967). (ISBN 0-253-35210-X)
★ V. Di Benedetto, "At the Origins of Greek Grammar," Glotta 68 (1990): 19-39.
★ J. Lallot, La grammaire de Denys le Thrace (CNRS Editions, 1998).