“That had better be my Annushka and not some horrible bureaucrat!” Babulya yelled in the language she had brought with her from her homeland, those seaside southern mountains that Anya swore she would see someday. Juhuri—a mix of Hebrew and Persian—could be so soft and musical, but not when Babulya spat it out like she was doing at that moment. “I’m not in the mood for bureaucrats!”
- Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
Discovering the unexpected connections between Persian and Hebrew
"As a baseline, you need to know Greek. But unfortunately, Greek from Attic to Modern is almost as wide a variance as from Latin to Standard Italian, especially since they roughly cover the same time frame.Well... yes, please, I don't mind if I do.
Though you'd think that since you're studying the Byzantine era you'd want to learn Byzantine Greek, a lot of Byzantine documents are written with an eye on emulating either Attic or Koine Greek for prestige purposes. Procopius is a Byzantine historian writing in Attic that comes to mind. Also the resources for studying specifically Byzantine Greek are far less than for the other three. For that reason alone, I would recommend learning Koine Greek, as it's a bridge between Attic and Byzantine, and given that it's the language of the church, would be helpful in reading religious texts and their particular vocabulary.
After Koine Greek, I'd recommend learning French and German. This is in fact standard in the academic community, as most scholarship if it's not generated in English, will be in French or German, reflecting the three languages of the most prestigious and best funded universities in the world.
These three, Koine Greek, German, and French are the most essential for starting building blocks. The other languages are for depending upon which era you want to focus on.
If you're dealing with the Early Byzantine/Late Roman era (285-630), then Latin is also required, as there was still a lot of administration done in that language, and you'd have to have a solid command of it. Outside of Latin, maybe Coptic and Persian to deal with Byzantine Egypt and Sassanid Persia.
If you're dealing with the Middle Byzantine era (630 - 1025), then I'd recommend adding Arabic, as so much of that era is defined by Byzantine/Caliphate interactions. And for interactions with the west, you don't need to know Latin quite as much as you can deal with secondary sources written in English, German or French on those subjects, as by then the language of Byzantine administration is all in Greek, unlike in the early era. I'd also make a pitch for adding Russian to the mix, as the middle Byzantine era is when a lot of the Slavic polities really began to come into sharp focus in their conflict with Byzantium, however current Russian/Slavic research isn't "quite" as robust these days as English/German/French into this era.
Lastly for the late Byzantine era (1025 - 1453), Ottoman/Modern Turkish will be of a massive help to study the final fall of the empire. There's actually a lot of good research and archaeology being generated out of Turkey on the Byzantine Empire of all eras that simply isn't being read because of the inability for most non-specialist scholars to read turkish. If you truly want to stand out in Byzantine study, I'd recommend tackling this language."
