On Grammar Book

Wendy Moleas's The Development of the Greek Language is a brief (117-page) introduction to the changes in Greek over time, meant for an audience that already has some training in Classical Greek. Moleas's approach is to document the history of Greek through sample texts, which are followed by comments on the innovations attested within. These texts include letters from the Roman period, vernacular works of piety, and some of the finest authors of the modern language.

While the texts will be of interest to anyone already familiar with the grammatical and lexical changes in Greek over the centuries, this is not an ideal introduction for readers who have studied only Classical Greek. The various changes are presented in a very sketchy, outline fashion; they might not make sense to you unless you already know the subject that Moleas is trying to introduce to you. Some of the space is wasted on an absurdly inadequate discussion of Indo-European Mycenaean Greek, even though I imagine nearly all readers want to read about the post-Koine language.

I would point to Browning's Medieval and Modern Greek as a better alternative as it is quite detailed. It lacks sample texts, but you can follow Browning's citations. Come to Moleas's book after you've read that.