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The LXX was written in the Hellenistic dialect of the Greek language, named koine, i.e. the dialect that was in general (»koine«) use by those who spoke and wrote in Greek from the fourth century BCE onwards to the Byzantine period. Research into the language of the LXX is important, since it forms the largest literary source written in this dialect. However, the study of the language of the LXX is complicated because of its many lexical and syntactic Hebraisms (unnatural elements in the target language).

When the Greek translators could not express a Hebrew word adequately with an existing Greek word, they sometimes coined new words (»neologisms«). Examples are the verb sabbatizo (»to keep Sabbath«) for the Hebrew verb shavat (»to keep Sabbath,« related to the noun Shabbat), and proselytos (»proselyte«) for Hebrew ger (»stranger,« understood in its postbiblical meaning as »someone who joined the religion of the Israelites«).