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Modern Greek
Νεοελληνικά/Ρωμαίικα
Neoelliniká/Romaíika
Spoken in: Greece, Cyprus, Albania, FYR Macedonia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Spain, Armenia, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Russia, South Africa, Kazakhstan, France, and the rest of the Greek diaspora. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. The Republic of Macedonia (Република Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Armenia (Հայաստան transliterated: Hayastan,) officially the Republic of Armenia (Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն Hayastani Georgia ( საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a Transcontinental country in the Caucasus region situated at the dividing line between This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (الأردنّ al-Urdunn) is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan ( Қазақстан, Qazaqstan, qɑzɑqˈstɑn Казахстан, Kazakhstán,) officially the This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The Greek diaspora (ελληνική διασπορά elliniki diaspora) is a term used to refer to the communities of Greek people living outside of the traditional
Total speakers: 12 million[1] 
Ranking: 52
Language family: Indo-European
 Proto-Greek
  Attic Greek
   Modern Greek 
Writing system: Greek alphabet 
Official status
Official language in: Flag of Greece Greece
Flag of Cyprus Cyprus
Flag of Europe European Union
recognised as minority language in parts of:
Flag of Albania Albania
Flag of Italy Italy
Flag of Turkey Turkey
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: el
ISO 639-2: gre (B)  ell (T)
ISO 639-3: either:
grc – Ancient Greek
ell – Modern Greek
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Proto-Greek language is the assumed last common ancestor of all known varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean, the classical Greek dialects Attic Greek is the Prestige dialect of Ancient Greece that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's
History of the
Greek language
(see also: Greek alphabet)
Proto-Greek (c. This article is an overview of the history of Greek. Origins See also Proto-Greek language There are several theories about the origins Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early The Proto-Greek language is the assumed last common ancestor of all known varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean, the classical Greek dialects 2000 BC)
Mycenaean (c. Mycenaean is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the 16th to 11th centuries BC, before the 1600–1100 BC)
Ancient Greek (c. The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c 800–300 BC)
Dialects:
Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, Attic-Ionic,
Doric, Pamphylian; Homeric Greek. Ancient Greek, in Classical antiquity before the development of the Koiné (κοινή as the Lingua franca of Hellenism, was divided Aeolic Greek (also known as Lesbian Greek) is a linguistic term used to describe a set of rather archaic Greek sub- Dialects spoken Arcadocypriot or southern Achaean was an ancient Greek dialect spoken in Arcadia in the central Peloponnese and Cyprus. Attic Greek is the Prestige dialect of Ancient Greece that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Ionic Greek was a sub-dialect of the Attic-Ionic dialectal group of Ancient Greek (see Greek dialects) For the modern Doric dialect of Scotland see Doric dialect (Scotland Doric was a dialect of ancient Greek. Pamphylian is a little-attested and isolated dialect of Ancient Greek which was spoken in Pamphylia, on the southern coast of Asia Minor Homeric Greek is the form of Ancient Greek that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey.
Possibly Macedonian. For the unrelated modern Slavic language see Macedonian language.
Koine Greek (c. Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in 300 BC–c. 500)
Medieval Greek (c. Medieval Greek (Μεσαιωνική Ελληνική is a linguistic term that describes the fourth period in the history of the Greek language. 500–1453)
Modern Greek (from 1453)
Dialects:
Cappadocian, Cretan, Cypriot,
Demotic, Griko, Katharevousa,
Pontic, Tsakonian, Yevanic
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Modern Greek (Νέα Ελληνικά or Νεοελληνική, lit. The linguistic varieties of Modern Greek can be classified along two principal dimensions Cappadocian, also known as Cappadocian Greek or Asia Minor Greek is a dialect of the Greek language, formerly spoken in Cappadocia (Central Turkey Cretan Greek ( Cretan dialect &mdash in Greek, Kritikí diálektos &ndash Κρητική διάλεκτος or Kritiká Κρητικά The Cypriot Dialect of Greek ( Cypriot Greek ( Κυπριακή διάλεκτος) or Kypriaka ( Greek: Κυπριακά Dimotiki (δημοτική, " of the people" or Demotic is the modern Vernacular form of the Greek language. Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is a Modern Greek dialect which is spoken by people in the Magna Graecia region in southern Italy, and it Katharevousa (Καθαρεύουσα, lit "the purified one" is a form of the Greek language conceived in the early 19th century by Greek intellectual Pontic Greek is a form of the Greek language originally spoken in the Pontus area on the southern shores of the Black Sea, and today mainly in Greece Tsakonian, Tzakonian or Tsakonic ( Greek Τσακωνικά) is a dialect of modern Greek spoken in the Tsakonian region Yevanic, otherwise known as Romaniote and Judeo-Greek, was the Dialect of the Romaniotes, the group of Greek Jews whose existence in 'Neo-Hellenic', historically also known as Ρωμαίικα, lit. 'Romaic') refers to the fifth stage of the evolution of the Greek language, i. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly e. the varieties of Greek spoken in the modern era. Greek is spoken today by approximately 14-17 million people, mainly in Greece and Cyprus but also by minority and immigrant communities in many other countries. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía The start of the period of the Greek language known as "Modern Greek" is symbolically assigned in the fall of the Byzantine Empire (1453), although strictly speaking it has been shaped since at least the 11th century. During much of this time, the language existed in a situation of diglossia, with regional spoken dialects existing side by side with learned, archaic written forms. In Linguistics, diglossia is a situation where in a given society there are two (often closely-related languages one of high prestige, which is generally used Most notably, during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, it was known in the competing varieties of popular Demotic and learned Katharevousa. Katharevousa (Καθαρεύουσα, lit "the purified one" is a form of the Greek language conceived in the early 19th century by Greek intellectual Today, Standard Modern Greek, based on Demotic, is the official language of both Greece and Cyprus. Dimotiki (δημοτική, " of the people" or Demotic is the modern Vernacular form of the Greek language.

Contents

Classification

Greek forms an independent branch of the Indo-European languages. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Within Greek, all surviving forms of Modern Greek, except the Tsakonian dialect, are descendants of the common supra-regional (Koiné) as it was spoken in late antiquity. Tsakonian, Tzakonian or Tsakonic ( Greek Τσακωνικά) is a dialect of modern Greek spoken in the Tsakonian region Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in As such, they can ultimately be classified as descendants of Attic, the dialect spoken in and around Athens in the classical era. Attic Greek is the Prestige dialect of Ancient Greece that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's Tsakonian, an isolated dialect spoken today by a dwindling community in the Peloponese, is a descendant of the ancient Doric dialect. The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus ( Greek: Πελοπόννησος Pelopónnisos; see also List of Greek place names) is a large Peninsula For the modern Doric dialect of Scotland see Doric dialect (Scotland Doric was a dialect of ancient Greek. Some other dialects have preserved elements of various ancient non-Attic dialects, but Attic Koiné is nevertheless regarded by most scholars as the principal source of all of them.

Further information: Greek language

Geographic distribution

Main article: Greek diaspora

Modern Greek is spoken by about 14-17 million people mainly in Greece and Cyprus. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The Greek diaspora (ελληνική διασπορά elliniki diaspora) is a term used to refer to the communities of Greek people living outside of the traditional Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía There are also traditional Greek-speaking settlements in the neighboring countries Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey, as well as in several countries in the Black Sea area (Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Armenia) and around the Mediterranean Sea (Southern Italy, Israel, Egypt). This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. The Republic of Macedonia (Република The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches The Black Sea is an inland Sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolian peninsula ( Turkey Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Georgia ( საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a Transcontinental country in the Caucasus region situated at the dividing line between Armenia (Հայաստան transliterated: Hayastan,) officially the Republic of Armenia (Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն Hayastani Geography Southern Italy forms the lower "boot" of the Italian peninsula containing the ankle (Abruzzo and Molise and southern Lazio the toe (Calabria and the heel For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. The language is also spoken by emigrant communities in many countries in Western Europe, North America, Australia, as well as in Argentina, Brazil and others. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld Countries with notable number of speakers of Greek as a foreign language are Serbia, Albania, FYROM, Bulgaria and Romania. A foreign language is a Language not spoken by the people of a certain place for example English is a foreign language in Japan. Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. The Republic of Macedonia (Република The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania

Official status

Greek is the official language of Greece where it is spoken by about 99. An official language is a Language that is given a special legal status in a particular Country, State, or other territory Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία 5% of the population. It is also, alongside Turkish, the official language of Cyprus. Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía Because of the membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. The languages of the European Union are Languages used by people within the member states of the European Union. The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in Greek is officially recognised as a minority language in parts of Turkey, Italy and Albania. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics.

Varieties

Main article: Varieties of Modern Greek

The main dialects of Modern Greek are:
Map showing the distribution of major Modern Greek dialect areas[2]
Map showing important isoglosses between the traditional Modern Greek dialects (c. An isogloss is the geographical boundary or delineation of a certain linguistic feature e 1900). [3]
  • Purple: Area of "northern vocalism" (/ski'li/ > [skli])
  • Green: Area of palatalisation of /k/ > [ts] (/kiria'ki/ > [tsirja'tsi])
  • Yellow: Area of palatalisation of /k/ > tʃ (/kiria'ki/ > [tʃirja'tʃi]
  • Brown: Geminated initial consonants (/ne/ > [nne])
  • Red: Retention of word-final /n/
  • Dark brown: Historical /y/ > /u/
Demotic Greek comprises various regional varieties with minor linguistic differences, mainly in phonology and vocabulary. Due to their high degree of mutual intelligibility, Greek linguists refer to those varieties as "idioms" of a wider "Demotic dialect", known as "Koine Modern Greek" (Koini Neoelliniki - 'common Neo-Hellenic'). Most English-speaking linguistics tend to refer to them as "dialects", emphasising degrees of variation only when necessary. Demotic Greek varieties are divided into two main groups, Northern and Southern:
Examples of Northern dialects are Rumelian, Epirote, Thessalian, Macedonian, Thracian. Rumelia or Rumeli ( Turkish: Rumeli ("Land of the Romans" from Rum: "Greek" "Roman" and El Epirus (from Ionic Greek Ήπειρος - Ēpeiros, Doric Greek: Ἅπειρος - Apeiros, in Albanian Thessalia redirects here For the Butterfly Genus, see Thessalia (butterfly. Macedonia ( Μακεδονία, Makedonía,) is a geographical and historical region of Greece in southeastern Europe Thrace (Тракия Trakiya or "Trakija" or Trakia, Θράκη Thráki, Trakya is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe
The Southern category is divided into groups that include variety groups from:
  1. Megara, Aegina, Athens, Cyme (Old Athenian) and Mani Peninsula (Maniot)
  2. Peloponnese (except Mani), Cyclades and Crete, Ionian Islands, Northern Epirus, Smyrna and Constantinople
  3. Dodecanese and Cyprus. Megara ( Greek:, "Big Houses" is an ancient city (pop Aegina ( Greek: Αίγινα ( Egina) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 17 miles (30 km from Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's The Mani Peninsula ( Μάνη in Greek) also long known as Maina or Maïna, is a region in Greece. The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus ( Greek: Πελοπόννησος Pelopónnisos; see also List of Greek place names) is a large Peninsula The CYCLADES Packet switching network was an extremely influential French network system in the early 1970s similar to the ARPANET. Crete ( Greek: Κρήτη transliteration: Krētē, modern transliteration Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the This article is about the group of islands west of Greece For the ancient region in western Anatolia see Ionia. Greek minority In Albania, Greeks are considered a "national minority" This article is on the Ancient Greek city of Smyrna principally in connection with the ruins remaining to this day Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoúpolis, or gr ἡ Πόλις hē Polis, Latin: la CONSTANTINOPOLIS The Dodecanese ( Greek Δωδεκάνησα Dodekánisa 'twelve islands' are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean The Cypriot Dialect of Greek ( Cypriot Greek ( Κυπριακή διάλεκτος) or Kypriaka ( Greek: Κυπριακά
Demotic Greek has officially been taught in monotonic Greek script since 1982. Polytonic script remains popular in intellectual circles.

Demotic as Koiné (Standard) Modern Greek

Koiné Modern Greek (Κοινή Νεοελληνική) refers to the idiom of Demotic that was chosen as the official language of the Hellenic Republic and Cyprus. An idiom is a Phrase whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal Definition, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía In English it is usually referred to as Standard Modern Greek. In its pure form it is spoken mainly in the urban parts of Greece, while its various idioms are the vernacular language of most rural Greece and the Greek Diaspora throughout the world. Vernacular refers to the Native language of a country or a locality The term Diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά &ndash " a scattering or sowing of seeds " refers any population sharing common ethnic Koiné Modern Greek evolves from the Southern Demotic idioms, mainly the ones of Peloponnese. The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus ( Greek: Πελοπόννησος Pelopónnisos; see also List of Greek place names) is a large Peninsula

In short, Koiné Modern Greek is the natural continuation of Koine Greek, an ancient Greek dialect (known also as the "Alexandrian language") which came into existence after the conquests of Alexander the Great and the Hellenization of the known world. Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ' Hellenization (or Hellenisation) is a term used to describe the spread of Greek culture. Hellenistic Koiné had assimilated many elements from various different Greek dialects (such as Ionic, Doric and Aeolic) but its nucleus had always been Attic (the dialect of Athens). Ionic Greek was a sub-dialect of the Attic-Ionic dialectal group of Ancient Greek (see Greek dialects) For the modern Doric dialect of Scotland see Doric dialect (Scotland Doric was a dialect of ancient Greek. Aeolic Greek (also known as Lesbian Greek) is a linguistic term used to describe a set of rather archaic Greek sub- Dialects spoken Attic Greek is the Prestige dialect of Ancient Greece that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's Hellenistic Koine had been spoken in several different forms in the region of Greece and the Greek speaking world during the entire Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods, until it took the shape of Demotic in the Middle Ages. This article focuses on the cultural aspects of the Hellenistic age for the historical aspects see Hellenistic period. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC

After Greece gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, the same dual-language status of the late Byzantine Empire was re-adapted. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish The vernacular speech was Demotic (a term similar to "popular") and the official state dialect was Katharevousa ("purified"). Katharevousa (Καθαρεύουσα, lit "the purified one" is a form of the Greek language conceived in the early 19th century by Greek intellectual Demotic was the language of daily use, and the latter was an archaic form (closer to Attic), used for official documents, literature, newscasting and other formal purposes. In 1976 Katharevousa was replaced by Demotic as the official language of the Greek state. During its long history the Greek language assimilated vocabulary from various languages such as Latin, Italian, and Ottoman Turkish, a substantial part of which lapsed during its long-lasting co-existence with Katharevousa. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy.

Phonology

Main article: Modern Greek phonology

A series of radical sound shifts, which the Greek language underwent mainly during the period of Koine, has led to a phonological system in Modern Greek that is significantly different from that of Ancient Greek. This page presents a sketch of the phonology of Standard Modern Greek. Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in Instead of the rich vowel system of Ancient Greek, with its four vowel-height levels, length distinction, and multiple diphthongs, Modern Greek has a very simple system of five vowels. This came about through a series of mergers, especially towards /i/ (iotacism). For the Palatalization of certain consonants in Slavic languages, see Iotation. In the consonants, Modern Greek has two series of fricatives in lieu of the Ancient Greek voiced and aspirated voiceless plosives. Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Modern Greek has not preserved length distinctions, either in the vowels or in the consonants.

Writing system

Main article: Greek orthography
Greek alphabet
Αα Alpha Νν Nu
Ββ Beta Ξξ Xi
Γγ Gamma Οο Omicron
Δδ Delta Ππ Pi
Εε Epsilon Ρρ Rho
Ζζ Zeta Σσς Sigma
Ηη Eta Ττ Tau
Θθ Theta Υυ Upsilon
Ιι Iota Φφ Phi
Κκ Kappa Χχ Chi
Λλ Lambda Ψψ Psi
Μμ Mu Ωω Omega
Obsolete letters
Digamma Qoppa
San Sampi
Greek diacritics
Main article: Greek alphabet

Modern Greek is written in the Greek alphabet, which has 24 letters, each with a capital and lowercase (small) form. The Orthography of the Greek language ultimately has its roots in the adoption of the Greek alphabet in the 9th century BC. The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early Alpha (uppercase Α, lowercase α; Αλφα is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Nu (uppercase Ν, lowercase ν; Νι Ni is the 13th letter of the Greek alphabet. Beta (uppercase Β, lowercase β, internal ϐ; Βήτα Vita is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. Xi (uppercase Ξ, lowercase ξ) is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet. Gamma (uppercase &Gamma, lowercase γ Γάμμα is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. Omicron or Omikron (uppercase Ο, lowercase ο, literally "small o": Όμικρον o mikron, micron meaning 'small' in contrast Delta (uppercase Δ, lowercase δ; Δέλτα Thelta is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. Pi (uppercase &Pi, lower case &pi) is the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. Epsilon (uppercase Ε, lowercase ε; Έψιλον is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a Close-mid front unrounded Rho (uppercase Ρ, lowercase ρ or ϱ) is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet. See also Principality of Zeta Zeta (uppercase Ζ, lowercase ζ; Ζήτα Zita is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. Sigma (upper case Σ, lower case σ; Greek Σιγμα lower case in word-final position ς) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek Eta (uppercase &Eta, lowercase η Ήτα) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet. Tau (uppercase Τ, lowercase τ; Ταυ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet. Theta (uppercase Θ, lowercase θ or ϑ; Θήτα is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth Upsilon (uppercase &Upsilon, lowercase υ Ύψιλον is the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet. Iota (uppercase &Iota, lowercase ι Ιώτα Yota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. Phi (uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ) pronounced in modern Greek and as in English is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet Kappa (uppercase &Kappa, lowercase &kappa or ϰ; Κάππα is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet, used to represent the Voiceless Chi ( Uppercase Χ, Lowercase χ; Χι He is the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet, pronounced as in English Lambda (uppercase Λ, lowercase λ; Λάμβδα or el Λάμδα Lamda is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet. For other uses see Psi. Psi (uppercase Ψ, lowercase ψ) is the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet and has a Mu (uppercase Μ, lowercase μ; Μι or el Μυ) is the 12th letter of the Greek alphabet. OMEGA is the premier Counter-terrorism unit of Latvia. Founded in 1992 OMEGA cooperates with many other counter-terrorism units over the world Digamma (uppercase Ϝ, lowercase ϝ) is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet, used primarily as a Greek numeral. Qoppa or Koppa ( Ϙ) is a letter that was used in early forms of the Greek alphabet, derived from Phoenician Qoph. San (uppercase Ϻ lowercase ϻ was a letter of the Greek alphabet, appearing between Pi and Qoppa in alphabetical Sampi (Ϡ is an obsolete letter of the Greek alphabet and has a numeric value of 900 when used as a mathematical character. The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early The letter sigma additionally has a special final form. Sigma (upper case Σ, lower case σ; Greek Σιγμα lower case in word-final position ς) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek There are two diacritical symbols, the acute accent which indicates stress and the diaeresis marking a vowel letter as not being part of a digraph. History An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels. In Linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain Syllables in a word In Linguistics, diaeresis, or dieresis, is the pronunciation of two adjacent Vowels in two separate Syllables rather than as a Diphthong Greek has a mixed historical and phonemic orthography, where historical spellings are used if their pronunciation matches modern usage. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language The correspondence between consonant phonemes and graphemes is largely unique,[4] but several of the vowel phonemes can be spelled in multiple ways. The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU In Typography, a grapheme is the fundamental unit in written language. [5] Thus reading is easy but spelling is difficult. Spelling is the Writing of a Word or words with the necessary letters and Diacritics present in an accepted standard order [6]

A number of diacritical signs were used until 1982, when they were officially dropped from Greek spelling as no longer corresponding to the modern pronunciation of the language. See monotonic orthography for the simplified modern set, and polytonic orthography for the traditional set. Monotonic orthography is today used in official usage, in schools and for most purposes of everyday writing in Greece. Polytonic orthography, besides being used for older varieties of Greek, is still used in book printing, especially for academic and belletristic purposes, and in everyday use by some conservative writers and elderly people. The Greek Orthodox Church continues to use polytonic and Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens[7] and the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece[8] have requested the reintroduction of polytonic as the official script. Christodoulos ( 17 January 1939 – 28 January 2008) ( Greek: Χριστόδουλος, born Christos Paraskevaidis

The Greek vowel letters with their pronunciation are: <α> [a], <ε> [e̞], <η> [i], <ι> [i], <ο> [o̞], <υ> [i], <ω> [o̞]. There are also vowel digraphs which are phonetically monophthongal: <αι> [e̞], <ει> [i], <οι> [i], <ου> [u], <υι> [i]. The three digraphs <αυ>, <ευ> and <ηυ> are pronounced [af], [e̞f] and [if] except when followed by voiced consonants or vowels, in which case they are pronounced [av], [e̞v] and [iv] respectively.

Modern Greek has also four diphthongs: <αη> (or <άη>) [aj], <αϊ> (or <άι>) [aj], <οη> (or <όη>) [o̞j] and <οϊ> (or <όι>) [o̞j] (diphthongs can better be transcribed using the IPA non-syllabic diacritic under [i] instead of the approximant [j]).

The Greek letters <β> and <δ> are pronounced [v] and [ð] respectively. The letter <γ> is generally pronounced [ɣ], but before the mid or close front vowels, it is pronounced [ʝ] (or [ʑ] and [ʒ] in some dialects, notably those of Crete and the Mani). Μoreover, before the mid or close back vowels, tends to be pronounced further back than a prototypical velar, between a velar [ɣ] and an uvular [ɢ] (transcribed [ɣ̄]).

The letters <θ>, <φ> and <χ> are pronounced [θ], [f] and [x] respectively. The letter <χ>, before mid or close front vowels, is pronounced [ç] (or [ɕ] and [ʃ] in some dialects, notably those of Crete and the Mani) and before the mid or close back vowels, tends to be pronounced as a postvelar [x̱]. The letter <ξ> stands for [k͡s] and <ψ> stands for [p͡s]. The digraphs <γγ> and <γκ> are generally pronounced [ɡ] in everyday speech, but are pronounced [ɟ] before the front vowels [e̞] and [i] and tend to be pronounced [ɡ̄] before the back [o̞] and [u]. When these digraphs are preceded by a vowel, they are pronounced [ŋɡ] in formal speech ([ɲɟ] before the front vowels [e̞] and [i] and [ŋ̄ɡ̄] before the back [o̞] and [u]). The digraph <γγ> may be pronounced [ŋɣ] in some words ([ɲʝ] before front vowels and [ŋ̄ɣ̄] before back ones). The pronunciation [ŋk] for the digraph <γκ> is extremely rare, but could be heard in literary and scholarly words or when reading ancient texts (by a few readers); whereas retains its "original" pronunciation [ŋk] only in the trigraph <γκτ> where <τ> prevents the sonorization of <κ> by <γ> (hence [ŋkt]).

Grammar

Main article: Modern Greek grammar

Modern Greek is still largely a synthetic language. The grammar of Standard Modern Greek, as spoken in present-day Greece and Cyprus, is basically that of Demotic Greek, but it has also assimilated certain A synthetic language, in Linguistic typology, is a Language with a high Morpheme -per- word ratio It is one of the few Indo-European languages that has retained a synthetic passive. In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified Noticeable changes in grammar (compared to classical Greek) include the loss of the dative case, the optative mood, the infinitive, the dual number, and the participles (except the past participle); the adoption of the gerund; the reduction in the number of noun declensions, and the number of distinct forms in each declension; the adoption of the modal particle θα (a contraction of ἐθέλω ἵνα > θέλω να > θε' να > θα) to denote future and conditional tenses; the introduction of auxiliary verb forms for certain tenses; the extension to the future tense of the aspectual distinction between present/imperfect and aorist; the loss of the third person imperative, and the simplification of the system of grammatical prefixes, such as augmentation and reduplication. The dative case is a Grammatical case generally used to indicate the Noun to whom something is given The optative mood is a Grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope In Grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages Dual is a Grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and Plural. In Linguistics, a participle (from Latin participium, a Calque of Greek μετοχη "partaking" is a derivative of a non-finite In Linguistics, “gerund” is a term used to refer to various non-finite verb forms in various languages As applied to English, In Linguistics, declension (or declination) is the occurrence of Inflection in Nouns Pronouns and Adjectives indicating In Linguistics, modal particles are always Uninflected words and are a type of Grammatical particle. In Linguistics, an auxiliary (also called helping verb, helper verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary) is a Verb functioning In Linguistics, the augment is a Syllable added to the beginning of the word in certain Indo-European languages, most notably Greek (the augment Reduplication, in Linguistics, is a morphological Process by which the root or stem of a Word, or part of it is repeated Some of these features are shared with other languages spoken in the Balkan peninsula (see Balkan linguistic union), although not others, such as the postposed article. The Balkan Sprachbund or linguistic area is the ensemble of Areal features —similarity in grammar syntax vocabulary and phonology—among languages of

Because of the influence of Katharevousa, however, Demotic is not commonly used in its purest form, and archaisms are still widely used, especially in writing and in more formal speech, as well as in some everyday expressions, such as the dative εντάξει ('OK', literally 'in order') or the third person imperative ζήτω! ('long live!'). In Language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current

Examples

Some common words and phrases

Notes

  1. ^ Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million People. Microsoft Encarta 2006. Retrieved on 2007-12-30. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1460 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield. 1816 - The Treaty of St
  2. ^ Based on: Brian Newton: The Generative Interpretation of Dialect. A Study of Modern Greek Phonology, Cambridge 1972, ISBN 0521084970
  3. ^ Map based on: Peter Trudgill: Modern Greek dialects. A preliminary Classification, in: Journal of Greek Linguistics 4 (2003), p. 54-64 pdf
  4. ^ Exceptions include the spelling of /z/, which may be spelled <σ> or <ζ> and the pronunciation of <ντ>, which may be pronounced /nt/, /nd/, or /d/.
  5. ^ cf. Iotacism
  6. ^ G. For the Palatalization of certain consonants in Slavic languages, see Iotation. Th. Pavlidis and V. Giannouli, "Spelling Errors Accurately Differentiate USA-Speakers from Greek Dyslexics: Ιmplications for Causality and Treatment" in R. M. Joshi et al. (eds) Literacy Acquisition: The Role of Phonology, Morphology and Orthography. Washington, 2003. ISBN 1586033603
  7. ^ «Φιλιππικός» Χριστόδουλου κατά του μονοτονικού συστήματος (HTML). in. gr News. Retrieved on 2007-02-23. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western Book printed from Movable
  8. ^ Την επαναφορά του πολυτονικού ζητά η Διαρκής Ιερά Σύνοδος (HTML). in. gr News. Retrieved on 2007-02-23. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western Book printed from Movable

References

External links



Ages of Greek
c. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly 2000 BC    c. 1600–1100 BC    c. 800–300 BC    c. 300 BC–AD 330    c. 330–1453    1453–present
Proto-Greek    Mycenaean    Ancient Greek    Koine Greek    Medieval Greek    Modern Greek
The Proto-Greek language is the assumed last common ancestor of all known varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean, the classical Greek dialects Mycenaean is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the 16th to 11th centuries BC, before the The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in Medieval Greek (Μεσαιωνική Ελληνική is a linguistic term that describes the fourth period in the history of the Greek language.

Dictionary

Modern Greek

-proper noun

  1. The Greek language as spoken since the 16th century
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