Greek is an Indo-European language, the only member of its branch. No other European language has such a long, continuous written history: over 3,400 years separate the Mycenaean tablets from today. Modern Greek differs from Plato's as Italian differs from Latin, but the continuity is far stronger: a Greek today recognises many words in ancient texts.
- 14th-12th c. BCMycenaean Greek, written in Linear B on clay tablets.
- 8th-4th c. BCAncient Greek: Ionic, Attic, Doric, Aeolic dialects; the alphabet is adopted.
- 5th-4th c. BCThe Attic of Athens becomes the language of culture.
- 3rd c. BC-4th c. ADHellenistic koine, common language of the eastern Mediterranean and the New Testament.
- 4th-15th c.Medieval or Byzantine Greek.
- 15th-18th c.Spoken Greek evolves under Ottoman and Venetian rule.
- 1830-1976Diglossia: official katharevousa against spoken demotic.
- 1976Demotic becomes the official language of state and schools.
- 1982The monotonic system, with a single accent, is introduced.
Ancient dialects
In antiquity there was no single Greek. Each region had its dialect: Ionic in the islands and Asia Minor (Herodotus, Hippocrates), Attic in Athens (Plato, the tragedians), Doric in Sparta, Corinth and Crete, Aeolic in Lesbos and Boeotia (Sappho, Alcaeus). Homer's language is an artificial mix of Ionic and Aeolic.
Koine
With Alexander the Great's conquests, koine, the "common language", based on Attic but simplified, spread across the eastern Mediterranean. It was spoken from Alexandria to Afghanistan and was the language of the Gospels and St Paul's letters. Educated Romans knew it as people know English today.
From Byzantine to modern
In Byzantium the spoken language kept evolving while writers imitated classical Attic. This created a split between written and spoken language, diglossia, that lasted into the 20th century. After independence the state adopted katharevousa, a language "purified" of Turkish and Italian loans and close to ancient Greek; ordinary people and most poets used demotic. The "language question" became political too, with street clashes such as those of 1901 over a demotic translation of the Gospels. In 1976, after the fall of the dictatorship that had imposed katharevousa, demotic was declared the official language.
Modern Greek
| Feature | Example |
|---|---|
| 24-letter alphabet | See the Greek alphabet |
| Pronunciation differs from ancient | b is pronounced "v", ē (eta) is pronounced "i" |
| Three grammatical genders | masculine, feminine, neuter |
| Four cases | nominative, genitive, accusative, vocative (the dative has gone) |
| One written accent | καλημέρα (kaliméra, good morning) |
| Semicolon as question mark | Τι κάνεις; (Ti kánis? How are you?) |
Greek in Italy
In some villages of the Salento (Grecìa Salentina, around Calimera and Martano) and southern Calabria (Bova and the Aspromonte) Griko or Grecanico, a language of Greek origin, is still spoken and recognised as a historic linguistic minority. Scholars debate whether it descends from the ancient colonies or from medieval Byzantine presence.
Greek words in English
English uses thousands of words of Greek origin, many via Latin or coined by modern science: telephone (far + voice), democracy (people + power), biology, philosophy, geography, theatre, music, school, church, orthography, hypothesis, thesis, crisis. See also words from myths and the Modern Greek phrasebook.