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Greek Language

History of the Greek language. Moreover, you will find other useful resources about Greek like words, schools, Greek literature and more

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    • History of the Greek Language

    Greek has been spoken in the Balkan Peninsula since the 2nd millennium BC. The earliest evidence of this is found in the Linear B tablets dating from 1500 BC. The alphabet normally used was adapted from the Phoenician alphabet in c. 1000 BC and, with various modifications, is still used today.

    Greek is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by approximately 10 million people. It is also one of the official languages of Cyprus, where there are an additional 600,000 speakers. Beyond that, some 3 million people elsewhere in the world claim Greek as their first language, including numerous speakers in Turkey, Albania, Canada, and the United States. Greek has been one of the official languages of the European Union since 1981.

    It is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. Greek speakers, probably invaders from the Balkans, were established in the Greek peninsula by the 16th century B.C. Ancient Greek had many dialects including Aeolic, Arcadian, Doric, Cyprian, and Ionic. As Athens became the dominant political and cultural centre of ancient Greece, the Ionic dialect spoken there-- Attic Greek-- formed the basis for a common dialect, the Koine dialect, which was understood throughout the Greek-speaking world.

    Two main forms of the language have been in use since the end of the Medieval Greek period: Dhimotikí, the Demotic (vernacular) language, and Katharévusa, an imitation of classical Greek. Demotic was the language used for creative literature and everyday speech. Demotic Greek is the official language of the modern Greek state, and the most widely spoken by Greeks today. Katharevousa, on the other hand, was the official language of the armed forces, law, medicine, schools, newspapers, and broadcast media. In 1976 the Greek government adopted Demotic (Modern Greek) as the official language.

    Some scholars have overly stressed Modern Greek's similarity to the millennia-old Greek languages. However, its intelligibility with ancient Greek is a matter of debate. It is claimed that an "educated" speaker of the modern language can read the ancient dialects, but it is not made clear how much of that education consists of exposure to vocabulary and grammar obsolete to normal communication. Still, Koine, an older version of Greek originally used to write the New Testament and the Septuagint, is easily understood by modern speakers.

    Greek word forms continue to have a great influence in the world's scientific and technical vocabulary, and make up a large part of the technical vocabulary of many languages including Latin, Italian, German, French, and English e.g. astronomy, democracy, philosophy, thespian, anthropology etc.

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