Greek (ελληνικά IPA [eliniˈka] ellīniká or ελληνική γλώσσα
IPA [eliniˈci ˈɣlosa] ellīnikī glōssa) is an independent branch of the
Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, Western Asia
Minor, and the Aegean, it has the longest documented history of any
Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing
system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history; other
systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were previously used. The
alphabet arose from the Phoenician script, and was in turn the basis of the
Latin, Cyrillic, Coptic, and many other writing systems.
The Greek language holds an important place in the histories
of Europe, the more loosely defined Western world, and Christianity; the canon
of ancient Greek literature includes works of monumental importance and
influence for the future Western canon, such as the epic poems Iliad and
Odyssey. Greek was also the language in which many of the foundational texts of
Western philosophy, such as the Platonic dialogues and the works of Aristotle,
were composed; the New Testament of the Christian Bible was written in Koiné
Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, the
study of the Greek texts and society of antiquity constitutes the discipline of
classics.
Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean
world and beyond during classical antiquity, and would eventually become the
official parlance of the Byzantine Empire. In its modern form, it is the
official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 23 official languages of
the European Union. The language is spoken by at least 13 million people
today[1] in Greece, Cyprus, and diaspora communities in numerous parts of the
world.
Greek roots are often used to coin new words for other languages, especially in the sciences and medicine; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of the international scientific vocabulary. Over fifty thousand English words are derived from the Greek language.
Greek has been spoken in the Balkan Peninsula since around
the late 3rd millennium BC.[6] The earliest written evidence is found in the
Linear B clay tablets in the "Room of the Chariot Tablets", an LMIII
A-context (c. 1400 BC) region of Knossos, in Crete, making Greek the world's
oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of
earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages.
The later Greek alphabet is derived from the Phoenician alphabet (abjad); with minor modifications, it is still used today.
The Greek language is conventionally divided into the
following periods:
Proto-Greek: the last unrecorded but assumed ancestor of all
known varieties of Greek. Proto-Greek speakers possibly entered the Greek
peninsula in the early 2nd millennium BC. Since then, Greek has been spoken
uninterruptedly in Greece.
Mycenaean Greek: the language of the Mycenaean civilization.
It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th or 14th
century BC onwards.
Ancient Greek: in its various dialects the language of the
Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilization. It was widely
known throughout the Roman Empire. Ancient Greek fell into disuse in western
Europe in the Middle Ages, but remained officially in use in the Byzantine
world, and was reintroduced to the rest of Europe with the Fall of
Constantinople and Greek migration to the areas of Italy.
Koine Greek: The fusion of various ancient Greek dialects
with Attic, the dialect of Athens, resulted in the creation of the first common
Greek dialect, which became a lingua franca across Eastern Mediterranean and
Near East. Koine Greek can be initially traced within the armies and conquered
territories of Alexander the Great, but after the Hellenistic colonization of
the known world, it was spoken from Egypt to the fringes of India. After the
Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial diglossy of Greek and Latin was
established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second
language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced
through Koine Greek, as the Apostles used it to preach in Greece and the
Greek-speaking world. It is also known as the Alexandrian dialect,
Post-Classical Greek, or even New Testament Greek, as it was the original
language of the New Testament. Even the Old Testament was translated into the
same language via the Septuagint.
Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek: the
continuation of Koine Greek during Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the
Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Medieval Greek is a cover phrase for a
whole continuum of different speech and writing styles, ranging from vernacular
continuations of spoken Koine that were already approaching Modern Greek in
many respects, to highly learned forms imitating classical Attic. Much of the
written Greek that was used as the official language of the Byzantine Empire
was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine.
Modern Greek: Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period, as early as the 11th century. It is the language used by modern Greeks, and apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it.
The tradition of diglossia, the simultaneous existence of
vernacular and archaizing written forms of Greek, was renewed in the modern era
in the form of a polarization between two competing varieties: Dimotiki, the
vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa, meaning 'purified',
an imitation of classical Greek, which was developed in the early 19th century
and used for literary, juridic, administrative, and scientific purposes in the
newly formed modern Greek state. The diglossia problem was brought to an end in
1976 (Law 306/1976), when Dimotikí was declared the official language of
Greece, and it is still in use for all official purposes and in education,
having incorporated features of Katharevousa, giving birth to Standard Greek.
