Greek language 1

Greek language

Greekελληνικάellīniká

Pronunciation Greek pronunciation: [eliniˈka]

Spoken natively in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Turkey, Abkhazia, Albania, Egypt, Romania, France, Ukraine and in the Greek diaspora

Native speakers 12 million  (2007)[1]

Language family Indo-European

•• Hellenic

•• Greek

Standard forms Demotic

Dialects Ancient dialects

Cappadokian

Cretan

Cypriot

Grico

Cheimarriotika

Katharevousa

Maniot

Pontic

Tsakonian

Yevanic

others

Writing system Greek alphabet

Official status

Official language in  Greece  Cyprus  European Union

Recognised minority language in  Albania[2][3]

 Italy[4]

 Armenia[5]

 Romania[5]

 Turkey  Ukraine[5]

Language codes

ISO 639-1 el

ISO 639-2 gre (B)

ell (T)

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ISO 639-3 Variously:grc [6] – Ancient Greekell [7] – Modern Greekpnt [8] – Pontic Greekgmy [9] – Mycenaean Greekgkm [10] – Medieval Greekcpg [11] – Cappadocian Greekyej [12] – Yevanictsd [13] – Tsakonian Greek

Linguasphere 56-AAA-a (varieties: 56-AAA-aa to -am)

Greek (ελληνικά IPA [eliniˈka] ellīnika or ελληνική γλώσσα IPA [eliniˈci ˈɣlosa]) ellīnikī glōssa is an independentbranch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, Western Asia Minor and theAegean, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of writtenrecords. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history; other systems, such as LinearB and the Cypriot syllabary, were previously used. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script, and was in turnthe 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 forthe future Western canon, such as the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey. Greek was also the language in which many ofthe foundational texts of Western philosophy, such as the Platonic dialogues and the works of Aristotle, werecomposed; the New Testament of the Christian Bible was written in Koiné Greek. Together with the Latin texts andtraditions of the Roman world, the study of the Greek texts and society of antiquity constitutes the discipline ofclassics.Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and beyond during classical antiquity, andwould eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire. In its modern form, it is the officiallanguage of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. The language is spokenby at least 13 million people today[14] 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 andLatin are the predominant sources of the international scientific vocabulary. Over fifty thousand English words arederived from the Greek language.

HistoryGreek has been spoken in the Balkan Peninsula since around the late 3rd millennium BC.[15] The earliest writtenevidence is found in the Linear B clay tablets in the "Room of the Chariot Tablets", an LMIII A-context (c. 1400BC) region of Knossos, in Crete, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living languages. Among theIndo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolianlanguages.The later Greek alphabet is derived from the Phoenician alphabet (abjad); with minor modifications, it is still usedtoday.

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Periods

Proto-Greek area according to linguist V. I. Georgiev.

History of theGreek language

(see also: Greek alphabet)

Proto-Greek (c. 3000–1600 BC)

Mycenaean (c. 1600–1100 BC)

Ancient Greek (c. 800–330 BC)Dialects:

Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, Attic-Ionic,Doric, Locrian, Pamphylian,

Homeric Greek,Macedonian

Koine Greek (c. 330 BC–330)

Medieval Greek (330–1453)

Modern Greek (from 1453)Dialects:

Calabrian, Cappadocian, Cheimarriotika, Cretan,Cypriot, Demotic, Griko, Katharevousa,

Pontic, Tsakonian, Maniot, Yevanic

*Dates (beginning with Ancient Greek) from Wallace, D. B. (1996). Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax ofthe New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. p. 12. ISBN 0310218950.

The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods:

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• Proto-Greek: the last unrecorded but assumed ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. Proto-Greek speakerspossibly entered the Greek peninsula in the early 2nd millennium BC. Since then, Greek has been spokenuninterruptedly in Greece.

• Mycenaean Greek: the language of the Mycenaean civilization. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tabletsdating 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 Greekcivilization. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire. Ancient Greek fell into disuse in westernEurope in the Middle Ages, but remained officially in use in the Byzantine world, and was reintroduced to the restof 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 thecreation of the first common Greek dialect, which became a lingua franca across Eastern Mediterranean and NearEast. Koine Greek can be initially traced within the armies and conquered territories of Alexander the Great, butafter the Hellenistic colonization of the known world, it was spoken from Egypt to the fringes of India. After theRoman conquest of Greece, an unofficial diglossy of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome andKoine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also betraced through Koine Greek, as the Apostles used it to preach in Greece and the Greek-speaking world. It is alsoknown as the Alexandrian dialect, Post-Classical Greek or even New Testament Greek, as it was the originallanguage of the New Testament. Even the Old Testament was translated into the same language via theSeptuagint.

• Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek: the continuation of Koine Greek during Byzantine Greece, upto the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Medieval Greek is a cover phrase for a wholecontinuum of different speech and writing styles, ranging from vernacular continuations of spoken Koine thatwere 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 eclecticmiddle-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, asearly as the 11th century. It is the language used by modern Greeks and apart from Standard Modern Greek, thereare several dialects of it.

DiglossiaThe tradition of diglossia, the simultaneous existence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of Greek, wasrenewed in the modern era in the form of a polarization between two competing varieties: Dimotiki, the vernacularform of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa, meaning 'purified', an imitation of classical Greek, which wasdeveloped in the early 19th century and used for literary, juridic, administrative and scientific purposes in the newlyformed modern Greek state. The diglossia problem was brought to an end in 1976 (Law 306/1976), when Dimotikíwas declared the official language of Greece and it is still in use for all official purposes and in education, havingincorporated features of Katharevousa, giving birth to Standard Greek.

Historical unityHistorical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, there has been no time in its history since classical antiquity where its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition was interrupted to such an extent that one can easily speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language.[16] It is also often estimated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, "Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than twelfth-century Middle English is to modern spoken English."[17] Ancient Greek texts, especially from Biblical Koine onwards, are thus relatively easy

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to understand for educated modern speakers. The perception of historical unity is also strengthened by the fact thatGreek has not split up into a group of separate, regional daughter languages, as happened with Latin.

Loanwords to other languagesGreek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English: mathematics, physics, astronomy,democracy, philosophy, thespian, athletics, theatre, rhetoric, baptism, evangelist etc. Moreover, Greek words andword elements continue to be productive as a basis for coinages: anthropology, photography, telephony, isomer,biomechanics, cinematography, etc. and form, with Latin words, the foundation of international scientific andtechnical vocabulary, e.g. all words ending with –logy ("discourse"). An estimated 12% of the English vocabularyhas Greek origin, while numerous Greek words have English derivatives.[18]

Geographic distributionGreek is spoken by about 13.1 million people,[14] mainly in Greece and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the largeGreek diaspora. There are traditional Greek-speaking settlements in the neighbouring countries of Albania, Bulgariaand Turkey, as well as in several countries in the Black Sea area such as Ukraine, Russia, Romania, Georgia,Armenia and Azerbaijan, and around the Mediterranean Sea, Southern Italy, Israel, Egypt, Lebanon and ancientcoastal towns along the Levant. The language is also spoken by Greek emigrant communities in many countries inWestern Europe, especially the United Kingdom and Germany, in Canada and the United States, Australia, as well asin Argentina, Brazil, Chile and others.

Official statusGreek is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population.[19] It is also the officiallanguage of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish[20]). Because of the membership of Greece and Cyprus in theEuropean Union, Greek is one of the organization's 23 official languages.[21] Furthermore, Greek is officiallyrecognized as a minority language in parts of Italy and Albania,[2] as well as in Armenia, Romania and Ukraine as aregional or minority language in the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.[5]

Greeks are also a recognized ethnic minority in Hungary.

CharacteristicsThe phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovativetendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to the modern period. The division intoconventional periods is, as with all such periodisations, relatively arbitrary, especially since at all periods, AncientGreek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it.

PhonologyAcross its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permittingcomplex syllabic onsets, but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels, and a fairly stable set of consonantalcontrasts. The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greekphonology for details), and included:• replacement of the pitch accent with a stress accent• simplification of the system of vowels and diphthongs: loss of vowel length distinction, monophthongization of

most diphthongs, and several steps in a chain shift of vowels towards /i/ (iotacism)• development of the voiceless aspirated plosives /pʰ/ and /tʰ/ to the voiceless fricatives /f/ and /θ/, respectively; the

similar development of /kʰ/ to /x/ may have taken place later (these phonological changes are not reflected in theorthography: both the earlier and later phonemes are written with φ, θ, and χ)

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• development of the voiced plosives /b/, /d/, /ɡ/ to their voiced fricative counterparts /β/ (later /v/), /ð/, /ɣ/

MorphologyIn all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes, a limited butproductive system of compounding,[22] and a rich inflectional system. While its morphological categories have beenfairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in the nominal and verbalsystems. The major change in nominal morphology was the loss of the dative case (its functions being largely takenover by the genitive); in the verb, the major change was the loss of the infinitive, with a concomitant rise in newperiphrastic forms.

Nouns and adjectives

Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual, and plural in the ancient language;singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (fromsix cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language).[23] Nouns, articles, and adjectives show allthese distinctions but person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun.

Verbs

The inflectional categories of the Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of thelanguage's history, though with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and theirmorphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for:• person — first, second, third;

Modern Greek: also second person formal• number — singular, plural;

Ancient Greek: dual• tense — Ancient Greek: present, past, future;

Modern Greek: past and non-past (future is expressed by a periphrastic construction)• aspect — Ancient Greek: imperfective, perfective (traditionally called aorist), perfect (sometimes also called

perfective; see note about terminology);Modern Greek: perfective and imperfective

• mood — Ancient Greek: indicative, subjunctive, imperative, and optative;Modern Greek: indicative, subjunctive,[24] and imperative (other modal functions are expressed by periphrasticconstructions)

• voice — Ancient Greek: active, middle, and passive;Modern Greek: active and medio-passive

SyntaxMany aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow the noun they modify, relative pronouns are clause-initial. But the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language. Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, while the modern variety lacks the infinitive entirely (instead having a raft of new periphrastic constructions) and uses participles more restrictedly. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final,

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while neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO.

VocabularyGreek is a language distinguished by an extensive vocabulary. The majority of the vocabulary of ancient Greek wasinherited, but it does include a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greecebefore the arrival of Proto-Greeks. Words of non-Indo-European origin can be traced into Greek from as early asMycenaean times; they include a large number of Greek toponyms. The vast majority of Modern Greek vocabularyis directly inherited from ancient Greek, although in some cases words have changed meanings. Words of foreignorigin have entered the language mainly from Latin, Venetian and Turkish. During older periods of the Greeklanguage, loan words into Greek acquired Greek inflections, leaving thus only a foreign root word. Modernborrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected.

ClassificationGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient languages probably most closelyrelated to it, ancient Macedonian (which some linguistic scholars suggest is a dialect of Greek itself)[25] andPhrygian, are not well enough documented to permit detailed comparison. Some Indo-Europeanists claim that Greekseems to be most closely related to Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian) and the Indo-Iranian languages (seeGraeco-Aryan) among the living Indo-European languages.[26][27][28]

Writing system

Linear BLinear B was the first script used to write Mycenaean Greek. Attested as early as the late 15th century BC, it is theearliest known form of Greek (its precursor, Linear A, has not been deciphered to this day). It is basically asyllabary, that was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s.

Cypriot syllabaryAnother similar system used to write the Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear Avia the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat differentsyllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11thcentury BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet.

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Greek alphabet

Ancient epichoric variants of the Greek alphabetfrom Euboea, Ionia, Athens and Corinth

comparing to modern Greek.

Greek has been written in the Greek alphabet since approximately the9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet,with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels.In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed.The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medievalscribes to permit a faster, more convenient cursive writing style withthe use of ink and quill. The variant of the alphabet in use today isessentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Atticin 403 BC.

The modern Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with a capital(majuscule) and lowercase (minuscule) form. The letter sigma has anadditional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position:

capital

Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω

lower case

α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ/ς

τ υ φ χ ψ ω

Diacritics

In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs: three different accent marks(acute, grave and circumflex), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on the stressed vowel; theso-called breathing marks (rough and smooth breathing), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial/h/; and the diaeresis, used to mark full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong.These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwritingsaw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of the acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retainedin typography.After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Modern Greek has been writtenmostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and thediaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system), is still usedinternationally for the writing of Ancient Greek.

Greek language 9

Latin alphabetGreek has occasionally been written in the Latin script in the past, especially in areas under Venetian rule or byGreek Catholics (and called Fragolevantinika or Fragochiotika), and more recently is often written in Latin script inonline communications (called Greeklish).[29]

References[1] Nationalencyklopedin "Världens 100 största språk 2007" The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007[2] "Greek" (http:/ / www. unhchr. ch/ udhr/ lang/ grk. htm). Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. . Retrieved 8 December 2008.[3] Eastern Europe at the end of the 20th century, Ian Jeffries, p. 69 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=kqCnCOgGc5AC& pg=PA68&

dq=greek+ minority+ albania& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0)[4] Hellenic Republic: Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Italy: The Greek Community (http:/ / www. mfa. gr/ www. mfa. gr/ en-US/ Policy/

Geographic+ Regions/ Europe/ Relationships+ with+ EU+ Member+ States/ Italy/ )[5] "List of declarations made with respect to treaty No. 148" (http:/ / conventions. coe. int/ Treaty/ Commun/ ListeDeclarations. asp?NT=148&

CM=8& DF=23/ 01/ 05& CL=ENG& VL=1). Council of Europe. . Retrieved 8 December 2008.[6] http:/ / www. sil. org/ iso639-3/ documentation. asp?id=grc[7] http:/ / www. sil. org/ iso639-3/ documentation. asp?id=ell[8] http:/ / www. sil. org/ iso639-3/ documentation. asp?id=pnt[9] http:/ / www. sil. org/ iso639-3/ documentation. asp?id=gmy[10] http:/ / www. sil. org/ iso639-3/ documentation. asp?id=gkm[11] http:/ / www. sil. org/ iso639-3/ documentation. asp?id=cpg[12] http:/ / www. sil. org/ iso639-3/ documentation. asp?id=yej[13] http:/ / www. sil. org/ iso639-3/ documentation. asp?id=tsd[14] "Greek language" (http:/ / www. ethnologue. org/ show_language. asp?code=ell). SIL International. 2009. .[15] "The Greek Language; http:/ / www. kwintessential. co. uk/ language/ about/ greek. html"[16] Browning, Robert. Medieval and Modern Greek. Cambridge University Press, 1983. ISBN 0-521-29978-0[17] Margaret Alexiou (1982): Diglossia in Greece. In: William Haas (1982): Standard Languages: Spoken and Written. Manchester University

Press ND. ISBN 0-389-20291-6, ISBN 978-0-389-20291-2[18] "Greek language" (http:/ / www. bartleby. com/ 65/ gr/ Greeklan. html). Columbia Encyclopedia. Bartleby.com. . Retrieved 8 December

2008.[19] "Greece" (https:/ / www. cia. gov/ library/ publications/ the-world-factbook/ geos/ gr. html). The World Factbook. Central Intelligence

Agency. . Retrieved 23 January 2010.[20] "The Constitution of Cyprus, App. D., Part 1, Art. 3" (http:/ / www. cyprus. gov. cy/ portal/ portal. nsf/ 0/

302578ad62e1ea3ac2256fd5003b61d4?OpenDocument& ExpandSection=3& Click=). . states that The official languages of the Republic areGreek and Turkish. However, the official status of Turkish is only nominal in the Greek-dominated Republic of Cyprus; in practice, outsideTurkish-dominated Northern Cyprus, Turkish is little used; see A. Arvaniti (2006): Erasure as a a means of maintaining diglossia in Cyprus,San Diego Linguistics Papers 2: 25-38. Page 27.

[21] "The EU at a glance - Languages in the EU" (http:/ / europa. eu/ abc/ european_countries/ languages/ index_en. htm). Europa. EuropeanUnion. . Retrieved 30 July 2010.

[22][22] Angeliki Ralli, Μορφολογία [Morphology], Ekdoseis Pataki: Athens, 2001, pp. 164-203[23][23] The four cases that are found in all stages of Greek are the nominative, genitive, accusative, and vocative. The dative/locative of Ancient

Greek disappeared in the late Hellenistic period, and the instrumental case of Mycenaean Greek disappeared in the Archaic period.[24] There is no particular morphological form that can be identified as 'subjunctive' in the modern language, but this term is sometimes

encountered in descriptions, though the most complete modern grammar (Holton et al. 1997) does not use it, calling certain traditionally'subjunctive' forms 'dependent', and for this reason most Greek linguists advocate abandoning the traditional terminology (Anna Roussou andTasos Tsangalidis 2009, in Meletes gia tin Elliniki Glossa, Thessaloniki, Anastasia Giannakidou 2009 "Temporal semantics and polarity: Thedependency of the subjunctive revisited", Lingua); see Modern Greek grammar for explanation.

[25] Babiniotis, George (1992). "The question of mediae in ancient Macedonian Greek reconsidered". In Brogyanyi, Bela; Lipp, Reiner.Historical philology: Greek, Latin and Romance. Amsterdam: Benjamins. pp. 29–39.

[26] Renfrew, A.C., 1987, Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins, London: Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-6612-5; T. V.Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov, The Early History of Indo-European Languages, Scientific American, March 1990; Renfrew, Colin (2003)."Time Depth, Convergence Theory, and Innovation in Proto-Indo-European". Languages in Prehistoric Europe. ISBN 3-8253-1449-9.

[27] Russell D. Gray and Quentin D. Atkinson, Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin, Nature426 (27 November 2003) 435-439 (http:/ / language. psy. auckland. ac. nz/ files/ gray_and_atkinson2003/ grayatkinson2003. pdf)

[28] James P. Mallory, "Kuro-Araxes Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.[29] Jannis Androutsopoulos, "'Greeklish': Transliteration practice and discourse in a setting of computer-mediated digraphia" in Standard

Languages and Language Standards: Greek, Past and Present online preprint (http:/ / www. archetype. de/ texte/ 2006/LOGOS_Greeklish_2006. pdf)

Greek language 10

Sources• W. Sidney Allen, Vox Graeca - a guide to the pronunciation of classical Greek. Cambridge University Press,

1968-74. ISBN 0-521-20626-X• Robert Browning, Medieval and Modern Greek, Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition 1983, ISBN

0-521-29978-0. An excellent and concise historical account of the development of modern Greek from the ancientlanguage.

• Crosby and Schaeffer, An Introduction to Greek, Allyn and Bacon, Inc. 1928. A school grammar of ancient Greek• Dionysius of Thrace, "Art of Grammar" (http:/ / www. fh-augsburg. de/ ~harsch/ graeca/ Chronologia/ S_ante02/

DionysiosThrax/ dio_tech. html), "Τέχνη γραμματική", c.100 BC• David Holton, Peter Mackridge, and Irene Philippaki-Warburton, Greek: A Comprehensive Grammar of the

Modern Language, Routledge, 1997, ISBN 0-415-10002-X. A reference grammar of modern Greek.• Geoffrey Horrocks, Greek: A History of the Language and Its Speakers (Longman Linguistics Library).

Addison-Wesley, 1997. ISBN 0-582-30709-0. From Mycenean to modern.• Brian Newton, The Generative Interpretation of Dialect: A Study of Modern Greek Phonology, Cambridge

University Press, 1972, ISBN 0-521-08497-0.• Andrew Sihler, "A New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin", Oxford University Press, 1996. An historical

grammar of ancient Greek from its Indo-European origins. Some eccentricities and no bibliography but a usefulhandbook to the earliest stages of Greek's development.

• Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar, Harvard University Press, 1956 (revised edition), ISBN 0-674-36250-0.The standard grammar of classical Greek. Focuses primarily on the Attic dialect, with comparatively weaktreatment of the other dialects and the Homeric Kunstsprache.

External links

General background• Greek Phrasebook on Wikitravel (http:/ / wikitravel. org/ en/ Greek)• Greek Language (http:/ / www. bartleby. com/ 65/ gr/ Greeklan. html), Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.• The Greek Language and Linguistics Gateway (http:/ / greek-language. com), useful information on the history of

the Greek language, application of modern Linguistics to the study of Greek, and tools for learning Greek.• The Greek Language Portal (http:/ / www. greek-language. gr/ greekLang/ index. html), a portal for Greek

language and linguistic education.• The Perseus Project (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ ) has many useful pages for the study of classical languages

and literatures, including dictionaries.• Ancient Greek Tutorials (http:/ / socrates. berkeley. edu/ ~ancgreek/ ancient_greek_start. html), Berkeley

Language Center of the University of California, Berkeley

Language learning• Learn Greek (http:/ / learn101. org/ greek. php) Grammar and vocabulary with pronunciation.• Hellenistic Greek Lessons (http:/ / greek-language. com/ grammar) Greek-Language.com provides a free online

grammar of Hellenistic Greek.• Greek dictionary, tutorial and hangman program with texteditor (http:/ / greek. kihlman. eu), this shareware

program is aimed at learning New Testament Greek.• Greek spell checker (http:/ / www. phigita. net/ spell-check/ )• (Greek) komvos.edu.gr (http:/ / www. komvos. edu. gr/ ), a website for the support of people who are being

taught the Greek language.

Greek language 11

• greek123.com (http:/ / greek123. com) - formerly Papaloizos Publications, is a second generation family runpublishing firm that specializes in Modern Greek language learning materials for students of all ages.

• New Testament Greek (http:/ / www. ntgreek. net/ ) Three graduated courses designed to help students learn toread the Greek New Testament

• a keyboard for typing greek characters for firefox (https:/ / addons. mozilla. org/ firefox/ addon/ 10573)• Books on Greek language that are taught at schools in Greece (page in Greek) (http:/ / www. pi-schools. gr/

lessons/ hellenic/ )• Greek Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh list appendix)• USA Foreign Service Institute Modern Greek basic course (http:/ / www. fsi-language-courses. org/ Content.

php?page=Greek)

Dictionaries• Greek-English/English-Greek dictionary (http:/ / www. in. gr/ dictionary/ lookup. asp) (Greek)

• Translatum – The Greek translation Vortal (http:/ / www. translatum. gr) (Dictionaries and terminology forum)• Greek Lexical Aids (http:/ / www. greek-language. com/ Dictionaries. html), descriptions of both online lexicons

(with appropriate links) and Greek Lexicons in Print.• Online Greek-English and English-Greek dictionary (http:/ / lexicon. pathfinder. gr/ ) (Modern Greek)• Online Greek ↔ English Dictionary (http:/ / www. mydictionary. net/ greek) with gender and type of words• The Greek Language Portal (http:/ / www. greek-language. gr/ greekLang/ index. html), dictionaries of all forms

of Greek (Ancient, Hellenistic, Medieval, Modern).• scanned images from S. C. Woodhouse's English-Greek dictionary (http:/ / www. lib. uchicago. edu/ efts/

Woodhouse/ ), 1910• English to Greek Dictionary (http:/ / greek-english. com/ )• Greek-English ↔ English-Greek and Greek-Turkish ↔ Turkish-Greek Dictionary (http:/ / www. seslisozluk.

com/ yunanca)

Literature• Books in Greek (http:/ / books. phigita. net/ ), an extended list of searchable bibliographic information• (Greek) Center for Neo-Hellenic Studies (http:/ / www. snhell. gr/ en/ index. html), a non-profit organization that

promotes modern Greek literature and culture• Research lab of modern Greek philosophy (http:/ / www. kenef. phil. uoi. gr/ static/ digital. htm), a large e-library

of modern Greek texts/books• The Treasure of the Greek Language (http:/ / www. thesavros. gr/ ), a large collection of e-books from all stages

of Greek language

Article Sources and Contributors 12

Article Sources and ContributorsGreek language  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=525081183  Contributors: 157.228.x.x, 16@r, 18alex12, 1exec1, 2TMY, 334a, 3rdAlcove, 5JJJJJ, 77weqy, A. B., A. Parrot,Abdullais4u, Academic Challenger, Accurizer, Acroterion, Adam78, Adambiswanger1, Addihockey10, Addshore, Aditya, Aeusoes1, Aggelophoros, Ahoerstemeier, Aitias, Akhilleus, Akinranbu,Akuru, Alan Liefting, Alansohn, Albanau, Alex '05, Alexalderman, AlexanderWinston, Alexanderlrs, Alexius08, Algebra1wiz, Ali, AllanBz, Amoney33, Andonic, AndperseAndy, Andre Engels,Andrea105, AndreasJS, Andres, AndrewHowse, Andrewpmk, Andy Marchbanks, Aney, Angarali, Angela, Angelo.romano, Angr, Animum, Ann Stouter, Anna Lincoln, Anne Merrill,AnonMoos, Anonymous Dissident, Antandrus, Antonio Di Dio, Appy loco, Apro, Arael2, Argeas, Aris 8564, Asteraki, Astral, Athenean, Atif.t2, Atitarev, Atlantics88, Aua, Aucaman, AutoGeek,Avala, Avicennasis, Avienus, Avoided, Avono, AxSkov, AxelBoldt, BACbKA, BCube, Bad edits r dumb, Baronnet, Barticus88, Barts1a, Bassbonerocks, Bcorr, Beezhive, Ben-Zin, Benwing,Betacommand, Bigbobcoolman, Bill Thayer, Bkell, Black Kite, Bloodshedder, Blue Oracle, Bmg6968, Bob20002000, Bobby D. 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Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Flag of Greece.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Greece.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: (of code) cs:User:-xfi- (talk)File:Flag of Cyprus.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Cyprus.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: User:Vzb83File:Flag of Europe.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Europe.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: User:Verdy p, User:-xfi-, User:Paddu,User:Nightstallion, User:Funakoshi, User:Jeltz, User:Dbenbenn, User:Zscout370File:Flag of Albania.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Albania.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: User:DbenbennFile:Flag of Italy.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Italy.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: AnomieFile:Flag of Armenia.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Armenia.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: User:SKoppFile:Flag of Romania.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Romania.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: AdiJapanFile:Flag of Turkey.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Turkey.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: David Benbennick (original author)File:Flag of Ukraine.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Ukraine.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Created by: Jon Harald Søby, colors by Zscout370File:Proto Greek Area reconstruction.png  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Proto_Greek_Area_reconstruction.png  License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: selfFile:P46.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:P46.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Bibi Saint-Pol, Dsmdgold, Foroa, Heycos, Kersti Nebelsiek, Neithsabes,Saiht, Sscotts, Unicorn, Wst, 1 anonymous editsFile:Greek alphabet variants.png  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Greek_alphabet_variants.png  License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Contributors: BishkekRocks

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