Greek language


The Greek language (Greek Ελληνικά, IPA // – "Hellenic") is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 12 million speakers worldwide, most of whom live in Greece. It is traditionally written in the Greek alphabet.

History

Main article: 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 abjad in c. 1000 BC and with various modifications formed the alphabet which is still used today.
Modern Greek is a living language and one of the richest surviving languages today, with more than 600,000 words. Two main forms of the language have been in use since the end of the medieval Greek period: Dhimotikí (Δημοτική), the Demotic (vernacular) language, and Katharévusa (Καθαρεύουσα), an imitation of classical Greek, which was used for literary, juridic, and scientific purposes during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Demotic Greek is the official language of the modern Greek state, and the most widely spoken by Greeks today.
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, Koiné, 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. (For a more complete list, see List of English words of Greek origin)

Classification

Greek has its own independent branch of the Indo-European language family, with no living close relatives. From the modern languages Armenian seems to be the most closely related to it. The Greek language has been strongly influenced by the neighboring Balkan languages and Turkish. It is a member of the Balkan Linguistic Union.

Geographic distribution

Greek is spoken by about 12 million people mainly in Greece and Cyprus but also in many other countries where Greeks have settled, including Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the USA.

Official status

Greek is the official language of the Hellenic Republic (Greece) where it is spoken by about 98.5% of the population. It is also, alongside Turkish, the official language of the Republic of Cyprus.

Sounds

The pronunciation of Modern Greek has changed considerably from Ancient Greek, although the orthography still reflects features of the older language. The examples below are intended to represent Attic Greek in the 5th century BC. Although ancient pronunciation can never be reconstructed with certainty, Greek in particular is very well documented from this period, and there is little disagreement among scholars as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represented. See W. Sidney Allen, Vox Graeca – a guide to the pronunciation of Classical Greek. Cambridge University Press, 1974. Order: ISBN 0-521-20626-X.

Vowels

In the International Phonetic Alphabet:

Ancient Greek – short

The short e (ε in Greek orthography) is shown in the table as mid close vowel [] but it may have been nearer to [].
  Front Back
Close unrounded Close front unrounded vowel  
Close rounded Close front rounded vowel  
Close-mid Close-mid front unrounded vowel Close-mid back rounded vowel
Open Open front unrounded vowel  

Ancient Greek – long

The [] (ου in Greek orthography) may still have been [] in the fifth century.
  Front Back
Close unrounded Close front unrounded vowel  
Close rounded Close front rounded vowel Close back rounded vowel
Close-mid Close-mid front rounded vowel  
Open-mid Open-mid front unrounded vowel Open back rounded vowel
Open Open front unrounded vowel  

Modern Greek

The systematic distinction between long and short vowels has been lost in modern Greek.
  Front Back
Close i u
Close-mid               o
Open-mid  
Open a  

Consonants

In the International Phonetic Alphabet:

Ancient Greek

! Bilabial >Plosive >align="center"| pb
AlveolarVelarGlottal >- t d k g
Aspirated Plosive
Nasal m n
Trill
Fricative s z h
Lateral approximant l
Note: [z] was an allophone of [s], used before voiced consonants, and in particular in the combination [zd] written as zeta ( ζ ). The [] (voiceless r) written as rho with a rough breathing ( ) was probably an allophone of [r].

Modern Greek

! Bilabial >Plosive >align="center">pb >align="center"|
DentalAlveolarPalatalVelar >- t d c k g
Nasal m n
Tap
Fricative f v s z x
Affricate ts dz
Approximant j
Lateral approximant l

Phonology

Greek has sandhi rules, some written, some not. ν before bilabials and velars is pronounced /m/ and /ŋ/ respectively, and is written μ (συμπάθεια) and γ (συγχρονίζω) when this happens within a word. The word (estí, IPA //), which means "is" in Greek gains ν, and the accusative articles τόν and τήν in Modern Greek lose it, depending on the start of the next word; this is called "movable nu". In tón patéra (τον πατέρα), which means "the father" (accusative case), the first word is pronounced /tom/, and in Modern Greek (but not Ancient Greek, which had an independent /b/ sound) the second word is pronounced // because mp is pronounced /mb/.

Historical sound changes

The main phonetic changes between Ancient and Modern Greek are a simplification in the vowel system and a change of some consonants to fricative values. Ancient Greek had five short vowels, seven long vowels, and numerous diphthongs. This has been reduced to a simple five-vowel system. Most noticeably, the vowels i, ē, y, ei, oi have all become i. The consonants b, d, g became v, dh, gh (dh is /ð/ and gh is //). The aspirated consonants , , became f, th, kh (where the new pronunciation of th is // and the new pronunciation of kh is /x/).

Grammar

Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages, is highly inflected. For example nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative), three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), and three numbers (singular, dual and plural). Verbs have four moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive and optative), three voices (active, middle and passive), as well as three persons (first, second and third) and various other forms. Modern Greek is one of the few Indo-European languages that has retained a synthetic passive. Dhimotikí, has lost the dative, except for in a few expressions like εν τάξει (en táxei //), which means "OK" (literally: "in order").
Other noticeable changes in its grammar include the loss of the infinitive, the dual number and the simplification of the system of grammatical prefixes, such as augment and reduplication.

Writing system

Greek is written in the Greek alphabet which dates from the 8th century BC. The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters which are:
Α, Β, Γ, Δ, Ε, Ζ, Η, Θ, Ι, Κ, Λ, Μ, Ν, Ξ, Ο, Π, Ρ, Σ, Τ, Υ, Φ, Χ, Ψ, Ω.

Examples

Some common words & phrases

The Lord's Prayer in Greek (Matt. 6:9-13)

Transliterated: Páter hêmôn, ho en toîs ouranoîs: hagiasthêtô tò 'ónomá sou. 'Elthétô hê basileía sou. Genethétô tò thélêmá sou, hôs en ouranõi, kaì 'epì tês gês. Tòn árton hêmôn tòn epioúsion dòs hêmîn sêmeron. Kaì áphes hêmîn tà opheilêmata hêmõn, hôs kaì hêmeîs aphíemen toîs opheilétais hêmõn. Kaì mê eisenénkêis hêmãs eis peirasmón, allà rhûsai hêmãs apò toû ponêroû. Hóti soû 'estin hê basileía, kaì hê dúnamis, kaì hê dóxa eis toùs aiõnas. 'Amên.

The Nicene Creed in Greek

References

W. Sidney Allen, Vox Graeca - a guide to the pronunciation of classical Greek. Cambridge University Press, 1968-74. Order: ISBN 0-521-20626-X Geoffrey Horrocks, Greek: A History of the Language and Its Speakers (Longman Linguistics Library). Addison Wesley Publishing Company, 1997. Order: ISBN 0582307090 Category:Greek language Category:Languages of Turkey be:Грэцкая мова bg:Гръцки език ca:Grec cs:Řečtina da:Græsk (sprog) de:Griechische Sprache el:Ελληνική Γλώσσα es:Idioma_griego eo:Greka lingvo et:Kreeka keel fr:Grec he:יוונית ia:Lingua grec is:Gríska ja:ギリシャ語 kw:Grew lb:Griichesch nds:Greeksche Spraak nl:Grieks pl:Język grecki pt:Língua grega ro:Limba greacă ru:Греческий язык simple:Greek sl:Grščina fi:Kreikan kieli sv:Grekiska th:ภาษากรีก zh:希腊语

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