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 1
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| History of the Greek language (see also: Greek alphabet) |
| Proto-Greek (c. 2000 BC)
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| Mycenaean (c. 1600–1100 BC)
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| Ancient Greek (c. 800–300 BC) Dialects: Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, Attic-Ionic, Doric, Pamphylian; Homeric Greek. Macedonian. |
| Koine Greek (c. 300 BC–c. 500)
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| Medieval Greek (c. 500–1453)
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| Modern Greek (from 1453) Dialects: Cappadocian, Cretan, Cypriot, Demotic, Griko, Katharevousa, Pontic, Tsakonian, Yevanic |
The linguistic varieties of Modern Greek can be classified along two principal dimensions. First, there is a long tradition of sociolectal variation between the natural, popular spoken language on the one hand and archaizing, learned written forms on the other. Second, there is regional variation between dialects. The competition between the popular and the learned registers, known as diglossia, culminated in the struggle between Demotic Greek and Katharevousa during the 19th and 20th centuries. As for regional dialects, variation within the bulk of dialects of present-day Greece is not particularly strong, except for a number of outlying, highly divergent dialects spoken by isolated communities.
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Ever since the times of Koiné Greek in Hellenistic and Roman antiquity, there was a competition between the naturally evolving spoken forms of Greek on the one hand, and the use of artificially archaic, learned registers on the other. The learned registers employed grammatical and lexical forms in imitation of classical Attic Greek (Atticism).Horrocks, Geoffrey (1997): Greek: a history of the language and its speakers. London: Longman. Ch. 5.5 This situation is known in modern linguistics as diglossia.Ferguson, Charles A. (1959): "Diglossia." Word 15: 325-340.
During the Middle Ages, Greek writing varied along a continuum between extreme forms of the high register very close to Attic, and moderate forms much closer to the spoken Demotic.Horrocks, ch.10. During the early Modern Era, a middle-ground variety of moderately archaic written standard Greek emerged in the usage of educated Greeks (such as the Phanariots) and the Greek church. It syntax was essentially Modern Greek.Horrocks, ch.15. After the Greek War of Independence and the formation of the modern Greek state (1830), a political effort was made to "purify" this form of Greek by bringing it back to resemble classical Attic Greek more closely. The result was Katharevousa (καθαρεύουσα, lit. \'the purifying one\'). It was still a compromise form with basically Modern Greek syntax, but re-lexified with a much larger amount of Ancient Greek words and morphology.Horrocks, ch.17. Katharevousa was used as an official language in administration, education, the church, journalism, and (until the late 19th century) in literature.
At the same time, spoken Demotic, while not recognised as an official language, nevertheless developed a supra-regional, de-facto standard variety. From the late 19th century onwards, written Demotic rather than Katharevousa became the primary medium of literature. During much of the 20th century, there were heated political conflicts over the use of either of the two varieties, especially over the issue of their use in education. Schools were forced to switch from one form to the other and back several times during the 20th century. The conflict was resolved only after the overthrow of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974, whose strong ideological pro-Katharevousa stance had ultimately contributed to bringing that language form into disrepute.Horrocks, ch.17.6. In 1976, shortly after the restitution of democracy, Demotic was finally adopted for use everywhere in education and became the language of the state for all official purposes. By that time, however, the form of Demotic used in practice was no longer the pure popular dialect, but had begun to assimilate elements from the Katharevousa tradition again.
Modern linguistics has come to call the resulting variety "Standard Modern Greek" to distinguish it from the pure original Demotic of earlier literature and traditional vernacular speech. Greek authors sometimes use the term "Modern Greek Koiné" (Νεοελληνική Κοινή, literally \'Common Modern Greek\'), reviving the term koiné that otherwise refers to the "common" form of post-classical Ancient Greek. Standard Modern Greek has incorporated a large amount of vocabulary from the learned tradition, especially through the registers of academic discourse, politics, technology and religion. Together with these, it has incorporated a number of morphological features associated with their inflectional paradigms, as well as some phonological features not originally found in pure Demotic.
Before the establishment of a common written standard of Demotic Greek, there were various approaches to using regional variants of Demotic as a written language. During the Cretan Renaissance in the 16th and early 17th centuries, when Crete was still under Venetian rather than Ottoman rule, there existed a florishing vernacular literature in the Cretan dialect, based on Italian literary influences. Its best-known specimen today is the verse romance Erotokritos, by Vitsentzos Kornaros (1553-1614). Later, during the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Ionian Islands, then also under Italian rule, became a centre of literary production in Demotic Greek. The best-known writer from that period was the poet Dionysios Solomos (1789-1857), who wrote the Greek national anthem (Hymn to Liberty) and other works celebrating the Greek Revolution of 1821-1830. His language became influential on the further course of standardisation that led to the emergence of the modern standard form of Demotic, based on the south-western dialects.
Spoken modern vernacular Greek can be distinguished into various geographical dialects. There are a small number of highly divergent, outlying dialects spoken by relatively isolated communities, and a broader range of mainstream dialects less divergent from each other and from Standard Modern Greek, which cover most of the linguistic area of present-day Greece and Cyprus. Native Greek scholarship traditionally distinguishes between "dialects" proper (διάλεκτος), i.e. strongly marked, distinctive varieties, and mere "idioms" (ιδίωμα), less markedly distinguished sub-varieties of a language. In this sense, the term "dialect" is often reserved to only the outlying forms listed in the next section, whereas the bulk of mainstream spoken varieties of present-day Greece is classified as "idioms".Kontosopoulos, Nikolaos (1999): "Dialektoi kai idiomata". In: Manos Kopidaks et al. (eds.), Istoria tis ellinikis glossas.. Athens: Elliniko Logotechniko kai Istoriko Archeio. 188–205.
Location map of the Griko-speaking areas in Salento and Calabria
The Pontus region.
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| Map showing the distribution of major Modern Greek dialect areasBased on: Brian Newton: The Generative Interpretation of Dialect. A Study of Modern Greek Phonology, Cambridge 1972, ISBN 0521084970 |
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Map showing important isoglosses between the traditional Modern Greek dialects (c.1900).Map based on: Peter Trudgill (2003): Modern Greek dialects. A preliminary Classification. Journal of Greek Linguistics 4: 54-64 pdf. Shown in grey color is the core Greek-speaking area, in which Greek used to form a solid majority language among contiguous rural populations.
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Unlike the above, the dialects described below form a contiguous Greek-speaking area, which covers most of the territory of Greece. They represent the vast majority of Greek speakers today. As they are less divergent from each other and from the standard, they are typically classified as mere "idioms" rather than "dialects" by Greek authors, in the native Greek terminology.
The most prominent contrasts between the present-day dialects are found between northern and southern varieties. Northern varieties cover most of continental Greece down to the Gulf of Corinth, while the southern varieties are spoken in the Peloponese peninsula and the larger part of the Aegean and Ionian islands, including the large southern islands of Crete and Cyprus. The most salient defining marker of the northern varieties is their treatment of unstressed vowels (so-called northern vocalism), while many southern varieties are characterised, among other things, by their palatalisation of velar consonants. Between these areas, in a contiguous area around the capital Athens (i.e. the regions of Attica and neighbouring parts of Boeotia, Euboia, the Peloponese and nearby islands), there is a "dialectal void" where no distinctly marked traditional Greek dialects are found.Kontosopoulos 1999, Trudgill 2003: 51. This is due to the fact that these areas were once predominantly inhabited by speakers of Arvanitika Albanian. The Greek spoken in this area today is the product of convergence between varieties of migrants who moved to the capital and its surroundings from various other parts of the country, and it is close to the standard. On the whole, Standard Modern Greek is based predominantly on the southern dialects, especially those of the Peloponese.
At the fringes of this former Arvanitika-speaking area, there were once some enclaves of highly distinct traditional Greek dialects, believed to have been remnants of a formerly contiguous Greek dialect area from the time before the Arvanitic settlement. These include the old local dialect of Athens itself ("Old Athenian"), that of Megara (further west in Attica), of Kymi in Euboia and of the island of Aegina. These dialects are now extinct.Trudgill 2003: 51f.
The following linguistic markers have been used to distinguish and classify the dialects of Greece. Many of these features are today characteristic only of the traditional rural vernaculars and may be socially stigmatised. Younger, urban speakers throughout the country tend to converge towards accents closer to the standard language.
| (1) | Standard Greek: | sou you.GEN | dhíno I give | to vivlío the book | |
| (2) | Northern Greek: | se you.ACC | dhíno I give | to vivlío the book | |
| \'I give you the book\' | |||||
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