Greek language
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Template:SpecialCharsNote {{Infobox Language
| name = Greek | nativename = Template:Lang Ellinika | states = Greece, Cyprus | speakers = 15 million | rank = 74 |familycolor = Indo-European | fam2 = Greek | fam3 = Attic | nation = Greece, Cyprus (and the European Union) | iso1 = el | iso2b = gre | iso2t = ell | iso3 = ell
}}
Greek (Template:Lang, IPA Template:IPA — "Hellenic") is an Indo-European language with a documented history of 3,500 years. Today, it is spoken by 15 million people in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Albania, and Turkey. There are also many Greek emigrant communities around the world, such as those in Melbourne, Australia which has the third largest urban Greek population of any city in the world, after Athens and Thessaloniki.
Greek has been written in the Greek alphabet (the first to introduce vowels), since the 9th century B.C. in Greece(before that in Linear B), and the 4th century B.C in Cyprus (before that in Cypriot syllabary). Greek literature has a continuous history of some 3000 years.
Contents |
History
Template:History of the Greek language Template:Main This article does not cover the reconstructed history of Greek prior to the use of writing. For more information, see main article on Proto-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 later Greek alphabet is unrelated to Linear B, and is believed to be derived from the Phoenician alphabet (abjad); with minor modifications, it is still used today. Greek is conventionally divided into the following periods:
- Mycenaean Greek: the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 16th century BC onwards.
- Classical Greek (also known as Ancient Greek): In its various dialects was the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman empire. Classical Greek fell into disuse in western Europe in the Middle Ages, but remained known in the Byzantine world, and was reintroduced to the rest of Europe with the Fall of Constantinople and Greek migration to Italy.
- Hellenistic Greek (also known as 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 gradually turned into one of the world's first international languages. Koine Greek can be initially traced within the armies and conquered territories of Alexander the Great, but after the Hellenistic colonisation 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. Through Koine Greek it is also traced the origin of Christianity, 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 (after its most famous work of literature).
- Medieval Greek: The continuation of Hellenistic Greek during medieval Greek history as the official and vernacular (if not the literary nor the ecclesiastic) language of the Byzantine Empire, and continued to be used until, and after the fall of that Empire in the 15th century. Also known as Byzantine Greek.
- Modern Greek: Stemming independently from Koine Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the late Byzantine period (as early as 11th century).Image:Codex alexandrinus.jpg
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 Katharévousa (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 now the official language of the modern Greek state, and the most widely spoken by Greeks today.
It has been claimed that an "educated" speaker of the modern language can understand an ancient text, but this is surely as much a function of education as of the similarity of the languages. Still, Koinē Template:IPA, the version of Greek used to write the New Testament and the Septuagint, is relatively easy to understand for modern speakers.
Greek words have been widely borrowed into the European languages: astronomy, democracy, philosophy, thespian, etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as a basis for coinages: anthropology, photography, isomer, biomechanics etc. and form, with Latin words, the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary. See English words of Greek origin, and List of Greek words with English derivatives.
Classification
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient languages which were probably most closely related to it, Ancient Macedonian language (which may have been a dialect of Greek) and Phrygian, are not well enough documented to permit detailed comparison. Among living languages, Armenian seems to be the most closely related to it.
Geographic distribution
Modern Greek is spoken by about 15 million people mainly in Greece and Cyprus. There are also Greek-speaking populations in Georgia, Ukraine, Egypt, Turkey, Albania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Southern Italy. The language is spoken also in many other countries where Greeks have settled, including Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Official status
Greek is the official language of Greece where it is spoken by about 99.5% of the population. It is also, alongside Turkish, the official language of Cyprus. Due to the membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the 20 official languages of the European Union.
Phonology
This section generally describes the post-Classic phonology of the Greek language. See Ancient Greek phonology, History of the Greek language and Iotacism for historical issues.
- All phonetic transcriptions in this section use the International Phonetic Alphabet
Vowel sounds
Greek has 5 vowel sounds, all phonemic:
Close vowels, when found in unstressed final syllables, tend to be voiceless, particularly if they are between voiceless consonants [e.g.: φάσης Template:IPA → Template:IPA (→ Template:IPA) = "of phase" (genitive case)].
Consonants
Greek has a repertoire of 29 consonant sounds. The number of phonemes depends on the analysis, but may be as few as 15, assuming for example that the sound [b] is represented in the underlying form as /mp/, which is also its standard orthographic representation. (cf. Newton)
Greek Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA are not aspirated as they are in English. They tend to be voiced to Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA in the Cretan dialect. The letter <ρ> is generally pronounced Template:IPA, but tends to be pronounced Template:IPA in intervocalic position.
Standard Modern Greek does not have double consonants within words, although some dialects (notably Cypriot) do.
Sandhi rules
Greek has certain sandhi rules, some represented in the orthography, some not.
/n/ before bilabials and velars becomes [m] and Template:IPA respectively, and is written <μ> (συμπάθεια, "sympathy") and <γ> (συγκρητισμός, "syncretism"). Before the labiodental fricatives <φ> and <β>, it is also written <μ>, but pronounced Template:IPA (συμφωνία, "symphony").
The combination <μπ> is pronounced Template:IPA after vowels (but often reduced to Template:IPA) and everywhere else Template:IPA. In some words, especially in Northern dialects, this can also be pronounced Template:IPA.
The combinations <γγ> and <γκ> are pronounced Template:IPA orTemplate:IPA after vowels, else Template:IPA or Template:IPA. An exception to this rule is the word <συγγνώμη> (freely translated "I'm sorry") in which Template:IPA is phonetically dropped and the word is pronounced Template:IPA (this is actually an older form of the word, the current spelling is <συγνώμη>, pronounced Template:IPA, in which Template:IPA is dropped both phonetically and orthographically).
The combination <ντ> is pronounced Template:IPA after vowels (but often reduced to Template:IPA) and everywhere else Template:IPA. In some words, especially in Northern dialects, this can also be pronounced Template:IPA.
The sounds Template:IPA and Template:IPA, before the front vowels Template:IPA and Template:IPA, are palatalized, becoming Template:IPA and Template:IPA. In some dialects, notably those of Crete and the Mani, they become Template:IPA and Template:IPA.
The word Template:Polytonic (estí, IPA Template:IPA), which means "is" in Ancient Greek (q.v. Modern Greek είναι), gains a "euphonic" n. in Modern Greek, the negative adverb δεν and the accusative articles τον and την lose the final Template:IPA, depending on the beginning letter of the next word (if it's a consonant, Template:IPA is usually dropped). In the phrase δεν πειράζει, which means "it doesn't matter", instead of being dropped, n is assimilated into the second word and, following the example above, np is pronounced [mp] in Northern Greece and Template:IPA in Southern Greece, thus being pronounced Template:IPA or Template:IPA.
Some of these rules are optional, and reflect the formality of speech. While everyday spoken Greek sounds artificial if the sandhi rules are not used, a formal or official speech may sound equally awkward if sandhi rules are used.
Orthography
Template:Main The Greek vowel letters with their pronunciation are: <α> Template:IPA, <ε> Template:IPA, <η> Template:IPA, <ι> Template:IPA, <ο> Template:IPA, <υ> Template:IPA, <ω> Template:IPA. There are also vowel digraphs which are phonetically monophthongal: <αι> Template:IPA, <ει> Template:IPA, <οι> Template:IPA, <ου> Template:IPA, <υι> Template:IPA. The three digraphs <αυ>, <ευ> and <ηυ> are pronounced Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA except when followed by unvoiced consonants, in which case they are pronounced Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA.
Modern Greek has also four diphthongs: <αη> (or <άη>) Template:IPA, <αϊ> (or <άι>) Template:IPA, <οη> (or <όη>) Template:IPA and <οϊ> (or <όι>) Template:IPA (diphthongs can better be transcribed using the IPA non-syllabic diacritic under Template:IPA instead of the approximant Template:IPA).
The Greek letters <β> and <δ> are pronounced Template:IPA and Template:IPA respectively. The letter <γ> is generally pronounced Template:IPA, but before the mid or close front vowels, it is pronounced Template:IPA (or Template:IPA in some dialects, notably those of Crete and the Mani).
The letters <θ>, <φ> and <χ> are pronounced Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA. The letter <χ>, before mid or close front vowels, is pronounced Template:IPA (or Template:IPA in some dialects, notably those of Crete and the Mani). The letter <ξ> stands for Template:IPA and <ψ> stands for Template:IPA. The digraphs <γγ> and <γκ> are generally pronounced Template:IPA, but are pronounced Template:IPA before mid or close front vowels. When these digraphs are preceded by a vowel, they are pronounced Template:IPA (Template:IPA before mid or close front vowels). The digraph <γγ> may be pronounced Template:IPA in some words (Template:IPA before mid or close front vowels).
Grammar
Template:Main Modern Greek is still largely a synthetic language. It is one of the few Indo-European languages that has retained a synthetic passive. Noticeable changes in its grammar (compared to Classical Greek) include the loss of the dative, the optative mood, the infinitive, the dual number, and the participles (except the past participle); the adoption of the gerund; the reduction in the number of noun declensions, and the number of distinct forms in each declension; the adoption of the modal particle θα (a corruption of Template:Polytonic > θέλω να > θε' να > θα) to denote future and conditional tenses; the introduction of auxiliary verb forms for certain tenses; the extension to the future tense of the aspectual distinction between present/imperfect and aorist; the loss of the third person imperative, and the simplification of the system of grammatical prefixes, such as augmentation and reduplication. Some of these features are shared with other languages spoken in the Balkan peninsula (see Balkan linguistic union).
Archaic forms are still used in formal writing and in a few expressions like εντάξει (entáxei /Template:IPA/), which means "OK" (literally: "in order") or ζήτω! ('long live!');
Writing system
| [[Image:Greek alphabet {{{letter|alpha-omega}}}.png| 200px|center]] | |
| Greek alphabet | |
|---|---|
| Α α Alpha | Β β Beta |
| Γ γ Gamma | Δ δ Delta |
| Ε ε Epsilon | Ζ ζ Zeta |
| Η η Eta | Θ θ Theta |
| Ι ι Iota | Κ κ Kappa |
| Λ λ Lambda | Μ μ Mu |
| Ν ν Nu | Ξ ξ Xi |
| Ο ο Omicron | Π π Pi |
| Ρ ρ Rho | Σ σ ς Sigma |
| Τ τ Tau | Υ υ Upsilon |
| Φ φ Phi | Χ χ Chi |
| Ψ ψ Psi | Ω ω Omega |
| obsolete letters | |
| Image:Greek alphabet digamma2.png Digamma | Image:Greek alphabet san.png San |
| Image:Greek alphabet qoppa.png Qoppa | Image:Greek alphabet sampi.png Sampi |
| Image:Greek alphabet stigma.png Stigma | Image:Greek alphabet sho.png Sho |
Template:Main Modern Greek is written in the late Ionic variant of the Greek alphabet. It is regarded as the first alphabet in the narrow sense, giving full representation to vowels on a par with consonants, unlike its predecessor, the Phoenician alphabet (also called an "abjad"). Its oldest discovered inscriptions date to the 8th or 9th Century BC. It assumed its final form in Athens in 403 BC, and displaced other regional variants due to its use for the Attic Koine dialect during the Hellenistic era.
The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with a capital and lowercase (small) form: Α α, Β β, Γ γ, Δ δ, Ε ε, Ζ ζ, Η η, Θ θ, Ι ι, Κ κ, Λ λ, Μ μ, Ν ν, Ξ ξ, Ο ο, Π π, Ρ ρ, Σ σ ς (word-final form), Τ τ, Υ υ, Φ φ, Χ χ, Ψ ψ, Ω ω.
In addition to the letters of the alphabet, Greek has a number of diacritical signs, most of which were eliminated from official use in Greece in 1982 as no longer corresponding to the modern pronunciation of the language. See Monotonic orthography for the simplified modern set, and Polytonic orthography for the traditional set.
Examples
Some common words and phrases
- Greek (man): Έλληνας, IPA /Template:IPA/
- Greek (woman): Ελληνίδα /Template:IPA/
- Greek (language): Ελληνικά /Template:IPA/
- hello: γεια /Template:IPA/ (informal, literally "health"), you say this only to people that you know well. When you address a stranger you should use the more formal: χαίρετε /Template:IPA/
- good morning: καλημέρα /Template:IPA/
- good evening: καλησπέρα /Template:IPA/
- good night: καληνύχτα /Template:IPA/
- good-bye: χαίρετε /Template:IPA/ (formal), αντίο /Template:IPA/ (semi-formal), γεια σου /Template:IPA/ or γεια σας /Template:IPA/ (informal)
- please: παρακαλώ /Template:IPA/
- I would like ____ please: θα ήθελα ____ παρακαλώ /Template:IPA/
- sorry: συγγνώμη /Template:IPA/
- thank you: σ' ευχαριστώ /Template:IPA/
- that: αυτό /Template:IPA/, εκείνο /Template:IPA/
- this: αυτό /Template:IPA/, (ε)τούτο /Template:IPA/
- how much?: πόσο; /Template:IPA/
- how much does it cost?: πόσο κοστίζει; /Template:IPA/
- yes: ναι /Template:IPA/
- no: όχι /Template:IPA/
- I don't understand: δεν καταλαβαίνω /Template:IPA/ (sandhi - see above) or /Template:IPA/
- I don't know: δεν ξέρω /Template:IPA/ (sandhi - see above) or /Template:IPA/
- where's the bathroom?: πού είναι η τουαλέτα /το μπάνιο /το λουτρό; /Template:IPA/
- generic toast (literally "to health"): εις υγείαν! /Template:IPA/
- juice: χυμός /Template:IPA/
- water: νερό /Template:IPA/
- wine: κρασί /Template:IPA/
- beer: μπύρα /Template:IPA/
- milk: γάλα /Template:IPA/
- Do you speak English?: Μιλάτε Αγγλικά; /Template:IPA/
- I love you: σ' αγαπώ /Template:IPA/
- Help!: Βοήθεια! /Template:IPA/
References
- Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar, Harvard University Press, 1956 (revised edition), ISBN 0674362500. The standard grammar of classical Greek.
- W. Sidney Allen, Vox Graeca - a guide to the pronunciation of classical Greek. Cambridge University Press, 1968-74. ISBN 052120626X
- Geoffrey Horrocks, Greek: A History of the Language and Its Speakers (Longman Linguistics Library). Addison Wesley Publishing Company, 1997. ISBN 0582307090. From Mycenean to modern.
- Robert Browning, Medieval and Modern Greek, Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition 1983, ISBN 0521299780.
- Brian Newton, The Generative Interpretation of Dialect: A Study of Modern Greek Phonology, Cambridge University Press, 1972, ISBN 0521084970.
- Crosby and Schaeffer, An Introduction to Greek, Allyn and Bacon, Inc. 1928. A school grammar of anchient Greek
- David Holton et al., Greek: A Comprehensive Grammar of the Modern Language, Routledge, 1997, ISBN 041510002X. A reference grammar of modern Greek.
- Dionysius of Thrace, "Art of Grammar", "Τέχνη γραμματική", c.100 BC
See also
External links
General background
Template:InterWiki Template:Wikibookspar
- Modern Greek, Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages, Brian Joseph
- Ancient Greek, Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages, Brian Joseph
- Greek Language, Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.
- The Perseus Project has many useful pages for the study of classical languages and literatures, including dictionaries.
- The Greek Language and Linguistics Gateway Useful information on the history of the Greek language, application of modern Linguistics to the study of Greek, and tools for learning Greek.
Language learning
- Ancient Greek
- Online pdf versions of the books used in Elementary School. Useful for beginners
- Learn how to count in Greek
- Flash presentation with the sound of the letters of the Greek Alphabet
- Free online resources for learners (both Ancient and Modern Greek)
- Learn basic Greek words and phrases and the speeches of Xenophon Zolotas, Dr. Soukakos, Athnassopoulos and Kalaras
- Learn Greek - Official site of the Greek Institute of language and speech processing
- Learn Greek Online, free modern Greek course with realaudio files.
- Greek courses
- Learn Ancient Greek at Textkit. Free downloadable Ancient Greek grammars and readers.
- Modern Greek and Albanian with Japanese translation
Dictionaries
Literature
Typography
- Athena, public domain polytonic Greek font
- Gentium — a typeface for the nations, a freely available font including polytonic Greek support
- Generator for Greek typographical filler text
Lexica
- Translatum - The Greek Translation Vortal. An extended list of searchable and downloadable Greek dictionaries.
- Modern Greek–English, English–Modern Greek dictionary. (Basic dictionary)
- Ancient Greek Dictionary, the complete Liddell-Scott dictionary, including search within English definitions.
- Greek–English Dictionary: from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition.
- Woodhouse English-Greek dictionary, scanned images from S.C. Woodhouse's 1910 dictionary.
Spell checkers
- Greek Spell Checker helps ensure correct spelling.
Special characters
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