12/03/2022
Geia sas ánthropoi! Kalos irthes stin ELLADA
Given that language is a critical component of Greek culture and its primary transmitter, it is instructive to examine briefly how the Greeks speak today, how the Ancient Greek language evolved into the modern one recognized today.
The following is a brief history of the Greek language to aid in our comprehension of its changes and progress. Modern Greek is a descendant of the Ancient language and belongs to the Indo-European branch of the Greek or Hellenic language family
The First written language
The first Greek letters were discovered on baked mud tablets in the ruins of Crete's Minoan Knossos Palace. Linear A is the name given to this language, which has not been fully decoded until recently. The most prominent application of Linear A is found in the renowned Phaistos Disc. In the 12th century BC, a new language known as Linear B began to form, with each drawing symbol representing a consonant-vowel combination. Linear B is a Mycenaean inscription. The language discovered in the late ninth and early eighth centuries BC was based on the Phoenician syllabary, written from left to right and back again. This is the most modern form of the inscription.
Classical Period
Throughout the Classical period (6th–4th centuries BC), Greece's territory was partitioned into multiple states, each with its own dialect. The Ionic and Attic dialects were the two most important. Athens established itself as the political, economic, and cultural hub of the Greek world throughout this period, and as a result, the Attic idiom began to be employed as a common language.
Following Alexander the Great's travels, the Attic dialect was also pushed into the depths of the East, where it was spoken by millions of people. This gradually resulted in the development of a mingling dialect, which became known as the koine, or common dialect, commonly referred to as the Hellenistic Koine. This dialect persisted for centuries and eventually became an official language of the Roman Empire. The koine is the New Testament's original language and served as the foundation for the formation of Medieval and Modern Greek. Throughout Byzantine times, this language was evolved.
Katharevousa and Dimotiki
With the establishment of the modern Greek state in 1829, the language issue had to be handled as a critical component of the nation-building process. After around four centuries of Ottoman occupation, Greece retained a mostly oral culture as a result of these centuries of various dominances. The issue was the language chosen for administration and education. One of the options, to reintroduce the Attic language, was very appealing, all the more so because Western Europe was captivated by Ancient Greek culture, and it would have been an excellent incentive for the philhellenes. It proved to be practically impossible.
Thus, Adamantios Korais (1748-1833), a Greek scholar, proposed altering the spoken language of those times on old principles. This proposal was adopted, and the katharevoussa (purified language) was born. The issue became politicized: a division was drawn between the Katharevoussa, which became linked with official duties such as government, education, and religion, and the dimotiki language (popular language) spoken by ordinary people in their daily lives.
20-th century language
The Greek language controversy had enormous political significance: academics were dismissed for adopting Dimotiki, riots broke out in the streets, and many people claimed that Katharevoussa was being used to deny common people access to education. Nationalist governments, like as that of Ioannis Papadopoulos, the Junta's dictator, supported Katharevoussa. The conflict between supporters of Dimotiki and Katharevoussa elicited a range of social and political perspectives.
The issue was finally resolved in 1976, as a result of the post-dictatorship government's initiatives. The Dimotiki language was adopted in education and administration and has remained the official language of modern Greece since then.
Finally, it's worth noting that the majority of regions in Greece have their own spoken dialects that are never utilized for writing. Naturally, each location has its own dialect.
