User:Future Perfect at Sunrise/Modern Greek
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Modern Greek (Νέα Ελληνικά or Νεοελληνική, lit. 'Neo-Hellenic', historically also known as Ρωμαίικα, lit. 'Romaic') refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. Greek is spoken today by approximately 15 million people, mainly in Greece and Cyprus but also by minority and immigrant communities in many other countries. Historically, the term "Modern Greek" is usually understood to comprise all varieties of Greek in the time period from the fall of the Byzantine Empire (1453) until the present. During much of this time, the language existed in a situation of diglossia, with regional spoken dialects existing side by side with learned, archaic written forms. Most notably, during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, it was known in the competing varieties of popular Demotic and learned Katharevousa. Today, Standard Modern Greek, based mainly on Demotic, is the official language of both Greece and Cyprus.
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[edit] Classification
All forms of Modern Greek, except the Tsakonian dialect, are descendants of the common supra-regional form (Koiné) of Greek as it was spoken in late antiquity. As such, they can ultimately be traced back mostly to Attic, the dialect spoken in and around Athens in the classical era. Tsakonian, an isolated dialect spoken today by a dwindling community in the Peloponese, is a descendant of the ancient Doric dialect. Some other dialects have preserved isolated elements of various ancient non-Attic dialects, but Attic Koine is nevertheless regarded by most scholars as the principal source of all of them.
- Further information: Greek language
[edit] Geographic distribution
[Describe status in Greece and Cyprus, list old linguistic minority groups abroad and their vitality; list range of new immigrant communities abroad. ]
[edit] Official status
[Describe status in Greece and Cyprus (including Greek legislation dealing with the "Language Question"); status as EU language...]
[edit] Variation/Dialects
[Diglossia situation, Katharevousa vs. Demotic, dialectology of mainstream Demotic; outlying dialects (Pontic, Tsakonian, Griko, Yevanic...)]
[edit] Sounds/Phonology
[Sketch typology of phonological system in relation to Ancient Greek: Simple 5-vowel system emerged through phoneme mergers and raising chain shift from Ancient Greek; more complex consonant system with new series of fricatives and nasalised voiced plosives; no length contrasts; stress accent; simplified syllable structure with strong preference for open syllables but still considerable freedom of initial clusters...]
[edit] Grammar
[Sketch typology of grammatical system in relation to Ancient Greek: reduced inflectional system but still preserving much of the IE heritage; streamlined verbal system; case syncretism in noun system; moderate trend towards analyticity; Balkan features; word-order typology; pro-drop; verb phrase with clitics; ...]
[edit] Vocabulary/Lexis
[Duality between learned and popular lexical transmission; internal loans from Katharevousa; role of Turkish loanwords; French/English loanwords influence...]
[edit] Writing system and orthography
[Monotonic vs polytonic system; regularity of sound-symbol relationship; Latinization systems; Greeklish...]
[edit] History
[History of modern Greek varieties: early literary dialects; emergence of Katharevousa; Language Struggle; effects of 1922; fate of diaspora dialects...]
[edit] Examples
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[edit] References
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[edit] External links
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