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131-619: The word evzōnos ( Greek : εὔζωνος ) is first attested in Homer's Iliad and derives from εὖ and ζώνη , meaning "well-girt". The word was used by ancient writers for centuries to describe light infantry (better known as psiloi or gymnitai ). The term "Evzones" was revived in modern practice as a Greek version of the European-style light infantry (such as the German Jäger , French Chasseurs , or British Riflemen ) in 1824 during

262-570: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

393-499: A belt of cotton in blue and white stripes. The number of pleats of the fustanela is rumored to be equal to the duration of Ottoman occupation i.e. 400. On the legs were worn tsarouchia , with white wool leggings and garters; the former decorated in dark blue embroidery. For bad weather, an "iron-coloured" knee-length cape was issued. During the remainder of the 19th century, the dress of the separate line battalions of Evzones appears to have differed slightly in detail between units. After

524-517: A bucolic reminder of his homeland. Queen Olga was far less careful in hiding her nostalgia for her native Russia, often visiting Russian ships at Piraeus two or three times before they weighed anchor. When alone with his wife, George usually conversed in German. Their children were taught English by their nannies, and when talking with his children he therefore spoke mainly English except to his son Andrew who refused to speak anything but Greek. The King

655-703: A cavalry company, was formed. During the Great Eastern Crisis , in 1877 the Hellenic Army was reorganized, with two square infantry divisions being established. The 1st Evzone Battalion at Kravasaras was subordinated to the Patras Brigade, and the 2nd Evzone Battalion at Karpenisi to the Corfu Brigade, with the two brigades comprising the Peloponnese Division. The 3rd Evzone Battalion at Ypati

786-579: A colonel or lieutenant colonel. In another reorganization in 1843, the regular infantry battalions were reduced to two Line Infantry Battalions of eight companies (including one Evzone company) of 140 men each, and two Skirmisher Battalions of four companies each. At the same time, an additional three light companies were established, which in 1844 were amalgamated into the "Supplementary Mountain Guard Corps" (Παραπληρωματικό Σώμα Ὁροφυλακής). The entire Mountain Guard

917-758: A delegation of Greeks led by First Admiral and Prime Minister Konstantinos Kanaris . At the ceremony, it was announced that the British government would cede the Ionian Islands to Greece in honor of the new monarch. The new 17-year-old king toured Saint Petersburg, London and Paris before departing for Greece from the French port of Toulon on 22 October aboard the Greek flagship Hellas . He arrived in Athens on 30 October [ O.S. 18 October] 1863, after docking at Piraeus

1048-552: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in

1179-508: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

1310-470: A few minor changes over the years, it became the familiar uniform seen worn today by the Presidential Guard. In 1910 a new field service uniform was adopted, substituting a khaki farion cap and khaki doulama jacket for the respectively red and dark blue garments previously worn. The long white woollen hose and turned-up tsarouchia shoes were still retained, although sometimes replaced on campaign by

1441-531: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near

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1572-443: A new, more homogeneous divisional structure was adopted, with four regular infantry regiments and two Evzone battalions for each of the three infantry divisions. 1st Division now comprised the 4th and 6th Evzone Battalions, 2nd Infantry Division the 1st and 2nd Evzone Battalions, and 3rd Infantry Division the 3rd and 7th Evzone Battalions. The 1910 army regulations envisaged again nine Evzone Battalions (to 18 infantry regiments), but

1703-582: A resolution in favor of union despite both the reservations of the Athens government under Georgios Theotokis and the objections of the Great Powers. The muted reaction of the Athens Government to the news from Crete led to an unsettled state of affairs on the mainland. In August 1909, a group of army officers that had formed a military league, Stratiotikos Syndesmos , demanded, among other things, that

1834-442: A special uniform with a white wool jacket (φέρμελη) with dark blue cord embroidery (γαϊτάνια), with the battalion number embroidered in crimson at the end of each sleeve. The jacket was also decorated with two rows of twelve yellow metal buttons on the chest, and eight on the sleeves. A fez (φέσιον) with a silk tassel, bearing the national cockade and the royal crown was worn; plus a knee-length fustanella of white cloth, closed by

1965-766: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

2096-742: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system

2227-474: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During

2358-510: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

2489-855: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern George I of Greece George I ( Greek : Γεώργιος Α΄, romanized : Geórgios I ; 24 December 1845 – 18 March 1913)

2620-518: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around

2751-758: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

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2882-630: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with

3013-606: The Amalienborg Palace complex in Copenhagen . He was the second son and third child of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel . He was baptised with the names Christian William Ferdinand Adolph George , and until his accession in Greece, he was known as Prince William, the namesake of both his grandfathers, William, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg , and Prince William of Hesse-Kassel . Although William

3144-468: The Army of Thessaly , while the 1st, 3rd and 11th Battalions with 4,494 men were subordinated to the Army of Epirus . In the aftermath of the war, various reorganization attempts were undertaken, and the number of Evzone battalions varied considerably. In June 1900 two Evzone regiments were established by combining some of the hitherto independent battalions: the 1st Evzone Regiment (1ο Σύνταγμα Ευζώνων) comprised

3275-612: The Congress of Berlin convened in 1878 to determine peace terms for the Russo-Turkish War, Greece staked a claim to Crete, Epirus and Thessaly. The borders were still not finalized in June 1880 when a proposal very favorable to Greece that included Mount Olympus and Ioannina was offered by the British and French. When the Ottoman Turks strenuously objected, Prime Minister Trikoupis made

3406-486: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

3537-567: The First Lord of the Admiralty at the time was Lord Ripon , whose brother-in-law had been murdered in Greece 16 years before. This was not the last time that King George discovered that his family ties were not always to his advantage. Deligiannis was forced to demobilize and Trikoupis regained the premiership. Between 1882 and 1897, Trikoupis and Deligiannis alternated the premiership as their fortunes rose and fell. George's silver jubilee in 1888

3668-458: The Gendarmerie . Each battalion was to be commanded by a lieutenant colonel or a major, with a staff of 4 officers and 6 NCOs, and comprising four companies of 122 officers and men each. Their personnel were to be exclusively career and volunteer soldiers, rather than draftees. Prospective recruits had to be of good health and character, over 17 and under 40 years of age, and preferably unmarried. On

3799-538: The Greek War of Independence , when the first attempts to form a regular, European-style army were undertaken by the Greek rebels. The first regular infantry battalion comprised six companies, one of which was designated as an "Evzone Company" (Λόχος Εὐζώνων). The uniform now associated with the Evzones was not used at the time; but a uniform derived from the traditional costume of the fustanella , had already been adopted by

3930-510: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

4061-710: The Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) . Greece was not always successful in its territorial ambitions; it was defeated in the Greco-Turkish War (1897) . During the First Balkan War , after Greek troops had captured much of Greek Macedonia , George was assassinated in Thessaloniki . George was born on 24 December 1845 at his parents' residence the Yellow Palace , an 18th-century town house at 18 Amaliegade , next to

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4192-607: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , the Second French Empire and the Russian Empire . He married Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia in 1867, and became the first monarch of a new Greek dynasty . Two of his sisters, Alexandra and Dagmar , married into the British and Russian royal families. Edward VII of the United Kingdom and Alexander III of Russia were his brothers-in-law, and George V of

4323-504: The White Tower on 18 March 1913, he was shot at close range in the back by Alexandros Schinas , who was "said to belong to a Socialist organization" and "declared when arrested that he had killed the King because he refused to give him money". George died instantly, the bullet having penetrated his heart. The Greek government denied any political motive for the assassination, saying that Schinas

4454-432: The abolition of the monarchy , the Presidential Guard ( Greek : Προεδρική Φρουρά ). Several modern regular Army Infantry units have been given the numbers and names of the post-1913 Evzone regiments. However, these names are only honorific. The historical units were numbered and known as Τάγμα Ευζώνων ("Evzone Battalion") or Σύνταγμα Ευζώνων ("Evzone Regiment"). The first Evzone Regiment was formed in 1912, shortly before

4585-464: The klephts , armatoli , and many of the best-known fighters of the Greek War of Independence . At first, it was only issued to the native light infantry battalions, but its popularity led to its adoption as the official uniform of the Evzones in 1868. In the 1868 regulations, officers and warrant officers continued wearing the regular Army uniform, but the other ranks of the Evzone battalions were issued

4716-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in

4847-451: The "tight" European uniforms prescribed for these units were unpopular with many veterans of the War of Independence, recruitment remained very low. In the end, the attempt was given up and in 1836, four Light Infantry Battalions were formed instead, who were allowed to wear a uniform based on the traditional Greek dress. These battalions had six companies each, but with 162 men per company instead of

4978-611: The 120 men in the regular infantry battalions. In January 1838, the four Light Infantry Battalions were merged into two regular infantry battalions (while one of the original four line battalions was disbanded), and replaced by eight "Mountain Guard" battalions (Τάγματα Ὁροφυλακής). Assigned the role of border guards , the Mountain Guard battalions had four companies with 299 men and 16 officers. In February 1838, they were subordinated to three Mountain Guard Headquarters, commanded by

5109-482: The 1870s, Greece kept pressure on the Ottoman Empire, seeking territorial expansion into Epirus and Thessaly . The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 provided the first potential alliance for the Greek kingdom. George's sister Dagmar was the daughter-in-law of Alexander II of Russia , and she sought to have Greece join the war. The French and British refused to countenance such an act, and Greece remained neutral. At

5240-463: The 1912 regulations reduced them again to six, each of four companies and two machine gun squads. In the mobilization prior to the outbreak of the Balkan Wars in 1912, four more Evzone battalions were raised. They operated independently on the vanguard or the flanks of the army. They distinguished themselves for their fighting spirit suffering high casualties, especially among officers. Subsequently

5371-467: The 240,000 votes. There were 93 votes for a Republic and six for a Greek national to be chosen as king. King Otto received one vote. With Prince Alfred's exclusion, the search began for an alternative candidate. The French favored Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale , while the British proposed Queen Victoria's brother-in-law Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , her nephew Prince Leiningen , and Archduke Maximilian of Austria , among others. Eventually,

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5502-465: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into

5633-429: The 5/42 Evzone Regiment was the 5th Evzone regiment, but also the 42nd infantry regiment. In 1833, the uniform of the Evzones (as in all infantry companies of the line battalions) was in the unpopular Bavarian style of blue trousers, tailcoats and shako . As light infantry the Evzones were distinguished only by green braid and plumes. In 1837, a new uniform was created; based on the traditional fustanella style worn by

5764-426: The 6th, 8th, and 9th Evzone Battalions, and the 2nd Evzone Regiment (2ο Σύνταγμα Ευζώνων) the 1st and 4th Evzone Battalions. The new army regulations composed in 1903–04 combined the 1st and 2nd Evzone Regiments in the 1st Brigade under the 1st Infantry Division , with an additional Evzone Battalion (1st–3rd) attached to each of the three infantry divisions. This structure was not of long duration, however, as in 1904

5895-553: The British-sponsored Greek Light Infantry Regiments raised during the Napoleonic Wars . A similar uniform was adopted when Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias reformed the nascent Hellenic Army in 1828 and formed the so-called "Light Battalions" (Ελαφρά Τάγματα)—five from Western Continental Greece and eight from Eastern Continental Greece—in an attempt to instil discipline and gradually regularize

6026-613: The Christian countries of the Balkans in opposition to the ailing Ottoman Empire. When the Kingdom of Montenegro declared war on Turkey on 8 October 1912, it was joined quickly by Serbia , Bulgaria , and Greece in what is known as the First Balkan War . George was on vacation in Denmark, so he immediately returned to Greece via Vienna, arriving in Athens to be met by a large and enthusiastic crowd on

6157-513: The Evzone uniform and participated in operations against the EAM-ELAS partisans. They were derisively known as Germanotsoliades ("German Evzones") or Tagmatasfalites ("Security Battalionists"), and were disbanded after liberation in 1944. After the war, the reconstituted Hellenic Army did not re-establish the Evzone regiments, possibly due to their association with the collaborationist Security Battalions. Their elite status and role being assumed by

6288-412: The Evzone units to 11 independent battalions of four companies each, and one training battalion. However, the 1881 army regulations again revised the number to nine Evzone battalions. In 1885, during a reorganization of the infantry, the Evzone battalions of the active army were reduced to eight, but two reserve battalions were established. The Hellenic Army was mobilized during the diplomatic crisis with

6419-733: The Evzone units were increased to five regiments, which fought with distinction as elite shock troops in the First World War , the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) and the Greco-Italian War . During the German invasion in 1941, a memorable event is said to have occurred: on April 27, as the German Army was entering Athens, the Germans ascended to the Acropolis of Athens and ordered the young Evzone who

6550-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

6681-520: The Greek gold medalist, while the King stood and applauded. The popular desire to unite all Greeks within a single territory ( Megali Idea ) was never far below the surface and another revolt against Turkish rule erupted in Crete. In February 1897, King George sent his son, Prince George , to take possession of the island. The Greeks refused an Ottoman offer of an autonomous administration, and Deligiannis mobilized for war. The Great Powers refused to allow

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6812-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than

6943-491: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

7074-559: The Greek throne and his arrival in Athens. They met for a second time in April 1867, when George went to the Russian Empire to visit his sister Dagmar, who had married the Tsar's heir, Tsarevich Alexander . While George was privately a Lutheran , the Romanovs were Orthodox Christians like the majority of Greeks, and George thought a marriage with a Russian grand duchess would re-assure his subjects on

7205-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow

7336-602: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community

7467-399: The Greeks and Great Powers winnowed their choice to Prince William of Denmark, who had received six votes in the plebiscite. Aged only 17, he was elected King of the Hellenes on 30 March [ O.S. 18 March] 1863 by the Greek National Assembly under the regnal name of George I. Paradoxically, he ascended a royal throne before his father, who became King of Denmark on 15 November

7598-414: The Greeks were "panting for increase in territory", hoping for a gift of the Ionian Islands , which were then a British protectorate . The London Conference of 1832 , however, prohibited any of the Great Powers ' ruling families from accepting the crown. Queen Victoria herself was adamantly opposed to the idea. The Greeks nevertheless insisted on holding a plebiscite in which Alfred received over 95% of

7729-402: The King insisted, he argued, that only a politician commanding a majority in the Vouli could be appointed prime minister, then politicians would be forced to work together more harmoniously to construct a coalition government. Such a plan, he wrote, would end the political instability and reduce the large number of smaller parties. Trikoupis admitted to writing the article after a man supposed by

7860-462: The King were united in their belief that the nation required a strong army to repair the damage of the humiliating defeat of 1897 . Crown Prince Constantine was reinstated as Inspector-General of the Army, and later Commander-in-Chief. Under his and Venizelos's close supervision the military was retrained and equipped with French and British help, and new ships were ordered for the Hellenic Navy . Meanwhile, through diplomatic means, Venizelos had united

7991-403: The Ottoman Empire that followed the de facto annexation of Eastern Rumelia to the Principality of Bulgaria in 1885. In May 1886, clashes broke out between Greek and Ottoman troops in Thessaly , and at Koutra, 300 men of the 5th Evzone Battalion surrendered to the Turks. The two captains responsible for the Koutra incident were court-martialled and condemned to death in August 1887, although

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8122-407: The Prince of Wales unsuccessfully sought the support of the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Derby , to intervene in Crete on behalf of Greece. Ultimately, the Great Powers did not intervene, and the Ottomans put down the rebellion. George first met Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia in 1863, when she was 12 years old, on a visit to the court of Tsar Alexander II between his election to

8253-402: The United Kingdom), Dagmar (who married Alexander III of Russia ), Thyra (who married Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover ) and Valdemar . William's mother tongue was Danish, with English as a second language. He was also taught French and German. He embarked on a career in the Royal Danish Navy , and enrolled as a naval cadet along with his elder brother Frederick. While Frederick

8384-409: The United Kingdom, Christian X of Denmark , Haakon VII of Norway , and Nicholas II of Russia were his nephews. George's reign of almost 50 years (the longest in modern Greek history ) was characterized by territorial gains as Greece established its place in pre– World War I Europe. Britain ceded the Ionian Islands peacefully in 1864, while Thessaly was annexed from the Ottoman Empire after

8515-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

8646-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of

8777-461: The authorities to be the author was arrested, whereupon he was taken into custody himself. After a public outcry, he was released and subsequently acquitted of the charge of "undermining the constitutional order". The following year, the King asked Trikoupis to form a government (without a majority) and then read a speech from the throne declaring that in future the leader of the majority party in parliament would be appointed prime minister. Throughout

8908-442: The beginning of the war was reversed in defeat. For a time, he considered abdication. It was not until the King faced down an assassination attempt on 27 February 1898 with great bravery that his subjects again held their monarch in high esteem. Returning from a trip to the beach at Phaleron in an open carriage, George and his daughter Maria were shot at by two riflemen. The King tried to shield his daughter; both were unhurt though

9039-449: The chieftains of the old irregular groups. In 1833, after the arrival of King Otto ( r.  1832–1862 ) to Greece, the Hellenic Army was organized along new lines by the Bavarian officials who had come with Otto. In February 1833, the infantry was organized into eight regular infantry battalions, of 728 men and six companies each: one of grenadiers , four line infantry companies, and one light infantry company. The latter received

9170-415: The coachman and a horse were wounded. The gunmen (an Athens clerk called Karditzis and his assistant) fled into the Hymettus hills but they were spotted and arrested. Both were beheaded at Nauplia . Later that year, after continued unrest in Crete, which included the murder of the British vice-consul, Prince George of Greece was made the Governor-General of Crete under the suzerainty of the Sultan, after

9301-433: The constitution. King George gave way, and new elections to the revising assembly were held in August 1910. After some political maneuvering, Venizelos became prime minister of a minority government. Just a month later, Venizelos called new elections for 11 December [ O.S. 28 November] 1910, at which he won an overwhelming majority after most of the opposition parties declined to take part. Venizelos and

9432-522: The death sentence was immediately commuted by the King. The eight Evzone battalions were retained by to the 1887 regulations issued by the French military mission , but two of them were skeleton formations in peacetime, with only their professional personnel assigned to them. In total, ten Evzone battalions (1st–9th, 11th) fought in the disastrous 1897 war with Ottoman Turkey . The 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 11th Battalions, comprising 6,996 men, fought in

9563-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of

9694-602: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute

9825-457: The evening of 9 October. The results of this campaign differed radically from the Greek experience at the hands of the Turks in 1897. The well-trained Greek forces, 200,000 strong, won victory after victory. On 9 November 1912, Greek forces commanded by Crown Prince Constantine rode into Thessaloniki , just a few hours ahead of a Bulgarian division. Three days later King George rode in triumph through

9956-526: The expansion of Greece, and on 25 February 1897 announced that Crete would be under an autonomous administration and ordered the Greek and Ottoman Turk militias to withdraw. The Turks agreed, but Prime Minister Deligiannis refused and dispatched 1400 troops to Crete under the command of Colonel Timoleon Vassos . While the Great Powers announced a blockade, Greek troops crossed the Macedonian border and Abdul Hamid II declared war . The announcement that Greece

10087-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in

10218-596: The horse head of Lauenburg , the two red bars of the House of Oldenburg and the cross of Delmenhorst . The supporters on either side both depicting Heracles are quite similar to the two wild men from the Danish royal arms. Beneath the shield is the motto in Greek, Ἰσχύς μου ἡ αγάπη τοῦ λαοῦ ("The people's love is my strength"). Beneath the motto dangles the Grand Cross of the Order of

10349-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn

10480-468: The irregular groups (" klephts ") that had provided the bulk of the Greek forces during the War of Independence. The men of these battalions wore the traditional costume, although they were not designated as Evzones. Following the assassination of Kapodistrias in 1831 and the ensuing political infighting, the Light Battalions effectively disbanded, and their men became armed brigands under the command of

10611-463: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

10742-471: The longest of which lasted a year and a half. In July 1874, Charilaos Trikoupis , a member of the Greek Parliament, wrote an anonymous article in the newspaper Kairoi blaming King George and his advisors for the continuing political crisis caused by the lack of stable governments. In the article, he accused the King of acting like an absolute monarch by imposing minority governments on the people. If

10873-621: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

11004-533: The mistake of threatening a mobilization of the Hellenic Army . A coincident change of government in France, the resignation of Charles de Freycinet and his replacement with Jules Ferry , led to disputes among the Great Powers and, despite British support for a more pro-Greek settlement, the Turks subsequently granted Greece all of Thessaly but only the part of Epirus around Arta . When the government of Trikoupis fell,

11135-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

11266-557: The name "Evzones" (" Voltigeurs " in the Bavarian terminology), but their uniform was of European style, identical to the rest of the infantry, apart from the use of green as their distinctive colour in the piping , epaulettes and decoration of their uniforms. In March 1833, ten independent battalions of light infantry (termed Ἀκροβολισταί, "Skirmishers", or Κυνηγοί, "Hunters" in Greek) of 204 men and four companies were established. However, because

11397-486: The new king took steps to conclude the protracted constitutional deliberations of the Assembly. On 19 October 1864, he sent the Assembly a demand, countersigned by Konstantinos Kanaris , explaining that he had accepted the crown on the understanding that a new constitution would be finalized, and that if it was not he would feel himself at "perfect liberty to adopt such measures as the disappointment of my hopes may suggest". It

11528-692: The new prime minister, Alexandros Koumoundouros , reluctantly accepted the new boundaries. While Trikoupis followed a policy of retrenchment within the established borders of the Greek state, having learned a valuable lesson about the vicissitudes of the Great Powers, his main opponents, the Nationalist Party led by Theodoros Deligiannis , sought to inflame the anti-Turkish feelings of the Greeks at every opportunity. The next opportunity arose in 1885 when Bulgarians rose in revolt in Eastern Rumelia and united

11659-545: The newly established Mountain Raiding Companies . The traditions and distinctions of the Evzones are, however, maintained by a special ceremonial unit, which has served under several names: Palace Guard ( Greek : Ανακτορική Φρουρά ), Flag Guard ( Greek : Φρουρά Σημαίας ), Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Guard ( Greek : Φρουρά Μνημείου Αγνώστου Στρατιώτη ), Royal Guard ( Greek : Βασιλική Φρουρά ) and after 1974, with

11790-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks

11921-521: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It

12052-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

12183-574: The others were murdered: British diplomat E. H. C. Herbert (the first cousin of Lord Carnarvon ), Frederick Vyner (the brother-in-law of Lord Ripon , Lord President of the Council ), Italian diplomat Count Boyl di Putifigari, and Mr. Lloyd (an engineer). George's relationships with other ruling houses assisted him and his small country but also often put them at the center of national political struggles in Europe. From 1864 to 1874, Greece had 21 governments,

12314-641: The outbreak of the Balkan Wars . The "traditional" and well-known Evzone regiments, which fought in World War I, the Asia Minor Campaign, and World War II, were formed after the Balkan Wars by the Royal Decree of 23 December 1913. Since the regiments were distinctive, elite units, they had dual numbers—the first, numbering them in the Evzones order of seniority, the second, in the overall infantry hierarchy. Thus

12445-445: The previous day. He was determined not to make the mistakes of his predecessor, so he quickly learned Greek . The new king was seen frequently and informally in the streets of Athens, where his predecessor had only appeared in pomp. King George found the palace in a state of disarray, after the hasty departure of King Otto, and took to putting it right by mending and updating the 40-year-old building . He also sought to ensure that he

12576-442: The proposal was put forward by the Great Powers. Greece was effectively in day-to-day control of Crete for the first time in modern history. The death of Britain's Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901 left King George as the second-longest-reigning monarch in Europe, behind only Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria . His always cordial relations with his brother-in-law, the new King Edward VII , continued to tie Greece to Britain. This

12707-588: The province with Bulgaria. Deligiannis rode to victory over Trikoupis in elections that year saying that if the Bulgarians could defy the Treaty of Berlin , so should the Greeks. Deligiannis mobilized the Hellenic Army , and the British Royal Navy blockaded Greece. The admiral in charge of the blockade was Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh , who had been the first choice of the Greeks to be their king in 1863, and

12838-588: The question of his future children's religion. Olga was just 16 years old when she married George at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg on 27 October 1867. After a honeymoon at Tsarskoye Selo , the couple left Russia for Greece on 9 November. Over the next twenty years, they had eight children: As a marriage gift, the Tsar gave George a group of islands in the Petalioi Gulf , which the family visited on

12969-531: The recurring and contentious issue of Crete , an overwhelmingly Greek island that remained under Ottoman Turk control. Since the reign of Otto, the Greek desire to unite Greek lands in one nation had been a sore spot with Great Britain and France, which had embarrassed Otto by occupying the main Greek port of Piraeus to dissuade Greek irredentism during the Crimean War . During the Cretan Revolt (1866–1869) ,

13100-399: The royal family be stripped of their military commissions. To save the King the embarrassment of removing his sons from their commissions, they resigned them. The military league attempted a coup d'état, and the King insisted on supporting the duly elected Hellenic Parliament in response. Eventually, the military league joined forces with Venizelos in calling for a National Assembly to revise

13231-427: The royal yacht Amphitrite . George later purchased a country estate, Tatoi , north of Athens, and on Corfu he built a summer villa called Mon Repos . George developed Tatoi, building roads and planting grapes for making his own wine, Chateau Décélie. Intent on not letting his subjects know that he missed Denmark, he discreetly maintained a dairy at his palace at Tatoi, which was managed by native Danes and served as

13362-406: The same day, due to the precarious security situation, the King also provisionally authorized the creation of eight further Evzone Battalions, numbered 5–12, as well as the increase of each Evzone company's strength to 170. In addition, on the same day a special detachment, initially named Agema (Άγημα), the precursor of the modern Presidential Guard , composed of two Evzone infantry companies and

13493-571: The same year. There were two significant differences between George's elevation and that of his predecessor, Otto. First, he was acclaimed unanimously by the Greek Assembly, rather than imposed on the people by foreign powers. Second, he was proclaimed "King of the Hellenes" instead of "King of Greece", which had been Otto's style. George's ceremonial enthronement in Copenhagen on 6 June was attended by

13624-758: The sea journey from the Adriatic Sea to Piraeus by 150 miles (241 km). In 1896, the Olympic Games were revived in Athens, and the Opening Ceremony of the 1896 Summer Olympics was presided over by the King. When Spiridon Louis , a shepherd from just outside Athens, ran into the Panathinaiko Stadium to win the Marathon event, the Crown Prince ran down onto the field to run the last thousand yards beside

13755-619: The standard khaki trousers and leather boots of the line infantry. The khaki and off-white field uniform of 1910 was still being worn during the Greek-Italian War of 1940–41, although without the red collar piping and shoulder straps of the earlier uniform. The traditional black fez tassel, and large pompoms on the footwear, were usually removed before battle. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ )

13886-614: The streets of Thessaloniki, the second-largest Greek city, accompanied by the Crown Prince and Venizelos. Less than two weeks before the King's death, Greek troops entered the chief Epirus town of Ioannina on 6 March 1913. As he approached the fiftieth anniversary of his accession, the King made plans to abdicate in favor of his son Constantine immediately after the celebration of his golden jubilee in October 1913. Just as he did in Athens, George went about Thessaloniki without any meaningful protection force. While out on an afternoon walk near

14017-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

14148-461: The war was lost. The worst consequences of defeat for the Greeks were mitigated by the intervention of the King's relations in Britain and Russia; nevertheless, the Greeks were forced to give up Crete to international administration, and agree to minor territorial concessions in favor of the Turks and an indemnity of 4 million Turkish pounds. The jubilation with which Greeks had hailed their king at

14279-577: The week of 30 October included balls, galas, parades, a thanksgiving service at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens , and a lunch for 500 invited guests in a blue and white tent on the Acropolis . Greece in the last decades of the 19th century was increasingly prosperous and was developing a sense of its role on the European stage. In 1893, the Corinth Canal was built by a French company cutting

14410-585: Was King of Greece from 30 March 1863 until his assassination on 18 March 1913. Originally a Danish prince, George was born in Copenhagen , and seemed destined for a career in the Royal Danish Navy . He was only 17 years old when he was elected king by the Greek National Assembly , which had deposed the unpopular King Otto . His nomination was both suggested and supported by the Great Powers :

14541-515: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

14672-531: Was abundantly important in Britain's support of King George's son Prince George as Governor-General of Crete . Nevertheless, Prince George resigned in 1906 after a leader in the Cretan Assembly, Eleftherios Venizelos , campaigned to have him removed. As a response to the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, Venizelos's power base was further strengthened, and on 8 October 1908 the Cretan Assembly passed

14803-549: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

14934-546: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

15065-622: Was an alcoholic vagrant. Schinas was tortured in prison and fell to his death from a police station window six weeks later. The King's body was taken to Athens on the Amphitrite , escorted by a flotilla of naval vessels. For three days the coffin of the King, draped in the Danish and Greek flags , lay in the Metropolitan Cathedral in Athens before his body was committed to a tomb at his palace in Tatoi . The distinctive Greek flag of blue and white cross

15196-626: Was celebrated throughout the Hellenic world, and Athens was decorated with garlands for the anniversary of his accession on 30 October. Visitors included the Crown Prince of Denmark , the Prince and Princess of Wales , the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh , Grand Dukes Sergei and Paul of Russia , and Djevad Pasha from the Ottoman Empire, who presented the King with two Arabian horses as gifts. Jubilee events in

15327-551: Was described as "quiet and extremely well-behaved", William was "lively and full of pranks". Following the expulsion of Otto of Greece in October 1862, the Greek people had rejected Otto 's brother and designated successor Luitpold , although they still favored a monarchy rather than a republic. Many Greeks, seeking closer ties to the pre-eminent world power, the United Kingdom , rallied around Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh , second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert . British prime minister Lord Palmerston believed that

15458-633: Was dispatched back to Denmark. From May 1864, George undertook a tour of the Peloponnese , through Corinth , Argos , Tripolitsa , Sparta , and Kalamata , where he embarked on the frigate Hellas . Proceeding northwards along the coast accompanied by British, French and Russian naval vessels, the Hellas reached Corfu on 6 June, for the ceremonial handover of the Ionian Islands by the British High Commissioner , Sir Henry Storks . Politically,

15589-404: Was finally at war with the Turks was greeted by delirious displays of patriotism and spontaneous parades in honor of the King in Athens. Volunteers by the thousands streamed north to join the forces under the command of Crown Prince Constantine. The war went badly for the ill-prepared Greeks; the only saving grace was the swiftness with which the Hellenic Army was overrun. By the end of April 1897,

15720-498: Was first hoisted during the Greek War of Independence in March 1822. This was later modified so that the shade of blue matched that of the Bavarian coat of arms of the first King of Greece, Otto. The shield is emblazoned with a smaller version of the royal arms of Denmark , including the three lions of the arms of Denmark proper, the two lions of Schleswig , the nettle leaf of Holstein ,

15851-509: Was guarding the flag post, Konstantinos Koukidis , to haul the Greek flag down and replace it with the swastika flag. The young soldier supposedly did so, but refused to hand over the Greek flag to the Germans, and instead wrapped himself in it and leapt from the Acropolis to his death. After the occupation of the country, in 1943, the collaborationist government raised a number of " Security Battalions " (Τάγματα Ασφαλείας), which were dressed in

15982-478: Was homogenized into ten infantry battalions of six 120-man companies (one Evzone company), plus ten reserve battalions. On 12 December 1868, King George I ( r.  1863–1913 ) signed a Royal Decree authorizing the creation of four independent (αὐθύπαρκτα) Evzone Battalions (Τάγματα Εὐζώνων), "forming part of the Army's regular strength and intended especially for service on the frontier, and in providing assistance to

16113-404: Was not seen as too influenced by his Danish advisers, ultimately sending his uncle, Prince Julius , back to Denmark with the words, "I will not allow any interference with the conduct of my government". Another adviser, Count Wilhelm Sponneck , became unpopular for advocating a policy of disarmament and tactlessly questioning the descent of modern Greeks from classical antecedents. Like Julius, he

16244-549: Was of royal blood (his mother and father were both great-grandchildren of Frederick V of Denmark and great-great-grandchildren of George II of Great Britain ) his family was relatively obscure and lived a comparatively normal life by royal standards. In 1853, however, his father was designated the heir presumptive to the childless Frederick VII of Denmark , and the family became princes and princesses of Denmark. William's siblings were Frederick (who succeeded their father as King of Denmark), Alexandra (who married Edward VII of

16375-467: Was related by marriage to the British, Russian and Prussian monarchs, maintaining a particularly strong attachment to the Prince and Princess of Wales, who visited Athens in 1869. Their visit occurred despite continued lawlessness which culminated in the kidnap of a party of British and Italian tourists, including Lord and Lady Muncaster . Two female hostages, a child and Lord Muncaster were released, but four of

16506-469: Was set up with George deferring to the legitimate authority of the elected officials, although he was aware of the corruption present in elections and the difficulty of ruling a mostly illiterate population. Between 1864 and 1910, there were 21 general elections and 70 different governments. Internationally, George maintained a strong relationship with his brother-in-law the Prince of Wales, who in 1901 became King Edward VII , and sought his help in defusing

16637-564: Was subordinated to the Athens Brigade, and the 2nd Evzone Battalion at Gardiki to the Missolonghi Brigade, with the two brigades comprising Continental Greece Division. The 1878 reorganization greatly increased the size of the army, but the Evzone battalions remained the same, with a peacetime strength of 1,968 men (out of 10,400) and an intended wartime strength of 4,160 men (out of 21,000 men). In 1880, another reorganization increased

16768-525: Was then placed directly under the command of the Ministry of Military Affairs , abolishing the Mountain Guard Headquarters. In October 1852, the Mountain Guard was reorganized into four two-battalion regiments. In August 1854, the Mountain Guard was disbanded and its units converted into three Skirmisher Battalions, while the regular infantry battalions were increased to six. In 1860, the infantry

16899-420: Was unclear from the wording whether he meant to return to Denmark or impose a constitution, but as either event was undesirable the Assembly soon came to an agreement. On 28 November 1864, George took the oath to defend the new constitution , which created a unicameral assembly ( Vouli ) with representatives elected by direct, secret, universal male suffrage , a first in modern Europe. A constitutional monarchy

17030-566: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

17161-653: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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