Modern Greek ( endonym : Νέα Ελληνικά , Néa Elliniká [ˈne.a eliniˈka] or Κοινή Νεοελληνική Γλώσσα , Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa ), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek ( Ελληνικά , Elliniká ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the language sometimes referred to as Standard Modern Greek . The end of the Medieval Greek period and the beginning of Modern Greek is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic features of the modern language arose centuries earlier, having begun around the fourth century AD.
53-463: Monastiraki ( Greek : Μοναστηράκι, Monastiráki , pronounced [monastiˈraci] , literally little monastery ) is a flea market neighborhood in the old town of Athens , Greece , and is one of the main shopping districts in Athens. The area is home to clothing boutiques, souvenir shops and specialty stores, and is a major tourist attraction in Athens and Attica for bargain shopping. The area
106-519: A sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect , restricted register ) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, age group, or other social group. Sociolects involve both passive acquisition of particular communicative practices through association with a local community, as well as active learning and choice among speech or writing forms to demonstrate identification with particular groups. The term sociolect might refer to socially restricted dialects, but it
159-866: A / , ⟨ ε, αι ⟩ / e / , ⟨ η, ι, υ, ει, οι, υι ⟩ / i / , ⟨ ο, ω ⟩ / o / , and ⟨ ου ⟩ / u / . The digraphs ⟨ αυ ⟩ , ⟨ ευ ⟩ and ⟨ ηυ ⟩ are pronounced /av/ , /ev/ , and /iv/ respectively before vowels and voiced consonants, and /af/ , /ef/ and /if/ respectively before voiceless consonants. The Greek letters ⟨ φ ⟩ , ⟨ β ⟩ , ⟨ θ ⟩ , and ⟨ δ ⟩ are pronounced / f / , / v / , / θ / , and / ð / respectively. The letters ⟨ γ ⟩ and ⟨ χ ⟩ are pronounced / ɣ / and / x / , respectively. All those letters represent fricatives in Modern Greek, but they were used for occlusives with
212-463: A certain speech community. An example of a dialectal difference, based on region, is the use of the words soda or pop and coke in different parts of the United States. As Thomas E. Murray states, " coke is used generically by thousands of people, especially in the southern half of the country." On the other hand, pop is known to be a term that is used by many citizens in the northern half of
265-568: A common evolutionary path from Koine and have retained a high degree of mutual intelligibility to the present. As shown in Ptochoprodromic and Acritic poems, Demotic Greek was the vernacular already before the 11th century and called the "Roman" language of the Byzantine Greeks , notably in peninsular Greece , the Greek islands , coastal Asia Minor , Constantinople , and Cyprus . Today,
318-451: A language exist side by side". The Classical Arabic is known as الفصحى, or al-fuṣḥā , while the colloquial dialect depends on the country. For example, شامي, or šāmi , is spoken in Lebanon and parts of Syria. In many situations, there is a major lexical difference among words in the classical and colloquial speech, as well as pronunciation differences, such as a difference in short vowels, when
371-433: A prototypical velar, between a velar [ ɣ ] and an uvular [ ʁ ] (transcribed ɣ̄ ). The letter ⟨ ξ ⟩ stands for the sequence /ks/ and ⟨ ψ ⟩ for /ps/ . The digraphs ⟨ γγ ⟩ and ⟨ γκ ⟩ are generally pronounced [ ɡ ] , but are fronted to [ ɟ ] before front vowels ( / e / and / i / ) and tend to be pronounced [ɡ̄] before
424-559: A separate language because of this. Greco-Australian is an Australian dialect of Greek that is spoken by the Greek diaspora of Australia, including Greek immigrants living in Australia and Australians of Greek descent. A series of radical sound changes starting in Koine Greek has led to a phonological system in Modern Greek that is significantly different from that of Ancient Greek. Instead of
477-410: A single noun or pronoun, but never between the possessor and the possessed." "This is hers, This is mines, This is John's, but not in her book, my book, John book" "Interview with Bryan A., seven years old, a struggling reader in a West Philadelphia elementary school: Many times within communities that contain sociolects that separate groups linguistically it is necessary to have a process where
530-498: A sociolect began with the commencement of dialectology , the study of different dialects in relation to society, which has been established in countries such as England for many years, but only recently has the field garnered more attention. However, as opposed to a dialect, the basic concept of a sociolect is that a person speaks in accordance with their social group whether it is with regard to one's ethnicity, age, gender, etc. As William Labov once said, "the sociolinguistic view ...
583-437: A standardized variety of Demotic Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus, and is referred to as "Standard Modern Greek", or less strictly simply as "Greek", "Modern Greek", or "Demotic". Demotic Greek comprises various regional varieties with minor linguistic differences, mainly in phonology and vocabulary. Due to the high degree of mutual intelligibility of these varieties, Greek linguists refer to them as "idioms" of
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#1732848910311636-463: A verb, such as augmentation and reduplication , and has lost some patterns of noun declension and some distinct forms in the declensions. Most of these features are shared with other languages spoken in the Balkan peninsula (see Balkan sprachbund ), although Greek does not show all typical Balkan areal features, such as the postposed article. Because of the influence of Katharevousa, however, Demotic
689-550: A wider "Demotic dialect", known as "Koine Modern Greek" ( Koiní Neoellinikí - 'common Neo-Hellenic'). Most English-speaking linguists however refer to them as "dialects", emphasizing degrees of variation only when necessary. Demotic Greek varieties are divided into two main groups, Northern and Southern. The main distinguishing feature common to Northern variants is a set of standard phonological shifts in unaccented vowel phonemes: [o] becomes [u] , [e] becomes [i] , and [i] and [u] are dropped. The dropped vowels' existence
742-497: Is "different language, dialects, or styles are used in different social contexts". Language attitudes are "social in origin, but that they may have important effects on language behavior, being involved in acts of identity, and on linguistic change." Linguistic variable is "a linguistic unit...initially developed...in order to be able to handle linguistics variation. Variables may be lexical and grammatical, but are most often phonological". Example of British English (h) which
795-482: Is a Greek dialect of central Turkey of the same fate as Pontic; its speakers settled in mainland Greece after the Greek genocide (1919–1921) and the later Population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. Cappadocian Greek diverged from the other Byzantine Greek dialects earlier, beginning with the Turkish conquests of central Asia Minor in the 11th and 12th centuries, and so developed several radical features, such as
848-470: Is an almost extinct language of Romaniote Jews . The language was already in decline for centuries until most of its speakers were killed in the Holocaust . Afterward, the language was mostly kept by remaining Romaniote emigrants to Israel , where it was displaced by modern Hebrew . Tsakonian ( Τσακωνικά ) is spoken in its full form today only in a small number of villages around the town of Leonidio in
901-530: Is divided into groups that include: Demotic Greek has officially been taught in monotonic Greek script since 1982. Katharevousa ( Καθαρεύουσα ) is a sociolect promoted in the 19th century at the foundation of the modern Greek state, as a compromise between Classical Greek and modern Demotic. It was the official language of modern Greece until 1976. Katharevousa is written in polytonic Greek script. Also, while Demotic Greek contains loanwords from Turkish, Italian, Latin, and other languages, these have for
954-428: Is extremely rare, but could be heard in literary and scholarly words or when reading ancient texts (by a few readers); normally it retains its "original" pronunciation [ŋk] only in the trigraph ⟨ γκτ ⟩ , where ⟨ τ ⟩ prevents the sonorization of ⟨ κ ⟩ by ⟨ γ ⟩ (hence [ŋkt] ). Modern Greek is largely a synthetic language . Modern Greek and Albanian are
1007-409: Is geography: a certain region uses specific phonological, morphosyntactic or lexical rules. Asif Agha expands the concept by stating that "the case where the demographic dimension marked by speech are matters of geographic provenance alone, such as speaker's birth locale, extended residence and the like". However, a sociolect's main identifier is a socioeconomic class, age, gender, and/or ethnicity in
1060-425: Is implicit, and may affect surrounding phonemes: for example, a dropped [i] palatalizes preceding consonants, just like an [i] that is pronounced. Southern variants do not exhibit these phonological shifts. Examples of Northern dialects are Rumelian ( Constantinople ), Epirote , Macedonian , Thessalian , Thracian , Northern Euboean , Sporades , Samos , Smyrna , and Sarakatsanika . The Southern category
1113-552: Is largely unique, but several of the vowels can be spelt in multiple ways. Thus reading is easy but spelling is difficult. A number of diacritical signs were used until 1982, when they were officially dropped from Greek spelling as no longer corresponding to the modern pronunciation of the language. Monotonic orthography is today used in official usage, in schools and for most purposes of everyday writing in Greece. Polytonic orthography, besides being used for older varieties of Greek,
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#17328489103111166-610: Is named after Monastiraki Square, which in turn is named for the Church of the Pantanassa that is located within the square. The main streets of this area are Pandrossou Street and Adrianou Street. The Monastiraki Metro Station , located on the square, serves both Line 1 and Line 3 of the Athens Metro . This Athens location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Modern Greek language During most of
1219-733: Is not commonly used in its purest form. Archaisms are still widely used, especially in writing and in more formal speech, as well as in some everyday expressions, such as the dative εντάξει ('okay', literally 'in order') or the third person imperative ζήτω ! ('long live!'). The following is a sample text in Modern Greek of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (by the United Nations ): Άρθρο 1: Arthro 1: Árthro 1: [ˈarθro ˈena ‖ Όλοι Oloi Óli ˈoli οι oi i i άνθρωποι anthropoi ánthropi Sociolect In sociolinguistics ,
1272-440: Is sometimes also treated as equivalent with the concept of register , or used as a synonym for jargon and slang . Sociolinguists —people who study sociolects and language variation —define a sociolect by examining the social distribution of specific linguistic terms. For example, a sociolinguist would examine the use of the second person pronoun you within a given population. If one distinct social group used yous as
1325-404: Is sometimes present and sometimes not. Pragmatics is the meaning of a word in social context, while semantics has "purely linguistic meaning". Register is "a language variety that is associated with a particular topic, subject, or activity...." Usually, it is defined by vocabulary, but has grammatical features as well. The following is an example of the lexical distinction between
1378-559: Is still used in book printing, especially for academic and belletristic purposes, and in everyday use by some conservative writers and elderly people. The Greek Orthodox Church continues to use polytonic and the late Christodoulos of Athens and the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece have requested the reintroduction of polytonic as the official script. The Greek vowel letters and digraphs with their pronunciations are: ⟨ α ⟩ /
1431-426: Is that we are programmed to learn to speak in ways that fit the general pattern of our communities." Therefore, what we are surrounded with in our environment determines how we speak; hence, our actions and associations. The main distinction between sociolects (social dialects) and dialects proper (geographical dialects), which are often confused, is the settings in which they are created. A dialect's main identifier
1484-514: Is used by one word in the non-Brahmin caste and three separate words in the Brahmin caste. Furthermore, Agha references how the use of different speech reflects a "departure from a group-internal norm". For example, if the non-Brahmin caste uses Brahmin terms in their mode of speech it is seen as self-raising, whereas if people within the Brahmin caste use non-Brahmin speech it is seen as pejoratives. Therefore, depending on which castes use certain words
1537-556: Is used, then the wrong context is placed on the words. Furthermore, referring back to the diglossia expressed in the Arab-speaking world and the Tamil caste system in India, which words are used must be appropriate to not only the social class of the speaker, but the situation, the topic, and the need for courtesy. A more comprehensive definition is stated, "Code-switching is not only a definition of
1590-518: Is written in the Greek alphabet, which has 24 letters, each with a capital and lowercase (small) form. The letter sigma additionally has a special final form. There are two diacritical symbols, the acute accent which indicates stress and the diaeresis marking a vowel letter as not being part of a digraph . Greek has a mixed historical and phonemic orthography , where historical spellings are used if their pronunciation matches modern usage. The correspondence between consonant phonemes and graphemes
1643-605: The Dorian Greek settlers who colonised the area from Sparta and Corinth in 700 BC. It has received significant Koine Greek influence through Byzantine Greek colonisers who re-introduced Greek language to the region, starting with Justinian 's conquest of Italy in late antiquity and continuing through the Middle Ages. Griko and Demotic are mutually intelligible to some extent, but the former shares some common characteristics with Tsakonian. Yevanic ( יעואניקה , Γεβανικά )
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1696-696: The Mudaliyar and the Iyengar groups of the Tamil-speaking people in India . The Iyengar group is part of the Brahmin caste which is scholarly and higher in the caste hierarchy than the non-Brahmin or Mudaliyar, caste. The Mudaliyars use many of the same words for things that are differentiated within the Iyengars' speech. For example, as seen below, the difference between drinking water, water in general, and non-potable water
1749-602: The Modern Greek period, the language existed in a situation of diglossia , with regional spoken dialects existing side by side with learned, more archaic written forms, as with the vernacular and learned varieties ( Dimotiki and Katharevousa ) that co-existed in Greece throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Varieties of Modern Greek include Demotic, Katharevousa, Pontic, Cappadocian, Mariupolitan, Southern Italian, Yevanic, Tsakonian and Greco-Australian. Strictly speaking, Demotic or Dimotiki ( Δημοτική ), refers to all popular varieties of Modern Greek that followed
1802-631: The Ottomans in 1461. Thereafter, the Crimean Greek state continued to exist as the independent Greek Principality of Theodoro . The Greek-speaking inhabitants of Crimea were deported by Catherine the Great to resettle in the new city of Mariupol after the Russo-Turkish War (1768–74) to escape the then Muslim-dominated Crimea. Mariupolitan's main features have certain similarities with both Pontic (e.g.
1855-595: The Pontic villages of Turkey.) It derives from Hellenistic and Medieval Koine and preserves characteristics of Ionic due to ancient colonizations of the region. Pontic evolved as a separate dialect from Demotic Greek as a result of the region's isolation from the Greek mainstream after the Fourth Crusade fragmented the Byzantine Empire into separate kingdoms (see Empire of Trebizond ). Cappadocian ( Καππαδοκικά )
1908-414: The back vowels ( / o / and / u / ). When these digraphs are preceded by a vowel, they are pronounced [ŋɡ] and [ɲɟ] before front vowels ( / e / and / i / ) and [ŋ̄ɡ̄] before the back ( / o / and / u / ). The digraph ⟨ γγ ⟩ may be pronounced [ŋɣ] in some words ( [ɲʝ] before front vowels and [ŋ̄ɣ̄] before back ones). The pronunciation [ŋk] for the digraph ⟨ γκ ⟩
1961-455: The complex vowel system of Ancient Greek, with its four vowel-height levels, length distinction, and multiple diphthongs, Modern Greek has a simple system of five vowels. This came about through a series of mergers, especially towards /i/ ( iotacism ). Modern Greek consonants are plain (voiceless unaspirated) stops , voiced stops , or voiced and unvoiced fricatives . Modern Greek has not preserved length in vowels or consonants. Modern Greek
2014-518: The country. An example of a sociolect difference, based on social grouping, is the zero copula in African American Vernacular English . It occurs in a specific ethnic group but in all areas of the United States. William Labov gives an example: "he here" instead of "he's here." Code switching is "the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within
2067-595: The earliest attestations of the dialect. Ruméika ( Ρωμαίικα ) or Mariupolitan Greek is a dialect spoken in about 17 villages around the northern coast of the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine and Russia . Mariupolitan Greek is closely related to Pontic Greek and evolved from the dialect of Greek spoken in Crimea , which was a part of the Byzantine Empire and then the Pontic Empire of Trebizond , until that latter state fell to
2120-428: The independent speech communities can communicate in the same register; even if the change is as simple as different pronunciation. Therefore, the act of code-switching becomes essential. Code-switching is defined as "the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation". At times code-switching can be situational, depending on
2173-505: The lack of synizesis of -ía, éa ) and the northern varieties of the core dialects (e.g. the northern vocalism). Southern Italian or Italiot ( Κατωιταλιώτικα ) comprises both Calabrian and Griko varieties, spoken by around 15 villages in the regions of Calabria and Apulia . The Southern Italian dialect is the last living trace of Hellenic elements in Southern Italy that once formed Magna Graecia . Its origins can be traced to
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2226-604: The loss of the gender for nouns. Having been isolated from the crusader conquests ( Fourth Crusade ) and the later Venetian influence of the Greek coast, it retained the Ancient Greek terms for many words that were replaced with Romance ones in Demotic Greek. The poet Rumi , whose name means "Roman", referring to his residence amongst the "Roman" Greek speakers of Cappadocia, wrote a few poems in Cappadocian Greek, one of
2279-542: The most part been purged from Katharevousa. See also the Greek language question . Pontic ( Ποντιακά ) was originally spoken along the mountainous Black Sea coast of Turkey, the so-called Pontus region, until most of its speakers were killed or displaced to modern Greece during the Pontic genocide (1919–1921), followed later by the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. (Small numbers of Muslim speakers of Pontic Greek escaped these events and still reside in
2332-490: The only two modern Indo-European languages that retain a synthetic passive (the North Germanic passive is a recent innovation based on a grammaticalized reflexive pronoun ). Modern Greek has changed from Classical Greek in morphology and syntax , losing some features and gaining others. Features lost: Features gained: Modern Greek has developed a simpler system of grammatical prefixes marking tense and aspect of
2385-470: The phonological difference (e.g., R makes more consonantal and vocalic distinctions than B), while others are due to the morphological difference (e.g., difference in plural suffixes and certain verb inflections) between two varieties. The chart below gives an example of diglossia in Arabic-speaking nations and where it is used. Diglossia is defined by Mesthrie as "[a] situation where two varieties of
2438-488: The plural form of the pronoun, then this could indicate the existence of a sociolect. A sociolect is distinct from a regional dialect (regiolect) because social class , rather than geographical subdivision, substantiates the unique linguistic features. A sociolect, defined by leading sociolinguist and philosopher Peter Trudgill, is "a variety or lect which is thought of as being related to its speakers' social background rather than geographical background." This idea of
2491-443: The pragmatics change. Hence, this speech system is determined by socioeconomic class and social context. Norwegian does not have a spoken standard and is heavily dependent on dialect variants. The following example shows the difference between the national written standard and a spoken variant, where the phonology and pronunciation differ. These are not sociolectic differences per se. As Agha states, "Some lexical contrasts are due to
2544-480: The region of Arcadia in the Southern Peloponnese , and partially spoken further afield in the area. Tsakonian evolved directly from Laconian (ancient Spartan) and therefore descends from Doric Greek . It has limited input from Hellenistic Koine and is significantly different from and not mutually intelligible with other Greek varieties (such as Demotic Greek and Pontic Greek ). Some linguists consider it
2597-545: The same (or with a similar) articulation point in Ancient Greek. Before mid or close front vowels ( / e / and / i / ), ⟨ γ ⟩ and ⟨ χ ⟩ are fronted, becoming [ ʝ ] and [ ç ] , respectively, which, in some dialects, notably those of Crete and Mani , are further fronted to [ ʑ ] or [ ʒ ] and [ ɕ ] or [ ʃ ] , respectively. Μoreover, before mid or close back vowels ( / o / and / u / ), ⟨ γ ⟩ tends to be pronounced further back than
2650-645: The same conversation". Diglossia , associated with the American linguist Charles A. Ferguson , which describes a sociolinguistic situation such as those that obtain in Arabic-speaking countries and in German-speaking Switzerland. In such a diglossic community, the prestigious standard of 'High' (or H) variety, which is linguistically related to but significantly different from the vernacular or 'Low' (or L) varieties, has no native speakers. Domain
2703-400: The situation or topical, depending on the topic. Halliday terms this the best when he defines the role of discourse, stating that "it is this that determines, or rather correlates with, the role played by the language activity in the situation". Therefore, meaning that which register is used depends on the situation and lays out the social context of the situation, because if the wrong register
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#17328489103112756-553: The verbal -s not just on third-person singular verbs in the present tense such as in Standard American English , but added onto infinitives, first-person present verbs, and third-person past perfect verbs. Further examples of the phenomenon in AAVE are provided below. Below are examples of the lack of the possessive ending; -s is usually absent in AAVE but contains a rule As Labov states, "[the] use -s to indicate possession by
2809-401: The words are the same. Although a specific example of diglossia was not given, its social context is almost if not more important. For example, Halliday states that "in areas with Diglossia, the link between language and success is apparent as the higher, classical register is learned through formal education". Below is an example of African American Vernacular English, showing the addition of
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