84-557: The Pentecostarion ( Greek : Πεντηκοστάριον , Pentekostárion ; Church Slavonic : Цвѣтнаѧ Трїωдь , Tsvyetnaya Triod , literally "Flowery Triodon"; Romanian : Penticostar ) is the liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches during the Paschal Season which extends from Pascha (Easter) to the Sunday following All Saints Sunday (i.e.,
168-570: 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,
252-552: 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
336-556: 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
420-531: 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
504-714: A special format known as the Paschal Hours . The reading of the Psalter , which normally forms a major portion of all of the Daily Offices , is completely omitted. In the temple (church building), the Holy Doors on the iconostasis are left open for the entire week, symbolizing the open Tomb of Christ , and the Epitaphion (shroud) is visible on the Holy Table (altar), representing
588-458: Is a unique feast in the church year; being the "Feast of Feasts" it follows a format unlike any other day. Those liturgical elements normal to a Great Feast of the Lord which were displaced by Pascha's unique elements are instead chanted on Thomas Sunday. Radonitza (Russian: "Day of Rejoicing"), is a day of commemoration of the departed . Because the celebration of any memorial service for the departed
672-766: 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
756-474: 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
840-513: Is called "Thomas Sunday", because it recounts the appearance of Jesus to the Apostle Thomas eight days after his resurrection. Thomas Sunday is also called "Antipascha" (literally, "in the place of Pascha") because those who for honorable reason were not able to attend the Paschal Vigil, may attend services on this day instead. In middle Greek, "anti" Pascha also means "enter" Pascha. Pascha
924-633: Is forbidden from Holy Thursday through Thomas Sunday, a popular tradition has arisen of visiting the graves of departed loved ones and chanting memorial services on the first day this is permitted. There are no special hymns appointed in the Pentecostarion for Radonitza, and nothing different is done in the Daily Office. However, after the Divine Liturgy, it is customary for the faithful to visit cemeteries and serve memorial services, and to give alms in
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#17328594873451008-477: Is from John 17:1-13. The Seventh Saturday of Pascha, the day before Pentecost, is a Saturday of the Dead , on which the church commemorates all of the faithful departed "who in ages past have reposed in a godly manner, in hope of the resurrection of eternal life ." Two Epistles (Acts 28:1-31, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17) and two Gospels (John 21:14-25, John 5:24-30) are appointed to be read at the Divine Liturgy. On this day,
1092-517: Is interpreted as "sent", implying that the blind man's cure was bestowed for his obedience to Jesus). The miracle of the blind man (traditionally named Celidonius ) is remarkable in two respects: firstly, that although there are other accounts in both the Old Testament and the New of the blind having their sight restored, this is the only time someone born blind was given sight for the first time. Although
1176-462: Is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into 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 ,
1260-510: 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
1344-516: Is radically different from the services of any other time of the year. Throughout the course of the Pentecostarion, they gradually return to normal (see Canonical hours and Divine Liturgy ). The Afterfeast of Pascha lasts for 40 days, beginning on the Sunday of Pascha and concluding with the Apodosis ("leave-taking") of Pascha on the day before the Ascension of the Lord . The seven days beginning on
1428-506: Is served on the night of Pentecost. This is a Vespers service to which are added three sets of long poetical prayers, the composition of Saint Basil the Great , during which everyone makes a full prostration , touching their foreheads to the floor (prostrations in church having been forbidden from the day of Pascha up to this point). The churches are decorated with greenery, and among the Russians
1512-821: 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 Daily Office Too Many Requests If you report this error to
1596-758: 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,
1680-694: Is the use of the singing of the verse of Psalm 67 responsorially with the Paschal Troparion in place of the usual Psalm 104 at Vespers and the Hexapsalms at Matins . Only on Bright Friday are the Paschal hymns joined to another commemoration, that of the icon of the Theotokos , " Life-giving Spring ". On all of the other days of Bright Week, only the Resurrection may be celebrated. Exceptions are made for
1764-650: 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 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
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#17328594873451848-609: 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 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
1932-605: 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 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
2016-486: 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
2100-632: The Gospel reading for the day, John 5:1-15. The theme for this Sunday is the man who lay by the Sheep's Pool in Jerusalem for thirty-eight years. The first one to enter the pool after an angel troubled the water would be healed of his infirmities; but because the man was paralyzed, someone else always entered the pool before him. According to the Gospel account, Jesus had pity on the man, seeing he had no one to put him into
2184-510: 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
2268-641: 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 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
2352-596: The Revised Julian Calendar ("New Calendar") which uses the modern Gregorian Calendar to calculate their fixed feasts. Since there is currently a difference of thirteen days between the two calendars, the Apostles' Fast will be almost two weeks shorter for New Calendar churches, or in some years non-existent. All-Saints of Local Commemoration. This will differ from one national church to another. For instance, in Romania ,
2436-561: The Triodion , was the final period of preparation for the catechumens before their baptism, so the time of the Pentecostarion is the time of initiation into the Sacred Mysteries of the Christian religion for the "Newly Illumined" (i.e., the newly baptized). The two Sacred Mysteries of baptism and chrismation are reflected in the two feasts which mark the beginning and ending points of
2520-485: The feast day of a local patron saint , or for important feast days such as Saint George , which may be combined with the paschal celebration. If it becomes necessary to celebrate a funeral during Bright Week, even this service is radically different, and follows for the most part the format for Paschal Matins, with only a few funeral hymns being chanted. The Sunday which follows Pascha (the Second Sunday of Pascha)
2604-747: The fixed calendar feast day of the Apostles Peter and Paul on June 29 (for those churches which follow the Julian Calendar June 29 falls on July 12 of the modern Gregorian Calendar ). While all of the Orthodox Churches celebrate Pascha on the same day (with the exception of the Finnish Orthodox Church , which follows the Western Paschalion ), some churches follow the traditional Julian Calendar ("Old Calendar") and some follow
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2688-492: 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
2772-603: The physical presence of Jesus after his Resurrection, and is venerated by the faithful when they enter or leave the temple as a way of greeting the Resurrected Christ. At the end of either Matins or the Divine Liturgy , there is often a crucession (procession headed by the cross), during which the Paschal Canon is chanted, and the priest blesses with holy water . Unique to Vespers and Matins during Bright Week
2856-460: The 'Myrrhbearing Women' (the Theotokos , Mary Magdalene , and the other women who brought spices to the Tomb of Jesus ) and also to Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus , who cared for the burial of Jesus after his crucifixion . The placement of this feast is based upon the idea of the synaxis , wherein secondary persons directly involved in the events celebrated in one of the feasts are celebrated on
2940-765: The Apodosis of Pascha. According to the older practice, hymns of the Resurrection are chanted together with those for the Aposdosis of the Blind Man on Wednesday. According to the more modern practice in the Greek Orthodox Church (those following the " Typicon of the Great Church") the Apodosis of the Blind Man is chanted on Tuesday, while all of the services of Wednesday ( Vespers on Tuesday evening; Matins , Little Hours and Divine Liturgy on Wednesday morning) are chanted in
3024-638: The Ascension marked the end of Jesus' physical presence with his disciples after the Resurrection. The Afterfeast of Ascension lasts for eight days until the Apodosis on the following Friday. The Seventh Sunday of Pascha, which falls during the Afterfeast of the Ascension, commemorates the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council (325 AD). In addition to defending Christianity against Arianism ,
3108-537: The Council also passed a number of canons concerning church discipline, and also decreed that the date for celebrating Pascha both be reckoned independently from the Jewish Passover and be uniform throughout the world. The hymns and readings in the Pentecostarion are very rich in drawing out relevant symbolism from biblical texts. The Epistle for the Divine Liturgy is from Acts 20:16-18 and Acts 20:28-36. The Gospel
3192-666: The Departed is chanted at the Liturgy. Pentecost is the second most important feast of the church year, second in importance only to Pascha itself. The Great Feast lasts for seven days, with its Apodosis falling on the following Saturday. It is celebrated with an All-Night Vigil on the Eve of the Feast and Divine Liturgy on the day of the Feast. An extraordinary service called the Kneeling Prayer,
3276-486: 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
3360-491: 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
3444-629: 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
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3528-446: 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
3612-427: The Holy Trinity, commemorate their feast on this day (In Eastern Christianity, churches named after the Holy Trinity, commemorate their feast on Pentecost Sunday). The First Sunday After Pentecost is dedicated to the commemoration of All Saints . The next day (Monday) is the beginning of the Apostles' Fast . This is a unique fast in that it is of variable duration, beginning on the moveable calendar, but ending on
3696-416: The Paralytic, of the Samaritian Woman and of the Blind Man are characterized by their reference to the Sacrament of Baptism, each illustrating a different dimension or aspect of the Sacrament. The Week of the Blindman is the last week in the Afterfeast of Pascha, and the Apodosis of Pascha is the final day of the Paschal celebration. There are currently two different practices with regard to the celebration of
3780-456: The Pentecostarion in that it does not last a full week, but ends on the day before Mid-Pentecost. The Wednesday following the Sunday of the Paralytic is the Feast of Mid-Pentecost This is a "feast within a feast", and propers of the Resurrection are combined with propers for Mid-Pentecost. The hymns of the feast speak of it drawing together the themes of Pascha and Ascension. The Apodosis (leave-taking) of Mid-Pentecost comes one week later, on
3864-461: The Pentecostarion: Pascha and Pentecost. Baptism is naturally tied to the Resurrection, according to the Apostle Paul . Chrismation, the reception of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit is naturally reflected in Pentecost. Because of this, the imagery of water figures prominently in the hymns of the Pentecostarion . The services of the Pentecostarion begin during the Paschal Vigil starting at the stroke of midnight on Easter Sunday. The service for Pascha
3948-414: The Second Sunday After Pentecost ). The name means the Book of the "Fifty Days", referring to the period of time from Pascha to Pentecost . In Greek, it is also sometimes called the Joyful Pentecostarion ( Πεντηκοστάριον χαρμόσυνον , Pentekostárion Charmósynon ). In English, it is sometimes called the Paschal Triodion . The name "Pentecostarion" is also applied to the liturgical season covered by
4032-435: The Sunday of Pascha are referred to as "Bright Week" or "Renewal Week". On these days the services are completely different that the rest of the year. Everything is chanted rather than being simply read . Most of the services are much shorter than usual. Even the Divine Liturgy , which normally has little variation in it, has a number of changes which are particular to the Paschal celebration. The Little Hours are chanted in
4116-441: The Sunday which begins it; for instance, the week that follows Thomas Sunday is referred to as Thomas Week. During the liturgical season of the Pentecostarion, the Gospel of John is read in full, as is the Acts of the Apostles . Both of these books were chosen because of their instructive content. Pascha (Easter) is the traditional time for baptizing new converts to the faith. So, just as Great Lent , with its liturgical book,
4200-414: The Trinity." The whole week following Pentecost is an important ecclesiastical feast, and is a fast-free week , during which meat and dairy products may be eaten, even on Wednesday and Friday. Theologically, the Orthodox do not consider Pentecost to be the "birthday" of the Church; they see the Church as having existed before the creation of the world (cf. The Shepherd of Hermas ). The Orthodox icon of
4284-399: The act of salvation Jesus makes his disciples a "new creation". The second remarkable aspect of the miracle is that not only did Jesus give the man physical sight, but he bestowed upon him spiritual sight as well. In the blind man's dialogue with the Pharisees , he holds his own in the dispute, engaging in reasoned theological discourse as though he were educated. These three Sundays of
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#17328594873454368-404: 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),
4452-402: 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
4536-410: The biblical text does not explicitly say so, the hymns in the Pentecostarion follow the traditional interpretation that not only was this man born without sight, he was born even without eyes. Jesus' act of making clay is an act of creation (creating eyes where none were before), a repetition of the first act of the creation of man in Genesis 2:7. This indicates the traditional Christian teaching that in
4620-405: The book. The Pentecostarion is part of the Paschal cycle or "Moveable Cycle" of the ecclesiastical year . This cycle is dependent upon the date of Pascha and continued throughout the coming year until the next Pascha. Pascha (Easter) is the most important feast of the entire year, outranking by far all others. Each week of the Pentecostarion is named after the Gospel lesson which is read on
4704-417: The burial cloths ( John 20:6 ) which, according to Christian tradition, bore witness to the Resurrection of Jesus . The Paschal Artos ( Greek : Áρτος , "leavened loaf") is a loaf of risen bread bearing an icon of the Resurrection on it, which is blessed near the end the Paschal Vigil. It is then placed either near the Icon of Christ on the iconostasis or in the nave of the church. The Artos represents
4788-415: The clergy and faithful carry flowers and green branches in their hands during the services. Pentecost is a traditional time for baptisms. The week prior to the feast is known as "green week", during which all manner of plants and herbs are gathered. The Sunday of Pentecost is called "Trinity Sunday," the next day is called " Monday of the Holy Spirit ", and Tuesday of Pentecost week is called the "Third Day of
4872-418: The commemoration will be "All Saints of Romania", on Mount Athos the commemoration will be "All Saints of the Holy Mountain", etc. In the Orthodox Church of America , the commemoration is "All Saints of America". In the edition of the Pentecostarion used by the Old Believers and those who follow the Ruthenian recension, the contents of the Pentecostarion begin with the service of Palm Sunday and contain
4956-415: The day after. However, since Bright Week is devoted exclusively to the celebration of the Resurrection, and Thomas Sunday falls logically on the eighth day of the Resurrection (according to its biblical source), this day becomes the first Sunday on which these persons can be commemorated. The Sunday of the Paralytic is the Fourth Sunday of Pascha, and recalls Jesus' healing of the Paralytic , as recounted in
5040-404: The feast depicts the Twelve Apostles seated in a semicircle (sometimes the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) is shown sitting in the center of them). At the top of the icon, the Holy Spirit, in the form of tongues of fire, is descending upon them. At the bottom is an allegorical figure, called Kosmos , which symbolizes the world. Although Kosmos is crowned with glory he sits in the darkness caused by
5124-399: The following Wednesday. The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman is the Fifth Sunday of Pascha, commemorating the Woman by the well , (traditionally known as Photina in Greek or Svetlana in Russian), as recounted in the Gospel reading for the day, John 4:5-42. Like the Paralytic, the Samaritan Woman is commemorated only on Sunday and half the week (in this case, the second half), the first half of
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#17328594873455208-409: The hymns are devoted to prayer for the dead . The prokeimenon at Vespers and God is the Lord at Matins are replaced by Alleluia , and a number of structural changes are made to the services following the pattern of the Saturdays of the Dead which fall during Great Lent. A general Panikhida (memorial service) is served either after Vespers or after the Divine Liturgy, and the Ektenia (litany) for
5292-407: The ignorance of God. He is holding a towel on which have been placed 12 scrolls, representing the teaching of the Twelve Apostles. The Monday of the Holy Spirit, also called Whit Monday or Pentecost Monday, falls on the day after Pentecost Sunday. This day commemorates the Holy Spirit's role in the feast of Pentecost. Churches named after the Holy Spirit and, in Western Christianity, those named after
5376-439: 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
5460-414: 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
5544-458: 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
5628-441: 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
5712-405: The name of the departed. It is not unusual for families to bring a picnic with them to the cemeteries, which would include paschal foods, especially Easter eggs . Some people leave Easter eggs on the graves of their beloved departed as a way of giving the Paschal greeting to the departed, and as a sign of their belief in the resurrection of the dead . The Third Sunday of Pascha is dedicated to
5796-399: 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
5880-706: 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
5964-401: The pool, and healed him. The Kontakion for this day asks Christ to raise up the souls of the faithful, "paralyzed by sins and thoughtless acts." The underlying symbolism of the feast is that mankind, being unable to raise itself from the fall by its own will or power, needed "some man" (i.e., the Son of Man , the Messiah ) to come and raise it up. The feast of the Paralytic is unusual in
6048-588: The predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around 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
6132-418: The readings from Acts and the Gospel of St. John, which began on Pascha, are concluded. Traditionally, St. John Chrysostom's homily "On Patience and Gratitude" is appointed to be read in church (the same homily is also appointed for funerals ). Since the Apodosis of the Ascension fell on the previous day, there are no hymns appointed for this day which speak of either the Ascension or of Pentecost. Instead,
6216-506: The services of Holy Week . Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ ) 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
6300-403: The special Paschal form that was used during Bright Week. The Great Feast of the Ascension falls on the 40th day after Pascha (inclusive), always on a Thursday. The feast is celebrated with an All-Night Vigil starting on Wednesday evening. The Epitaphion (shroud), which had been on the Holy Table since the Paschal Vigil, is removed before the beginning of this service as an indication that
6384-437: 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
6468-447: The various stages of 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
6552-529: The vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in 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
6636-504: The week being dedicated to the afterfeast of Mid-Pentecost. The Sixth Sunday of Pascha is the Sunday of the Blind Man, commemorating Jesus' healing of the man born blind in John 9:1-48, recounted in the Gospel lesson for this day's Divine Liturgy. The Pentecostarion's theme of water is continued by the fact that Jesus sent the man to wash the clay from his eyes in the Pool of Siloam (the name 'Siloam'
6720-568: 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
6804-549: 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
6888-546: 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
6972-566: 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
7056-653: 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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