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79-729: The Trisagion ( Greek : Τρισάγιον ; 'Thrice Holy'), sometimes called by its opening line Agios O Theos , is a standard hymn of the Divine Liturgy in most of the Eastern Orthodox , Western Orthodox , Oriental Orthodox , and Eastern Catholic churches. In churches which use the Byzantine Rite , the Trisagion is chanted immediately before the Prokeimenon and the Epistle reading. It

158-570: 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,

237-767: A deeper meaning as the word halel in Hebrew means a joyous praise in song, to boast in God. The second part, Yah , is a shortened form of YHWH , and is a shortened form of his name "God, Jah, or Jehovah". The name ceased to be pronounced in Second Temple Judaism , by the 3rd century BC due to religious beliefs. The correct pronunciation is not known. However, it is sometimes rendered in non-Jewish sources as " Yahweh " or " Jehovah ". The Septuagint translates Yah as Kyrios (the L ORD , stylized in all-capitals in English), because of

316-552: 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

395-556: 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

474-531: 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

553-460: A joyous praise in song. The second part, Yah, is a shortened form of YHWH ( Yahweh or Jehovah in modern English). In the Hebrew Bible hallelujah is actually a two-word phrase, hal(e)lu-Yah , and not one word. The first part, hallu , is the second-person imperative masculine plural form of the Hebrew verb hillel . The phrase "hallelujah" translates to "praise Jah/Yah", though it carries

632-766: 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

711-1349: Is also included in a set of prayers named for it, called the Trisagion Prayers, which forms part of numerous services (the Hours, Vespers , Matins , and as part of the opening prayers for most services). It is most prominent in the Latin Church for its use on Good Friday. It is also used in the Liturgy of the Hours and in some Catholic devotions. The Trisagion prayer is an ancient prayer in Christianity. In Greek : Ἅγιος ὁ Θεός, Ἅγιος ἰσχυρός, Ἅγιος ἀθάνατος, ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς. Hágios ho Theós, Hágios iskhūrós, Hágios āthánatos, eléēson hēmâs. In Latin : Sanctus Deus, Sanctus Fortis, Sanctus Immortalis, miserere nobis. In English – literal translation: Holy God, Holy Strong, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. In English – common liturgical translation: Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. In Syriac : ܩܕܝܫܬ ܐܠܗܐ܆ ܩܕܝܫܬ ܚܝܠܬܢܐ܆ ܩܕܝܫܬ ܠܐ ܡܝܘܬܐ܆ ܐܬܪܚܡܥܠܝܢ Qadišat Aloho, qadišat ḥaylṯono qadišat lo moyuṯo eṯraḥam ʿalayn. The Greek phrase Trisagion translates as "Thrice Holy". In this hymn God

790-554: Is also located within many of the Hours and daily cycle of services. The full version normally looks like this: While it is possible that the Trisagion has origins in the Biblical 'thrice holy' of Isaiah 6:3 (the Sanctus : Holy, holy, holy, Lord of Sabaoth. Heaven and earth are full of your glory', etc.), they are today separate prayers. The latter is used at a different point in the Liturgy (in

869-742: 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

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948-474: 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

1027-459: Is described as holy in three different qualities; Agios o Theos means "Holy God". The hymn is of great antiquity, and perhaps much older than the event assigned by the Greek Menology as connected to its origin. The tradition recounts that during the reign of Theodosius II (408–450) Constantinople was shaken by a violent earthquake, 24 September, and that whilst the people, the emperor and

1106-478: Is frequently spoken to express happiness that a thing hoped or waited for has happened. An example is its use in the song " Get Happy ". " Hallelujah " was the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 , performed in Hebrew by Milk and Honey , including Gali Atari , for Israel . Leonard Cohen 's 1984 song "Hallelujah" was initially rejected by Columbia Records for lacking commercial appeal,

1185-510: 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

1264-764: 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 Hallelujah The phrase

1343-518: 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

1422-758: 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,

1501-630: 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

1580-745: Is this usage that Charles Jennens extracted for the Hallelujah Chorus in Handel 's Messiah . This transliteration is the basis of the alternative Latin transliteration "Alleluia" that is also used by Christians. The word "hallelujah" is sung as part of the Hallel Psalms (interspersed between Psalms 113–150). In Tractate Shabbat of the Talmud, Rabbi Yose is quoted as saying that the Pesukei dezimra Psalms should be recited daily. Psalms 145–150, also known as

1659-962: Is used in Judaism as part of the Hallel prayers, and in Christian prayer, where since the earliest times it is used in various ways in liturgies , especially those of the Catholic Church , the Lutheran Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Church , the three of which use the Latin form alleluia which is based on the alternative Greek transliteration. Hallelujah is a transliteration of Hebrew : הַלְלוּ יָהּ ( hallū yāh ), which means "praise ye Jah!" (from הַלְלוּ ‎, "praise ye!" and יָהּ ‎, "Jah".) The word hallēl in Hebrew means

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1738-739: Is used on all Fridays; on all Sundays: 'risen from the dead'; on Holy Thursday : 'betrayed for us'; on Holy Saturday : 'buried for us'; on the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos : 'who came to the death of the Holy Mother and Virgin'; on the feasts of the Holy Cross : 'who was crucified for us'; for the celebration of marriages: 'who took flesh for us', etc. The Coptic Orthodox , Syriac Orthodox , Malankara Orthodox and other Oriental Orthodox Churches also use

1817-887: The Armenian Rite , used by the Armenian Orthodox Church and the Armenian Catholic Church , the Trisagion occurs early in the Divine Liturgy, coming after the troparion of the Monogenes (Only-begotten Son) and the Midday first Antiphon. The choir sings the Trisagion during the lesser entrance of the Gospel Books. The Trisagion also has a similar place in the liturgies of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria ,

1896-695: The Book of Psalms ( 104–106 , 111–117 , 135 , 145–150 ), but twice in Psalm 150 :6. It starts and concludes a number of Psalms. The Greek transliteration ἀλληλούϊα ( allēlouia ) appears in the Septuagint version of these Psalms, in Tobit 13:17 and 3 Maccabees 7:13 , and four times in Revelation 19:1–6 , the great song of praise to God for his triumph over the Whore of Babylon . It

1975-597: The Council of Chalcedon (451), and is common not only to all the Greek Oriental liturgies but was used also in the Gallican Liturgy (see Saint Germain of Paris , d. 576), which shows that the hymn is ancient. Some believe it is extremely ancient, perhaps of apostolic-era origin. However this goes against the menology tradition regarding its origin. The Coptic Orthodox Church and Armenian Apostolic Church believe that

2054-664: The Divine Liturgy , during the anaphora ). The trisagion is also sung at the entry of the coffin into the church at a funeral and when the coffin is carried to the grave. It is also sung at the conclusion of the Great Doxology . In the Latin Church, the main regular use of the Trisagion is on Good Friday , when it is sung during the ceremony of the Adoration of the Cross , in Popule meus . In

2133-486: 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

2212-674: The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church , as well as the Coptic Catholic Church and the Ethiopian Catholic Church . During most services of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Trisagion is combined with several other prayers to form a unit, often called simply the Trisagion Prayers. This set of prayers forms part of the opening prayers of most services, and

2291-427: The Hallel of pesukei dezimra , are included to fulfill this requirement in the liturgy for the traditional Jewish Shacharit (morning) service. In addition, on the three Pilgrimage Festivals , the new moon and Hanukkah , Psalms 113-118 are recited. The latter psalms are known simply as Hallel with no additional qualification. Psalms 146:10 , ending with Halleluja, is the third and final biblical quotation in

2370-510: 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

2449-557: The Kedushah . This expanded version of the third blessing in the Amidah is said during the Shacharit and Mincha (morning and afternoon) services when there is a minyan present. For most Christians , "Hallelujah" is considered a joyful word of praise to God, rather than an injunction to praise him. The word " Alleluia ", a Latin derivative of the Hebrew phrase "Hallelujah" has been used in

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2528-402: The Patriarch Proclus of Constantinople (434–446) were praying for heavenly assistance, a child was suddenly lifted into midair, to whom all cried out Kyrie eleison ('Lord, have mercy'). The child was then seen to descend again to the earth, and in a loud voice he exhorted the people to pray : 'Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal'. The hymn was one of the exclamations of the fathers at

2607-402: The Prophetia . Benedict XIV thought that the Greek formula was joined with the Latin in allusion to the divine voice heard at Constantinople. But the explanation seems hardly necessary, in view of the retention of Kyrie eleison in the Roman Liturgy, as well as such Hebrew words as Amen , Alleluia , Hosanna , Sabaoth . It is true that the Kyrie eleison is not joined to a Latin version; on

2686-420: The Sistine Chapel , the traditional setting was the polyphonic musical setting of Palestrina . During this service, the hymn is sung by two choirs, alternately in Greek and Latin , originally two antiphonal Greek and Latin choirs, as follows: The hymn is sung in this manner thrice, responding to the first three of twelve reproaches . In the Latin Church, the Trisagion is employed in the hour of Prime , in

2765-408: The Syriac Orthodox Church , Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church , Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church , the Syriac Catholic Church , Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and in a hybrid form, the Maronite Church and other derived rites of Syriac Christianity , the Trisagion is sung towards the beginning of the Holy Qurbana (Divine Liturgy), after the Old Testament Readings and the Introductory Hymn. In

2844-492: 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

2923-415: 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

3002-486: 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

3081-425: 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

3160-442: 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

3239-629: 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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3318-446: 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

3397-401: The Jewish custom of replacing the sacred name with " Adonai ", meaning "my Lord". The linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann argues that the word Hallelujah is usually not replaced by a praise God! translation due to the belief in iconicity : the perception that there is something intrinsic about the relationship between the sound of the word and its meaning. הַלְלוּיָהּ is found in 24 verses in

3476-463: The Trisagion found in the 1979 BCP is as follows: Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, Have mercy upon us. In Common Worship used by the Church of England , the Trisagion is used principally as a concluding prayer of the Litany in the following form: Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ )

3555-515: The Trisagion originated from Nicodemus. While taking the body of Christ off the cross with Joseph of Arimathea , Nicodemus saw Jesus Christ's eyes open and then shouted "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal". Traditionally, it is also considered proof that his Divinity did not part from his humanity. The Gallican Liturgy refers to it as being sung both in Greek and in Latin: Incipiente præsule ecclesia Ajus [that is, Agios] psallit, dicens latinum cum græco , as also previously in Greek alone, before

3634-404: 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),

3713-452: The addition in 512 at Constantinople resulted in a riot. Whether the Trisagion is to be understood as addressed to the Holy Trinity or addressed to God the Son has been a matter of contention, particularly between those who approved of the council of Chalcedon and those who were against it. But, in light of widespread adoption of the hymn with the above addition ('who wast crucified for us'), Calandion , Bishop of Antioch , sought to allay

3792-412: The additions, which Pope Gregory argues (incorrectly) that neither the Roman nor any Eastern Church (save the Armenians themselves) had adopted. The injunction appears to have been ignored. When, centuries later, Roman Catholic union with the Armenians was again discussed, a question was addressed (30 January 1635) to the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide as to whether the Armenian Catholics might still use

3871-402: 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

3950-402: The bitter pains of eternal death. The Episcopal Church's 1979 Book of Common Prayer introduced the Trisagion into the Eucharist in both Rite One and Rite Two as part of the Word of God. In Rite One it follows the Summary of the Law. In Rite Two it can be used as an alternative to the Kyrie eleison , which follows the Collect for Purity and precedes the Collect of the Day . The form of

4029-424: The controversy surrounding it by prefixing the words 'Christ, King'. This had the effect of making the hymn refer directly to the incarnate Word: Holy God, Holy and Strong, Holy and Immortal, Christ, King, who was crucified for us, have mercy on us. Though perhaps well intended, this effort at emendation was ultimately rejected. Later Severus , who was the Non-Chalcedonian Patriarch of Antioch , wrote to prove

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4108-476: The correct ascription of the hymn to the Son of God, and made the use of the emended version standard in his diocese. The eighty-first canon of the Council of Trullo anathematized anyone who allows the Trisagion to be modified by adding "who was crucified for us" or any other modification. In the eleventh century, Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085) wrote to the Armenians, who still used the emended formula, instructing them to avoid all occasion for scandal by removing

4187-404: 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

4266-448: 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

4345-466: The expressions of "Hallelujah" and "Praise the Lord" are used by Christians as spontaneous expressions of joy, thanksgiving and praise towards God. In contemporary worship services across denominational lines, the use of these jubilatory phrases require no specific prompting or call or direction from those leading times of praise and singing. In Methodist worship, "Hallelujah!" is a frequently used ejaculatory prayer . In modern English, "Hallelujah"

4424-404: The ferial Preces, on ferias of Advent and Lent and on common Vigils. There is a Chaplet to the Holy Trinity used by the Order of the Most Holy Trinity called 'The Trisagion' or the 'Angelic Trisagion', which makes use of both forms of the Trisagion. [1] It also occurs in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin and in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy . In the Latin Church , an indulgence of 100 days

4503-452: 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

4582-412: The formula 'crucified for us', with minor seasonal variations from the Armenian use. When the Trisagion is sung during the Divine Liturgy of the Byzantine Rite , before the Prokeimenon of the Gospel that precedes the Epistle reading, it is normally sung three times to one of many melodies composed for it. This is followed by singing Glory... Now... , the second half of the Trisagion once, and finally

4661-405: The formula 'who suffered for us'. The request was answered in the negative. Nevertheless, Armenian Catholic continue to use the traditional formula. Variations of the traditional formula and Trinitarian ascription are found also in the Armenian Orthodox Liturgy. In these the hymn is addressed to the Redeemer, and versions vary with the feast or office. Thus, the formula of Peter the Fuller (above)

4740-426: The graveside Burial liturgy in the first Book of Common Prayer and subsequent revisions, including those in 1552 , 1559 , 1604 , and 1662 . The form found in the 1662 prayer book is: In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased? Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into

4819-439: 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

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4898-414: 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

4977-458: 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

5056-441: 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

5135-399: 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

5214-408: 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

5293-706: 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

5372-410: The other hand, it is so simple and occurs so frequently, that its meaning could easily be learned and remembered – whereas the entire Trisagion might well receive a parallel version into Latin. Various additions or modifications made to the Trisagion at certain points in history have been the subject of considerable controversy. According to Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor, the phrase 'who wast crucified for us'

5451-405: The same manner, though in Christian liturgy , the "Alleluia" specifically refers to a traditional chant, combining the word with verses from the Psalms or other scripture. In the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church , and in many older Protestant denominations, such as the Lutheran Churches , the Alleluia, along with the Gloria in excelsis Deo , is not spoken or sung in liturgy during

5530-440: The season of Lent , instead being replaced by a Lenten acclamation , while in Eastern Churches , Alleluia is chanted throughout Lent at the beginning of the Matins service, replacing the Theos Kyrios , which is considered more joyful. At the Easter service and throughout the Pentecostarion , Christos anesti is used in the place where Hallelujah is chanted in the western rite expressing happiness. In day-to-day situations,

5609-437: 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

5688-764: The whole Trisagion a fourth time: On the other hand, in the usage of the other, non-Byzantine Eastern Churches, the Trisagion is simply sung thrice, with no Glory... Now... . In the East Syriac Rite , used by the Assyrian Church of the East and Syro-Malabar Catholic Church , the Trisagion is sung towards the beginning of the Holy Qurbana , before the Old Testament Readings. In the West Syriac Rite , used by

5767-568: 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

5846-657: Was added to it by Eustathius of Antioch to combat the Arians , although this is dismissed by some scholars. It was more likely written during the time of Peter the Fuller who enforced its use as a sort of "test of orthodoxy against Nestorianism". Those who understood the hymn as being addressed to the Trinity (such as John of Damascus ) censured Peter for propagating the teaching of the Theopaschites . Emperor Anastasius I 's attempt to adopt

5925-549: 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

6004-498: 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

6083-557: Was once associated with the Trisagion when prayed once a day together with the Sanctus , with a contrite heart to adore the Holy Trinity . A prayer similar to the Trisagion is a part of the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy : It is referred to as the "Holy God prayer," and is said near the end of the chaplet. A paraphrase of the Trisagion was used in the anthem "In the midst of life" found in

6162-566: 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

6241-653: 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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