Greek language

==History==
{{Main|History of Greek}}
Greek has been spoken in the [[Balkans|Balkan peninsula]] since around the 3rd millennium BC,<ref name=BVG>{{harvnb|Renfrew|2003|p=35}}; {{harvnb|Georgiev|1981|p=192}}.</ref> or possibly earlier.<ref>{{harvnb|Gray|Atkinson|2003|pp=437–438}}; {{harvnb|Atkinson|Gray|2006|p=102}}.</ref> The earliest written evidence is a [[Linear B]] [[clay tablet]] found in [[Messenia]] that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC,<ref>{{Cite web|date=1 April 2011|title=Ancient Tablet Found: Oldest Readable Writing in Europe|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/110330-oldest-writing-europe-tablet-greece-science-mycenae-greek|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725055018/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/110330-oldest-writing-europe-tablet-greece-science-mycenae-greek|url-status=dead|archive-date=25 July 2021|access-date=2022-01-20|website=Culture|language=en}}</ref> making Greek the world's [[List of languages by first written accounts|oldest recorded]] [[Modern language|living language]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Tulloch | first=A. | title=Understanding English Homonyms: Their Origins and Usage | publisher=Hong Kong University Press | year=2017 | isbn=978-988-8390-64-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h7YjEAAAQBAJ | access-date=2023-11-30|page=153|quote=Greek is the world's oldest recorded living language.}}</ref> Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct [[Anatolian languages]].

===Periods===
[[File:Proto Greek Area reconstruction.png|thumb|[[Proto-Greek language|Proto-Greek]]-speaking area according to linguist [[Vladimir I. Georgiev]]]]
The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods:
* '''[[Proto-Greek language|Proto-Greek]]''': the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the [[Geography of Greece|Greek peninsula]] sometime in the [[Neolithic]] era or the [[Bronze Age]].{{NoteTag|A comprehensive overview in J.T. Hooker's ''Mycenaean Greece'';<ref>{{harvnb|Hooker|1976|loc=Chapter 2: "Before the Mycenaean Age", pp. 11–33 and passim}}</ref> for a different hypothesis excluding massive migrations and favoring an autochthonous scenario, see Colin Renfrew's "Problems in the General Correlation of Archaeological and Linguistic Strata in Prehistoric Greece: The Model of Autochthonous Origin"<ref>{{harvnb|Renfrew|1973|pp=263–276, especially p. 267}}</ref> in ''Bronze Age Migrations'' by R.A. Crossland and A. Birchall, eds. (1973).}}
* '''[[Mycenaean Greek]]''': the language of the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean civilization]]. It is recorded in the [[Linear B]] script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards.
* '''[[Ancient Greek]]''': in its various [[Ancient Greek dialects|dialects]], the language of the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] and [[Classical Greece|Classical]] periods of the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek civilization]]. It was widely known throughout the [[Roman Empire]]. Ancient Greek fell into disuse in Western Europe in the [[Middle Ages]] but remained officially in use in the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] world and was reintroduced to the rest of Europe with the [[Fall of Constantinople]] and [[Greeks|Greek]] migration to western Europe.
* '''[[Koine Greek]]''' (also known as '''Hellenistic Greek'''): The fusion of [[Ionian Greek|Ionian]] with [[Attic Greek|Attic]], the dialect of [[Classical Athens|Athens]], began the process that resulted in the creation of the first common Greek dialect, which became a [[lingua franca]] across the [[Eastern Mediterranean]] and [[Near East]]. Koine Greek can be initially traced within the armies and conquered territories of [[Alexander the Great]]; after the Hellenistic colonization of the known world, it was spoken from [[Egypt]] to the fringes of India. After the [[Roman Republic|Roman]] conquest of Greece, an unofficial [[Multilingualism|bilingualism]] of Greek and [[Latin]] was established in the city of [[Rome]] and Koine Greek became the first or second language in the [[Roman Empire]]. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek because the [[Twelve Apostles|Apostles]] used this form of the language to spread Christianity. Because it was the original language of the [[New Testament]], and the [[Old Testament]] was translated into it as the [[Septuagint]], that variety of Koine Greek may be referred to as '''New Testament Greek''' or sometimes '''Biblical Greek'''.
[[File: Anatolian Greek dialects.png|thumb|Distribution of varieties of Greek in [[Anatolia]], 1910. [[Modern Greek#Demotic|Demotic]] in yellow. [[Pontic Greek|Pontic]] in orange. [[Cappadocian Greek]] in green, with green dots indicating individual Cappadocian Greek villages.<ref>{{harvnb|Dawkins|Halliday|1916}}.</ref>]]
* '''[[Medieval Greek]]''' (also known as '''Byzantine Greek'''): the continuation of Koine Greek up to the demise of the [[Byzantine Empire]] in the 15th century. ''Medieval Greek'' is a cover phrase for a whole continuum of different speech and writing styles, ranging from vernacular continuations of spoken Koine that were already approaching Modern Greek in many respects, to highly learned forms imitating classical Attic. Much of the written Greek that was used as the official language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine.
* '''[[Modern Greek]]''' (also known as '''Neo-Hellenic'''):<ref name="Ethnologue">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/ell|title=Greek|website=Ethnologue|language=en|access-date=12 April 2020}}</ref> Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period, as early as the 11th century. It is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several [[Varieties of Modern Greek|dialects]] of it.

===Diglossia===
{{Main|Greek language question}}
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: [[Demotic Greek|Dimotiki]], 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 in Greece|education]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The modern Greek language : a descriptive analysis of standard modern Greek|last=Peter|first=Mackridge|date=1985|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-815770-0|location=Oxford [Oxfordshire]|oclc=11134463}}</ref>

===Historical unity===
[[File:Modern Greek dialects en.svg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|The distribution of major modern Greek dialect areas]]
The historical unity and continuing identity between 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 a foreign language.<ref>{{harvnb|Browning|1983|pp=vii–viii}}.</ref> It is also often{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} 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 Greek|Demotic]] than 12-century [[Middle English]] is to [[Modern English|modern spoken English]]".<ref>{{harvnb|Alexiou|1982|p=161}}.</ref>