Greek language

==Writing system==
{{Greek Alphabet}}
{{See also|Greek Braille}}
===Linear B===
{{Main|Linear B}}

[[Linear B]], attested as early as the late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek.<ref name=":0"/> 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).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Linear B : an introduction|last=Hooker|first= J. T. |date=1980|publisher=Bristol Classical Press|isbn=978-0-906515-69-3|location=Bristol|oclc=7326206}}</ref> The language of the Linear B texts, [[Mycenaean Greek language|Mycenaean Greek]], is the earliest known form of Greek.<ref name=":0" />

===Cypriot syllabary===
{{Main|Cypriot syllabary}}
[[File: Cypriot syllabic inscription 600-500BC.jpg|thumb|Greek inscription in Cypriot syllabic script]]
Another similar system used to write 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Cypriot-syllabary/28419|title=Cypriot syllabary|work=Britannica Academic|access-date=1 August 2017}}</ref>

===Greek alphabet===
{{Main|Greek alphabet|Greek orthography}}
[[File:Greek alphabet variants.png|thumb|Ancient epichoric variants of the Greek alphabet from [[Euboea]], [[Ionia]], Athens, and [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]] comparing to modern Greek]]
Greek has been written in 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 Greek|Ionic]] variant, introduced for writing classical [[Attic Greek|Attic]] in 403&nbsp;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 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 ([[capital letter|majuscule]]) and lowercase ([[lower case|minuscule]]) form. The letter [[sigma]] has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
! colspan="33" | [[upper case]]
|-
|[[Alpha|Α]]||[[Beta|Β]]||[[Gamma|Γ]]||[[Delta (letter)|Δ]]||[[Epsilon|Ε]]||[[Zeta|Ζ]]||[[Eta|Η]]||[[Theta|Θ]]||[[Iota|Ι]]||[[Kappa|Κ]]||[[Lambda|Λ]]||[[Mu (letter)|Μ]]||[[Nu (letter)|Ν]]||[[Xi (letter)|Ξ]]||[[Omicron|Ο]]||[[Pi (letter)|Π]]||[[Rho|Ρ]]||[[Sigma|Σ]]||[[Tau|Τ]]||[[Upsilon|Υ]]||[[Phi|Φ]]||[[Chi (letter)|Χ]]||[[Psi (letter)|Ψ]]||[[Omega|Ω]]
|-
! colspan="33" | [[lower case]]
|-
|α||β||γ||δ||ε||ζ||η||θ||ι||κ||λ||μ||ν||ξ||ο||π||ρ||σ<br />ς||τ||υ||φ||χ||ψ||ω
|}

====Diacritics====
{{main|Greek diacritics}}
In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of [[diacritic|diacritical signs]]: three different accent marks ([[acute accent|acute]], [[grave accent|grave]], and [[circumflex]]), originally denoting different shapes of [[pitch accent]] on the stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ([[rough breathing|rough]] and [[smooth breathing]]), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the [[trema (diacritic)|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 [[penmanship|handwriting]] saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of 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 [[Greek diacritics|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), is still used internationally for the writing of [[Ancient Greek]].

====Punctuation====
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 ''[[Interpunct#Ano teleia|ano teleia]]'' ({{lang|grc|άνω τελεία}}). In Greek the [[comma]] also functions as a [[silent letter]] in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing {{lang|el|{{linktext|ό,τι}}}} (''ó,ti'', 'whatever') from {{lang|el|ότι}} (''óti'', 'that').<ref>{{cite web |last=Nicolas |first=Nick |title=Greek Unicode Issues: Punctuation |year=2005 |url=http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/punctuation.html |access-date=7 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120806003722/http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/punctuation.html |archive-date=6 August 2012 }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The concise Oxford dictionary of linguistics|last=Hugoe|first=Matthews Peter|date=March 2014|others=Oxford University Press.|isbn=978-0-19-967512-8|edition=Third|location=Oxford|oclc=881847972 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> [[Boustrophedon]], or bi-directional text, was also used in Ancient Greek.

===Latin alphabet===
Greek has occasionally been written in the [[Latin script]], especially in areas under [[Stato da Màr|Venetian rule]] or by [[Roman Catholicism in Greece|Greek Catholics]]. The term {{lang|grc-Latn|Frankolevantinika}} / {{lang|grc|Φραγκολεβαντίνικα}} applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because {{lang|grc-Latn|Frankos}} / {{lang|grc|Φράγκος}} is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe was under the control of the [[Frankish Empire]]). {{lang|grc-Latn|Frankochiotika}} / {{lang|grc|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.<ref>{{harvnb|Androutsopoulos|2009|pp=221–249}}.</ref>

The Latin script is nowadays used by the [[Griko dialect|Greek-speaking]] communities of [[Southern Italy]].

===Hebrew alphabet===
The [[Yevanic]] dialect was written by [[Romaniote Jews|Romaniote]] and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the [[Hebrew Alphabet]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.omniglot.com/writing/yevanic.htm|title=Yevanic alphabet, pronunciation and language|website=www.omniglot.com|access-date=18 April 2020}}</ref>

===Arabic alphabet===
Some [[Greek Muslim]]s [[Cretan Muslim|from Crete]] wrote their [[Cretan Greek]] in the [[Arabic alphabet]]. The same happened among Epirote Muslims in [[Ioannina]]. This usage is sometimes called [[aljamiado]], as when [[Romance language]]s are written in the Arabic alphabet.<ref name="Kotzageorgis">{{cite book 
|last=Kotzageorgis
|first= Phokion
|editor1-last=Gruber |editor1-first=Christiane J. |editor2-last=Colby |editor2-first=Frederick Stephen |title=The Prophet's Ascension: Cross-cultural Encounters with the Islamic Mi'rāj Tales |date=2010 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-35361-0 |pages=297 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sjLHirJmvPUC&q=Reworking+the+Ascension+in+Ottoman+Lands:+An+Eighteenth-Century+Mi%27r%C4%81jn%C4%81ma+in+Greek+from+Epirus&pg=PA297 |language=en |quote=The element that makes this text a ''[[wiktionary:unicum|unicum]]'' is that it is written in Greek script. In the Ottoman Empire, the primary criterion for the selection of an alphabet in which to write was religion. Thus, people who did not speak—or even know—the official language of their religion used to write their religious texts in the languages that they knew, though in the alphabet where the sacred texts of that religion were written. Thus, the Grecophone Catholics of Chios wrote using the Latin alphabet, but in the Greek language (''[[frangochiotika]]''); the Turcophone Orthodox Christians of Cappadocia wrote their Turkish texts using the Greek alphabet (''[[karamanlidika]]''); and the Grecophone Muslims of the Greek peninsula wrote in Greek language using the Arabic alphabet (''[[tourkogianniotika]]'', ''[[tourkokretika]]''). Our case is much stranger, since it is a quite early example for that kind of literature and because it is largely concerned with religious themes."; p. 306. The audience for the Greek ''[[Mi'rājnāma]]'' was most certainly Greek-speaking Muslims, in particular the so-called ''[[Tourkogianniot]]es'' (literally, the Turks of Jannina). Although few examples have been discovered as yet, it seems that these people developed a religious literature mainly composed in verse form. This literary form constituted the mainstream of Greek ''[[Aljamiado]]'' literature from the middle of the seventeenth century until the [[population exchange between Greece and Turkey]] in 1923. Tourkogianniotes were probably of Christian origin and were Islamized sometime during the seventeenth century. They did not speak any language other than Greek. Thus, even their frequency in attending mosque services did not provide them with the necessary knowledge about their faith. Given their low level of literacy, one important way that they could learn about their faith was to listen to religiously edifying texts such as the Greek ''Mi'rājnāma''.}}</ref>