Greek Language

Ancient Greek Language

The Language of the ancient Greeks and its origins are still open for debate amongst modern day scholars. A number of theories attribute the arrival of the language in the area but no proof is evident for the claims and so the actual birth of the Greek language is not truly known. What we do know is there were three main dialects in the archaic and classical periods and these were the languages of the three main tribes of Ancient Greece.

Aeolic, Doric, and Ionic were the dialects of the three tribes, the Aeolians who inhabited the islands of the Aegean and the west coast of Asia Minor north of Smyrna, the Dorians of the coast of the Pelopennesus, of Sparta, Crete and the southernmost parts of the west of Asia Minor and the Ionians from the west coast of Asia Minor, Smyrna south of its borders. Ionic, became the primary literary language of ancient Greece and Doric was standard for Greek lyric poetry. Athens used a sub dialect of Ionic called Attic Greek which survives today in the form of the classical Greek literature. As the influence and military prowess of Greece expanded the languages evolved into multiple dialects until the arrival of Alexander The Great who helped combine these dialects into one which helped in assisting in the control of the empire through one common dialect or form called Koine. One Language for all the empire helped in both military and trade strategies and with all new members of the empire learning this one dialect it flourished. Greek was the language of the Eastern Roman empire until the fall of Constantinople.

The first and oldest known writings or script for the ancient Greek was the Linear B syllabary, which seems to be related to the Linear A script of the Minoan civilisation language. Linear B was used for writing the archaic dialect of Mycenaean several centuries before the Greek alphabet was formed. Linear A seems not to have fitted with the pronunciation of the Greek language so the adaptation occurred. There are many Greek sounds missing in the Linear B signs and this caused modern scholars problems when trying to translate the script. There is the standard syllabic grid and then there are optional signs that are used to clarify the spelling of a certain word. Linear B has signs that are phonetic and also logograms that represent physical objects. Some leave no doubt to what they represent while others seem to be more symbolic or even iconic. Some signs took on dual roles to act as both logograms and syllabograms in such that the phonetic value did not match the sounds they represented. In the early classical periods Greek was written using an alphabet system that had been derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet and developed into what is now known as the Greek alphabet.

The language of the Greeks developed over the centuries but after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire its influence dwindled and impact reduced to a few states surviving into the modern form that is spoken today. Modern Greek has two forms of dialect Demotic and Katharevusa, Katharevusa was the official language of the state while the demotic being the common dialect was accepted after the fall of the Junta.

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