| Koine Greek is part of the legacy left | | | | Modern Greek, is written in a non-Latin |
| by Alexander the Great's imperial | | | | script. Greek is one of the richest |
| conquests which united Asia Minor, the | | | | surviving languages in the world today, |
| north of &rica, and the vast territories | | | | with a vocabulary more than 600,000 |
| of the Persian empire. Though his death | | | | words. Some scholars have stressed the |
| saw the end of the empire he had forged, | | | | similarity of Modern Greek to millennia |
| there remained a common Greek language, | | | | old Greek languages. The extent of |
| Koine, that continued to be spoken in | | | | Modern Greek's commonality with ancient |
| the lands he conquered. This became the | | | | Greek has been extensively reviewed and |
| common language of the Mediterranean | | | | debated. It is claimed that a |
| basin and the ancestor of Modern Greek. | | | | "reasonably well educated" speaker of |
| The Greek language, as we know it today, | | | | the modern tongue can read the ancient |
| had its origin during the classical era, | | | | dialects, but it is not made very clear |
| though it has undergone a considerable | | | | how much of that education consists of |
| number of changes. In our day, in its | | | | exposure to vocabulary and grammar |
| modern form, demotik?r 'popular' Greek | | | | obsolete in normal communication. |
| is the official language of Greece and | | | | The Greek language spoken in both in the |
| Cyprus. It is also a recognized minority | | | | Hellenistic and Byzantine eras is nearer |
| language in Italy, Turkey, and Albania. | | | | to Modern Greek. From 1934 to 1976 there |
| Greek is part of the Indo-European | | | | was an attempt to impose a purified |
| family of languages. The earliest form | | | | language, an attempt to correct |
| of Greek is thought to have originated | | | | centuries of natural linguistic changes) |
| in the 14th century BCE in Cretan | | | | as the only acceptable form of Greek in |
| inscriptions. Mycenaean Greek is | | | | Greece. |
| distinguished from later Classical or | | | | After 1976, Dimoti'ci, "speech of the |
| Greek of the 8th century BCE and after, | | | | people" was finally accepted by the |
| when texts came to be written in the | | | | Greek government as both the de facto |
| Greek alphabet. | | | | and de jure forms of the language. A |
| Various theories about the origins of | | | | large number of words and expressions |
| the Greek language exist. One suggests | | | | have remained unchanged through the |
| that it originated with a migration of | | | | centuries, and have found their way into |
| proto-Greek speakers into Greece, which | | | | a number of other languages, among them |
| is dated to any period between 3200 BC | | | | Latin, Italian, German, French and |
| to 1900 BC. Another theory holds that | | | | English. Some examples of these include |
| Greek evolved in Greece itself out of an | | | | mostly terminology names, such as |
| early language of Indo-European origin. | | | | astronomy, philosophy, democracy and |
| The Greek language including Attic and | | | | anthropology. |