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