Modern Greek - Demotic As Koiné (Standard) Modern Greek

Demotic As Koiné (Standard) Modern Greek

Standard Modern Greek (Κοινή Νεοελληνική) refers to the form of Demotic that was chosen as the official language of Greece and Cyprus. The Greek term "Κοινή Νεοελληνική", besides its literal meaning of "Common Modern Greek", also evokes the parallel with the ancient Koiné, from which it descends. It is universally spoken in the urban parts of Greece, with minor variation in the vernacular forms used in rural Greece and the Greek diaspora.

Standard Modern Greek evolved from the Southern Demotic dialects, primarily those of Peloponnese, and is thus, ultimately, a descendant of the ancient Koiné of the Hellenistic era. After Greece gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829, the dual-language status of the late Byzantine Empire was re-adopted. The vernacular speech was Demotic (a term similar to "popular") and the official state dialect was Katharevousa ("purified"). Demotic was the language of daily vernacular use, whereas Katharevousa, a more archaic form closer to Attic, was used for formal purposes such as literature, newscasting and official documents. In the course of the 20th century, Demotic saw a slow functional expansion as it was adopted gradually in more and more domains of life, including literature and some parts of journalism and education. The competition between the two forms, known as the "language question" remained a hotly contested ideological issue during much of the early and mid 20th century, and official policies towards the extent of use of Demotic in education and administration changed multiple times. In 1976 Katharevousa was finally replaced by Demotic as the official language of the Greek state. However, by this time, the form of Demotic actually used in practice was marked by a considerable amount of influence from Katharevousa, because during its expansion to new communicative domains it had enriched its vocabulary through internal loans from the learned tradition. It is for this reason that modern linguistics has adopted terms like Standard Modern Greek or "Modern Koiné" for the resulting variety, distinguishing it from "pure" traditional Demotic.

By far the largest part of modern Greek vocabulary remains the same as the ancient Greek one, with most changes involving a simplified pronunciation, grammar, and syntax (e.g. ήλιος, "sun"; θάλασσα, "sea"; μητέρα, "mother"). Another part is also Greek, but with shifts in meaning and usage (e.g. κρασί, "wine"; νερό, "water"; "ψάρι", fish). Many new words have been created from standard Greek rootstock, to be used for meanings that were nonexistent in ancient times (e.g. ποδόσφαιρο, "football"; εφημερίδα, "newspaper"; λεωφορείο, "bus"). Layers of loanwords have entered Greek from other languages (Latin, Arabic, Italian, Turkish, Spanish, Slavic, etc.) at various times of cultural exchange, some of which have survived into modern usage, whereas others have not. Relatively few loanwords from the French entered modern Greek usage in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with some similar influx from the English occurring since WWII.