What dialect is modern Greek?

Today, a standardized variety of Demotic Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus, and is referred to as “Standard Modern Greek”, or less strictly simply as “Greek”, “Modern Greek”, or “Demotic”.

What dialect did Plato write?

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, for instance, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Plato’s dialogues, the Hippocratic Oath, and Aristotle’s treatises on ethics, politics, and physics were all written originally in Greek over two thousand years ago.

What is the dialect of ancient Greece?

Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, and Doric, many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions.

What were the two main dialects of the Greek language?

Two main varieties of the language may be distinguished: the local dialects, which may differ from one another considerably, and the Standard Modern Greek (Greek: Koini Neoelliniki, “Common Modern Greek”).

What dialect did Aristotle speak?

Attic Greek was the Greek of Athens. This is the dialect of the ancient Greek plays, Aristotle, and Plato. Because of the volume of literature available in this dialect, it is commonly used in beginning textbooks. Koine Greek is the common Greek of the Roman Empire.

What dialect did Homer write in?

Homeric Greek
Homeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey and in the Homeric Hymns. It is a literary dialect of Ancient Greek consisting mainly of Ionic and Aeolic, with a few forms from Arcadocypriot, and a written form influenced by Attic.

What dialect did Geoffrey Chaucer speak?

The poetry of Chaucer, along with other writers of the era, is credited with helping to standardise the London Dialect of the Middle English language from a combination of the Kentish and Midlands dialects.

What are the different dialects of Ancient Greek?

Ancient Greek in classical antiquity, before the development of the κοινή (koiné) “common” language of Hellenism, was divided into several dialects. Most of them are known only from inscriptions, but a few of them, principally Aeolic, Doric, and Ionic, are also represented in the literary canon alongside the dominant Attic form of literary Greek.

What is the most widely spoken language in Greece?

During antiquity, Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world. It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek. In its modern form, Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union.

How are the linguistic varieties of Modern Greek classified?

The linguistic varieties of Modern Greek can be classified along two principal dimensions. First, there is a long tradition of sociolectal variation between the natural, popular spoken language on the one hand and archaizing, learned written forms on the other. Second, there is regional variation between dialects.

How divergent is the modern Greek language?

There are a small number of highly divergent, outlying varieties spoken by relatively isolated communities, and a broader range of mainstream dialects less divergent from each other and from Standard Modern Greek, which cover most of the linguistic area of present-day Greece and Cyprus.