Modern Greek

History

The Greek of today drift of the Koinè , itself direct heiress of the old Greek , but underwent a great number of phonetic transformations (like the Iotacisme, the Psilose, the disappearance of the oppositions of vocalic Quantité, the Spirantisation of old aspired, the passage of a Pitch to a tonic stress or the Amuïssement of some Phonème S, like, finally), lexical (many loans with the modern languages) and grammatical (simplification of the nominal Flection , of the Conjugation). He also developed certain characteristics shared with the surrounding languages, which rise from its participation in the Balkan linguistic Union.

In fact, it is not possible with a speaker of the modern Greek to include/understand a text in old Greek correctly, just as a French-speaking person cannot translate, without to have studied the language of it, of the Former French.

One can illustrate this evolution by a short extract of the New Testament (Jean I, 1) in modern Greek then in old Greek ( koinè , in fact). The pronunciation is indicated in a phonological way . To note that, in spite of the anachronism that constitutes, one transcribed the old Greek such as it could have been marked in traditional attic and not such as it was it at the time of drafting of the text, to show the differences between modern and traditional language:

The current language is an alternative known as Dhimotikí , which supplanted in 1975 an artificial language and archaïsante, the Katharévousa . Moreover, since 1982, the language is written with the system monotonic.

Writing and pronunciation

The modern Greek is written with an alphabet of twenty-four letters, inherited the beginning of the antiquated Period (eighth century BC). Each letter corresponded at the origin with a different sound (with ambiguities, mainly for the vowels), but in modern Greek the pronunciation evolved/moved, and several letters or groups of letters decide same manner, which makes the orthography as complex as that of the French (to hear a word is not often sufficient to be able to write it: for example, there exist five C-Ws communication for the sound “I”, because of the Iotacisme). The table below gives the pronunciation of the letters. The acute accent (or right, according to the font faces) mark the tonic Accent, in fat in the transcription.

The modern Greek follows rules of Sandhi as well internal as external. For example, a /n/ final sees its Joint adapting to the initial consonant of the word which follows (in front of a velar , it passes to ŋ ; at the end of certain function words like την, τον, δεν, it amuït in front of continuous; it voices a deaf Occlusive which follows it and can prevent sound spirantiser, the assimilations being able to be progressive: τον πατέρα ba' tεɾa).

In addition, of the groups of letters forming of the Digramme S have a special pronunciation:

Examples

Grammar

The modern Greek is a language with variations (like the German , for example): the Terminaison of the words changes according to the function word in the sentence. Even the proper names are declined: for example, one will say:

ο Φίλιππος έφυγε ( O Phílippos éfiye : “Philippe left”);
βλέπω τον Φίλιππο ( vlépo your Phílippo : “I see Philippe”);
είναι το σπίτι του Φίλιππου ( íne to spíti tou Phílippou : “it is the house of Philippe”).

This characteristic can seem rejecting with a French-speaking person (who however does not have evil to decline the Pronom it which gives the to the Accusatif and him with the Datif). It is however source of a great freedom of expression because the word order imports less than in French. For example, τον Φίλιππο βλέπω ( your Phílippo vlépo ) can be translated by “it is Philippe whom I see”.

In addition, the Greek distinguishes two Aspect S for each verb, marked each one by a distinct form: a continuous form (copied over the present) and an instantaneous form (copied on the past, called Aorist ). This difference is very alive and is found with the future and the subjunctive. A Greek will not confuse θα τον δω ( tha your dho ) and θα τον βλέπω ( tha your vlépo ): both mean “I will see it”, but the first implies “once” while the second means “continuously”.

Lexicon

See too

Internal bonds

Linguistic

Dictionary of the languages

Languages by family

Indo-European Languages

Greek group

Swadesh List of the modern Greek

Griko

External bonds

FiloglossiaMethode for apprende the modern Greek on line.
modern grammar of Greek
Vive-le-grec.com - sympathetic Site to learn the bases from the Old Greek, the alphabet (to learn how to trace the letters), of many versions, the vocabulary, the conjugations, the variations… A concentrate of happiness in 1 only site!
Freelang Dictionary - Greek-French Dictionary/French-Greek
To listen to and learn from the practical expressions in Greek (with audio and illustrations)
Greek Keyboard in line of incks
Greek keyboard on line of Lexilogos
Virtual Greek Keyboard Greek virtual Keyboard.

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