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. The competition between the popular and the learned registers, known as diglossia, culminated in the struggle between Demotic Greek and Katharevousa during the 19th and 20th centuries. As for regional dialects, variation within the bulk of dialects of present-day Greece is not particularly strong, except for a number of outlying, highly divergent dialects spoken by isolated communities. This article is an overview of the history of Greek. ... Greek ( IPA: or simply IPA: — Hellenic) has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single natural language in the Indo-European language family. ... The Greek alphabet (Greek: ) is an alphabet consisting of 24 letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 8th or early 8th century BC. It was the first alphabet in the narrow sense, that is, a writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel... The Proto-Greek language is the common ancestor of the Greek dialects, including the Mycenean language, the classical Greek dialects Attic-Ionic, Aeolic, Doric and North-Western Greek, and ultimately the Koine and Modern Greek. ... Mycenaean is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the 16th to 11th centuries BC, before the Dorian invasion. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Ancient Greek, in classical antiquity before the development of the Koiné as the lingua franca of Hellenism, was divided into several dialects. ... Aeolic Greek is a linguistic term used to describe a set of rather archaic Greek sub-dialects, spoken mainly in Boeotia (a region in Central Greece), in Lesbos (an island close to Asia Minor) and in other Greek colonies. ... Arcadocypriot was an ancient Greek dialect spoken in Arcadia and Cyprus between ca. ... Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of the Greek language that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ... Pamphylian is a little-attested dialect of Ancient Greek which was spoken in Pamphylia, on the southern coast of Asia Minor. ... Homeric Greek is the form of Ancient Greek that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. ... Koine redirects here. ... Medieval Greek (Μεσαιωνική Ελληνική) is a linguistic term that describes the fourth period in the history of the Greek language. ... Main article: Greek language Modern Greek (Νέα Ελληνικά or Νεοελληνική, lit. ... Cappadocian, also known as Cappadocian Greek or Asia Minor Greek, is a dialect of the Greek language, formerly spoken in Cappadocia (Central Turkey). ... Cretan Greek (Cretan dialect, Greek: Κρητική διάλεκτος or Kritika Κρητικά) is a dialect of the Greek language, spoken by more than half a million people in Crete and several thousands in the diaspora. ... Main article: Greek language Modern Greek (Νέα Ελληνικά or Νεοελληνική, lit. ... Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is a Modern Greek dialect which is spoken by people in the Magna Graecia region in southern Italy and Sicily, and it is otherwise known as the Grecanic language. ... Katharevousa (Greek Καθαρεύουσα, IPA: ) is a form of the Greek language, created during the early 19th century by Adamantios Korais (1748-1833). ... Pontic Greek is a form of the Greek language originally spoken on the shores of the Black Sea, the Pontus, today mainly in Greece. ... Tsakonian (also Tsakonic) (Standard Greek Τσακωνική Διάλεκτος — Tsakonic language — is a dialect of, or language closely related to, Standard Modern Greek, spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece. ... Yevanic, otherwise known as Yevanika, Romaniote and Judeo-Greek, was the language of the Romaniotes, the group of Greek Jews whose existence in Greece is documented since the 4th century BCE. Its linguistic lineage stems from Attic Greek and the Hellenistic Koine (Κοινή Ελ&#955... Main article: Greek language Modern Greek (Νέα Ελληνικά or Νεοελληνική, lit. ... In linguistics, a sociolect is the language spoken by a social group, social class or subculture. ... For dialects of programming languages, see Programming language dialect. ... Look up Diglossia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Katharevousa (Greek Καθαρεύουσα, IPA: ) is a form of the Greek language, created during the early 19th century by Adamantios Korais (1748-1833). ...

Diglossia: Demotic, Katharevousa and Standard Modern Greek

Ever since the times of Koiné Greek in Hellenistic and Roman antiquity, there was a competition between the naturally evolving spoken forms of Greek on the one hand, and the use of artificially archaic, learned registers on the other. The learned registers employed grammatical and lexical forms in imitation of classical Attic Greek (Atticism).^[1] This situation is known in modern linguistics as diglossia.^[2] Koine redirects here. ... Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of the Greek language that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. ... Atticism literally means favouring the Athenians. ... Look up Diglossia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

During the Middle Ages, Greek writing varied along a continuum between extreme forms of the high register very close to Attic, and moderate forms much closer to the spoken Demotic.^[3] During the early Modern Era, a middle-ground variety of moderately archaic written standard Greek emerged in the usage of educated Greeks (such as the Phanariots) and the Greek church. It syntax was essentially Modern Greek.^[4] After the Greek War of Independence and the formation of the modern Greek state (1830), a political effort was made to "purify" this form of Greek by bringing it back to resemble classical Attic Greek more closely. The result was Katharevousa (καθαρεύουσα, lit. 'the purifying one'). It was still a compromise form with basically Modern Greek syntax, but re-lexified with a much larger amount of Ancient Greek words and morphology.^[5] Katharevousa was used as an official language in administration, education, the church, journalism, and (until the late 19th century) in literature. Phanariotes (from Phanar, the chief Greek quarter at Istambul, where the oecumenical patriarchate is situated) were those members of families resident in the Phanar quarter who between the years 1711 and 1821 were appointed voivodes of the Danubian principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia). ... Combatants Greek revolutionaries United Kingdom France Russian Empire  Ottoman Empire Egyptian Khedivate Commanders Theodoros Kolokotronis Alexander Ypsilanti Georgios Karaiskakis Omer Vryonis Mahmud Dramali Pasha ReÅŸid Mehmed Pasha Ibrahim Pasha. ... For other uses, see Greece (disambiguation). ... Katharevousa (Greek Καθαρεύουσα, IPA: ) is a form of the Greek language, created during the early 19th century by Adamantios Korais (1748-1833). ...

At the same time, spoken Demotic, while not recognised as an official language, nevertheless developed a supra-regional, de-facto standard variety. From the late 19th century onwards, written Demotic rather than Katharevousa became the primary medium of literature. During much of the 20th century, there were heated political conflicts over the use of either of the two varieties, especially over the issue of their use in education. Schools were forced to switch from one form to the other and back several times during the 20th century. The conflict was resolved only after the overthrow of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974, whose strong ideological pro-Katharevousa stance had ultimately contributed to bringing that language form into disrepute.^[6] In 1976, shortly after the restitution of democracy, Demotic was finally adopted for use everywhere in education and became the language of the state for all official purposes. By that time, however, the form of Demotic used in practice was no longer the pure popular dialect, but had begun to assimilate elements from the Katharevousa tradition again. The Greek military junta of 1967-1974, alternatively The Regime of the Colonels (Greek: ), or in Greece The Junta (Greek: ) and The Seven Years (Greek: ) are terms used to refer to a series of right-wing military governments that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. ...

Modern linguistics has come to call the resulting variety "Standard Modern Greek" to distinguish it from the pure original Demotic of earlier literature and traditional vernacular speech. Greek authors sometimes use the term "Modern Greek Koiné" (Νεοελληνική Κοινή, literally 'Common Modern Greek'), reviving the term koiné that otherwise refers to the "common" form of post-classical Ancient Greek. Standard Modern Greek has incorporated a large amount of vocabulary from the learned tradition, especially through the registers of academic discourse, politics, technology and religion. Together with these, it has incorporated a number of morphological features associated with their inflectional paradigms, as well as some phonological features not originally found in pure Demotic. “Koine” redirects here. ... In linguistics, a register is a subset of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. ... For other uses, see Morphology. ... Phonology (Greek phonÄ“ = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ...

Historical literary dialects

Before the establishment of a common written standard of Demotic Greek, there were various approaches to using regional variants of Demotic as a written language. During the Cretan Renaissance in the 16th and early 17th centuries, when Crete was still under Venetian rather than Ottoman rule, there existed a florishing vernacular literature in the Cretan dialect, based on Italian literary influences. Its best-known specimen today is the verse romance Erotokritos, by Vitsentzos Kornaros (1553-1614). Later, during the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Ionian Islands, then also under Italian rule, became a centre of literary production in Demotic Greek. The best-known writer from that period was the poet Dionysios Solomos (1789-1857), who wrote the Greek national anthem (Hymn to Liberty) and other works celebrating the Greek Revolution of 1821-1830. His language became influential on the further course of standardisation that led to the emergence of the modern standard form of Demotic, based on the south-western dialects. Icon painted by Emmanuel Tzanes Bounialis, a 17th century Cretan artist (Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Museum, Athens). ... For other uses, see Crete (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Venice (disambiguation). ... Ottoman redirects here. ... As a literary genre, romance or chivalric romance refers to a style of heroic prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. ... Erotokritos (Greek Ερωτόκριτος) is a romantic epic composed by Vitsentzos Kornaros in early 17th century Crete. ... Vitsentzos Kornaros (1553-1617) was a 16th century Cretan poet who wrote the lengthy poem Erotokritos, dealing with themes such as love, honour, friendship and courage. ... The Ionian Islands (Modern Greek: Ιόνια νησιά, Ionia nisia; Ancient Greek: , Ionioi Nēsoi) are a group of islands in Greece. ... Image:Dionysios Solomos. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: All verses in Greek The Hymn to Liberty (Ύμνος εις την Ελευθερίαν Ímnos is tin Eleftherían) is a poem written by Dionýsios Solomós in 1823 that consists of 158 stanzas, set to music by Nikolaos Mantzaros. ... Combatants Greek guerilla forces Ottoman Empire forces Commanders Kolokotronis Vrionis, Ibrahim Pasha Strength Casualties {{{notes}}} The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution, was a successful war waged by the Greeks between 1821 and 1827 to win independence from the Ottoman Empire. ...

Spoken dialects

Spoken modern vernacular Greek can be distinguished into various geographical dialects. There are a small number of highly divergent, outlying dialects 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. Native Greek scholarship traditionally distinguishes between "dialects" proper (διάλεκτος), i.e. strongly marked, distinctive varieties, and mere "idioms" (ιδίωμα), less markedly distinguished sub-varieties of a language. In this sense, the term "dialect" is often reserved to only the outlying forms listed in the next section, whereas the bulk of mainstream spoken varieties of present-day Greece is classified as "idioms".^[7] For dialects of programming languages, see Programming language dialect. ...

Outlying dialects

• Tsakonian is a highly divergent dialect spoken in a small mountaneous area slightly inland from the east coast of the Peloponese peninsula. It is unique among all other modern dialects in that it is believed to derive not from the ancient Attic-Ionian Koiné, but from Doric. It used to be spoken earlier in a wider area of the Peloponese, including Laconia, the historical home of the Doric Spartans.

Location map of the Griko-speaking areas in Salento and Calabria

• Griko refers to the diaspora dialects of Greek spoken in some areas of southern Italy, a historical remnant of the ancient colonisation of Magna Graecia. There are two small Griko-speaking communities today in the Italian regions of Calabria, the southern tip of the Italian peninsula, and in Apulia, its south-easternmost corner. These dialects too are believed to have developed on the basis of an originally Doric ancient dialect, and have preserved some elements of it, though to a lesser extent than Tsakonian.^[8] They subsequently adopted influences from ancient Koiné, but became isolated from the rest of the Greek-speaking world after the decline of Byzantine rule in Italy during the middle ages. Among their linguistic peculiarities, besides influences from Italian, is the preservation of the infinitive, which was lost in the modern Greek of the Balkans.

The Pontus region.

• Pontic Greek dialects are those originally spoken along the eastern Black Sea coast of Asia Minor, the historical region of Pontus in Turkey. From there, speakers of Pontic migrated to other areas along the Black Sea coast, in Ukraine, Russia and Georgia. Through the forced population exchange after the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) and the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923, the Pontic speakers of Turkey were expelled and moved to Greece. Of the Pontic speakers in the ex-Soviet Union, many have emigrated to Greece more recently. Today Pontic Greeks form a 200,000-strong group within Greece,^[9] where some of them maintain the dialect. A small group of Muslim Pontic speakers is reported to be still found in Turkey.^[10] Their dialects show heavy structural convergence towards Turkish, similar to what was earlier reported for Cappadocian Greek, spoken in central Turkey until the early 20th century.^[11] In the 1920s Cappadocian speakers were forced to emigrate to Greece, where they were resettled in various locations. Cappadocian Greek, a dialect influenced by the Turkish language, is now extinct.^[12]
• Cargèse Greek, a dialect spoken, until the mid-20th century, in Cargèse on Corsica, by descendants of 16th-century settlers from the Mani peninsula.^[13]

Tsakonian (also Tsakonic) (Standard Greek Τσακωνική Διάλεκτος — Tsakonic language — is a dialect of, or language closely related to, Standard Modern Greek, spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece. ... Greece and the Peloponnese The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus (Greek: Πελοπόννησος Peloponnesos) is a large peninsula in southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth. ... Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of the Greek language that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ... “Koine” redirects here. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ... Laconia (; see also List of traditional Greek place names), also known as Lacedaemonia, is a prefecture in Greece. ... For modern day Sparta, see Sparti (municipality). ... Map of the Griko-speaking areas in Salento and Calabria This image is based on a free map template of Italy found on Wikipedia: http://en. ... Map of the Griko-speaking areas in Salento and Calabria This image is based on a free map template of Italy found on Wikipedia: http://en. ... Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is a Modern Greek dialect which is spoken by people in the Magna Graecia region in southern Italy and Sicily, and it is otherwise known as the Grecanic language. ... Magna Graecia around 280 b. ... For other uses, see Calabria (disambiguation). ... This article is bad because of the Italian region. ... In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1500x1200, 1231 KB) The Pontus region, Turkey. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1500x1200, 1231 KB) The Pontus region, Turkey. ... Pontic Greek is a Greek language which was originally spoken on the shores of the Black Sea (Pontus). Pontics linguistic lineage stems from Attic Greek, and contains influences from Byzantine Greek, Turkish influence and some Persian and Caucasian borrowings. ... For other uses, see Black Sea (disambiguation). ... Anatolia (Greek: ανατολη anatole, rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to... Traditional rural Pontic house A man in traditional clothes from Trabzon, illustration Pontus is the name which was applied, in ancient times, to extensive tracts of country in the northeast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) bordering on the Euxine (Black Sea), which was often called simply Pontos (the main), by... Cartoon depicting a Turk and a Greek arguing over the exchange. ... Combatants Greece Turkish Revolutionaries Commanders Gen Leonidas Paraskevopoulos, Gen Anastasios Papoulas, Gen Georgios Hatzianestis Ali Fethi Okyar, Ä°smet Ä°nönü, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Fevzi Çakmak Strength 200,000 men 120,000 men (plus village protectors) Casualties 23,500 dead; 20,820 captured 20,540 dead; 10,000 wounded The... Borders as shaped by the treaty The Treaty of Lausanne (July 24, 1923) was a peace treaty that settle a part of the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire that reflected the consequences of the Turkish Independence War between Allies of World War I and Turkish national movement, (Grand National Assembly... Cappadocian, also known as Cappadocian Greek or Asia Minor Greek, is a dialect of the Greek language, formerly spoken in Cappadocia (Central Turkey). ... Cargèse (Corsican: Carghjese) is a village and commune in the Corse-du-Sud département of France, on the island of Corsica. ... For other uses, see Corsica (disambiguation). ... Map of Greece highlighting the Mani peninsula. ...

Core dialects

Map showing the distribution of major Modern Greek dialect areas[14]

Map showing important isoglosses between the traditional Modern Greek dialects (c.1900).[15] Purple: Area of "northern vocalism" (/skiˈli/ > [skli]) Yellow: Area of palatalisation of /k/ > tʃ (/kiriaˈki/ > [tʃirjaˈtʃi] Green: Area of palatalisation of /k/ > [ts] (/kiriaˈki/ > [tsirjaˈtsi]) Brown: Geminated initial consonants (/ne/ > [nne]) Red: Retention of word-final /n/ Dark brown: Historical /y/ > /u/

Unlike the above, the dialects described below form a contiguous Greek-speaking area, which covers most of the territory of Greece. They represent the vast majority of Greek speakers today. As they are less divergent from each other and from the standard, they are typically classified as mere "idioms" rather than "dialects" by Greek authors, in the native Greek terminology. Isoglosses on the Faroe Islands High German subdivides into Upper German (green) and Central German (blue), and is distinguished from Low Franconian and Low German (yellow). ...

The most prominent contrasts between the present-day dialects are found between northern and southern varieties. Northern varieties cover most of continental Greece down to the Gulf of Corinth, while the southern varieties are spoken in the Peloponese peninsula and the larger part of the Aegean and Ionian islands, including the large southern islands of Crete and Cyprus. The most salient defining marker of the northern varieties is their treatment of unstressed vowels (so-called northern vocalism), while many southern varieties are characterised, among other things, by their palatalisation of velar consonants. Between these areas, in a contiguous area around the capital Athens (i.e. the regions of Attica and neighbouring parts of Boeotia, Euboia, the Peloponese and nearby islands), there is a "dialectal void" where no distinctly marked traditional Greek dialects are found.^[16] This is due to the fact that these areas were once predominantly inhabited by speakers of Arvanitika Albanian. The Greek spoken in this area today is the product of convergence between varieties of migrants who moved to the capital and its surroundings from various other parts of the country, and it is close to the standard. On the whole, Standard Modern Greek is based predominantly on the southern dialects, especially those of the Peloponese. The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. ... Greece and the Peloponnese The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus (Greek: Πελοπόννησος Peloponnesos) is a large peninsula in southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth. ... Aegean Sea Islands: map showing island groups. ... The Ionian Islands (Modern Greek: Ιόνια νησιά, Ionia nisia; Ancient Greek: , Ionioi NÄ“soi) are a group of islands in Greece. ... For other uses, see Crete (disambiguation). ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ... This article is about the capital of Greece. ... Attica (in Greek: Αττική, Attike; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a periphery (subdivision) in Greece, containing Athens, the capital of Greece. ... Boeotia or Beotia (//, (Greek Βοιωτια; see also list of traditional Greek place names) was the central area of ancient Greece. ... Euboea, or Negropont (Greek: Εύβοια, modern transliteration: Evvoia, Evvia or Evia), is the largest island of the Greek archipelago. ... Arvanitika or Arvanitic (native name: arbërisht, Greek: αρβανίτικα arvanitika) is the variety of Albanian traditionally spoken by the Arvanites, a population group in Greece. ...

At the fringes of this former Arvanitika-speaking area, there were once some enclaves of highly distinct traditional Greek dialects, believed to have been remnants of a formerly contiguous Greek dialect area from the time before the Arvanitic settlement. These include the old local dialect of Athens itself ("Old Athenian"), that of Megara (further west in Attica), of Kymi in Euboia and of the island of Aegina. These dialects are now extinct.^[17] Megara (Greek: Μέγαρα (Big Houses); see also List of traditional Greek place names) is an ancient city in Attica, Greece. ... For Cuma, near Naples, Italy, see Cumae. ... Aegina (Greek: Αίγινα (Egina)) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 31 miles (50 km) from Athens. ...

The following linguistic markers have been used to distinguish and classify the dialects of Greece. Many of these features are today characteristic only of the traditional rural vernaculars and may be socially stigmatised. Younger, urban speakers throughout the country tend to converge towards accents closer to the standard language. Social stigma is severe social disapproval of personal characteristics or beliefs that are against cultural norms. ...

Phonological features

Further information: Modern Greek phonology

• Northern vocalism (high vowel loss). In the north, unstressed high vowels (/i/ and /u/) are typically deleted (e.g. [skli] vs. standard [skiˈli]) 'dog'). Unstressed mid vowels (/e/ and /o/) are raised to [i] and [u] instead (e.g. [piˈði] vs. standard [peˈði] 'child'). Subtypes of this phenomenon can be distinguished as follows: in "Extreme Northern" dialects these two processes apply throughout. In mid "Northern" dialects the deletion of /i/ and /u/ applies only to word-final vowels. "Semi-Northern" dialects only have the deletion of word-final /i/ and /u/, but not the raising of /e/ and /o/.^[18] The latter include Mykonos, Skiros, Lefkada and the urban dialect of the Greeks of Constantinople (Istanbul).

• Palatalisation. Standard Greek has an allophonic alternation between velar consonants ([k], [ɡ], [x], [ɣ]) and palatalised counterparts (([c], [ɟ], [ç], [ʝ]) before front vowels (/i/, /e/). In southern dialects, the palatalisation goes further towards affricates (e.g. [tʃe] vs. standard [ce] 'and'). Subtypes can be distinguished that have either palato-alveolar ([tʃ], [dʒ], [ʃ], [ʒ]) or alveolo-palatal sounds ([tɕ], [dʑ], [ɕ], [ʑ]). The former are reported for Cyprus, the latter for Crete, among others.^[19]

• Tsitakism. In a core area in which the palatalisation process has gone even further, covering mainly the Cycladic Islands, palatalised /k/ is further fronted to alveolar [ts] and thus merges with the original phoneme /ts/.^[20] This phenomenon is known in Greek as tsitakism (τσιτακισμός). It was also shared by Old Athenian.

• Ypsilon. A highly archaic feature shared by Tsakonian, the Maniot dialect, and the Old Athenian enclave dialects, is the divergent treatment of historical /y/ (<υ>). While this sound merged to /i/ everywhere else, these dialects have /u/ instead (e.g. [ˈksulo] vs. standard [ˈksilo] 'wood').^[21]

• Geminate consonants. Most Modern Greek varieties have lost the distinctively long (geminate) consonants found in Ancient Greek. However, the dialects of the south-eastern islands, including Cyprus, have preserved them, and even extended them to new environments such as word-initial positions. Thus, the word ναι 'yes' is pronounced with a distinctively long initial /n/ in Cypriot, and there are minimal pairs such as φυλλα [ˈfilla] 'leaves' vs. φίλα [ˈfila] 'kiss!', which are pronounced exactly the same in other dialects but distinguished by consonant length in Cypriot.^[22]

• Dark /l/. A distinctive marker of modern northern vernaculars, especially of Macedonia, is the use of a "dark" (velarised) [ɫ] sound.

• Medial fricative deletion. Some dialects of the Aegean Islands, especially in the Dodecanese, have a tendency of deleting intervocalic voiced fricatives /v/, /ð/, /ɣ/ (e.g. [meˈalo] vs. standard [meˈɣalo] 'big').^[23]

• Nasals and voiced plosives. Dialects differ in their phonetic treatment of the result of the assimilation of voiceless plosives with preceding nasals. All dialects have a voicing of the plosive in this position, but while some dialects also have an audible segment of prenasalisation, others do not; thus ton patera may be realised as either [tombaˈtera] or [tobaˈtera].^[24] Furthermore, prenasalisation tends to be preserved in more formal registers regardless of geography. In informal speech, it tends to be more common in northern varieties.

This page presents a sketch of the phonology of Standard Modern Greek. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... For other uses, see Mykonos (disambiguation). ... Lefkada, or Lefkas (Greek: Modern: Λευκάδα, Ancient/Katharevousa: -as) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, connected to the mainland by a long causeway and floating bridge, as well as the islands capital city. ... Istanbul (Turkish: , Greek: , historically Byzantium and later Constantinople; see other names) is Turkeys most populous city, and its cultural and financial center. ... In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Sagittal section of alveolo-palatal fricative In phonetics, alveolo-palatal (or alveopalatal) consonants are palatalized postalveolar fricatives, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate. ... For other uses, see Crete (disambiguation). ... The Cyclades (Greek Κυκλάδες) are a Greek island group in the Aegean Sea, south-east of the mainland of Greece; and an administrative prefecture of Greece. ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... Map of Greece highlighting the Mani peninsula. ... In phonetics, gemination is when a spoken consonant is doubled, so that it is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a single consonant. ... In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have a distinct meaning. ... The velarized alveolar lateral approximant, which may actually be uvularized or pharyngealized, also known as dark l, is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. ... Aegean Sea Islands: map showing island groups. ... The Dodecanese (Greek Δωδεκάνησα, Dodekánisa, Turkish Onikiada, both meaning twelve islands; Italian Dodecaneso) are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, off the southwest coast of Turkey. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Prenasalized stops are phonetic sequences of nasal plus plosive that behave phonologically like single consonant. ...

Grammatical features

Further information: Modern Greek grammar

• Final /n/. Most Modern Greek varieties have lost word-final -n, once a part of many inflectional suffixes of Ancient Greek, in all but very few grammatical words. The south-eastern islands have preserved it in many words (e.g. [ˈipen] vs. standard [ˈipe] 'he said'; [tiˈrin] vs. standard [tiˈri] 'cheese').^[25]

• inda? versus ti? In Standard Greek, the interrogative pronoun 'what?' is ti. In most of the Aegean Islands (except at its geographical fringe: Rhodes in the south-east, Lemnos, Thasos and the Sporades in the north; and Andros in the west), it is inda.^[26]

• Indirect objects. All Modern Greek dialects have lost the Ancient Greek dative case. But while in some dialects this has resulted in a merger between the dative and the genitive, in others it has been a merger between the dative and the accusative. In the standard and in the southern dialects, the personal pronoun forms used to express indirect objects are those of the genitive case, as in ex. (1) below. In northern dialects — including those of Thessaloniki and of Constantinople— in Rhodes and in Mesa Mani the accusative forms are used instead,^[12] as in ex. (2).

This article presents a sketch of the grammar of Standard Modern Greek, as spoken in present-day Greece and Cyprus. ... Inflection of the Spanish lexeme for cat, with blue representing the masculine gender, pink representing the feminine gender, grey representing the form used for mixed-gender, and green representing the plural number. ... Look up Suffix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An interrogative pronoun (also known simply as an interrogative) is a pronoun used in asking questions. ... This article is about the Greek island of Rhodes. ... Lemnos (mod. ... Thasos or Thassos (Greek: Θάσος, Ottoman Turkish: طاشوز Taşöz, Bulgarian: ) is an island in the northern Aegean Sea, close to the coast of Thrace and the plain of the river Nestos (during the Ottoman times Kara-Su). ... This is a list of some of the 3000 islands of Greece: Chrysi Crete Dia Euboea Gavdos Koufonisi Ydra The Cyclades Amorgos Anafi Andros Antiparos Anydro Delos Donoussa Folegandros Gyaros Ios Irakleia Kea Keros Kimolos Kithnos Makronisos Milos Mykonos (Mikonos) Naxos Paros Pholegandros Santorini (also called Thira) Serifos Sifnos Sikinos... Andros, or Andro (Greek: Άνδρος), an island of the Greek archipelago, the most northerly of the Cyclades, approximately 10 km (6 miles) south east of Euboea, and about 3 km (about 2 miles) north of Tinos. ... Dative has several meanings. ... The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. ... The term accusative may be used in the following contexts: A form of morphosyntactic alignment, as found in nominative-accusative languages. ... Personal pronouns are pronouns often used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. ... The dative case is a grammatical case for nouns and/or pronouns. ... This article is about the Greek island of Rhodes. ... Map of Greece highlighting the Mani peninsula. ...

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