ABSTRACT
Greek is today the official language of Greece and of the Republic of Cyprus, and is spoken by sizeable diaspora communities across the globe. Varieties of Greek are spoken by minorities in southern Italy (Griko) and on the coast of the Black Sea (Pontic). Until the early part of the twentieth century there were large numbers of Greek speakers in Turkey; dialects such as Cappadocian are now all but extinct. All of the modern dialects of Greek, with the possible exception of Tsakonian (spoken by a declining minority in villages on the slopes of Mount Parnon), which may be a survival of the ancient Laconian dialect, descend from the variety known as the Koine (Gr. κοινὴ διάλεκτος, ‘common dialect’) which itself developed from the “internationalised” version of the dialect of Athens of the fifth century BC, “Great Attic”, and was adopted by the Macedonian kings as the official court language. From an IE perspective Greek is a member of the “core” group of languages left behind by the split of Anatolian and Tocharian. It is generally now considered that it developed in situ in the Balkan Peninsula in the second millennium BC. A number of words, including some place names, terms for flora and fauna, and cultural items (Κόρινθος ‘Corinth’, σῦκον ‘fig’, ἀσάμινθος ‘bath-tub’) attest substrate influence of nonGreek (even non-IE) languages. Some, with problematic phonological details (e.g. ἵππος ‘horse’ < PIE *ekˊwos, with unexplained aspiration and vowel quality), suggest contact with otherwise unknown IE varieties.
