ABSTRACT
Branch of Indo-European consisting of a single language with numerous dialects and 10 million speakers. Greek has been well attested for a long period of time and is divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (1500-1150 BC), the language discovered on Cretan tablets and deciphered by M. Ventris in 1952 (Linear B); Classical Greek (800-300 BC), with several dialects, the language of the Homeric epics and the rich classical literature in the Attic-Ionic dialect; Hellenistic or Koinē (‘common’) Greek (300 BC-AD 300), the language of the Alexandrian Empire and its successors, which was used as a trade language in the entire eastern Mediterranean area, as well as in the writings of the New Testament; Middle Greek, including Byzantine Greek (AD 300-1100) and Medieval Greek (AD 1100-1600); and finally Modern Greek. In addition to strong dialectal variation there are two standards: Demotic (Dhímotīkī), the common everyday language, and Katharévusa (lit. ‘purifying’), a written language with archaic forms. The Greek alphabet, used since the Classical Greek period, was developed from the Phoenician writing system.
