Greece Languages

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Greece

Languages

Introduction

The official language of Greece is standard modern Greek, Dimotiki. Most materials used in Greek research are written in Greek. Before 1976, most records were written in formal Greek, Katharevousa, a literary form of the language which resembles ancient Greek. However, you do not need to speak or read Greek to research Greek records. You will need to know the Greek alphabet and some key words and phrases to understand the records. Many of the records of the Catholic church are in Latin and Italian, some military records during the period of King Otto are in German, and the records of the Greek Orthodox Church are in Katharevousa.

For word lists and help researching in Greek records, see:

• Greek Genealogical Word List
• Latin Genealogical Word List
• Italian Genealogical Word List
• German Genealogical Word List

Help with the Greek Alphabet

You can learn the Greek alphabet just as you learned the Latin alphabet. It's not that hard! Also there are computer apps that help. See Greece Handwriting and Text.

Forms of the Greek Language

There are several forms of the Greek language:

• Ancient Greek, Biblical Greek, and Byzantine Greek are not seen in genealogy.
• Official Greek, Katharevusa (kathareuousa), was used in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries until the late 1960s.
• Popular Greek, Demotic (dimotiki), was used in older records of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.
• Demotic Greek was established as the official language of the country in the 1970s. The Greek language has its own alphabet of 24 letters. The representation of Greek words in the Latin alphabet is called transliteration (sometimes referred to as romanization). No single system for transliterating Greek letters is satisfactory to everybody. The problem is complicated by tradition, phonetics, and politics.

As a result of this, Greek place names and people names may be spelled in various ways in different sources you use in your Greek research. For example, Hania may be spelled Hania or Chania or Khania depending on how the letters are transliterated. This often makes it difficult to figure out what the original Greek spelling may have been.

Language Aids

Another genealogical word list for Greek is found in the following source:

• Catsakis, Lica (Bywater) and Daniel M. Schlyter. Greek Genealogical Research. Salt Lake City, Utah, USA: Greek Association of Family History and Tradition (SIPEO), 1993 (45–50). (FS Library book 949.5 D27b.)

The following books and English-Greek dictionaries can also aid you in your research. You can find these and similar material at many research libraries:

• Divry’s New English-Greek and Greek-English Dictionary. Athens, Greece: Divres, 1959. (FS Library film 1183597, item 2.)

• Jannaris, A.N. A Concise Dictionary of the English and Modern Greek Languages as Actually Spoken. London, England: John Murray, 1895 [1956 reprint]. (FS Library book 489.3321 J261c; film23 1181682, item 2.)

Additional Resources

• This simple Greek Word List features the a short list of key terms. You should learn to recognize these.
• Other words will be used on a "look it up when you come to it" basis. For this, more thorough word lists can be found at :
  • THE LANGUAGE
  • NUMBERS AND UNITS OF TIME
  • GLOSSARY

Online Dictionaries

• Word Reference, Greek-English / English-Greek
• CoolJugator: Modern Greek Verbs
• Greek-English, English-Greek Dictionary
• Woodhouse. S. C. "English-Greek dictionary, a vocabulary of the Attic language". New York : E.P. Dutton, [1910?].
• Kyriakidēs, Achilleus, "Pocket Greek-English dictionary." Nicosia, E. C. Petribes, 1909. 1st ed.

Description

The official language of Greece is standard modern Greek, Dimotiki. Most materials used in Greek research are written in Greek. Before 1976, most records were written in formal Greek, Katharevousa, a literary form of the language which resembles ancient Greek. However, you do not need to speak or read Greek to research Greek records. You will need to know the Greek alphabet and some key words and phrases to understand the records. Many of the records of the Catholic church are in Latin and Italian, some military records during the period of King Otto are in German, and the records of the Greek Orthodox Church are in Katharevousa.

The languages spoken in Greece are

• Modern Greek - usually known simply as Greek - the only official language of Greece.
  • spoken by 99% of the population as their only language or their first language.
• Dimotiki - also known as Demotic Greek. The standard spoken language of Greece in modern times. The vernacular forms of Greek used by the vast majority of Greeks.
• Katharevousa - a conservative form of the Modern Greek language used in formal settings.

Regional Greek dialects spoken in Greece include

• Cappadocian Greek - very few speakers today. A Hellenic language originally spoken in Cappadocia.
• Cretan Greek - spoken on the island of Crete by more than 500,000 people. Also spoken in the Greek Diaspora.
• Cypriot Greek
• Maniot Greek
• Pontic Greek
• Thracian Greek
• Sarakatsani
• Tsakonian Greek
• Yevanic Greek

The Minority Languages (non-official) spoken in Greece are

• Albanian
• Arvanitika
• Armenian
• Aromanian
• Megleno-Romanian
• Macedonian
• Bulgarian
• Ladino
• Romani
• Russian
• Turkish
• Greco-Turkic or Urum - dialect spoken by the Urums.
• Georgian

The most common foreign languages in Greece are

• English
• German
• French
• Italian

Word List(s)

• Merkouri, Aspasia. Greek : dictionary & phrasebook. New York: Hippocrene Books, 2012. Available at: WorldCat.
• Allen, Will and Thanasis Spilias. Greek : phrasebook & dictionary. Carlton: Lonely Planet, 2019. Available at: WorldCat.
• Useful Greek phrases - Omniglot
  • Family words in Greek - Omniglot

Alphabet and Pronunciation

Alphabet

• Greek alphabet - Omniglot
  • Ancient Greek alphabet - Omniglot
  • Modern Greek alphabet - Omniglot
  • Greek Arabic alphabet - Omniglot
  • Modern Greek Alphabet - Polylgot Wiki
• Greek alphabet for Pontic Greek - Omniglot
  • Latin alphabet for Pontic Greek - Omniglot
  • Cyrillic alphabet for Pontic Greek - Omniglot

Pronunciation

• Greek Classical Attic pronunciation - Omniglot
  • Greek Pronunciation - Consonants - Omniglot
  • Greek Pronunciation - Vowels - Omniglot
  • Greek pronunciation dictionary - Forvo
  • Your Ultimate Greek Pronunciation Guide - GreekPod101
  • Modern Greek Pronunciation - Polyglot Wiki

Language Aids and Dictionaries

Dictionaries

• Collins Greek dictionary : essential edition. Glasgow, Scotland: Collins, 2019. Available at: WorldCat.
• Watts, Niki. The Oxford New Greek Dictionary : Greek-English, English-Greek. New York: Berkley Books, 2008. Available at: WorldCat.
• Georgacas, Demetrius J. and I. N. Kazazēs. Modern Greek-English dictionary. Scarsdale, NY: Aristide D. Caratzas, 2005. Available at: WorldCat.

Online Dictionaries

• Dictionary English - Greek - Glosbe
• Dictionary English - Ancient Greek (to 1453) - Glosbe

Language Aids

• Smyth, Herbert Weir. Greek grammar. Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing, 2013. Available at: WorldCat.
• Smyth, Herbert Weir. Greek grammar. Oxford: Benediction Classics, 2010. Available at: WorldCat.
• Smyth, Herbert Weir and Gordon M. Messing. Greek grammar. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984. Available at: WorldCat.
• Rijksbaron, Albert. Form and function in Greek grammar. Leiden: Brill, 2019. Available at: WorldCat.