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Greece

Languages

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 - spoken by 659,115 (2011) Greek Cypriots in Cyprus.
• Maniot Greek - spoken in the area of Mani.
• Pontic Greek - spoken in the South Caucasus region and Pontus by Caucasus Greeks.
• Thracian Greek - spoken mainly in Western Thrace.
• Sarakatsani - spoken by the Sarakatsani of Greek Macedonia and elsewhere in Northern Greece.
• Tsakonian Greek - used by some in the Tsakonia region of Peloponnese.
• Yevanic Greek - A Jewish dialect of Greek spoken by the Romaniotes.

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

• Albanian - spoken by the largest immigrant group with 443,550 (2001 census).
• Arvanitika - spoken by the Arvanites located in parts of south Greece consisting of 30,000 to 140,000.
• Armenian - spoken by about 20,000 Armenians in Greece.
• Aromanian - spoken by about 250,000 Aromanians in Greece.
• Megleno-Romanian - spoken by 2,500 in Greece and North Macedonia.
• Macedonian - speakers in Greece vary on how they describe their language - Macedonian, Slavic, Bulgarian dialect, or Dopii.
• Bulgarian - spoken by 30,000 in Western Thrace.
• Ladino - traditionally spoken by the Sephardic community in Greece.
• Romani - spoken by 200,000 to 300,000 Roma or Gypsy people in Greece today.
• Russian - has become widely spoken by wealthy Russians settled in Greece. Russian is also spoken as a second or third language by many.
• Turkish - one of the most widely spoken minority languages in Greece today with 50,000 to 60,000 people.
• Greco-Turkic or Urum - dialect spoken by the Urums.
• Georgian - spoken in Thessaloniki and other parts of Greek Macedonia.

The most common foreign languages in Greece are

• English
• German
• French
• Italian

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.

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
• Greek Word List: Words Used in Old Records (Kathareuousa) - most common genealogical words
• Greek Genealogical Word List - modern Demotic
• Latin Genealogical Word List
• Italian Genealogical Word List
• German Genealogical Word List

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
• Greece Handwriting and Text - a resource to help learn the Greek alphabet.

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.
• Divry, George C. Divry's modern English-Greek and Greek-English desk dictionary. New York, New York: D.C. Divry, 1982. Available at: WorldCat.
• Jannaris, A. N. A concise dictionary of the English and Modern Greek languages : as actually written and spoken : English-Greek. London: J. Murray, 1959. Available at: WorldCat.

Online Dictionaries

• Dictionary English - Greek - Glosbe
• Dictionary English - Ancient Greek (to 1453) - Glosbe
• English-Greek Dictionary - WordReference.com
• Greek - English Dictionary - Lexicon
• English-Greek Dictionary - Babel Hathitrust
• Pocket Greek-English Dictionary - Babel Hathitrust

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.
• Bywater, Lica Catsakis and Daniel M. Schlyter,. Greek genealogical research. Salt Lake City, Utah: Greek Association of Family History and Tradition, 1993. Available at: WorldCat.

Additional Resources

• The Greek Language
• Greek Numbers and Units of Time
• Greek Glossary
• The Smart Conjugator in Modern Greek - Cooljugator