Greek language question

The Greek language question (Greek: γλωσσικό ζήτημα, short: το γλωσσικό) was a dispute discussing the question whether the language of the Greek people (Dimotiki) or a cultivated imitation of Ancient Greek (Katharevousa) should be the official language of the Greek nation. It was a highly controversial topic in the 19th and 20th centuries and was finally resolved in 1976, when Dimotiki was made the official language. The language phenomenon in question—which occurs elsewhere in the world—is called diglossia. This term was coined in 1885 by Emmanuel Rhoides and popularized internationally by Ioannis Psycharis, a leading participant in the Greek controversy.

Linguistic background of the problem

While Dimotiki was the mother tongue of the Greeks, Katharevousa was an archaic and formal variant that was pronounced like modern Greek, but adopted both lexical and morphological features of ancient Greek that the spoken language had lost over time. Examples of this are:

• Morphological features: Strict Katharevousa still contained the ancient dative case, many participles and various additional tenses and conjugational patterns of verbs.
• Phonological features: Katharevousa contained various spelling pronunciations which did not fit the Modern Greek phonological system. For example, νδρ (Ancient and Demotic /ndr/, Katharevousa /nðr/), φθ, [α]υθ, [ε]υθ (Ancient /pʰtʰ/, Demotic /ft/, Katharevousa /fθ/ ), σθ, ρθρ.
• Syntactical features: While the language of the people mostly consisted of simple sentences, Katharevousa often applied ancient Greek syntax to form sentences which would appear as educated speech, that is, long and complex.
• Lexical features: The proponents of the formal language discarded many popular Greek words that the Greek language had obtained from other languages over time, mainly from the Turkish and Latin or Italian languages, and either replaced them with ancient Greek words or with neologisms. Similarly, words of ancient Greek origin but by now modern in form were archaicised or replaced by their standard ancient Greek equivalents (like the Ancient Greek ἰχθύς for ψάρι fish or the archaicised εξωκλήσσιον from the modern form ξωκλήσι small chapel).

These differences meant that Katharevousa was only partly intelligible to a Greek without higher education. There was no single Katharevousa. Instead, proponents of the formal language utilized ever-changing variants that never were standardized. These variants were nearly Attic in extreme cases, but they could also be closer to spoken Greek and could be understood by the majority of the people.

Example of the diglossia

For a person who does not speak Greek and whose mother tongue (e.g. English) exhibits no comparable form of diglossia, it is hard to understand the motivation of the Greek language question, as it concerns the coexistence of two—in extreme cases—completely different forms of Greek that greatly exceeds the usual stylistic difference between written and spoken language. It might be compared rather to situations such as a similar language question in medieval Portugal between formal Latin and demotic Portuguese, which was resolved in favor of the latter in 1290.

• Katharevousa:

Τὸ ὑποβληθὲν τῇ Ἱερᾷ Συνόδῳ ἐν χειρογράφῳ πόνημα Ὑμῶν ὑπὸ τὸν τίτλον «Βίος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ» παρέπεμψεν αὔτη τῷ προεδρευόντι αὐτῆς Σεβ. Ἀρχιεπισκόπῳ Σύρου, Τήνου καὶ Ἄνδρου κ. Μεθοδίῳ, ὅπως δι' ἐκθέσεως αὐτοῦ ἀναφέρῃ αὐτῇ, ἂν τὸ περιεχόμενον τοῦ πονήματος τούτου εἶναι σύμφωνον πρὸς τὰς παραδόσεις τῆς Ὀρθοδόξου Ἐκκλησίας.

To hipovlithèn tí Hiera Sinóðo en xirográfo pónima Imón hipo ton títlon «Víos Iisú Xristú» parépempsen áfti tó proeðrevónti aftís Sev. Arxiepiskópo Síru, Tínu ke Anðru k. Methoðío, ópos ði' ekthéseos aftú anaféri aftí, an to periexómenon tú ponímatos tútu íne símfonon pros tas paraðósis tís Orthoðóksu Ekklisías.

• Dimotiki:

Το πόνημά σας που υποβλήθηκε σε χειρόγραφο στην Ιερά Σύνοδο με τον τίτλο «Βίος Ιησού Χριστού» παραπέμφθηκε στον πρόεδρό της Σεβ. Αρχιεπίσκοπο Σύρου, Τήνου και Άνδρου κ. Μεθόδιο, ώστε με έκθεσή του να της αναφέρει αν το περιεχόμενο του πονήματος αυτού είναι σύμφωνο με τις παραδόσεις της Ορθόδοξης Εκκλησίας.

To pónimá sas pu ipovlíthike se xirógrafo stin Ierá Sínoðo me ton títlo «Víos Iisú Xristú», parapémfthike ston próeðro tis Sev. Arxiepískopo Síru, Tínu ke Anðru k. Methóðio, oste me ékthesí tu na tis anaféri an to periexómeno tu ponímatos aftú íne símfono me tis paraðósis tis Orthóðoksis Ekklisías.

• Modern English:

Your work which was submitted in manuscript to the Holy Synod under the title "Life of Jesus Christ", was sent by it [the Holy Synod] to Methodios, its President Archbishop of Syros, Tinos and Andros, so that he may report on whether the content of this work accords with the traditions of the Orthodox Church.

Historical development

Prerevolutionary discussions

The discussion began at the end of the 18th century, as Eugenios Voulgaris (1716–1806), Lambros Photiadis, St. Kommitas and Neophytos Doukas, who were proponents of a more archaic language, and Voulgaris's students Iosipos Moisiodax (1725–1800) and Dimitrios Katartzis (ca. 1725-1807), who proposed a simpler language, began to voice their opinions. This discussion later became crucial when it was to be decided which one should be the single language of the modern Greek state, which was yet to be founded. Adamantios Korais (1748–1833) influenced the further discussion a lot. While being a supporter of the language of the people, Korais sought to cleanse it from elements that he considered to be too "vulgar" and eventually invented Katharevousa. After a prolonged War of Independence, the modern Greek state was founded in 1830; the first capital was Nafplio and, from 1834 onwards, Athens.

Katharevousa officially adopted

Katharevousa was made the official language of the state, since the "unpolished" language of the people was not thought of as able to fit the needs of a modern state. The phanariots, were a group of conservative and educated nobles who supported the archaic language and were the most important critics of the language of the people. Panagiotis Soutsos, who wrote in an increasingly archaic and formal language and should later become one of the most important figures in Athenic romanticism, embraced phanariotic tradition like his brother Alexandros, and, in 1853, he opted for the abolition of Katharevousa and the reintroduction of pure ancient Greek.

Language question becomes widespread

By 1900, the discussion had become a matter of public interest. Proponents of Katharevousa denounced proponents of Dimotiki as "μαλλιαροί" (hairy, furry), "αγελαίοι" (gregarious, social, vulgar) and "χυδαϊσταί" (speakers of slang, plebeians, vulgarians), while the proponents of Dimotiki called their enemies "γλωσσαμύντορες" (defenders of language, purists), "σκοταδιστές" (obscurantists, or more or less: the ones living in spiritual darkness), "αρχαιόπληκτοι" (ancient-maniacs), "μακαρονισταί" (imitators of archaic languages, macaronic people) or "συντηρητικοί" (conservatives). The educational system was in an alarming state and completely ineffective: The children were completely unable to express themselves in the unfamiliar formal language, which severely harmed their speech acquisition instead of educating them.

Transition to Dimotiki

At the beginning of the 20th century, it was only due to the girls' school of Volos that a shift away from the Katharevousa began: Libertarian pedagogue Alexandros Delmouzos implemented the use of the Dimotiki as the language of instruction in the school and thereby achieved considerable improvement in test scores and pupil satisfaction. In spite of this success, clerics and conservatives condemned the reform and protested so vehemently against the school that it was closed.

Orthodox Bishop Fan Noli, who translated into Dimotiki works of Shakespeare and Henrik Ibsen, emphasized the necessity for a people's language and recalled in his memoirs that because of Katharevousa "there were humorous scenes in a comedy and it happened that no one laughed."

By 1917 the Dimotiki had been successfully introduced into primary schools; but again, it was repeatedly replaced with Katharevousa, and Katharevousa still reigned supreme in higher education and in the state and army establishment. The death knell for Katharevousa was effectively rung by its most fanatical supporters in decades: the highly unpopular Greek military junta of 1967–1974, who again banned the use of Dimotiki in the schools and denounced its users as communists. On April 30, 1976 Constantine Karamanlis' first post-junta government finally banned Katharevousa^{[citation needed]} from use in schools and, only a few months later, passed a law concerning the use of the Dimotiki in official texts and documents, which weakened diglossia. Typical of the complicated Greek situation, that law itself was still written in Katharevousa. The end for the official use of Katharevousa came in 1982, when the government of Andreas Papandreou abolished the polytonic writing system.

See also

• Demotic Greek
• Katharevousa

Further reading

• Carabott, Philip. 1993. Politics, orthodoxy, and the language question in Greece: the Gospel Riots of 1901. Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 3(1):117-138. University of Malta. ISSN: 10163476.