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Citroën Activa

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The Citroën Activa and Activa 2 were two concept cars produced by the French manufacturer Citroën as a means to test and to showcase features intended for future use in their production cars. Both were unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in 1988 and 1990 respectively.

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75-465: The name Activa was later used to refer to the production Xantia fitted with Activa suspension. Among the features seen on the Activa models was the electronically controlled hydropneumatic suspension (known as the " Hydractive " system) combined with an active anti-roll bar . This married Citroën's famous hydropneumatic suspension system to sophisticated electronics , enabling the handling of

150-577: A Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered

225-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

300-508: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

375-590: A lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and

450-400: A limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in the nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by

525-459: A mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and a fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes ,

600-819: A number of electronic car alarm sensors and a different car audio system. Xantia Facelift or Xantia 2 : Xantia Facelift was similar to the SX 2000 model in terms of engine, gearbox and equipment, with the difference that the front and rear bumpers were changed by Saipa's designers. The Citroën Xantia, along with the Citroën XM were assembled by the firm of CKD in Huizhou, Guangdong province. This venture lasted for only two years from 1996 to 1997, and production numbers were extremely low. The cars were imported to China more or less fully assembled with only minor additions done in China as

675-589: A solenoid valve was operated by the control unit for the Hydractive suspension, which connected an additional spring ball in the hydraulic control circuit of the cylinder. Thereby, the stiffness of the tightly tuned stabilizer bars could be minimized "virtually" by gas filling the spring ball to reduce the movements and increase the comfort. Likewise, they had a damping effect on the control circuit, so that there were no undesired oscillations during straight-ahead driving due to suspension-related, short-term operation of

750-460: A state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that

825-539: A test of avoiding a moose in the road. The second place car, Porsche 997 GT3 RS was able to manage 82 km/h (51 mph). Citroën produced 1,216,734 Xantias during its nine years of production at the PSA Rennes Plant . The Xantia was replaced with the Citroën C5 in 2001, although in its native France stock models continued to be offered as a cheaper alternative until October 2002. Production of

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900-435: A way to avoid the high import tariffs on cars that existed at the time. Both cars were badged as XM. The vehicles full name was Fengshen Xietuolong XM. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within

975-488: Is achieved by active chassis intervention. In addition to Hydractive II, Activa also had undercarriage stabilization (AFS), in French SC.CAR = Systeme Citroën de Contrôle Actif du Roulis, which was the first standard-fitted, active cross-stabilizer in automobile construction. With this system, the lateral inclination could be reduced to a minimum (−0.2 ° to 1 °) by means of mechanical control with hydraulic cylinders acting on

1050-516: Is also known for Xanthian Obelisk , An bilingual Obelisk from Persian Achaemenid Empire era found in ruins of Xanthos city. The Xantia replaced the earlier Citroën BX (which straddled both small and large family car segments), and maintained the high level of popularity of that model, but brought the car more into the mainstream to compete harder with its mid-size rivals, such as the Ford Mondeo and Opel Vectra / Vauxhall Cavalier . The car

1125-414: Is conducted by the magazine Teknikens Värld 's , as a test of avoiding a moose in the road. The second place car, a Nissan Qashqai DIG-T 160 Acenta was able to manage 84 km/h (52 mph). A TikTok video compared a 1996 Citroën Xantia to a 2021 BMW M4 Competition in terms of moose test. Xantia was able to pass through the object at 73 km/h without flipping a single traffic cone , whereas

1200-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

1275-632: Is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near the Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in

1350-516: The Activa technology was introduced, which is an extension to the Hydractive II suspension, where two additional spheres and two hydraulic cylinders are used together with computer control to eliminate body roll completely. The Citroën Xantia V6 Activa still holds the record speed (85 km/h (53 mph)) through the moose test maneuver, due to its active anti-roll bars . This test

1425-562: The British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of the membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in

1500-657: The European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek

1575-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

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1650-780: The United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout the Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to

1725-559: The XM 's Hydractive , Hydractive II or H2, computer controlled version of the hydropneumatic self-leveling suspension . This used extra suspension spheres to allow a soft ride in normal conditions, but taut body control during hard braking, acceleration or cornering. These models feature an innovation first seen on the ZX , and then subsequently fitted to the facelifted XM, a programmed self steer rear axle. On sweeping curves and tight bends alike,

1800-468: The genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in the ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in

1875-417: The syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow the noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However,

1950-566: The 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

2025-452: The Activa 1 featured electronically operated doors which could all be opened at once using a remote control. Mechanically, the Activa 1 was powered by a 3.0L SOHC PRV 24 valve V6 engine producing 200 PS (147 kW; 197 hp) at 6000 rpm and 260 N⋅m (192 lb⋅ft) of torque at 3600 rpm, coupled to a 4-speed automatic transmission. This gave the Activa 1 a claimed top speed of 136 mph (219 km/h). The Activa 2

2100-410: The Activa 1. Claimed top speed increased to 235 km/h (146 mph). The prototype was mainly built by Bertone, who possessed the expertise to build running prototypes. The Activa 2 was test driven by journalists in period, as part of a push to build excitement about the Hydractive suspension. Xantia The Citroën Xantia (pronounced "Zan–ti–a" ) is a large family car ( D ) produced by

2175-559: The C5, used LDS instead. The Xantia also was the last Citroën vehicle to use a common hydraulic circuit for suspension, brakes and steering like the pioneering Citroën DS . The Xantia had several variants of the Hydraulic system: From an engineering perspective, the Xantia's biggest advance was the suspension. From launch, the more expensive models were available with an enhanced version of

2250-548: The French 2.0i 16V SX model with the removal of some equipment such as front passenger airbags and side airbags, ABS anti-lock brakes, sunroof, rear wing, body-colored flaps, front fenders, cruise control and removal of a number of sensors. Electronic car alarm and car sound system were changed. Xantia 2000 SX : This model is based on the French 2.0i16V SX model with the removal of some equipment such as side airbags, sunroof, rear wing, body-colored flaps, cruise control and removal of

2325-526: The French automaker Citroën , and designed by Bertone . Presented to the press in December 1992, the car was produced between 1992 and 2001 in France, with a facelift in the end of 1997. The Citroën Xantia Activa V6 still holds the record speed (85 km/h (53 mph)) through the moose test maneuver, due to its active anti-roll bars . This test is conducted by the magazine Teknikens Värld 's , as

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2400-544: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

2475-549: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

2550-568: The HDi offered the kind of throttle response normally seen in a gasoline engine and quiet high speed cruising at a top speed of 118 mph (190 km/h). United Kingdom models of the Activa came fitted with a XU10 2 litre turbocharged engine also fitted to the Citroën XM 2.0CT and Peugeot 605 SRi. It produced 150 bhp and 171 lb ft of torque and was a 'low-blow' type for smooth power delivery rather than outright bhp. The Citroën Xantia

2625-593: The Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek

2700-455: The M4 had to slow down to 29 km/h while it flipped 3 traffic cones during the moose test. Both (relatively thick) transverse stabilizers (front 28 mm, rear 25 mm dimensions) were located diagonally (front left and rear right), and were connected to the wheel joints by a differential hydraulic cylinder. These cylinders were connected to a control valve, which was operated directly by

2775-561: The Middle East, Central Asia, Russia and Ukraine. In 2001, 9,500 out of a total 12,000 cars to be made in Iran, were expected to be sent abroad for being sold. At least 40% of parts would be made in Iran. According to SAIPA, The Xantia was one of the best products produced in the history of car manufacturing in Iran. Production of the Xantia ended in 2010 due to the lack of spare parts from France and Citroën. Full production figures of

2850-438: The Xantia at SAIPA , Tehran Iran from 2001 to 2010 resulted in an undisclosed number of additional units. The name "Xantia", like some other names used by Citroën before (like Athena or Pallas ) comes from ancient Greek history and mythology. "Xantia" is derived from Xanthos , mean golden or blond in Greek language . Xanthos is name of an ancient Lycian city (meaning "golden city") in ancient Lycia region. The name

2925-400: The Xantia in Iran are unknown. Sales in Iran and production by SAIPA. Xantia 1800 Superlux : This model is based on the French model 1.8i 16V SX with the removal of some equipment such as the sunroof, rear wing, body-colored flaps, aluminum rims, cruise control and removal of a number of electronic car alarm sensors and a different car audio system. Xantia 2000 X : This model is based on

3000-415: The Xantia. The Hydractive suspension system was not carried over, and the 406 utilised a more traditional spring suspension. Sales in the United Kingdom were strong, and even though it was never able to match the volume of British favourites, such as the Ford Mondeo or Vauxhall Vectra , the car did help Citroën establish a strong foothold in the business car market in the United Kingdom . The Xantia

3075-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

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3150-479: The arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During the older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from

3225-543: The car to automatically adapt to how it was being driven as well as virtually eliminating body roll (one of the main criticisms of Citroën's hydropneumatic system was the amount of body roll). The Hydractive system was soon to become available to the public first in Citroën's XM model 1989, and Xantia model 1993. In 1995 Activa prototypes' active anti-roll-bar was introduced in the Xantia Activa , making it one of

3300-796: The country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine ,

3375-420: The cross-stabilizer bars. This technique enabled (according to the manufacturer's specifications) with optimal road grip transverse accelerations of up to 1.2 g and despite this also offered an above-average high suspension comfort and thus a safer road position. Compared to the standard models, Activa had seats with reinforced side rails, which on the first series (X1) were also pneumatically adjustable. In 1994,

3450-441: The dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before

3525-528: The earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of the Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of

3600-412: The extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English

3675-402: The few production cars to have active suspension. The Activa 1 included full hydraulically connected, single wheel independent four-wheel steering , anti-lock brakes and traction control , which were high-tech for the time, while the Activa 2 was more conventional, except the anti-roll-system and featured a center console keypad instead of a gear lever and a navigation system . In addition,

3750-406: The front cross joints with connecting rods over a spring-handle mechanism. The occurring rolling moment (side slope) had the opposite effect on the cross joints - one wheel springs in and the other out. Thereby, the control valve (inclination corrector) was pulled out / pushed in by means of the connecting rods in a direction out of its rest position (straight ahead), whereby a pressure proportional to

3825-427: The inclination corrector. Xantia Activa was available with the following engines (not all engines were necessarily available in all countries): Petrol: 2.0i 16V 97 kW (132 hp), 2.0i 16V 110 kW (150 hp), 2.0i Turbo CT 108 kW (147 hp) and 3.0i V6 140 kW (190 hp). Diesel: 2.1 Turbo D12 80 kW (109 hp) and 2.0 HDi 80 kW (109 hp). The Activa could be recognized by

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3900-449: The language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to the modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows

3975-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

4050-452: The many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is

4125-465: The morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks the infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of

4200-475: The rear wheels turn in line with the front wheels, sharpening responses and adding to driver pleasure. Power came from the familiar PSA XU series petrol engines, this time in 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 displacements, a 2.0 16 valve version for the Xantia VSX, a turbocharged 2.0 engine, from 1995 onwards, a 1.8 16 valve and a 2.0 16 valve engine. In 1997, a 3.0 V6 engine was offered as top-of-the-line. This engine

4275-643: The regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of

4350-423: The rolling moment was formed in the hydraulic cylinders. Thereby the hydraulic cylinders changed position and acted against the bias of the cross stabilizer. They "pressed" the body over the cross-stabilizer bars against the rolling torque further horizontally, enabling cornering with up to 0.6g transverse acceleration with −0.2 to 0.5° lateral inclination. From 0.6g transverse acceleration, the cylinders returned to

4425-408: The standard-fitted rear spoiler, the "Venise" alloy wheels, the car-painted bumpers (on the first series), the black roof canopy (depending on the year of construction), special front seats with distinctive side members and the Activa logo instead of engine displacement badge. The Xantia was the last Citroën to use the green fluid, LHM (Liquide Hydraulique Minéral), a mineral oil . Later cars, such as

4500-579: The starting position, from which the Xantia Activa tilted up to 1° in the curve until the curve limit area was reached, which corresponded to the value of a sports car with a correspondingly tighter tuning. As these active roller stabilizers worked independently of the Hydractive II undercarriage, the suspension could be almost completely maintained even at extreme cornering, giving a significantly better road position in these situations than with conventional wheel suspensions. When driving straight ahead,

4575-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

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4650-515: The traditional Citroën hydropneumatic suspension system, which was pioneered by the older DS . It was initially only available as a hatchback ( notchback ) (Berline), but an estate ( station wagon ) (Break) version, built by Heuliez , appeared in September 1995. Inline with PSA Group policy, the Peugeot 406 , launched two years later, used the same floorpan, core structure and engines as

4725-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

4800-528: Was also offered with the Activa suspension system, a rare version with fewer than 2600 built. The popular XUD turbodiesel units in 1.9 (turbocharged: 92 hp (69 kW), low pressure turbo: 75 hp (56 kW), or not: 71 hp) displacement proved to be the best selling engine. The biggest diesel was a 2.1 TD with 109 hp (81 kW). In 1998, PSA introduced the HDi direct injection turbodiesel (in two versions: 90 PS (66 kW), and intercooled 109 PS). For an economical diesel engine,

4875-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

4950-430: Was built from November 1992 to October 2002 in France, totalling almost ten years, including the facelift in December 1997. It signalled that Citroën had learned from the reception given to the staid Citroën ZX , introduced two years earlier, and criticised by contemporary journalists for its lack of traditional Citroën flair, in engineering and design. Citroën addressed these concerns in the Xantia. The Xantia also used

5025-556: Was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and

5100-530: Was considered for production as a successor to the SM , but it was eventually decided that Citroën's image would make it too hard to compete with prestigious marques such as Mercedes-Benz and Porsche in the grand touring market. The Activa 2 was a fully functional prototype, based on the XM's bottom plate and equipped with the same 24-valve, 3-liter V6 engine and four-speed automatic transmission which had also been used on

5175-460: Was given a facelift at the end of 1997. The Mark 1, produced between 1993 and 1997, can be distinguished by the grille integrated with the body of the car. On the Mark 2, produced between 1998 and 2001, the grille is attached to the bonnet. The facelift model also features body colored bumpers and a revised dashboard. The top model in Citroën's Xantia series was the highly engineered Activa . The model

5250-512: Was introduced at the end of 1994, and between the spring of 1995 and the autumn of 2001 was built in just over 18,000 copies. The name refers to the Citroën Activa showcar. The distinguishing feature of the Activa was the ability to drive around curves without any chassis roll. This technology is more broadly known as active suspension , and the Xantia Activa has exceptional road holding comparable to true sports cars. This lack of roll

5325-476: Was produced in Iran from 2001 to 2010 in four different Variants. All models produced in Iran were produced only with a five-speed manual gearbox and a five-door liftback body. The Xantia was the first Citroën produced by SAIPA ever since the Citroën Dyane Jian (1967-1980). The February 18, 2000 contract, that renewed the relationship, called for SAIPA to serve as a center for exporting Xantia to

5400-485: Was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in

5475-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

5550-637: Was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to

5625-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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