61-412: The Botaneiates ( Greek : Βοτανειάτης , pl. Botaneiatai , Greek : Βοτανειάται ) or Botaniates was a Byzantine aristocratic family that produced several generals and one Byzantine Emperor during the 11th and 12th centuries. The earliest attestation of the name occurred in the 6th and 9th centuries and it originated from Asia Minor . The family remained obscure until the 11th century when
122-577: 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
183-577: 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,
244-508: 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
305-715: A few months later. During the Komnenian period, the Botaneiatai continued to hold prominent positions in the Empire thanks to their ties to the Komnenos and Synadenos families. The family became related to the Komnenoi in c. 1085 when a grandson of Nikephoros III married the daughter of Manuel Komnenos , brother of Alexios I. In c. 1110-1112 , their alliance was strengthened and Nikephoros Botaneiates
366-590: 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
427-400: 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
488-459: 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 ,
549-420: A niece of Patriarch Michael Keroularios . In 1057, Constantine supported the usurpation of Isaac I Komnenos , gradually siding with the court bureaucracy against the new emperor's reforms. In spite of this tacit opposition, Constantine was chosen as successor by the ailing Isaac in 1059, under the influence of Michael Psellos . Isaac abdicated on 22 November and Constantine X was crowned emperor on
610-633: A resurgent interest in retaining Apulia . He appointed at least two catepans of Italy ( Marules and Sirianus ) and sent reinforcements on two further occasions (under " Miriarcha " and Michael Maurex ). He also suffered invasions by Alp Arslan in Asia Minor in 1064, resulting in the loss of the Armenian capital, and by the Oghuz Turks in the Balkans in 1065, while Belgrade was lost to
671-460: 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
SECTION 10
#1732783989191732-950: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Constantine X Doukas Constantine X Doukas or Ducas ( Greek : Κωνσταντῖνος Δούκας , Kōnstantinos Doukas , c. 1006 – 23 May 1067),
793-763: 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,
854-632: 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
915-720: The Anatolic Theme , where he remained until he was brought out of retirement by the Emperor Michael VII and made kouropalates and governor of the Anatolic Theme. In October 1077, when Nikephoros Bryennios rebelled in the Balkans, Botaneiates started his struggle for the throne in Anatolia and came into conflict with Michael in 1078. Nikephoros managed to gather strong support and was recognized by
976-562: 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
1037-535: The Byzantine Senate as emperor in early 1078. About a year later, he married his second wife, Maria of Alania . During his reign, Nikephoros was preoccupied with the rebellions of Bryennios, Nikephoros Basilakes , Nikephoros Melissenos , and the Komnenoi. He reigned until 1081, when Alexios Komnenos ( r. 1081–1118 ) overthrew him and confined him to the Peribleptos monastery, where he died
1098-657: 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
1159-516: 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
1220-780: 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
1281-468: 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
SECTION 20
#17327839891911342-417: 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,
1403-560: The 11th century, when the family begun to ascend. Some Botaneiatai are known to have lived under Basil II holding the titles of strategos . The first one, Theophylact Botaneiates , is mentioned by John Skylitzes as the doux of Thessalonica in 1014. He participated in the wars against Samuel of Bulgaria and was killed soon after the Battle of Kleidion . Theophylact's son, Michael, served in Thessalonica and participated in
1464-566: 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
1525-519: The Armenian local militia of 50,000 men at a crucial point of time, coinciding with the westward advance of the Seljuk Turks and their Turcoman allies. Undoing many of the necessary reforms of Isaac I Komnenos , he bloated the military bureaucracy with highly paid court officials and crowded the Senate with his supporters. His decisions to replace standing soldiers with mercenaries and leaving
1586-646: The Byzantine Emperor Michael VI Bringas which helped him ascend to high military offices. Under the Emperor Constantine X Doukas , he held the titles of doux of Thessalonica ( c. 1061 ) and later doux of Antioch ( c. 1066 ). When Constantine X died in 1067, his wife, Empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa , considered taking Nikephoros as husband and emperor, but she eventually chose Romanos IV Diogenes instead. Romanos exiled Nikephoros to his holdings in
1647-544: 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
1708-549: 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
1769-503: The Hungarians. Already old and unhealthy when he came to power, Constantine died on 23 May 1067. His final act was to demand that only his sons succeed him, forcing his wife Eudokia Makrembolitissa to take a vow not to remarry. Both Michael and Konstantios were too young to rule, so Empress Eudokia ruled as the de facto ruler until 1 January 1068, when she married Romanos IV Diogenes and crowned him emperor. By his first wife,
1830-539: 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
1891-404: 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),
Botaneiates - Misplaced Pages Continue
1952-479: 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
2013-796: 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 ,
2074-441: 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
2135-528: 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
2196-412: 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
2257-416: The family begun to decline from the late 12th century onwards. The Botaneiates family is believed to have originated from the village of Botane ( Greek : Βοτάνη , lit. ' pasture ' ), near Synnada , in the Anatolic Theme of Asia Minor . The surname was acquired from the name of the village, with the Greek suffix - ates indicating provenance. Sources from subsequent periods incidate that
2318-531: The family continued to maintain its ties with the region for several generations. The earliest attestation of the name Botaniates occurred in the 6th century and was associated with the village of Botane. The seal of a certain Andrew Botaneiates is dated to the 9th century, during which time the family is still little known. The Botaneiatai would not be mentioned again in the Byzantine sources until
2379-473: The family was Nikephoros III Botaneiates , who had a long and successful career in the army before ascending to the Byzantine throne. Nikephoros became a general during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos , serving in the Pecheneg revolt of 1048–1053, after which he likely received the title of magistros as a reward. In 1057 Nikephoros served in the revolt of Isaac I Komnenos against
2440-579: The first prominent member, Theophylact Botaneiates , is mentioned holding the title of doux in Thessalonica . The family reached their heyday under Nikephoros III Botaneiates who held high military offices before ruling as Emperor between 1078 and 1081. During the Komnenian period , the Botaneiatai continued to hold important titles thanks to their ties with the Komnenos dynasty. The status of
2501-403: The following day. The new emperor quickly associated two of his young sons in power, Michael VII Doukas and Konstantios Doukas , and appointed his brother John Doukas as kaisar ( caesar ), and also embarked on a policy favorable to the interests of the court bureaucracy and the church. Severely undercutting the training and financial support for the armed forces , Constantine X disbanded
Botaneiates - Misplaced Pages Continue
2562-488: The frontier fortifications unrepaired led Constantine to become naturally unpopular with the supporters of Isaac within the military aristocracy, who attempted to assassinate him in 1061. He also became unpopular with the general population after he raised taxes to try to pay the army. At the very start of his reign, the Normans under Robert Guiscard completed the conquest of Byzantine Calabria , but Constantine showed
2623-449: 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
2684-467: 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
2745-452: 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
2806-465: 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
2867-414: The name continues to be attested during the 13th and 14th centuries, members of the family do not appear to hold any significant titles. 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
2928-410: The operations against Bulgaria along his father. Theophylact is sometimes identified with "Nikephoros", also father of a Michael, and grandfather of the future emperor Nikephoros III , according to the genealogy of Michael Attaleiates . The accounts of Attaleiates held that Nikephoros III was associated with the prestigious Phokas clan. Although uncertain, this information was used to add legitimacy to
2989-643: 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
3050-421: The rule of the emperor. In contrast, Michael Psellos held that the family was of modest background and was elevated to higher status by Michael VII Doukas . Until the 12th century, the Botaneiatai were military commanders and landowners related to the Komnenos and Doukas families.The exact relation of the other Botaneiatai to Emperor Nikephoros III is not clearly established. The most distinguished member of
3111-437: 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
SECTION 50
#17327839891913172-571: Was Byzantine emperor from 1059 to 1067. He was the founder of the Doukid dynasty . During his reign, the Normans took over much of the remaining Byzantine territories in Italy , while in the Balkans the Hungarians occupied Belgrade . He also suffered defeats by the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan . Constantine's parents are not mentioned in any primary sources, but some scholars theorize that he
3233-574: 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
3294-557: 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
3355-429: Was awarded the title of sebastos after his marriage to Eudokia, daughter of sebastokrator Isaac Komnenos . More 12th century members of the family were awarded the title sebastos , indicating that they likely held important positions in the imperial court; these are Manuel, who married Eirene Synadene, and George, who married Zoe Doukaina. Their status significantly changed from the late 12th century onwards; while
3416-556: 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
3477-485: 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
3538-428: Was the son of Andronikos Doukas, a nobleman who served as strategos of Preslav during the reign of Basil II ( r. 976–1025 ). Historians often give his birthdate as c. 1006, as he is said to have died aged "slightly over sixty years". He was an academic, addicted to endless debates about philosophy and theology, and he gained influence after he married, as his second wife, Eudokia Makrembolitissa ,
3599-580: 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
3660-637: 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
3721-673: 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
SECTION 60
#1732783989191#190809