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103-656: The Naval Air Service ( Greek : Ναυτική Αεροπορική Υπηρεσία, ΝΑΥ ) was the air arm of the Hellenic Navy from 1915 to 1930. The first aviation units in the Greek Armed Forces were formed in June 1912. In the subsequent Balkan Wars , the Hellenic Navy was the first in military history to use aircraft to track down and bomb the enemy fleet (1913). The Naval Air Service was officially established during

206-577: 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

309-669: A Papal fleet under Cardinal Ludovico Scarampi Mezzarota captured the island. Pope Callixtus III (in office 1455–1458) hoped to establish a new military order on the island, which controlled the exit of the Dardanelles , but nothing came of it as Isma'il Bey soon recovered Lemnos for the Sultan. In 1464, during the First Ottoman–Venetian War , the Venetians seized Lemnos and other former Gattilusi possessions, but

412-549: A soldier settlement zone for returning First World War soldiers, was named after the island. There are three Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemeteries on the island, the first one for the 352 Allied soldiers in Portianou , the second one for the 148 Australian and 76 New Zealander soldiers in the town of Moudros and the third one for the Ottoman soldiers (170 Egyptian and 56 Turkish soldiers). In late October 1918,

515-560: A Thracian nymph Cabiro (a daughter of Proteus ) he fathered a tribe called the Kaberoi . Sacred initiatory rites dedicated to them were performed in the island. Its ancient capital was named Hephaistia in the god's honour. Hephaestus' forge, which was located on Lemnos, as well as the name Aethaleia , sometimes applied to it, points to its volcanic character. It is said that fire occasionally blazed forth from Mosychlos, one of its mountains. The ancient geographer Pausanias relates that

618-577: 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,

721-658: A better authenticated period, it is reported that Lemnos was conquered by Otanes , a general of Darius Hystaspis . But soon (510 BC) it was reconquered by Miltiades the Younger , the tyrant of the Thracian Chersonese. Miltiades later returned to Athens and Lemnos was an Athenian possession until the Macedonian empire absorbed it. By 450 BC, Lemnos was an Athenian cleruchy. The Athenian settlers brought with them Athenian drama, dated to at least 348 BC. However,

824-471: A brief action without any casualties from the Ottoman garrison, who were returned to Anatolia. Peter Charanis , born on the island in 1908, and later a professor of Byzantine history at Rutgers University , recounts when the island was liberated and Greek soldiers were sent to the villages and stationed themselves in the public squares. Some of the children ran to see what Greek soldiers looked like; "What are you looking at?", one of them asked; "At Hellenes",

927-508: 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

1030-590: 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

1133-400: 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

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1236-585: A local nature in Greece, the produced quantities are little more than simply sufficient for the local market. Muscat grapes are grown widely, and are used to produce an unusual table wine that is dry yet has a strong Muscat flavor. Since 1985, the variety and quality of Lemnos wines have increased greatly. The island's economically active population in 2001 was 6,602. Of them, 12% were employers, 20.5% self-employed, 55.3% wage-earners, 7.1% unpaid, auxiliary family members, and 5.1% did not declare line of occupation. Of

1339-459: 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 ,

1442-527: A population which, in the eyes of the Hellenes, appeared barbarous, is shown by the weapons. The Greek weapon, dagger or spear, is lacking: the weapons of the barbarians, the axe and the knife, are common. Since, however, this population … preserves so many elements of Mycenaean art, the Tyrrhenians or Pelasgians of Lemnos may be recognized as a remnant of a Mycenaean population. According to Homer, Lemnos

1545-492: A second flight was carried on with the Prime Minister of Greece, Eleftherios Venizelos as passenger. Venizelos, impressed by the potential of air warfare, suggested that Greece should take advance of this new weapon. The following months a French military mission took up the development of Greek aviation by creating a fleet of four Maurice Farman MF.7 airplanes. In June 1912, aviator Dimitrios Kamperos modified one of

1648-533: A siege of the island by the Byzantine admiral Licario in 1277. Resistance continued by his wife, but in 1278 the Navigajosi were forced to capitulate and cede the island back to Byzantium. During the last centuries of Byzantium, Lemnos played a prominent role: following the loss of Asia Minor , it was a major source of food, and it played an important role in the recurring civil wars of the 14th century. As

1751-612: A small island called Chryse , off the Lemnian coast, was swallowed up by the sea. All volcanic action is now extinct. The earliest inhabitants are said to have been a Thracian tribe, whom the Greeks called Sintians , "robbers". The name Lemnos is said by Hecataeus to have been applied in the form of a title to Cybele among the Thracians . The worship of Cybele was characteristic of Thrace, where it had spread from Asia Minor at

1854-460: 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

1957-472: A very early period. Hypsipyle and Myrina (the name of one of the chief towns) are Amazon names, which are always connected with Asiatic Cybele-worship. According to the epitome of the Bibliotheca traditionally attributed to Apollodorus ( Epitome I:9), when Dionysus found Ariadne abandoned on Naxos , he brought her to Lemnos and there fathered Thoas , Staphylus , Oenopion , and Peparethus. Pliny

2060-467: A year later, on 15 November 1657, after besieging the capital of Kastro for 63 days. The famous Sufi poet Niyazi Misri was exiled to Lemnos for several years during the late 17th century. In 1770 Russian forces under Count Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov besieged Kastro for 60 days during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 . The fortress had just surrendered when an attack by the Ottoman fleet on

2163-421: Is primarily a flat island, but the western region, particularly the northwest, is rocky and mountainous. At 430 meters above sea level, Mount Skopia is the highest point. The chief towns are Myrina , on the western coast, and Moudros on the eastern shore of a large bay in the middle of the island. Myrina (also called Kastro, meaning "castle") possesses a good harbour . It is the seat of all trade carried on with

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2266-688: Is probably that the original Thracian people were gradually brought into communication with the Greeks as navigation began to unite the scattered islands of the Aegean; the Thracian inhabitants were technologically primitive in comparison with the Greek mariners. In another legend, Philoctetes was left on Lemnos by the Greeks on their way to Troy; and there he suffered ten years' agony from his wounded foot, until Odysseus and Neoptolemus induced him to accompany them to Troy. According to Sophocles , he lived beside Mount Hermaeus, which Aeschylus makes one of

2369-530: Is regarded as the first naval-air operation in military history and was widely commented upon in the press, both Greek and international. Meanwhile, the Hellenic Navy, in the process of setting up its air arm, bought a fleet of Sopwith Gunbus seaplanes (also known as Greek Seaplanes ). At the beginning of 1914 credits were voted for the creation of a naval aerodrome in Eleusina , Attica . Meanwhile, despite limited funds Aristeidis Moraitinis managed to establish

2472-813: 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 Lemnos Lemnos

2575-763: 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,

2678-579: 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

2781-558: Is typically 2 to 5 degrees Celsius less than in Athens , especially in summertime. For ancient Greeks, the island was sacred to Hephaestus , god of metallurgy, who—as he tells himself in Iliad I.590ff—fell on Lemnos when Zeus hurled him headlong out of Olympus . There, he was cared for by the Sinties , according to Iliad , or by Thetis (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca I:3.5), and there with

2884-441: Is well served by ferries from Piraeus ( Athens ), Lavrio , and Thessaloniki . A slightly fictionalized Lemnos appears in the 2013 tactical shooter video game Arma 3 as the island of "Altis", part of the island country of the "Republic of Altis and Stratis". Altis is the main setting of the game, and originally kept the name "Lemnos" before an incident in 2012 between the game's developers and Greek authorities prompted

2987-693: The Argonauts landing soon after found only women in the island, ruled by Hypsipyle , daughter of the old king Thoas. From the Argonauts and the Lemnian women were descended the race called Minyans , whose king Euneus , son of Jason and Hypsipyle, sent wine and provisions to the Achaeans at Troy . According to later Greek historians, the Minyans were expelled by a Pelasgian tribe who came from Attica . The historical element underlying these traditions

3090-562: 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

3193-691: The Dardanelles and prevent a foray by the Ottoman Navy into the Aegean. The Ottomans' two attempts to achieve this were beaten back in the battles of Elli and Lemnos . Thus the Ottomans were prevented from supplying and reinforcing their land forces in Macedonia by sea, a critical factor in the success of the Balkan League in the war. During World War I , in early 1915, the Allies used

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3296-661: The Epipaleolithic Period , indicating a settlement of hunters and gatherers and fishermen of the 12th millennium BC . A rectangular building with a double row of stepped seats on the long sides, at the southwest side of the hill of Poliochne , dates back to the Early Bronze Age and was possibly used as a kind of Bouleuterion . In August and September 1926, members of the Italian School of Archaeology at Athens conducted trial excavations on

3399-657: 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

3502-467: The Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Following the fall of Constantinople (1453), and thanks to the intercession of Michael Critobulus , Sultan Mehmed II recognized Dorino I Gattilusio's possession of Lemnos and Thasos in exchange for an annual tribute of 2,325 gold coins. When Dorino died in 1455, his son and successor Domenico was only granted Lemnos, however. In 1456, Mehmed II attacked and captured

3605-735: The First World War and participated with the Allies in several missions over the Aegean . After participation in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) a long period of peace followed during which the Naval Air Service was reorganized and upgraded, especially with the establishment of the State Aircraft Factory , which manufactured various types of aircraft. In 1930 the Naval Air Service was merged with

3708-516: 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

3811-596: The National Schism (1914–1916). Greece officially joined the Triple Entente at June 1917, however the anti-royalist party of the country under the leadership of Venizelos formed a Movement of National Defence that supported the Allied military operations in the region from December 1916. During the following years (1917–1918), a fighter and bomber squadron, known as "Z" Squadron ( Greek : Ζήτα Σμήνος ),

3914-608: The Ottoman threat mounted in the 15th century, possession of Lemnos was demanded by Alfonso V of Aragon in exchange for offering assistance to the beleaguered Byzantines, while the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos , offered it to the Genoese captain Giustiniani Longo , if the Ottoman besiegers were driven off. Dorino I Gattilusio , the ruler of Lesbos , also acquired Lemnos as his fief shortly before

4017-780: 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

4120-729: The armistice between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies was signed at Moudros. After the Red Army victory in the Russian Civil War in 1920, many Kuban Cossacks fled the country to avoid persecution from the Bolsheviks. A notable evacuation point was the Greek island of Lemnos where 18,000 Kuban Cossacks landed, though many later died of starvation and disease. Most left the island after a year. During World War II ,

4223-468: 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

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4326-417: 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,

4429-694: The 10th century and of Seljuk raids in the 11th century. Following the dissolution and division of the Empire after the Fourth Crusade , Lemnos (known by Westerners as Stalimene ) was apportioned to the Latin Empire , and given as a fief to the Navigajoso family under the Venetian (or possibly of mixed Greek and Venetian descent) megadux Filocalo Navigajoso . Filocalo died in 1214, and

4532-566: 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

4635-548: The Elder in his Natural History (xxxvi. 13) speaks of a remarkable labyrinth in Lemnos, which has not been identified in modern times. According to a Hellenic legend, the women were all deserted by their husbands for Thracian women, and in revenge they murdered every man on the island. From this barbarous act, the expression Lemnian deeds became proverbial among the Hellenes. According to Apollonius of Rhodes ' Argonautica

4738-610: The Farmans into a hydroplane, giving it the name of the mythical hero Daedalus . When the Balkan Wars broke out in October 1912, these airplanes performed a number of reconnaissance and bombing missions; the most notable was a sortie against the Ottoman fleet anchorage in the Dardanelles , where First Lieutenant Michael Moutoussis and Ensign Aristeidis Moraitinis spotted the Ottoman fleet and dropped four bombs. This mission

4841-715: The Gattilusi domains in Thrace ( Ainos and the islands of Samothrace and Imbros ). During the subsequent negotiations with Domenico Gattilusio, the Greek populace of Lemnos rose up against Domenico's younger brother Niccolò Gattilusio and submitted to the Sultan, who appointed a certain Hamza Bey as governor under the Bey of Gallipoli , Isma'il. Mehmed granted a special legal charter ( kanun-name ) to Lemnos, Imbros, and Thasos, at this time, later revised by Selim I in 1519. In 1457

4944-486: 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

5047-442: 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

5150-473: The Greeks in 1912. It comprised the islands of Lemnos (Limni in Turkish), Agios Efstratios (Bozbaba), Imbros (Imroz) and Tenedos (Bozcaada). The French scholar Vital Cuinet , in his 1896 work La Turquie d'Asie , recorded a population of 27,079, of which 2,450 were Muslims and the rest Greek Orthodox. On 8 October 1912, during the First Balkan War , Lemnos became part of Greece . The Greek navy under Rear Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis captured it after

5253-404: The Hellenic Army Aviation and formed the third branch in the Greek Armed Forces, the Hellenic Air Force . The present-day Hellenic Navy retains an aerial component in the form of the Navy Aviation Command . Aviation had been introduced to Greece in February 1912, when Emmanouil Argyropoulos performed a flight, with his privately owned Nieuport IV .G aircraft, around Athens . An hour later

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5356-427: The Hellenic Army and Naval Aviation Services were reorganized and upgraded. From 1925 new types of aircraft of British and, mainly, French manufacture were delivered. At 1925, in co-operation with the British Company Blackburn Aircraft , the State Aircraft Factory (KEA) was set up in Phaleron , near Athens. The factory developed a number of aircraft that were designed by Blackburn Aircraft and built under license, like

5459-484: 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

5562-427: The Melichloro or Melipasto cheese and its yogurt . Fruit and vegetables that grow on the island include almonds, figs, melons, watermelons, tomatoes, pumpkins and olives. The main crops are wheat, barley, sesame; in fact, Lemnos was Constantinople's granary after the Byzantine Empire lost its Anatolian possessions in the 1320s. Lemnos also produces honey (from thyme -fed bees), but, as is the case with most products of

5665-423: The Russian vessels in Mudros Bay forced the Russians to withdraw (24 October 1770). Under Ottoman rule, Lemnos initially formed part of the sanjaks of Gallipoli or Mytilene under the Eyalet of the Archipelago , but was constituted as a separate sanjak in the reforms of the mid-19th century, at the latest by 1846. Abolished in 1867, the sanjak was re-formed in 1879 and existed until the island's capture by

5768-404: 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),

5871-419: The area reverted to Ottoman control in accordance with the 1479 Treaty of Constantinople . In the aftermath, the Kapudan Pasha , Gedik Ahmed , repaired the island's fortifications and brought in settlers from Anatolia . At this time, the administration of the island was also reformed and brought in line with Ottoman practice, with a governor ( voevoda ), judge ( kadi ), and elders ( kodjabashis ) heading

5974-423: 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

6077-473: The beacon points to flash the news of Troy's downfall home to Argos . The ruins of the oldest human settlement in the Aegean Islands found so far have been unearthed in archaeological excavations on Lemnos by a team of Greek, Italian and American archaeologists at the Ouriakos site on the Louri coast of Fyssini in Moudros municipality. The excavation began in early June 2009 and the finds brought to light, consisting mainly of high quality stone tools , are from

6180-425: The caps of the Dioscuri , Apollo , etc. Few coins of Myrina are known. They belong to the period of Attic occupation, and bear Athenian types. A few coins are also known which bear the name of the whole island, rather than of either city. A trace of the Lemnian language is found on a 6th-century inscription on a funerary stele, the Lemnos stele . Lemnos later adopted the Attic dialect of Athens. Coming down to

6283-445: The children replied; "Are you not Hellenes yourselves?", a soldier retorted; "No, we are Romans ", the children replied; which might seem odd at a first glance, but indicates that in parts of Greece the locals self-identified as a continuation of the Eastern, Greek-speaking part of the Roman Empire ( Ρωμιοί ), along with their Greek identity. Moudros Bay became a forward anchorage for the Greek fleet, which enabled it to keep watch on

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6386-495: 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 ,

6489-441: 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

6592-410: The earliest attested reference to Lemnos is the Mycenaean Greek ra-mi-ni-ja , "Lemnian woman", written in Linear B syllabic script. Professor Della Seta reports: The lack of weapons of bronze, the abundance of weapons of iron, and the type of the pots and the pins gives the impression that the necropolis belongs to the ninth or eighth century B.C. That it did not belong to a Greek population, but to

6695-528: 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

6798-426: The economically active population, 17.9% worked in agriculture, 5.3% in light manufacturing, 11% in construction, 6.7% in hotels and restaurants, and the rest in other lines of business. In 2001, the island had 12,116 regular dwellings, of which 65% were stone-built, and 90.2% had pitched roofs made of red tiles. The only airport is Lemnos International Airport , 18 kilometres (11 mi) east of Myrina. The island

6901-412: 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

7004-401: The famous 999 units, in this case the 999th Light Afrika Division (Wehrmacht) and its Afrika Schützen Regiment 963 (later Festungs Infanterie Bataillon 999). These included many German and Austrian antifascist political prisoners enrolled by force, many of whom then joined the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), such as Wolfgang Abendroth . Partially evacuated since August 1944, the island

7107-464: The first naval aviation school and corps. In spring 1915 the establishment of an independent Naval Aviation Department within the Ministry for Naval Affairs and the incorporation of the Greek naval air fleet into the Greek Navy ensured the foundation of the Naval Air Service (NAY). Meanwhile, disagreements between King Constantine I and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos over whether Greece should enter World War I , lead to political instability and

7210-421: The following Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 the Naval Aviation formed one squadron, that together with additional four of the Army Aviation Service participated in operations in Asia Minor . This squadron ( Greek : Ναυτική Αεροπορική Μοίρα Σμύρνης ) initially consisted of 10 Airco DH.9 bombers and 15 Sopwith Camel F.1 fighters. The Asia Minor Campaign was followed by a long period of peace during which both

7313-402: The gold objects contained spirals of Mycenaean origin, but had no Geometric forms. According to their ornamentation, the pots discovered at the site were from the Geometric period. However, the pots also preserved spirals indicative of Mycenaean art. The results of the excavations indicate that the Early Iron Age inhabitants of Lemnos could be a remnant of a Mycenaean population and, in addition,

7416-663: The island to try to capture the Dardanelles Straits, some 50 kilometres (31 miles) away. This was done chiefly by the British and largely due to the urging of Winston Churchill . The harbour at Moudros was put under the control of British Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss , who was ordered to prepare the then largely unused harbour for operations against the Dardanelles. The harbour was broad enough for British and French warships, but lacked suitable military facilities, which

7519-650: The island was occupied by the Germans on 25 April 1941, in the wake of the Wehrmacht ’s invasion of Greece, by the Infanterie Regiment 382/164 Inf.Division under the command of Oberst Wilhelm- Helmuth Beukemann . The same bay of Moudros used by the Allies in WWI served as a base for German ships controlling the northern Aegean sea. An important fact is that the occupation forces included German punitive bataillon,

7622-609: The island. The overall purpose of the excavations was to shed light on the island's pre-Hellenic "Etrusco-Pelasgian" civilization, following the discovery of the " Lemnos stele ", bearing an inscription philologists related to the Etruscan language . The excavations, with then-current political overtones, were conducted on the site of the city of Hephaistia (i. e., Palaiopolis) where the Pelasgians, according to Herodotus, surrendered to Miltiades of Athens in 510 BC, initiating

7725-449: 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

7828-467: 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

7931-602: The local Greek inhabitants. In the late 16th century, Lemnos is recorded, along with Chios, as "the only prosperous island of the Archipelago". It had 74 villages, three of them inhabited by Turkish Muslims. In July 1656, during the Fifth Ottoman–Venetian War , the Venetians captured the island again following a major victory over the Ottoman fleet. The Ottomans under Topal Mehmed Pasha recovered it barely

8034-607: The mainland. Lemnos also has a 7-hectare desert, the Pachies Ammoudies of Lemnos . The climate in Lemnos is mainly Mediterranean ( Csa ). Winters are generally mild, but with occasional snowfall. Strong winds are a feature of the island, especially in August and during the winter, with a maximum average wind speed of 20.7 km/h in February, hence its nickname "the wind-ridden one" (in Greek, Ανεμόεσσα). The temperature

8137-452: 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

8240-465: 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

8343-563: The nickname the Fearless Aviator by his British colleagues and counted nine victories in total, becoming so Greece's only World War I ace . In one occasion, on 20 January 1918, Moraitinis, fought ten enemy aircraft which attacked two British Sopwith Baby seaplanes he was escorting on their way to bomb the Turkish battlecruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim (the former German SMS  Goeben ) and managed to shoot down three of them. In

8446-622: The night raids against the Gallipoli-Constantinople peninsula in June 1917, the heavy bombings of enemy positions in the Macedonian front , as well as İzmir , Ottoman Empire . In 1918 the Naval Aviation had four squadrons of Sopwith Camel biplanes and other aircraft, while each one counted ca. 10–12 aircraft. Aristeidis Moraitinis , the commander of the Hellenic Naval Air Service, acquired

8549-467: The present regional unit. The municipal units of Atsiki, Moudros, Myrina and Nea Koutali are subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets): Atsiki Moudros Myrina Nea Koutali Local specialties include: Lemnos has a strong husbandry tradition, being famous for the Kalathaki Limnou ( PDO ), a cheese made from sheep and goat milk; as well as for

8652-643: 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

8755-412: The social and political hellenization of the island. There, a necropolis (ca. 9th–8th centuries BC) was discovered, revealing bronze objects, pots, and over 130 ossuaries . The ossuaries contained distinctly male and female funeral ornaments. Male ossuaries contained knives and axes whereas female ossuaries contained earrings, bronze pins, necklaces, gold-diadems, and bracelets. The decorations on some of

8858-437: 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

8961-531: The tradition of theater seems to date back to the 5th century, and recent excavations at the site Hephaisteia suggest that the theater dated to the late 6th to early 5th century. On a barren island near Lemnos there was an altar of Philoctetes with a brazen serpent, bows and breastplate bound with strips, to remind of the sufferings of the hero. In 197 BC, the Romans declared it free, but in 166 BC gave it over to Athens which retained nominal possession of it until

9064-796: The two-seat torpedo carrier, T3A Velos and the KEA Chelidon , as well as the Armstrong Whitworth Atlas and the Avro 504 . On the other hand, a new Naval Aviation school was established at Tatoi , Attica , in 1926. In 1930 the Air Ministry was founded and the Hellenic Air Force was established as a unified independent branch of the Hellenic Armed Forces. Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos

9167-740: The whole of Greece was made a province of the Roman Republic in 146 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in 395, Lemnos passed to the Byzantine Empire . Pliny the Elder writes about a labyrinth on Lemnos which was built by the Lemnian architects Zmilis, Rhoecus, and Theodorus. As a province of the Byzantine Empire, Lemnos belonged to the theme of the Aegean Sea , and was a target of Saracen raids in

9270-574: 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

9373-557: 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

9476-490: 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

9579-413: Was created by Greek personnel under direct Royal Naval Air Service command and carried out operations in the northern Aegean , based at Moudros ( Lemnos ) and Thasos . Moreover, a joint Army-Navy flight school was established at Moudros. The activity of "Z" Squadron included anti-submarine sweeps, attacks against targets of vital importance, as well as dogfights. Among the most significant missions were

9682-418: Was formed on the merger of the following four former municipalities, each of which became municipal units, following the 2011 local government reform: Lemnos and the smaller island of Agios Efstratios previously formed part of Lesbos Prefecture. In 2011, the prefecture was abolished and Lemnos and Agios Efstratios now form Lemnos Regional Unit. Lemnos Province, abolished in 2006, comprised the same territory as

9785-487: Was inhabited by the Sintians . Thucydides mentions Tyrrhenians as the pre-Greek inhabitants. Homer speaks as if there were one town in the island called Lemnos. In Classical times there were two towns, Myrina (also called Kastro) and Hephaistia , which was the chief town. Coins from Hephaestia are found in considerable number, and various types including the goddess Athena with her owl, native religious symbols,

9888-600: Was liberated on 16 and 17 of October 1944 by the Greek Sacred Band (World War II) or Greek Sacred Squadron under the command of the British Raiding Forces (as part of the SAS or Special Air Service ). Today the island has about 30 villages and settlements. The province includes the island of Agios Efstratios to the southwest which has some exceptional beaches. The present municipality of Lemnos

9991-526: Was recognized early on. Troops intended for Gallipoli had to train in Egypt , and the port found it difficult to cope with casualties of the Gallipoli campaign . The campaign was called off in evident failure at the close of 1915. Moudros' importance receded, although it remained the Allied base for the blockade of the Dardanelles during the war. The town of Lemnos, Victoria , Australia, established in 1927 as

10094-597: 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

10197-532: Was succeeded by his son Leonardo and his daughters, who partitioned the island into three fiefs between them. Leonardo retained the title of megadux of the Latin Empire and half the island with the capital, Kastro , while his sisters and their husbands received one quarter each with the fortresses of Moudros and Kotsinos . Leonardo died in 1260 and was succeeded by his son Paolo Navigajoso , who resisted Byzantine attempts at reconquest until his death during

10300-405: Was sworn in as the first Air Minister and assigned the reorganisation of the branch to the veteran aviator Alexandros Zannas . 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

10403-580: 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

10506-637: 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

10609-673: 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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