Misplaced Pages

#694305

94-504: The New Fortress of Corfu ( Greek : Νέο Φρούριο ; Venetian : Fortezza Nuova ) is a Venetian fortress built on the hill of St. Mark in Corfu in stages. The original architect of the fort was the military engineer Ferrante Vitelli. The current buildings which exist within the fortress were built by the British during their rule of the island (1815–63). At the top of the castle there

188-589: A Greek destroyer saluted the Italian flag, and when the Greek flag hoisted, the Italian flagship saluted it. 40,000 residents of Corfu welcomed the prefect when he landed, and shouldered him to the prefecture. British and French flags were waved by the crowd which demonstrated enthusiastically in front of the Anglo-French consulates. The Italian squadron had been ordered to remain anchored till Italy received

282-577: 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,

376-517: A certain negligence before and after the crime." In addition, Italy demanded from Greece 1,000,000 lire per day for the cost of the occupation of Corfu and Conference of the Ambassadors replied that Italy reserved the right of recourse to an International Court of Justice in connection with the occupation expenses. In Greece there was a general depression over the decision, because Italy had obtained everything it demanded. Harold Nicolson ,

470-481: A chauffeur, were ambushed and assassinated by unknown assailants at Kakavia 's border crossing, near the town of Ioannina in Greek territory. The five victims were Tellini, Major Luigi Corti, Lieutenant Mario Bonacini, Albanian interpreter Thanas Gheziri and the chauffeur Remigio Farnetti. None of the victims were robbed. The incident occurred close to the disputed border and therefore could have been carried out by either side. According to Italian newspapers and

564-448: A commanding view of the sea and the mountains of mainland Greece. Below the bastion there is a building which was built by the British and functioned as military barracks. Nowadays it houses art exhibits and collections as well as space for social events. The bastion is at a height of 55 m above sea level and features structures such as underground cisterns, powder magazines, artillery positions and underground halls. The governors of

658-558: 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 , 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

752-508: 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

846-661: A first secretary in the central department of the Foreign Office said: "In response to the successive menaces of M. Mussolini we muzzled the League, we imposed the fine on Greece without evidence of her guilt and without reference to the Hague, and we disbanded the Commission of Enquiry. A settlement was thus achieved." On September 27 the Italian flag was lowered and the Italian troops evacuated Corfu. The Italian fleet and

940-540: 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 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

1034-610: A result of the bombardment 16 civilians were killed, 30 injured and two had limbs amputated, while according to other sources 20 were killed and 32 wounded. There were no soldiers reported among the victims, all of whom were refugees and orphans. The majority of those killed were children. The Commissioner of the U.K. based charity, Save the Children Fund , described the Italian bombardment as "inhuman and revolting, unjustifiable and unnecessary". The Corfu's prefect, Petros Evripaios, Greek officers and officials were arrested by

SECTION 10

#1732772411695

1128-637: A solemn memorial service was held for the people who were killed in the Corfu bombardment, and the bells of all of the churches were tolled continuously. After the service, demonstrations against Italy broke out. All places of amusement were closed as a sign of mourning for the victims of the bombardment. After the protest of the Italian Minister, the Greek Government suspended for one day the newspaper Eleftheros Typos for characterizing

1222-636: A visit to Rome, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Curzon , told Mussolini that Britain would cede Jubaland and Jarabub to Italy as part of a general settlement of all of Italy's claims, saying that Italians had to settle their disputes with both Yugoslavia and Greece as part of the price of Jubaland and Jarabub. Under the terms of the Treaty of London of 1915, under which Italy entered World War I , Britain had promised to cede Jubaland and Jarabub to Italy, and as Mussolini had founded

1316-575: Is a stone building which was used for defence and a brick building which in modern times functions as the headquarters of the Naval Station of Corfu. The Venetian fortifications were later expanded by the British and the French to help defend against a possible Turkish attack. Its fortifications included 700 pieces of artillery with range estimated as far as the Albanian coast. In the aftermath of

1410-804: 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 , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

1504-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within 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

1598-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before 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

1692-519: 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 the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

1786-832: 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 Corfu Incident During

1880-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and 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

1974-763: 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,

SECTION 20

#1732772411695

2068-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek 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

2162-495: 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 a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

2256-675: The Fascist Party in 1919 in part to protest the "mutilated victory" of 1918 as Italy did not obtain all of the territory promised by the Treaty of London, Jubaland and Jarabub had over-sized symbolic importance in Italy far out of proportion to the actual value of these territories. To obtain Jubaland and Jarabub would mean that Italy would have to settle the Fiume dispute with Yugoslavia and

2350-516: 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

2444-607: The Italian Navy bombarded the Greek island of Corfu and landed between 5,000 and 10,000 troops. Aeroplanes aided the attack. Italian fire was concentrated on the town's Old Fortress , which had long been demilitarized and served as a shelter for refugees from Asia Minor , and on the Cities Police school at the New Fortress , which was also a refugee shelter. The bombardment lasted 15 to 30 minutes. As

2538-867: The Italo-Ottoman war of 1911–12, Italy had occupied the Dodecanese islands whose population was largely Greek. Under the Venizelos–Tittoni agreement of 1919, Italy promised to cede the Dodecanese islands except for Rhodes to Greece in exchange for Greek recognition of the Italian claims to part of Anatolia. However, the Turkish National Movement 's victory in the Turkish War of Independence had put an end to all plans for partitioning Asia Minor by 1922, and Mussolini took

2632-569: The Near East Relief said that the bombardment was completely unnecessary and unjustified. Italy called the American legation to protest against this statement. Chairman on the League of Nations commissioning assisting deported women and children, who was eyewitness of the bombardment said: "The crime of Corfu was official murder by a civilized nation...I consider the manner in which Corfu occupied as inhuman." Lord Curzon, wrote that

2726-517: The first great Ottoman siege of Corfu in 1537, the Venetians developed plans to expand the fortifications of the city. Furthermore, due to the great civilian losses, the Corfu city council sent diplomatic representatives to Venice complaining about the lack of fortifications for the parts of the city of Corfu lying outside the walls of the medieval citadel. In response, the Venetians proceeded with works to build walls and fortifications to strengthen

2820-492: 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 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

2914-518: The "terms demanded by Mussolini are extravagant-much worse than the ultimatum after Sarajevo". In a telegram to the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, who was vacationing at Aix-les-Bains, Lord Curzon wrote that Mussolini's actions were "violent and inexcusable" and if Britain did not support the Greek appeal to the League of Nations then "that institution may as well shut its doors". Harold Nicolson and Sir William Tyrrell at

New Fortress - Misplaced Pages Continue

3008-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is 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

3102-502: The 50 million lire. The 50,000,000 lire deposited in a Swiss bank were at the disposal of The Hague Tribunal and the bank refused to transfer the money to Rome without the authority of the Greek National Bank , which was given on the evening of the same day. On September 29, Mussolini ordered the return 10 million of the 50 million lire and directed it to be spent on needy Greek and Armenian refugees. On September 30,

3196-469: The Cabinet will give legitimate satisfaction to Italy without going beyond the limits of national dignity. Italy sent an ultimatum to Greece on August 29, 1923, demanding: In addition, Italy demanded that Greece must reply to the ultimatum within 24 hours. Greece replied to Italy on August 30, 1923, accepting four of the demands which with modifications as follows: The other demands were rejected on

3290-653: The Council that Greece had deposited the 50,000,000 lire in a Swiss bank and on September 15, the Ambassadors Conference informed Mussolini that Italy must evacuate Corfu on the September 27, at the latest. On September 26, before the inquiry had finished, the Conference of Ambassadors awarded Italy an indemnity of 50,000,000 lire, on the alleged ground that "the Greek authorities had been guilty of

3384-731: The Dodecanese islands dispute with Greece, neither of which Mussolini wanted to compromise on. Though the Milner-Scialoja agreement of 1920 had committed Britain to cede Jubaland and Jarabub to Italy, the British had subsequently tied that to the Italians settling the Dodecanese islands dispute first. Under the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923, all of the Allied powers abandoned their claims to Turkey, which badly damaged Mussolini's prestige as he promised as an opposition leader to obtain all of

3478-547: The Fascist regime was the only thing saving Italy from communism, and if Mussolini were defeated in a war, then the Fascist regime would collapse and the Italian Communist Party would take over. As Kennard much preferred Fascism in power in Italy to Communism, this led him to advocate appeasement, saying that Britain must pressure Greece to submit to the Italian terms while trying to persuade Mussolini to lower

3572-551: The Foreign Office wrote a memo calling for "concentrating our efforts to protect Greece through the agency of the League of Nations against an unfair exploitation by Italy". Lord Curzon's initial attempt to end the crisis by referring it to the League of Nations was dropped after Mussolini threatened to leave the League. More importantly, sanctions against Italy would require the approval of the League Council and it

3666-486: 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

3760-491: The Greek government's argument that the perpetrators had in fact originated from Albania and had crossed the border illegally to ambush the car inside Greece and thus inculpate the Greek side. Upon news of the murder, anti-Greek demonstrations broke out in Italy. The Greek newspapers were reported by Australian newspapers to condemn unanimously the Tellini crime, and express friendly sentiments towards Italy. They hope that

3854-425: 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 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

New Fortress - Misplaced Pages Continue

3948-495: 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

4042-684: The Greek ports were open to Italian vessels. Greek steamers were detained in Italian ports and one was seized by a submarine in the straits of Corfu, but on September 2, the Italian Ministry of Marine ordered all Greek ships to be released from Italian ports. Anti-Greek demonstrations broke out in Italy again. The Italian government ordered the Italian reservists in London to hold themselves in readiness for army service. The King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III , returned to Rome from his summer residence immediately. The Italian military attaché who

4136-629: 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 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

4230-629: 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 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

4324-575: The Italian fleet, except one destroyer, departed. The reputation of Mussolini in Italy was enhanced. In Corfu during the first quarter of the 20th century, many Italian operas were performed at the Municipal Theatre of Corfu . This tradition came to a halt following the Corfu incident. After the bombardment, the theatre featured Greek operas as well as Greek theater performances by Greek actors such as Marika Kotopouli and Pelos Katselis  [ el ] . The ulterior motive for

4418-418: The Italians and detained aboard an Italian warship. The Greek garrison of 150 men did not surrender but retired to the island's interior. Following the landing, the Italian officers feared British citizens may have been wounded or killed, and were relieved to discover that there were no British subjects among the victims. However, the residence of the British officer in charge of the police training school

4512-630: The Italians as " the fugitives of Caporetto " and dismissed the censor for allowing the statement to pass. The Greek Government provided a detachment of 30 men to guard the Italian Legation in Athens. Greek newspapers were unanimous in condemning Italy's action. Italy closed the Straits of Otranto to Greek ships. In addition, Italy suspended all Greek shipping companies sailing for her, and ordered Italian ships to boycott Greece, although

4606-467: The League and demanded that the Conference of Ambassadors should deal with the matter. Italy assured that it would leave the League rather than allow the League to interfere. Britain favored referring the Corfu matter to the League of Nations, but France opposed such a course of action fearing that it would provide a precedent for the League to become involved in the French occupation of the Ruhr . With

4700-408: The League of Nations, and Romano Avezzana, the Italian ambassador to France, emerged as a force for moderation within the Italian government, constantly working to persuade Mussolini to drop his more extreme demands and to accept a compromise. Mussolini who only became prime minister on 28 October 1922, was determined to assert his power by proving that he was an unconventional leader who did not follow

4794-650: The Old and New Fortresses were elected by the Venetian Senate for a period of two years. Both captains were sworn before the Senate and part of their oath was to never communicate with each other during their two-year tenure as governors of the fortresses. This was for security reasons in case one captain could persuade the other to commit treason against the Republic. At least two inscribed monuments survive affixed to

SECTION 50

#1732772411695

4888-404: 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),

4982-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in 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

5076-424: The compensation amounts as the best way of avoiding a war. Farther afield, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were more supportive of Greece with both governments condemning Italy's actions. On September 1, Greece appealed to the League of Nations , but Antonio Salandra , the Italian representative to the League, informed the Council that he had no permission to discuss the crisis. Mussolini refused to co-operate with

5170-413: The defences of the wider town lying outside the walls of the old citadel. To achieve their goals the Venetians razed 2,000 homes in the suburb of San Rocco, and built new fortifications and walls in their place at great expense. After the fortification works were completed the Venetians built the New Fortress at the hill of St. Mark to further strengthen the defences of the outer city of Corfu and to act as

5264-401: The discovery of the assassins. Mussolini and his cabinet were unsatisfied with the Greek government's reply and declared that it was unacceptable. The Italian press, including the opposition journals, endorsed Mussolini's demands and insisted that Greece must comply without discussion. Mussolini's decision was received with enthusiasm in all of Italy. On August 31, 1923, a squadron of

5358-413: The dispute should be settled. The decision was that: Both Greece, on September 8, and Italy, on September 10, accepted it. The Italians added, however, that they would not evacuate the island until Greece had given full satisfaction. In Italy the press widely reported satisfaction with the Conference's decision and praised Mussolini. On September 11 the Greek delegate, Nikolaos Politis , informed

5452-404: The early 19th century that 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

5546-448: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in 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

5640-503: The explosion was so strong that it broke house windows on the Corfu side of the sea channel. In 1923 the New and Old Fortresses were bombarded by the Italian Air Force during the Corfu Incident . Greek refugees from Asia Minor were sheltered inside the New Fort at the time but there were no casualties. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ )

5734-419: The focal point of the new fortifications. The exact dating of the structure is not established but accounts vary between 1576 or 1577–1588, and 1572–1645. The start date for the construction is also reported as 1577 by Corfiote historian Katsaros. The works had also the effect of widening the defensive perimeter of the old citadel lying inside the Old Fortress. The Fortress compound is divided into two levels. In

SECTION 60

#1732772411695

5828-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered 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

5922-493: The ground that they would infringe the sovereignty and honor of Greece. In addition, the Greek government declared its complete willingness to grant, as a measure of justice, an equitable indemnity to the families of the victims, and that it didn't accept an enquiry in the presence of the Italian military attaché but it would be pleased to accept any assistance which Colonel Perone (the Italian military attaché) might be able to lend by supplying any information likely to facilitate

6016-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of 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

6110-414: 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

6204-539: The lower level there is a three-storey building called "Punta Perpetua" and a bastion of pentagonal shape. Inside the bastion there is a maze of arched chambers, galleries, ventilation shafts, stairs and ramps. The fortress has two baroque -styled gates. Its western side features a dry moat which spans the length of the walls, running from the vegetable market to the new harbour. The moat is a good example of moat architecture. The structure features twin bastions, named Skarponas and Epta Anemoi ("Seven Winds"), which has

6298-458: 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 the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

6392-441: 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 a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

6486-416: The normal rules of diplomacy, and the Corfu crisis was the first clash between Mussolini and the traditional elites in Italy, who while not objecting to imperialistic policies, disliked Il Duce' s reckless style. At the time, Italy was engaging in negotiations with Britain for the cession of Jubaland in East Africa and Jarabub in North Africa to the Italian empire. From the viewpoint of the Palazzo Chigi,

6580-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, 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

6674-408: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek 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

6768-596: The official statement of the Albanian government, the attack was carried out by Greeks, while other sources, including the Greek government and its officials and the Romanian consul in Ioannina, attributed the murder to Albanian bandits. In April 1945, the British Ambassador to Greece, Reginald Leeper , sent a letter to British Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden that expressed the viewpoint that it

6862-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from 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

6956-590: The plan to seize Corfu for budgetary reasons, believing a triumph by the Regia Marina would show the Italian people the navy's importance and thus lead to a bigger naval budget. At the same time, Mussolini did not inform the professional diplomats of the Palazzo Chigi about his plans to seize Corfu, expecting them to object, an expectation that was confirmed when Corfu was indeed bombarded. On 27 August 1923, Tellini and two aides, plus an interpreter and

7050-610: The prerequisite of a blockade. Howard William Kennard , in charge of the British embassy in Rome as the ambassador Sir Ronald Graham was on vacation, wrote in a dispatch to Lord Curzon that Mussolini was possibly insane, a man suffering from a "mixture of megalomania and extreme patriotism". Kennard drew the conclusion that Mussolini was perhaps rash enough to turn the crisis into an all-out war between Italy and Greece as he kept demanding sums of money in compensation that were well beyond Greece's ability to pay. However, Kennard believed that

7144-518: The rampart walls, the best preserved of which is one from 1728. It displays the Lion of Saint Mark (the symbol of Venice) and the arms of Diedo below which is the following Latin inscription: ("To God, the most good and greatest, Alvise III Mocenigo , Duke of the Venetians (i.e. Doge of Venice ); Marco Antonio Diedo , Supreme Governor, Giorgio Grimani , Commander of the Fleet; the first ordered this (i.e.

7238-495: The relations between Greece and the commission were bad. Eventually the Greek delegate openly accused Tellini of working in favour of Albania's claims. In July 1923, Mussolini ordered the Regia Marina 's admirals to start preparing for Corfu's occupation, which he predicated would happen that summer in response to the " expected provocative acts" by Greece. The Italian Navy minister, Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel , welcomed

7332-437: 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

7426-527: The success of these negotiations hinged in part on presenting Italy as a responsible partner to Britain, which was threatened by Mussolini's rash behavior such as the occupation of Corfu. Following the incident, the Greek government proclaimed martial law throughout Greece. The Greek fleet was ordered to retire to the Gulf of Volos to avoid contact with the Italian fleet. In the Athens Cathedral ,

7520-468: The territories the Italians had fought for in World War I including a large chunk of Anatolia. Having denounced his predecessors as weak leaders who had brought about the "mutilated victory" of 1918 and promised that he was a "strong leader" who would undo the "mutilated victory", Mussolini by the summer of 1923 was to face the reality that Italy was simply too weak to achieve all of his promises. There

7614-402: The threat of Mussolini to withdraw from the League and lack of French support the matter went to the Conference of Ambassadors. Italy's prestige was safeguarded and the French were relieved from any linkage between Corfu and the Ruhr at the League of Nations. On September 8 the Conference of Ambassadors announced to both Greece and Italy, as well as to the League of Nations, the terms upon which

7708-422: The view that since the Italians had been forced out of Turkey that cancelled out the obligation to cede the Dodecanese islands to Greece. The Greeks continued to press Mussolini on the Dodecanese issue, and in the summer of 1923, he ordered the Italian garrison in the Dodecanese reinforced as part of his plans to formally annex the islands to Italy, which caused Greece to issue notes of protest. In May 1923, during

7802-568: The wall); the second planned it; the third, by labour day and night, quickly completed it, in the year of our Lord 1728"). The sea defences of the New Fortress were destroyed by the British when the British protectorate came to an end and Corfu was united with Greece in 1864. Under the same agreement, the Avrami and Vido island forts were also destroyed. When the latter fort was demolished,

7896-514: Was a boundary dispute between Greece and Albania . The two nations took their dispute to the Conference of Ambassadors , which created a commission of British, French, and Italian officials to determine the boundary, which was authorized by the League of Nations to settle the dispute. The Italian General Enrico Tellini became the chairman of the commission. From the outset of the negotiations,

7990-574: 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

8084-568: 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 the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

8178-557: 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

8272-666: Was believed that France would veto any sanctions against Italy if the Corfu incident was referred to the League. Within Whitehall, the Treasury objected to sanctions against Italy under the grounds that the United States was not a member of the League and any League sanctions if adopted would be ineffective as the United States would continue to trade with Italy while the Admiralty demanded a declaration of war against Italy as

8366-407: Was looted by Italian soldiers. Mussolini in a speech denounced the Greek government for not understanding that "Corfu had been Venetian for four hundred years", before becoming part of Greece in 1864. Throughout the crisis, Mussolini kept stating that Corfu had been ruled by Venice in a manner that suggested he viewed Corfu as rightfully part of Italy rather than Greece under the grounds that Italy

8460-471: Was sent to inquire into the murder of the Italian delegates was recalled by the Italian legation, and Greek journalists were expelled from Italy. Albania reinforced the Greco-Albanian frontier and prohibited passage across. Serbian newspapers declared that Serbia would support Greece, while elements in Turkey advised Mustafa Kemal to seize the opportunity to invade Western Thrace . Head of

8554-477: Was the Cham Albanians who were responsible for General Tellini's murder. The letter stated that Daout Hodja (Daut Hoxha), a Cham Albanian bandit, killed General Tellini and the other officers. Summarising the most recent evidence, the Greek historian Aristotle Kallis wrote: Much about the incident which resulted in Tellini's assassination remains unclear. There is sufficient evidence to lend credence to

8648-691: Was the heir to the Most Serene Republic of Venice . One of the few groups in Italy who did object to the bombardment were the senior diplomats of the Palazzo Chigi who were not informed. Many of them, including Salvatore Contarini, the Permanent Secretary to the Foreign Minister, were on vacation on the day of the bombardment. During the crisis, Contarini together with Antonio Salandra, the Italian delegate to

8742-580: 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

8836-673: 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

#694305