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66-513: The Skleros ( Greek : Σκληρός ; plural: Σκληροί, Skleroi ), latinized Sclerus , feminine form Skleraina (Σκλήραινα), Latinized Scleraena , was a noble Byzantine family active mostly in the 9th–11th centuries as members of the military aristocracy, and as civil functionaries thereafter. The family descended from north-eastern Asia Minor , either from Lesser Armenia or the theme of Sebasteia . Due to their place of origin, they have been traditionally regarded as Armenians , although this

132-472: A Greek suffix . The Skleros have been linked more specifically with the area around Melitene , where a member of the family was active in the 840s, and where the rebellions of Bardas Skleros in the 970s and 980s were centred. After that, they seem to have moved their base to the Anatolic Theme , where they are recorded to have had large estates in the 11th century. Although the family belonged to

198-577: 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,

264-428: A blow from his hand was dead straightway, and whole armies trembled even when he shouted from afar. — Michael Psellos , Chronographia . If his military career was quick to peak, it was even quicker to collapse. Upon his uncle's death in 969, Phokas and his family rebelled against the new emperor and their own cousin, John I Tzimiskes . Bardas was proclaimed emperor by troops stationed at Caesarea , but their rebellion

330-558: 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

396-560: 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

462-540: 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

528-676: A member of the Skleros clan, became strategos of Lykandos , of the Thracesian Theme and finally domestikos ton scholon for a short time in 944–945, before being replaced by Bardas Phokas the Elder after the downfall of the Lekapenoi from power. The most distinguished scion of the family, Bardas Skleros , first appears in 956 as a patrikios and strategos of the small frontier theme of Kaloudia. Bardas's siblings married into

594-574: A prison, Phokas proceeded to lay siege to Abydos , thus threatening to blockade the Dardanelles . At this point Basil II obtained timely aid, in the form of Varangian mercenaries, from his brother-in-law Vladimir , the Rus prince of Kiev , and marched to Abydos. The two armies were facing each other , when Phokas galloped forward, seeking personal combat with the Emperor who was riding in front of

660-804: 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

726-773: 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

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792-479: 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

858-431: Is nowhere explicitly attested. It has also been suggested that the family was mixed Greek – Armenian . However, the evidence for the family's alleged Armenian origins is tenuous. The Greek surname Skleros ( lit.   ' hard/severe ' ) indicates that the family's founding father may have been at least partly Greek, since Byzantines of Armenian origin generally had surnames that were recognizably Armenian with simply

924-519: 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

990-811: 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 Bardas Phokas

1056-526: 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

1122-763: 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,

1188-650: 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

1254-587: The Anatolian military aristocracy, in the 9th century its members are mostly attested as being active in the Balkans : the first Skleros known was a strategos of the Peloponnese in 805, and in 811, the same office was occupied by Leo Skleros , possibly a son or nephew of the former. Another unnamed member of the family is recorded in the 840s as serving the Arabs and being in conflict with Umar al-Aqta ,

1320-495: 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

1386-644: The Hellespont . Despite several initial setbacks , and with the assistance of a Georgian army led by Tornikios , Phokas eventually suppressed the revolt, gaining victory in single combat with Skleros. For his vital services to the crown, he was rewarded with a coveted office of Domestic of the Scholae and at once led the Byzantine armies to reconquer Aleppo from the Saracens . Later, to quote Psellos, "he

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1452-512: The Holy Roman Emperor Otto II ( r.  973–983 ). The death of Tzimiskes in 976 saw yet another change in the family's standing: the powerful parakoimomenos , Basil Lekapenos , who assumed the tutelage of the young emperor Basil II ( r.  976–1025 ), regarded Bardas Skleros as a threat to the new regime, and demoted him to doux of Mesopotamia . As a result, Bardas rose in rebellion in spring 976, but

1518-516: 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

1584-492: 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

1650-470: 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

1716-486: 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

1782-425: 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

1848-495: 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

1914-629: 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

1980-685: 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

2046-486: The Schools under Isaac or his successor, Constantine X Doukas ( r.  1059–1068 ). The family declined in importance thereafter, and most of the late 11th-century Skleroi were civil officials rather than military leaders. Among the most important of these are: the protonobelissimos and logothetes tou dromou Andronikos Skleros; the protoproedros and kouropalates Nicholas, who served as Grand Drungary of

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2112-532: The Watch ; the protoproedros and kouropalates Michael, exisotes and civil judge of Macedonia and Thrace ; and the magistros Leo Skleros, civil governor of the Anatolic and Opsician themes and chartoularios tou vestiariou . The Skleroi did not intermarry with the new Komnenian dynasty (1081–1185), and hence fell out of power. From the 12th century, members of the Skleros family appear only rarely in

2178-657: The Younger Bardas was a scion of the Phokas family , the most prominent Byzantine aristocratic clan in the 10th century. His father Leo Phokas the Younger was a curopalates and brother to the Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas . Even as a young man, Bardas gained a reputation for his great expertise in the science of war: According to the historians, this man Bardas reminded people of his uncle,

2244-404: 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),

2310-402: 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

2376-552: The children of a brother of Basil's appear and gain prominence. Maria Skleraina became Constantine IX's mistress, while her brother advanced from strategos of the Thracesian Theme to the supreme rank of proedros and the post of doux of Antioch. His rivalry with George Maniakes contributed to the latter's rebellion, and he was one of the main supporters of the successful revolt of Isaac I Komnenos ( r.  1057–1059 ). He may have even been promoted to Domestic of

2442-404: 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

2508-542: The emir of Malatya , possibly indicating a fall from favour of the family under the Amorian dynasty . The family seems to have regained a prominent position under Basil I the Macedonian ( r.  867–886 ), for the magistros and anthypatos Theodore Skleros is recorded in 869–870. His sons Antony and Niketas became patrikioi , with Antony serving as strategos of Hellas and Niketas possibly as admiral of

2574-432: The emperor Nikephoros, for he was always wrapped in gloom, and watchful, capable of foreseeing all eventualities, of comprehending everything at a glance. Far from being ignorant of warlike manoeuvres, he was thoroughly versed in every type of siege warfare, every trick of ambush, every tactic of pitched battle. In the matter of physical prowess, moreover, Bardas was more energetic and virile than Sclerus. Any man who received

2640-618: 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

2706-452: 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

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2772-628: The imperial fleet ( droungarios tou ploimou ), while he is also recorded as leading an embassy to the Magyars in 894. The Skleroi fell into obscurity during the reign of Leo VI the Wise ( r.  886–912 ), who favoured the Doukas and Phokas families. In turn, the Skleroi seem to have supported the usurpation of Romanos Lekapenos : the general Pantherios , who has been tentatively identified as

2838-439: 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

2904-467: 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

2970-403: The latter's defeat and death. Skleros renewed his resistance against Basil II for a few months, but eventually was reconciled with the emperor, honoured with the title of kouropalates and allowed to retire with his brother to Didymoteichon . The fate of his son Romanos Skleros is unclear: he remained in active military service, and W. Seibt suggested that he served as doux of Antioch , but

3036-414: The lines. Just as he prepared to charge at Basil, however, Phokas suffered a seizure, fell from his horse, and was found to be dead (April 13, 989). His head was cut off and brought to Basil. This ended the rebellion. By his marriage to a cousin, one Adralestina, Bardas left two sons, Leo and Nikephoros (died 1022). His grandson and namesake, Bardas Phokas, was blinded by imperial authorities in 1025. It

3102-640: 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

3168-441: 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

3234-435: The most prominent families of the military aristocracy: Constantine Skleros married Sophia Phokaina, the niece of Nikephoros II Phokas ( r.  963–969 ), while Maria Skleraina married Nikephoros Phokas's nephew, John Tzimiskes . The latter connection was of particular importance for the family's fortunes: although she died before Tzimiskes ascended the throne in 969, the Skleroi were promoted by him to senior positions in

3300-399: 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

3366-536: 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

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3432-706: 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

3498-506: The post was occupied at the time by Michael Bourtzes . According to J.-C. Cheynet, Romanos may have been either Bourtzes' deputy or even a stratopedarches or domestikos ton scholon . Unlike their erstwhile rivals, the Phokades, the Skleroi managed to survive and retain high offices under Basil II and his successors. Basil Skleros , a son of Romanos, is attested as a patrikios under Constantine VIII ( r.  1025–1028 ), when he

3564-568: The sources: a certain Seth Skleros was blinded 1166/67 for practising magic; a Romanos Skleros, who lived at the turn of the 13th century and probably held large estates; a sebastos Skleros, landholder at Serres in 1336; and a Demetrios Skleros, official of the metropolis of Zichnoi (near Serres) in 1362. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ )

3630-586: The state. Bardas was appointed as domestikos ton scholon of the East, suppressing the revolt of the Phokas clan led by Bardas Phokas the Younger , and defeating the Rus' in 970. Despite a period of disgrace in 972–974, connected with a reported conspiracy against Tzimiskes, the Skleroi remained among the most important families during his reign. In 972, Tzimiskes even married Constantine Skleros's daughter, Theophano , to

3696-437: 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

3762-459: The understanding that the empire would be partitioned if they succeeded in their revolt against the emperors. In a campaign that curiously mimicked Skleros' revolt a decade earlier, Phokas proclaimed himself emperor and overran most of Asia Minor . "It was no longer in imagination, but in very truth, that he put on the imperial robes, with the emperor's crown and the royal insignia of purple", says Psellos. After relegating his colleague Skleros to

3828-515: 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

3894-568: 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

3960-557: 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

4026-471: Was defeated by an imperial army under Bardas Phokas the Younger in 979 and forced to seek refuge in the Abbasid Caliphate along with his brother, Constantine, and son, Romanos. In 987, the Skleroi returned to Byzantium, and launched a new bid for the throne. This time Bardas Skleros allied himself with Phokas against Basil II, but was betrayed and imprisoned by Phokas, and was released only after

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4092-504: Was exiled and partially blinded , but was rehabilitated under Romanos III Argyros ( r.  1028–1034 ), whose sister Pulcheria he had married. He became magistros and strategos of the Anatolic Theme , before being exiled again ca. 1032/33. Basil Skleros and Pulcheria Argyropoulina had a daughter, who became the second wife of Constantine Monomachos , later in life Emperor Constantine IX ( r.  1042–1055 ). Under Monomachos' rule, two other Skleroi, Romanos and Maria, possibly

4158-481: Was extinguished by another skilled commander, Bardas Skleros . Phokas and his relatives were captured and exiled to the island of Chios , where he would spend the following seven years. In 978 Bardas was delivered from his prison cell by the eunuch Basil Lekapenos , Basil II 's uncle and de facto regent. He was dispatched in disguise to his native Cappadocia to stir up the local aristocracy against Skleros, who had revolted against imperial authorities and advanced to

4224-502: Was given the privilege of a triumph and took his place among the personal friends of his sovereign." While Constantine VIII was easily swayed by his advisers, his brother Basil II was apparently irked by their supremacy. Basil's energy showed that he was determined to take the administration into his own hands and personally control the army. His growing independence alarmed both Basil Lekapenos and Phokas. In 987 they entered into secret negotiations with their former enemy, Skleros, on

4290-580: 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

4356-673: 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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