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79-563: Porphyrogénnētos ( Greek : Πορφυρογέννητος , lit.   'purple-born'), Latinized as Porphyrogenitus , was an honorific title in the Byzantine Empire given to a son, or daughter ( Πορφυρογέννητη , Porphyrogénnētē , Latinized Porphyrogenita ), born after the father had become emperor . Both imperial or Tyrian purple , a dye for cloth, and the purple stone porphyry were rare and expensive, and at times reserved for imperial use only. In particular there

158-577: 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

237-577: 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,

316-508: 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

395-590: 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

474-400: 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

553-459: 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 ,

632-469: A purple-born bride for the prince who would eventually become Otto II , in which mission he failed. A different bride who was not purple-born, Theophanu , was subsequently acquired in 971. To be "born in the purple" is often seen as a limitation to be escaped rather than a benefit or a blessing. Rarely, the term refers to someone born with immense talent that shapes their career and forces them into paths they might not otherwise wish to follow. An obituary of

711-460: 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

790-571: Is denied the opportunity to an ordinary life because of their parents' royal rank. An example of this usage can be seen in the following discussion comparing the German Kaiser Wilhelm II with his grandfather, Wilhelm I , and his father, Frederick III : Compare this with his grandfather, the old Emperor, who, if he had not been born in the purple, could only have been a soldier, and not, it must be added, one who could have held very high commands. Compare him again with his father;

869-504: Is mentioned in approximately one quarter of the emperor's formal documents – evidence of her privileged position, influence and interest in affairs of the empire. It is known that she was frequently at odds with her mother-in-law, Adelaide of Italy . The young couple and Adelaide collided with each other in several matters, including Adelaide's early association with Henry the Quarrelsome . According to Abbot Odilo of Cluny , Adelaide

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948-543: Is overstated. Theophanu's "Greekness" was not an overall issue. Moreover, there was a grand fascination with the culture surrounding Byzantine court in the west that slighted most criticisms to her Greek origin. Theophanu did not remain merely as an image of the Ottonian empire, but as an influence within the Holy Roman Empire. She intervened within the governing of the empire a total of seventy-six times during

1027-1006: 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 Theophanu Theophanu ( German pronunciation: [te.o.fa.ˈnuː] ; also Theophania , Theophana , or Theophano ; Medieval Greek Θεοφανώ ; c. AD 955 – 15 June 991)

1106-763: 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,

1185-632: Is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near the Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in

1264-562: 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

1343-657: 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

1422-516: 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

1501-780: 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

1580-468: 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

1659-417: 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,

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1738-419: The throne . It did not include children born prior to their parents' accession or, in an extremely strict definition, their coronation. 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

1817-566: 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

1896-462: The British composer Hubert Parry complains that his immense natural talent (described as being "born in the purple") forced him to take on teaching and administrative duties that prevented him from composing in the manner that might have been allowed to someone who had to develop their talent. In this sense, the parents' prominence predetermines the child's role in life. A royal child, for instance,

1975-478: The Emperor Frederick, if he had not been born in the purple, though he certainly showed greater military capacity than the old Emperor, nevertheless would probably not have been happy or successful in any private station other than that of a great moral teacher. The classic definition restricted use of the category specifically to the legitimate offspring born to reigning monarchs after they ascended to

2054-529: The Great of Kiev, who was married to the Byzantine princess Anna, sister of Emperor Basil II . Economou notes that, "Theophano had in mind a 'family of kings,' in parallel to Byzantine tradition: The emperor was the 'father' of other kings, who were his 'sons' and 'friends' (amici) in a kind of family hierarchy. She also adopted the Byzantine model of relations between the emperor and patriarch in her relations to

2133-544: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

2212-549: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

2291-578: The Greeks" in a letter while Otto's ambassador, Bishop Liutprand of Cremona , was at the Byzantine court, had destroyed the first round of marriage negotiations. With the ascension of John I Tzimiskes, who had not been personally referred to other than as Roman Emperor, the treaty negotiations were able to resume. However, not until a third delegation led by Archbishop Gero of Cologne arrived in Constantinople , were they successfully completed. After

2370-593: The Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek

2449-610: The Prince-Bishop Notker of Liège against Odo I, Count of Blois . Due to illness beginning in 988, Theophanu eventually died at Nijmegen and was buried in the Church of St. Pantaleon near her wittum in Cologne in 991. The chronicler Thietmar eulogized her as follows: " Though [Theophanu] was of the weak sex she possessed moderation, trustworthiness, and good manners. In this way she protected with male vigilance

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2528-641: The Romans during a diet held on Pentecost of that year at Verona . At Christmas, Theophanu had him crowned by the Mainz archbishop Willigis at Aachen Cathedral , with herself ruling as Empress Regent on his behalf. Upon the death of Emperor Otto II, Bishop Folcmar of Utrecht released his cousin, the Bavarian duke Henry the Quarrelsome from custody. Duke Henry allied with Archbishop Warin of Cologne and seized his nephew Otto III in spring 984, while Theophanu

2607-404: 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),

2686-479: The arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During the older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from

2765-458: The birth of the next Ottonian emperor. According to Laura Wangerin, her father-in-law Otto the Great played an instrumental role in establishing her position as a future ruler. But despite his support, she met a lot of opposition and envy due to her foreign origins and education. After his death in 973, she lost her greatest support at court. Otto II succeeded his father on 8 May 973. Theophanu accompanied her husband on all his journeys, and she

2844-623: The chance to succeed. Her personal role or non-role in the contact or merging between the Macedonian Renaissance and Ottonian Renaissance inspires a lot of debate as well. The Empress Theophano Prize, awarded by the Empress Theophano Foundation based in Thessaloniki , "rewards individuals or organisations who make an outstanding contribution to bridging Europe's historic diversities." On

2923-411: The core of governing the empire. Althoff highlights this as unusual, since kings or emperors in the middle ages rarely shared such a large beacon of power with nobility. Theophanu introduced Byzantine protocol, "which influenced dress, crowns and jewelry, eating habits and utensils, even furniture". Her retinue of scholars brought to the empire Byzantine lawyers' procedures. The cult of Saint Nicholas in

3002-796: The country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine ,

3081-441: 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

3160-515: The daughter of Kouropalatēs Leo Phokas , brother of Emperor Nikephoros II (c. 912–969). Theophanu was not born in the purple as the Ottonians would have preferred. The Saxon chronicler Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg writes that the Ottonian preference was for Anna Porphyrogenita , a daughter of late Emperor Romanos II . Theophanu's uncle John I Tzimiskes had overthrown his predecessor Nikephoros II Phokas in 969. Theophanu

3239-528: 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

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3318-641: The empire traces its origin from her too. As she and her husband and her son promoted trade in the Empire, Magdeburg and its traders were granted various privileges. Historical evidences show strong commercial activities in regions from Lüneburg to Halle . There are traces of Byzantine, Slavic as well as Arab traders. As with many Byzantine monarchs, Theophanu preferred diplomacy, but she did wage wars when necessary and accepted personal risk. She carried out at least one (successful) military expedition herself, in 987, when she marched with an imperial army to assist

3397-412: 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

3476-530: The fact that the child was born to parents bearing the imperial purple , or because the child was born in a special porphyry chamber in the Great Palace of Constantinople . As the porphyrogennētē 12th-century princess Anna Komnene described it, the room, "set apart long ago for an empress's confinement", was located "where the stone oxen and the lions stand" (i.e. the Boukoleon Palace ), and

3555-449: 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

3634-467: 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

3713-452: 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

3792-615: The marriage negotiations completed, Theophanu and Otto II were married by Pope John XIII in April 972 and she was crowned as Holy Roman Empress the same day in Rome. According to Karl Leysers' book Communications and Power in Medieval Europe: Carolingian and Ottonian, Otto I's choice was not "to be searched for in the parlance of high politics" as his decision was ultimately made on the basis of securing his dynasty with

3871-465: 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

3950-425: The north-western part of the old city of Constantinople named after Constantine Palaiologos , a younger son of Emperor Michael VIII . In Imperial diplomacy a porphyrogénnēta bride was sometimes sent to seal a bargain, or a foreign princess may have gone to Constantinople to marry a porphyrogénnētos . Liutprand of Cremona , for instance, visited Constantinople in 968 on a diplomatic mission from Otto I to secure

4029-418: The only consort to receive the title 'co-empress' ( coimperatrix augusta ), and it was envisaged she would succeed as sole ruler if Otto II died without a son." According to the marriage certificate issued on 14 April 972 Theophanu is identified as the neptis (niece or granddaughter) of Emperor John I Tzimiskes (925–976, reigned 969–976) who was of Armenian and Byzantine Greek descent. She

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4108-403: The others see her as extremely future-oriented and energetic; still others like Jestice opine that current evidences are not enough to definitely conclude that Theophanu and the other prominent female Ottonian rulers were extraordinarily talented as individuals or not but it is clear that the Ottonian society (which basically treated women and men as equals, except in physical prowess) allowed women

4187-554: The pope (Ostrogorsky 1956b). The 'family' of the western empire included the duke of Poland, Mieszko I , Bohemia and Hungary". Her model of imperial rulership, influenced by Byzantine and Ancient Roman ideas, was taken over by Otto II and especially Otto III who developed it further (although his abrupt death at a very young age prevented it from becoming an established foundation for the future). According to historian Gerd Althoff , Theophanu's prowess in diplomacy could be exaggerated. Royal charters present evidence that magnates were at

4266-643: 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

4345-550: The reign of her husband Otto II—perhaps a foreshadowing of her regency. Her first act as regent was in securing her son, Otto III, as the heir to the Holy Roman Empire. Theophanu also placed her daughters in power by giving them high positions in influential nunneries all around the Ottonian-ruled west, securing power for all her children. She welcomed ambassadors, declaring herself "imperator" or "imperatrix", as did her relative contemporaries Irene of Athens and Theodora ;

4424-436: The royal power for her son, friendly with all those who were honest, but with terrifying superiority against rebels ." Because Otto III was still a child, his grandmother Adelaide of Italy took over the regency until Otto III became old enough to rule on his own. Theophanu has always attracted considerable controversy from chroniclers and historiographers. While praised by Thietmar of Merseburg and Bruno of Querfurt , she

4503-566: The starting date for her reign being 972, the year of her marriage to the late Otto II. Theophanu's regency is a time of considerable peace, as the years 985-991 passed without major crises. In the North, she made a treaty with King Eric the Victorious , which promoted an alliance against Slavic tribes as well as reinforced trade and cultural connections. In the East, she sent envoys to Vladimir

4582-437: 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

4661-402: The theory of porphyrogeniture was used by Henry I of England to justify why he, and not his older brother Robert Curthose , should inherit the throne after the death of their brother William Rufus . The concept of porphyrogénnētos (literally meaning "born in the purple") was known from the sixth century in connection with growing ideas of hereditary legitimacy , but the first secure use of

4740-489: The word is not found until 846. The term became common by the 10th century, particularly in connection with Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos ( r.  913–959 ), and its use continued into the Palaiologan period . Constantine VII described the ceremonies which took place during the birth of a porphyrogénnētos boy in his work De Ceremoniis aulae byzantinae . The Byzantines themselves ascribed it either to

4819-486: Was empress of the Holy Roman Empire by marriage to Emperor Otto II , and regent of the Empire during the minority of their son, Emperor Otto III , from 983 until her death in 991. She was the niece of the Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimiskes . Theophanu was known to be a forceful and capable ruler, and her status in the history of the Empire was in many ways exceptional. According to Wilson, "She became

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4898-574: 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

4977-511: Was a room in the imperial Great Palace of Constantinople entirely lined with porphyry, where reigning empresses gave birth. Porphyrogeniture is a system of political succession that favours the rights of sons born after their father has become king or emperor, over older siblings born before their father's ascent to the throne. Examples of this practice include Byzantium and the Nupe Kingdom . In late 11th century England and Normandy,

5056-410: Was also criticized by some other scholars, notably Odilo of Cluny , the hagiographer of her mother-in-law and rival Adelaide . Odilo even blamed her for the failed Italian expedition of Otto II . Her modern historiographers are similarly divided, although Knut Görich  [ de ] sees the general trend as leaning towards the positive. Some see her as passive, reactive and conservative while

5135-418: Was also criticized for having introduced new luxurious garments and jewelry into France and Germany. The theologian Peter Damian even asserts that Theophanu had a love affair with John Philagathos, a Greek monk who briefly reigned as Antipope John XVI . Otto II died suddenly on 7 December 983 at the age of 28, probably from malaria . His three-year-old son, Otto III , had already been appointed King of

5214-557: 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

5293-521: Was based on the basis of Saxon tradition (which assigned the women an equal role in the family), Byzantine influence (which presented a model of a female counterpart to the emperor) and her mother-in-law Adelaide's legacy. Theophanu and her mother-in-law, Adelaide, are known during the empress' regency to have butted heads frequently— Adelaide of Italy is even quoted as referring to her as "that Greek empress." However, according to historian and author Simon Maclean, Theophanu's rivalry with her mother-in-law

5372-490: 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

5451-486: Was escorted back to Rome for her wedding by a delegation of German and Italian churchmen and nobles. When the Ottonian court discovered Theophanu was not a scion of the Macedonian dynasty , as had been assumed, Otto I was told by some to send Theophanu away. His advisors believed that Theophanu's relation to the usurper John Tzimiskes would invalidate the marriage as a confirmation of Otto I as Holy Roman Emperor . He

5530-558: Was extremely expensive, so the dye was used as a status symbol by the Ancient Romans , e.g. a purple stripe on the togas of Roman magistrates . By the Byzantine period the colour had become associated with the emperors, and sumptuary laws restricted its use by anyone except the imperial household. Purple was thus seen as an imperial colour. The Palace of the Porphyrogenitus is a late 13th-century Byzantine palace in

5609-447: Was in the form of a perfect square from floor to ceiling, with the latter ending in a pyramid . Its walls, floor and ceiling were completely veneered with imperial porphyry, which was "generally of a purple colour throughout, but with white spots like sand sprinkled over it." However, both explanations were current already in the 10th century. Imperial purple was a luxury dye obtained from sea snails, used to colour cloth. Its production

5688-609: Was of distinguished noble heritage: the Vita Mahthildis identifies her as augusti de palatio and the Annales Magdeburgenses describe her as Grecam illustrem imperatoriae stirpi proximam, ingenio facundam . Recent research tends to concur that she was most probably the daughter of Tzimiskes' brother-in-law (from his first marriage) Constantine Skleros (c. 920–989) and cousin Sophia Phokas ,

5767-456: Was persuaded to allow her to stay when it was pointed out that John Tzimiskes had wed Theodora , a member of the Macedonian dynasty and sister to Emperor Romanos II. John was therefore a Macedonian, by marriage if not by birth. Otto I must have been convinced, because Theophanu and Otto's heir, Otto II, were married on 14 April 972. A reference by the Pope to Emperor Nikephoros II as "Emperor of

5846-485: Was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in

5925-603: Was still in Italy in the royal palace of Pavia . Nevertheless he was forced to surrender the child to his mother, who was backed by Archbishop Willigis of Mainz and Bishop Hildebald of Worms . Theophanu ruled the Holy Roman Empire as regent for a span of five years, from May 985 to her death in 991, despite early opposition by the Ottonian court. In fact, many queens in the tenth century, on an account of male rulers dying early deaths, found themselves in power, creating an age of greater diversity. Her power as queen, empress and regent

6004-580: 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

6083-637: 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

6162-552: Was very happy when "that Greek woman" died. Nevertheless, the imperial couple were able to secure the trust of their allies at the 973 Reichstag in Worms, after which they traveled the country together, searching for new alliances and strengthening old ties. The young Theophanu showed diplomatic skills and displayed herself as an active partner in political negotiations. The Benedictine chronicler Alpert of Metz describes Theophanu as being an unpleasant and chattery woman. Theophanu

6241-673: 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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