ellinika

Ellinika, Greek for the Greek language, refers to the Greek language as a whole, including its modern form and historical stages. It belongs to the Hellenic branch of the Indo-European language family and has a documented history spanning more than two millennia. Linguists typically distinguish Ancient Greek, Koine Greek, Medieval Byzantine Greek, and Modern Greek, though there is a continuous development across these periods.

The Greek language is written in the Greek alphabet, a 24-letter script adopted in antiquity and still in use today. In modern writing, monotonic orthography uses a single diacritic, the tonos, to mark stress, while polytonic orthography—used in historical or scholarly contexts—employs additional diacritics for breathings and vowel quality.

Modern Greek, the standard form used today, arose from a long history of diglossia between Demotic (the vernacular) and Katharevousa (an archaizing form). From the 19th century onward, Demotic Greek became the basis of most formal education, media, and daily life. The language is official in Greece and Cyprus and is widely spoken by Greek communities worldwide.

Dialects and varieties include Cypriot Greek, Pontic Greek, and Tsakonian, among others. Some dialects differ considerably from Standard Modern Greek and are considered separate linguistic varieties by some scholars.

Greek is highly inflected in its earlier stages and retains rich verbal morphology; Modern Greek relies more on fixed word order and particles. Nouns have gender and number, with a less extensive case system than Ancient Greek. The language remains a core element of Greek education, culture, and national identity.