Dimotiki

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Under Dimotiki [ ðimotici ] ( Greek δημοτική [γλώσσα] "vernacular") refers to the evolved over and in direct continuity from the ancient Greek resulting Neugriechische vernacular. The term as such has been used since 1818. The Dimotiki was (or is) the natural mother tongue of the Greeks . At the time of diglossia, it was the colloquial language of Katharevousa (literally "the pure") as the official state and educational language, which was the continuation of the ancient and Byzantine literary language ( Koine) gerated. Conceptually, Dimotiki and Katharevousa form a complementary pair.

The movement, which campaigned for the Dimotiki is Demotizismus called (δημοτικισμός). Their followers, the Demoticists (δημοτικιστές), were also disparagingly referred to by the representatives of the standard language as οι μαλλιαροί ("the long-haired").

Dimotiki and Katharevousa

The Dimotiki was used in the form of regional dialects in early works of modern Greek literature (e.g. in Erotokritos by Vitsentzos Kornaros in the 17th century), then in the early 19th century by some Greek poets (" Ionian school ", e.g. . Dionysios Solomos ) as literary language. However, it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that it was able to establish itself unofficially as a general Greek literary language in poetry and prose, compared to the ancient state language Katharevousa. Even if practically all writers wrote in the Dimotiki in the 20th century, the vernacular was not legally recognized - apart from brief interludes - until the 1970s.

The dispute between the Dimotiki and the Katharevousa shaped public life in Greece in the 19th and 20th centuries . In fact, the " Greek language dispute " ended in 1976, when the Dimotiki became the only official state language. Since then, the Katharevousa has been largely obsolete. The term Dimotiki is now used by many as a synonym for modern modern Greek .

Dimotiki and "Modern Greek"

The Dimotiki is often equated with the modern Greek language , but the two terms are not completely synonymous. Today's modern modern Greek ( Greek Νεοελληνική Κοινή ; English Standard Modern Greek ) can be described as a synthesis of Dimotiki and Katharevousa, albeit with a strong preponderance of Dimotiki. It therefore consists of a "folk" framework that is enriched with "learned" elements and thus goes beyond its original, purely folk character. If Modern Greek were only meant to be the simple language spoken in everyday life, it would largely be equated with Dimotiki. Modern Greek today also contains numerous words, grammatical forms and phonetic phenomena, especially in a written or official form, which did not exist in the traditional vernacular (Dimotiki) and which only entered the contemporary language via the standard language (Katharevousa).

It should be noted that the Katharevousa, including its most atticistic excesses, does not represent ancient Greek. Rather, it was also called Modern Greek by its representatives and in the official terminology. It is structurally a “pseudo-ancient Greek”, but in terms of linguistic history it is a modern Greek language phenomenon. That is why the term Modern Greek is, strictly speaking, a collective term for Dimotiki and Standard Modern Greek and, from a certain point of view, also for Katharevousa.

Examples of typical folk aspects of the Dimotiki

The typical folk aspects of the Dimotiki are largely in use today. In some cases there is a common scholarly form next to the popular one, with the popular one mostly in spoken language, while more learned variants tend to be limited to the written language. Characteristics associated with the vernacular are:

  • popular synonym of a high-level verb, e.g. B. λαβαίνω (received) next to λαμβάνω, also in compound words such as καταλαβαίνω (understand) next to καταλαμβάνω (take) , προφταίνω (achieve, create, experience) next to προφθάνω;
  • unequal syllable adjectives in -ης, -α, -ικο, z. B. ζηλιάρης (jealous) , plural ζηλιάρηδες;
  • unequal syllable adjectives in -άς, ού, z. B. υπναράς (sleepy, sleepyhead ) , plural υπναράδες;
  • unesyllabic nouns ending in -ης, e.g. B. o χασάπης (the butcher) , plural οι χασάπηδες;
  • Shortening or simplifying words, e.g. B. γεια and υγεία / υγειά (health) instead of old Gr . ἡ ὑγιεία , τα πράματα instead of τα πράγματα (the things) , Aϊ-Γιάννης instead of Άγιος Ιωάννης (Saint John) ;
  • partial abandonment of an aorist stem that deviates from the present tense stem, z. B. πρόβλεψα / προέβλεψα (I saw ahead) next to προείδα; Present tense: προβλέπω;
  • numerous diminutives on -ούλης, -ούλα, -ίτσα, -άκι;
  • frequent reduplication of a whole word, e.g. B. σιγά σιγά, γιαλό-γιαλό, γύρω γύρω, δίπλα δίπλα;
  • also combinations of several of these aspects, e.g. B. γείτσες! (Health!) , Plural of the diminutive form of υγεία / υγειά, which in turn is a simplification of old Gr. ἡ ὑγιεία is.

Examples of non-existent aspects of modern modern Greek in Dimotiki

The following examples from the modern modern Greek language reflect the contribution of the atticizing high language to modern modern Greek. They did not exist in the traditional Dimotiki and mostly only found their way into everyday language via the Katharevousa (e.g. as neologisms ), where they are now often written (e.g. in newspaper articles), e.g. Some can also be used orally. Especially in the area of ​​"words and fixed expressions", they are also understood by the uneducated and often used actively:

  • Words and fixed expressions:
    • ενδιαφέρων (interesting) ;
    • τουλάχιστον (at least, at least) ;
    • την απήγαγε (he kidnapped her) ;
    • είναι γεγονός ότι ... (it is a fact that ...) ;
    • προς το παρόν (for the time being, momentarily, for the moment) ;
    • special expressions in which the ancient Greek dative is used:
      • δόξα τω Θεώ ( thank God) ;
      • εν ονόματι ... (in the name ...) ;
      • τοις μετρητοίς (bar) ;
      • εν συνεχεία (in the following) ;
      • εν τω μεταξύ ( meanwhile ) ;
      • εν τάξει (okay) .
  • Grammatical (morphological) phenomena:
    • Adjectives -ων, -ουσα, -ον (eg ενδιαφέρων. Interesting ) or -ων, -ων, -ον (eg σώφρων. Prudent , only partly present in the spoken language);
    • declinable participle aorist such as B. παραδώσας (having handed over) , γεννηθείς ( having been born [having been]) , mostly limited to the written language;
    • Reduplication forms in the perfect such as B. προσ κε κλημένος (invited) , πε παλαιωμένος (outdated) .
    • Genitivus absolutus : συμπεριλαμβανομένου του σπιτιού (including the house) , αφαιρουμένων των κρατήσεων (minus the taxes) - only partially available in the spoken language.
  • Phonetic aspects: In modern modern Greek there are numerous words that contain combinations of letters that have been avoided in traditional vernacular, e.g. B .:
    • -πτ- (e.g. ελικό πτ ερο helicopter ); in the Dimotiki -φτ- was preferred, z. B. χούφτα;
    • -κτ- (e.g. εισπρά κτ ορας cashier ); in the Dimotiki: -χτ-, z. B. πειραχτήρι;
    • -ευδ-, -σθ- (e.g. ψ ευδ αί σθ ηση illusion, mirage ); in the Dimotiki: -ευτ-, -στ-, z. B. ψεύτης.

In some of these "learned" aspects of modern Modern Greek, the error rate of native Greek speakers is quite high; so encounter for example, often mistake as προήχθη instead προήχθην (I was promoted) , λόγου του ότι / λόγο το ότι instead λόγω του ότι (due to the fact that) , τον ενδιαφέρον άνθρωπο instead τον ενδιαφέροντα άνθρωπο (the interesting people) , οι ενδιαφέροντες γυναίκες instead of οι ενδιαφέρουσες γυναίκες (the interesting women) , ο ψήφος instead of η ψήφος (the [choice] voice) .

Textual evidence on the relationship between the Dimotiki and modern modern Greek

Christos Karvounis emphasizes the mixed character of modern modern Greek when he writes about the Greek language dispute:

“[…] The development of Greek in the 20th century (and especially in its second half) is excellent proof that this struggle for the language of land and society in the 19th and 20th centuries. Century caused damage, but at the same time forced the emergence of a conflict that had lasted for several centuries; He accelerated a process of coming of age, through which the vernacular basis grew together with the high-level language elements, which led to a 'common language' (Νεοελληνική κοινή / Standard modern Greek) that is perhaps more powerful and expressive than ever before. "

Francisco Adrados writes:

“Today, of course, the Dimotiki has prevailed in Greece. However, at least in their written form, they should be called common Greek rather than demotic Greek. [...] What we commonly call Modern Greek is not entirely uniform, because its phonetics and morphology and especially its vocabulary retain numerous elements of the old standard language. [...] The so-called Modern Greek is therefore a combination of different varieties of Dimotiki Greek. "

Radical demoticism

The philologist Giannis Psycharis , a scholar living in France, who was best known for his work “Meine Reise” ( Το ταξίδι μου , 1888), stood out as one of the most radical advocates of a purely popular Greek language free of all archaisms . Psycharis not only advocated the sole use of the naturally grown, modern Greek vernacular, but went one step further and advocated making it even more "popular" than it already was, and also used it from the last in some form as " formed ”to free identifiable phrases. He suggested that το φως (Gen. του φωτός; "the light"), unchanged since ancient Greek, be pressed into a modern Greek declination system and transformed into το φώτο (Gen. του φώτου). Such radical and completely unnatural forms could not prevail, however, and are now considered to be more striking examples of the bizarre dimensions of the linguistic dispute than serious suggestions. In addition, Psycharis called for the historical orthography of Greek to be abandoned as opposed to a phonetic one, that is, among other things, to reduce the six different spellings for the sound "i" and to dispense with double consonants. Consequently, he wrote his own name Γιάνης instead of Γιάννης. Psycharis's radical demoticism found some followers around 1900 and went down in Greek language history as psycharism .

Important representatives of the Dimotiki

Web links

References

  1. ^ Georgios Babiniotis: Lexiko tis neas ellinikis glossas. Second edition. Athens 2002, p. 474.
  2. ^ Francisco R. Adrados: History of the Greek Language. From the beginnings till now. Tübingen and Basel 2001, p. 287.
  3. ↑ Christos Karvounis: Greek (Ancient Greek, Middle Greek, Modern Greek). In: M. Okuka (Hrsg.): Lexicon of the languages ​​of the European East. Klagenfurt 2002, pp. 21-46.
  4. ^ Francisco R. Adrados: History of the Greek Language. From the beginnings till now. Tübingen and Basel 2001, pp. 289f.
  5. ↑ See on this the criticism by Mario Vitti: Ιστορία της νεοελληνικής λογοτεχνίας . Εκδόσεις Οδυσσέας και Mario Vitti, Turin 1971, p. 257f.