Katharevousa

Katharevousa (Greek Καθαρεύουσα, ) is a form of the Greek Language , created during the early 19th Century by Adamantios Korais ( 1748 - 1833 ). A graduate of the university of Montpellier in 1788 , Korais spent most of his life as an Expatriate in Paris . Being a classical scholar, he was repelled by the Byzantine influence in Greek society and was a fierce critic of the ignorance of the clergy and their subservience to the Ottoman Empire . He realized that education was a precursor to Greek liberation.

The "purified" Greek was to be the midpoint between Ancient Greek and Modern Greek . ''Katharevousa'' actually contained archaicised forms of modern words, purged of "non-Greek" vocabulary from other European languages and Turkish and a (simplified) archaic grammar.

The purpose of its creation was to mediate the struggle between the "archaists" and the "modernists". One reason the Archaists preferred Ancient Greek was that Modern Greek includes many Latin, Italian and Turkish Loan Word s; and Greece then was a part of the Ottoman Empire . The name ''Katharevousa'' means more or less "clean one", implying that it is a clean form of Greek, without foreign influences, maybe as it would hypothetically have evolved from Ancient Greek had there been no foreign influence.

Soon after the Second World War a long-lasting political debate became associated with the language issue, with the Communists and leftists supporting Modern Greek while the Conservative right supported Katharevousa.

In later years, ''Katharevousa'' was used only for official and formal purposes (such as politics, letters, official documents, and newscasting) while '' Dhimotiki ,'' (δημοτική) 'demotic' or popular Greek, was the daily language. However, in 1976 ''Dhimotiki'' was made the official language and by the end of the 20th Century ''Katharevousa'' had become obsolete. However, the ancient Greek grammar and syntactical rules that Katharevousa had adopted and many words from Katharevousa have influenced and entered Dhimotiki during the two centuries of its existence, so that the project has left a very noticeable trace in the modern Greek language, especially the written form.

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Katharevousa