Re: Demotic/Koine/Prakit

At 2:23 pm -0400 7/4/00, bjm10@CORNELL.EDU wrote:
>On Thu, 6 Apr 2000, Mike Adams wrote:
>
>> Demotic=Egyptian late, actually a writing form.
>
>Actually, "Demotic" can also refer to Greek tongues, the "Dhimotiki", or
>"vulgar Greek".
Oops - meant to add that to my reply to Mike as well :)


>It was denigrated and downplayed by the 20th-century
>Greek state,
..well, until the overthrow of the last military junta - the date escapes
me - Was in the 1980s?

>but it is the natural modern form of Greek, as opposed to
>"Kathieravesa", which is at least partially a conlang.
      ^

'Katharevousa' ("purifying" [language]) <-- katharevo "I purify"  <--
katharos "pure"

It was indeed very much a conlang devised by 19th cent. intellectual &
intended, as the name implies, to be a vehicle for 'purifying' the vulgar
dialects (there was not one, uniform version of Dhimotiki at the beginning
of the 20th cent.) to bring the Greek language back to its ancient, 'purer'
form.  I believe the intention of some, at least,  was that Katharevousa
would itself just be one stage towards purification; presumably the
intention of some was to restore the Atticizing Byzantine Greek as the
standard language.

Well, it didn't happen.  Rather Katharevousa influenced the demotic of the
educated and demotic influenced Katharevousa and a national standard
gradually evolved based on the 'educated demotic' of Athens.

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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