Katharevousa
E39657
archaizing language variety
conservative language variety
form of the Greek language
language register
Katharevousa is a conservative, archaizing form of the Greek language that was used in official and literary contexts in Greece from the 19th to the late 20th century.
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
archaizing language variety
→
conservative language variety → form of the Greek language → language register → |
| basedOn | Ancient Greek → |
| characteristic |
archaic vocabulary
→
conservative morphology → formal syntax → limited use of loanwords → |
| contains |
classical grammatical forms
→
learned neologisms → |
| contrastedWith | Demotic Greek → |
| country | Greece → |
| domainOfUse |
administration
→
church documents → education → law → literature → press → |
| endUse | late 20th century → |
| etymology | from Greek καθαρεύουσα meaning ‘purifying’ or ‘purist’ → |
| influenced |
Standard Modern Greek vocabulary
→
legal and bureaucratic style in Greek → |
| influencedBy |
Ancient Greek
→
surface form:
Classical Greek
Koine Greek → |
| languageFamily |
Hellenic languages
→
Indo-European language family →
surface form:
Indo-European languages
|
| nativeName | Καθαρεύουσα → |
| officialStatusUntil | 1976 → |
| purpose |
to bridge Ancient and Modern Greek
→
to purify the Greek language → |
| relatedConcept |
Greek language question
→
diglossia in Greece → |
| replacedBy |
Demotic Greek
→
Modern Greek →
surface form:
Standard Modern Greek
|
| standardizedIn | 19th century Greece → |
| startUse | early 19th century → |
| status |
no longer official language of Greece
→
partly preserved in formal registers of Greek → |
| subfamily | Greek language → |
| timePeriod |
19th century
→
20th century → |
| usedAs |
language of academic writing in Greece
→
language of government decrees → language of many 19th-century Greek novels → language of official gazettes → |
| usedIn |
Kingdom of Greece
→
modern Greek state → |
| writingSystem | Greek alphabet → |
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.