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Demotic Greek ((ギリシア語:δημοτική ()) (:ðimotiˈci), "() of the people") or dimotiki is the modern vernacular form of the Greek language. The term has been in use since 1818. ''Demotic'' refers particularly to the form of the language that evolved naturally from Ancient Greek, in opposition to the artificially archaic Katharevousa, which was the official standard until 1976. The two complemented each other in a typical example of diglossia until the resolution of the Greek language question in favour of Demotic. ==Basic features of Demotic== Demotic Greek differs from varieties of Ancient Greek and learned forms inherited from the same in several important ways. Syntactically, it favors parataxis over subordination. It also heavily employs redundancy, such as μικρό κοριτσάκι (''small little child'') and ξανακοιμήθηκε πάλι (''he went back to sleep again''). Somewhat in connexion with this, Demotic employs the diminutive with great frequency,〔 to the point that many Demotic forms are in effect neuter diminutives of ancient words, especially irregular ones, e.g. νήσι(ον) (''island'') from ancient ἡ νήςος (''island'', an irregular noun that had feminine gender but masculine declension). Greek noun declensions underwent considerable alteration, with irregular and less productive forms being gradually replaced by more regular forms based on the old one: άντρας (''man'') for ancient ἄνηρ. Another feature was the merging of classical accusative and nominative forms, distinguishing them only by their definite articles, which continued to be declined as in Ancient Greek. This was especially common with nouns of the third declension, such as πατρίς (''hometown'', ''fatherland'') which became nominative η πατρίδα, accusative τη πατρίδα in Demotic〔Another feature of the evolution of Demotic was the near-extinction of the genitive plural, which was revived in Katharevousa and is now productive again in Demotic. A derivative feature of this regularisation of noun forms in Demotic is that the words of most native vocabulary end in a vowel, or in a very restricted set of consonants ''s'' and ''n'' (ς, ν). Exceptions are foreign loans like μπαρ (''bar''), and learned forms ύδωρ (from Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, ''water''), and exlamations like αχ! (''ach!'', ''oh!'') Many dialects go so far as to append the vowel -''e'' (ε) to third-person verb forms: γράφουνε instead of γράφουν (''they write''). Word-final consonant clusters are also rare, again mainly occurring in learned discourse and via foreign loans: άνθραξ (''coal'' - scientific) and μποξ (''boxing'' - sport). Indirect object is usually expressed by σε with the accusative where Ancient Greek had εἰς for accusative of motion toward; bare σε is used without the article to express indefiniteness duration of time, or contracted with the definite article for definiteness especially in regards to place where or motion toward; or with the genitive, especially in regards to means or instrument.〔 Using one noun with an unmarked accusative article-noun phrase followed by σε contracted with the definite article of a second noun distinguishes between definite direct and indirect objects, whether real or figurative, e.g. «βάζω το χέρι μου στο ευαγγέλιο» or «...στη φωτιά» (lit. ''I put my hand upon the Gospel'' or ''...in the fire'', i.e. ''I swear it's true'', ''I'm sure of it''). By contrast, Katharevousa continued to employ the ancestral form, εἰς, place of σε. The verb system inherited from Ancient Greek gradually evolved, with the old future, perfect and pluperfect tenses gradually disappearing; they were replaced with conjugated forms of the verb έχω (''I have'') to denote these tenses instead. The future tenses and the subjunctive and optative moods, and eventually the infinitive, were replaced by the modal/tense auxiliaries θα and να used with new simplified and fused future/subjunctive forms.〔 In contrast to this, Katharevousa employed older perfective forms and infinitives that had been for the most part lost in the spoken language, but in other cases it employed the same aorist or perfective forms as the spoken language, but preferred an archaizing form of the present indicative, e.g. κρύπτω for Demotic κρύβω (''I hide''), which both have the same aorist form έκρυψα.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Demotic Greek」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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