Greek

The typical language of the Hellenic branch of the great Indo-European family of languages. (1) An extinct language, called Archaic Greek , spoken in numerous dialects by the ancient inhabitants of Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt under the Ptolemies. It was thus the vernacular speech of the most polished race of antiquity; and is the language of Plato, of Demosthenes, of Homer, of Xenophon, and Aristotle. Lex. by Pape, Liddell, and Scott. Grammars by Jelf, Buttmann, Curtius, Kuhner. (2) The modern dialect of Greece, called also Romaic and Neo-Hellenic , derived directly from ancient Greek . Lex. by Contopoulos, “Eng. and Mod. Greek,” 2 vols., Smyrna and London, 1868-70; Sophocles: “Romaic or Mod. Greek Grammar,” London, 1866. (3) Dialects of Cla ical Greek : Æolic , Attic , Doric , Ionic . See Stephanus: “Thesaurus,” Salmasius, Hermann. (4) Later Greek : “χοινή,” “the common language”; Byzantine ; Alexandrian (of the Septuagint); Scriptural (of the N. Test.); Cretan, . Lex. by Sophocles, 1871. See Hellenic .