yo greekbros. I have a few questions about your former written

>>73034354
Katharevousa (Greek: Καθαρεύουσα, pronounced [kaθaˈrevusa], literally "purifying [language]"), is a form of the Modern Greek language conceived in the early 19th century as a compromise between Ancient Greek and the Demotic Greek of the time. Originally, it was widely used both for literary and official purposes, though seldom in daily language. In the 20th century, it was increasingly adopted for official and formal purposes, until Demotic Greek became the official language of Greece in 1976 and Andreas Papandreou abolished the polytonic system of writing both Demotic and Katharevousa in 1982.

>>73034357

Katharevousa is quite closer to modern common than to ancient Greek, I can understand it clearly and I think the same goes for most other Greeks with more than two braincells; however I can't really replicate it.

I was born in 89 and I have only seen it used in older books, literature or official documents.

Modern documentation is no longer written in katharevousa.

It is kind of possible but try too hard and without proper understanding of it you'll sound ridiculous. It's a running joke that higher ranking army officials try to sound fancy by adding elements of katharevousa in their speech and reports, only for their lack of education to be exposed.

>>73034461
>I can understand it clearly and I think the same goes for most other Greeks with more than two braincells
Is it really that close to Demotic? What exactly is the difference then and what elements differ significantly?

Also, my impression is that Katharevousa is not clearly defined. Apparently it's up to the author whether it should be close to Demotic or close to Ancient Greek.

>>73034354
Katharevousa is still the official language of the greek church,

>>73034805
huh, so I'm assuming that implies that there are people today who are literate in Katharevousa.

>>73034547

It uses adjectives, nouns and verbs and which have now been replaced by loanwords or just different words altogether, as well as a lot pronoun forms which are found in ancient and no longer in modern Greek.

However the structure of speech is closer to modern Greek than it is to ancient, so if you can put two and two together it's easy to deduce the meaning of no longer common words (since in most cases their components retain their meaning in other uses).

>Also, my impression is that Katharevousa is not clearly defined.

I am far from a linguist but I think Katharevousa was kind of a made-up thing, an attempt to tie the glorious past to the humble realities of 19th century Greece. It was not a naturally evolved language and was kind of forced.

The fact that it was designed to bring the demotic speakers closer to ancient Greek suggests that it would be easier for a modern speaker to understand it than for an ancient one.

>>73034851
everyone can understand it 100%
and you can easily write in katharevousa style

The only problem in my opinion is the use of the polytonic system. Not many people (including me) have a clue on how to use it.

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>>73034805
the website of the ecumenical patriarchate is written entirely in katharevousa

>Ἀρχιkή σελίς
https://www.ec-patr.org/default.php?lang=gr

>>73034940

Polytonics and breathings etc made sense in a grammatical context, however were never properly utilized in speech. This I think made them hard for anyone to get used to when writing so they were dropped.

Like if the Germans stopped using the umlaut sounds when speaking, I think soon they would also have trouble remembering where to place them in their writing.

breathings are ez if you know English

Hermes
hypo
hyper
Hellas
etc

δασεία

auto
Athens
anthropology
anomaly
Erebos
oneirology
etc

ψιλή

>>73035203

My point is that we don't use them at all when speaking our language. And even in katharevousa (in person or in recordings) I've never heard anybody properly pronouncing breathings or lengthening vowels.

>>73035203
>mfw knowing English would help Greeks remembering how to write their own language if the polytonic system were still in use

>>73035418
remember*

Can greeks understand any of ancient greek?

>>73035605
depends on the dialect and the individual's education

I would seriously kill myself if I had to learn Greek from scratch as an adult. Fucking mess.