Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun A learned, archaising form of Modern Greek, the
artificial Greek language based onClassical Greek , used for formal and official purposes, primarily written but not used for conversation. Legally displaced in 1976 byDemotic Greek .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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"Not even language will quite do, for although it brings us a good deal nearer than the others to some overall coherence in the forms of Greek identity, it has also been a source of much Greek division in modern times. … the official language of the state, called Katharevousa, or
American Chronicle 2008
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You read the poetry of Cavafy, I have taught you to speak Katharevousa and Italian.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin De Bernieres, Louis 2003
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Accordingly she brought up Antonia to speak Italian, so that the latter learned Romaic Greek from Drosoula and never would speak Katharevousa, and she bought herself a wireless from someone who was happy to part with it for next to nothing, because something had gone wrong with its tuning mechanism and it would only pick up stations in Italy.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin De Bernieres, Louis 2003
Comments
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