Katharevusa Greek Language

Katharevusa Greek language, Greek Katharevousa, a “purist” variety of modern Greek, which until 1976 was the official written language of Greece. Katharevusa was used in government and judiciary documents as well as in most newspapers and technical publications. In 1976 it was replaced by Demotic Greek as the official language.

Katharevusa originated in the 19th century owing to efforts to “purify” the language of foreign elements and to systematize its morphology by using ancient Greek roots and much classical inflection. Its syntax differs only slightly from that of Demotic, the spoken language, but is much more resistant to loanwords. After the liberation of Greece from the Turks (1828), Katharevusa flourished in the Romantic literary school of Athens; it is exemplified in the classical odes, hymns, ballads, narrative poems, tragedies, and comedies of Aléxandros Rízos Rangavís and in the verses of Akhilléfs Paráskhos, characterized by rhetorical profuseness and mock-heroic patriotism. By the 1880s Demotic had become the more popular mode of literary expression. Many Katharevusa elements were incorporated into Demotic, and today the two varieties have merged to form Standard Modern Greek (known in Greek as Koini Neoelliniki). Compare Demotic Greek language.