How different is modern and ancient Greek?

Ancient Greek is the branch of Greek, while Modern Greek is the branch of Ancient Greek. Ancient Greek only had capital letters, but Modern Greek had both capital and small letters. Ancient Greek had optative, indicative and imperative moods of the verb, while Modern Greek has gerund and auxiliary verbs in it.

What is modern day Greek?

Greek is the official language of Greece. It is called Modern Greek to distinguish it from Ancient Greek, or Demotic Greek to distinguish it from “Katharevousa”, a hybrid of Ancient Greek and Colloquial Greek introduced as the “official” language, after the War of independence (1821). …

Is New Testament Greek the same as Modern Greek?

Koine can be termed as the immediate ancestor to modern Greek. This language is also called biblical, New Testament or patristic Greek as it was the language used in the New Testament and of church fathers. The grammar and pronunciation of modern Greek has traces in Koine Greek.

What is the Modern Greek alphabet?

Modern Greek is written in the Greek alphabet, which has 24 letters, each with a capital and lowercase (small) form. The letter sigma additionally has a special final form. There are two diacritical symbols, the acute accent which indicates stress and the diaeresis marking a vowel letter as not being part of a digraph.

When did Greece become Modern Greek?

The beginning of the “modern” period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic modern features of the language had already been present centuries earlier, from the 4th to the 15th century.

Should I learn ancient or Modern Greek?

If you are well self motivated have lots of patience and a very good teacher go for ancient Greek first for this not only will give all the roots of the Greek words used today but since your mind has been precondition to accept the difficult syntax and complicated grammar will find modern Greek a child’s play.