Medieval Greek - History and Development

History and Development

With the transfer of the Roman imperial court to Byzantium (Constantinople) between 324 and 330, the political centre of the Roman Empire was moved into an area where Greek was the dominant language. At first, Latin remained the language of both the court and the army and it was used for official documents, but its influence soon waned. From the beginning of the 6th century, amendments to the law were mostly written in Greek.

Furthermore, parts of the Roman Corpus Iuris Civilis were gradually translated into Greek. Under the rule of Emperor Heraclius (610–641 AD), who also assumed the Greek title Basileus (βασιλεύς, "monarch") in 629, Greek became the official language of the Eastern Roman Empire. This was in spite of the fact that the inhabitants of the empire still considered themselves Romaioi ("Romans") long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Despite the absence of reliable demographic figures, it has been estimated that less than one third of the inhabitants of the Eastern Roman Empire, around eight million people, were native speakers of Greek. Their presence was centered on the ancient Greek settlements, primarily on the southern Balkan Peninsula and in the western part of Asia Minor. The number of those who were able to communicate in Greek may have been far higher. In any case, all cities of the Eastern Roman Empire were strongly influenced by the Greek language.

In the period between 603 and 619, the southern and eastern parts of the empire were occupied by Persian Sassanids and, having been recaptured by Heraclius in the years 622 to 628, they were conquered by the Arabs in the course of the Muslim conquests a few years later. Alexandria, a center of Greek culture and language, fell to the Arabs in 642. During the seventh and eighth centuries, Greek was replaced by Arabic as an official language in conquered territories such as Egypt.

Thus, the use of Greek declined early on within this area. From the late 11th century onwards, the sparsely populated interior of Anatolia was invaded by Seljuq Turks, who advanced westwards penetrating into the Greek-speaking areas. With the Ottoman conquests of Constantinople in 1453, Athens in 1465, the Peloponnese in 1459/1460 and the Empire of Trebizond in 1461, the Greek language lost its status as a national language until the emergence of modern Greece in the year 1832. Language varieties after 1453 are referred to as Modern Greek.