Coordinate terms: Classical Greek, Demotic Greek, Ancient Greek, Koine, purist Greek
A learned, archaising form of Modern Greek, based on Classical Greek and used for formal and official purposes; it was legally displaced as the official language of Greece in 1976 by Demotic Greek.
The “common” Greek language that developed and flourished between 300 B.C.E. and 300 C.E. (the time of the Roman Empire), and from which Modern Greek descended. It was based on the Attic and Ionian dialects of Ancient Greek.