In a previous issue of Greece and Rome (vol. xiii, June 1944) there appeared some remarks on the division of tongues which subsists in Greece to-day, the tongues specified being Katharevousa (‘Purified’ or ‘Purifying’ Greek), Demotiki (Popular Greek), and a newspaper language which is blended from the other two in varying proportions according to the linguistic tastes, and sometimes the political affiliations, of the newspaper proprietors. The territory controlled by the partisans of these rival idioms was also broadly sketched in the same number. ‘Katharevousa is the official and formal language, used in Government publications and statements, business correspondence, non-fictional books and treatises, law courts, University lectures (although not so much at Salonica as at Athens) and formal conversation.’ ‘Demotiki is the language of conversation, of song, of popular novels and periodicals (and also of most serious creative works of literature) and the spoken language of trade and business.’ And then the essay attempted to show the main characteristics of the two idioms and their respective relation-ships with classical Greek.

Nothing, however, was said of the struggle for linguistic supremacy between Katharevousa and Demotiki, which has been one of the out-standing and most stimulating features of life in Greece since the time of the War of Independence. As a rule, political differences are the principal cause of internal dissension among the Greeks, but at more than one point during the last hundred years people were ready to believe that the language problem would oust politics from its post of honour as the predominant Hellenic interest.