Demotic

Demotic Greek (Δημοτική) was, during the middle ages, the vernacular language of the Byzantines, notably in mainland Greece, Asia Minor and Constantinople. Demotic Greek is now the official language of the Greece and is therefore also referred as the "Koine Modern Greek" (common modern Greek) or less strictly as "Modern Greek". Demotic has a variety of different of sub-branches, which due to their great intelligibility are regarded as idioms of Koine Modern Greek rather than separate dialects. Modern Greek idioms are divided into two main categories, Northern and Southern idioms.

Examples of Northern idioms are Rumelian, Epirote, Thessalian, Macedonian, Thracian.

The Southern category is divided into groups that include idioms from:

1. Megara, Aegina, Old Athens, Kimi and Mani
2. Peloponnese (except Mani), Cycladic isles and Crete, Ionian isles, Northern Epirus
3. Dodecanese and Cyprus.

Demotic Greek has officially been written in monotonic Greek script since 1982.

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