The polytonic orthography of
Greek uses a variety of
diacritics (πολύ = many + τόνος = accent) to represent aspects of
Ancient Greek pronunciation. It was the standard orthography for all varieties of Greek from
Hellenistic times until 1982, although the distinctions it represented had disappeared from the spoken language early in the Christian era. In 1982, the Greek Parliament adopted the
monotonic orthography. Polytonic is still sometimes used by people who consider monotonic an unfortunate break with tradition.
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