Demotic is often thought to be the same as the Modern Greek language but these two terms are not completely synonymous. While Demotic is a term applied to the naturally evolved colloquial language of the Greeks the modern Greek language of today (Standard Modern Greek; ) is more like a fusion of Demotic and Katharevousa although with much stronger influence from Demotic; it is actually a variety of Demotic which has been enriched by "educated" elements. It is not wrong to call the spoken language of today Demotic but such a terminology ignores the fact that Modern Greek contains - especially in a written or official form - numerous words grammatical forms and phonetical features that didn't exist in colloquial speech and only entered the language through its archaic variety. Besides even the most archaic forms of Katharevousa were never thought of as Ancient Greek but were always called "Modern Greek" so that the term "Modern Greek" applies to Demotic Standard Modern Greek and even Katharevousa. Examples of Modern Greek features which do not exist in Demotic

The following examples are intended to demonstrate Katharevousa's features in Modern Greek. They were not present in traditional Demotic and only entered the modern language through Katharevousa (sometimes as neologisms) where they are used mostly in writing (for instance in newspapers) but also orally. Especially words and fixed expressions are both understood and actively used also by non-educated speakers. Words and fixed expressions (interesting) (at least) (he abducted her) ... (it is a fact that ...) (for now)

Especially dative forms: (Thank God) ... (in the name of ...) (in cash) (following) (meanwhile) (in ignorance of) (moreover) (working literally on the deed) (percent literally in a hundred) (with one's own hands) Grammatical (morphological) features Adjectives ending in - - - (e.g. interesting) or in - - - (e.g. thoughtful) - mostly in written language. Declinable aorist participle e.g. (having delivered) (having been born) - mostly in written language. Reduplication in the perfect. E.g. (invited) (obsolete) Phonological features

Modern Greek features many letter combinations which were avoided in classical Demotic: -- (e.g. "misdemeanor"); Demotic preferred -- (e.g. "to err to be guilty") -- (e.g. "building structure"); Demotic preferred -- e.g. "(stone)mason" -- (e.g. "falsity lie"); Demotic preferred -- (e.g. "liar") -- (e.g. / "I was sufficed / satisfied"); Demotic preferred -- (e.g. ) -- (e.g. () "yesterday"); Demotic preferred -- e.g. () etc.

Native Greek speakers often make mistakes in these "educated" aspects of their language; one can often see mistakes like instead of (I've been promoted) / instead of (due to the fact that) instead of (the interesting person) instead of (the interesting women) instead of (the vote). Radical demoticism

One of the most radical proponents of a language that was to be cleansed of all "educated" elements was Giannis Psycharis who lived in France and gained fame through his work My Voyage ( " 1888). Not only did Psycharis propagate the exclusive use of the naturally grown colloquial language but he actually opted for simplifying the morphology of Katharevousa forms. For instance he proposed to change the form of the neuter noun gen. (light) into (gen. ). Such radical forms had occasional precedent in Renaissance attempts to write in Demotic and reflected Psichari's linguistic training as a Neogrammarian mistrusting the possibility of exceptions in linguistic evolution. Moreover Psycharis also advocated spelling reform which would have meant abolishing the six different ways to write the vowel /i/ and all instances of double consonants. Therefore he wrote his own name as instead of . The standard form of Demotic which developed over the next few decades made more compromises with Katharevousa (as is reflected in the contemporary standard) and despite acrimony between the "psicharist" () radicals and the moderates the radical strand was ultimately marginalised. When Demotic was made official in 1976 the legislation stated that the Demotic used would be "without extremist and dialectal forms"the "extremism" being a reference to Psichari's forms. See also Modern Greek Katharevousa Greek language question Diglossia References Babiniotis Georgios (2002) (in Greek). Lexiko tis neas ellinikis glossas Dictionary of the new Greek language. Athens. p. 474.