Τhe Historical Dictionary of Modern Greek (ILNE)

Τhe Historical Dictionary of Modern Greek (Ἱστορικὸν Λεξικὸν τῆς Νέας Ἑλληνικῆς, τῆς τε κοινῶς ὁμιλουμένης καὶ τῶν ἰδιωμάτων – [istori'kon leksi'kon tis 'neas elini'cis tis te ci'nos omilu'menis ce ton iðio'maton]), published by the Academy of Athens, is the national historical lexicographic enterprise of Modern Greece. It targets the totality of the Modern Greek language, from 1800 until today, and includes both Standard Modern Greek and the Modern Greek dialects. Each lexical entry is examined from the viewpoint of its historical attestation (first appearance, etymology, interpretation of variant forms) and its geographic distribution (dialectal variants). Starting from 1933, 10 volumes have been published until now, reaching the end of the letter Δ.

The Background of the Historical Dictionary of Modern Greek (ILNE)

The ILNE was founded in 1908 by Georgios Hatzidakis, the father of the discipline of Linguistics in Greece. It was he who persuaded the Government of the time to establish by Royal Decree a special Commission, assigned with the task to compile and publish the “Comprehensive Dictionary of the Greek Language, from its first appearance to the present”.

In 1914, the ILNE, having secured the financial and legal support of the Eletherios Venizelos Government, set as its target the publication of the first volume by 1921, on the 100th anniversary from the outbreak of the Greek Revolution. This aim was not accomplished however, due to the dramatic events which followed the Asia Minor Disaster in 1922.

In 1927, a Presidential Decree placed the Research Centre of Modern Greek Dialects and the ILNE under the jurisdiction of the Academy of Athens.

The Digitized version of ILNE

In the fall of 2021, during a conference at the British School in Athens, Io Manolessou, Acting Director of the Research Centre of Modern Greek Dialects, brought up the question of a digital version of the Historical Lexicon. Maria Pantelia offered to undertake the development of the online ILNE. This is how the project was born.

After a few months of discussions, a formal collaboration was forged between the TLG and the Academy of Athens, thanks to the support and commitment of Antonios Rengakos, member of the Academy of Athens and then Supervisor of ILNE, and I. Manolessou.

Ten volumes of ILNE with more than 35,000 entries (letters A-D) have already appeared in print. All ten volumes were digitized and are made available here. More volumes are underway. Produced between 1933 and 2021, the ILNE presents unique digitization challenges, from phonetic spellings and IPA notations to complex formatting issues. As a result, the completion of the site took longer than anticipated.

The whole project would not have come true without the support of John Salatas who worked on all technical issues and Maria Pantelia who handled encoding validation and proofreading of the files.

The Historical Lexicon of Modern Greek is monumental effort in the history of Greek lexicography. It is our hope that the online version will make this most important work accessible to the wider public.

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