I'm not an expert on Chinese so it's not something I'm willing to refute. As for Modern Greek, I said it's almost intelligible to Koine Greek. Koine Greek is indeed a dialect of ancient Greek, in the sense that it was spoken since the 4th c. BC, but linguistically it's categorised as a separate stage of the Greek language called Hellenistic Greek or Post-Classic Greek. Ancient Greek is normally a group of dialects, but the default in Classics is Attic. Attic is not perfectly intelligible with Modern Greek but it's not unintelligible either. About the intelligibility of Demotic Greek and Kathareuousa, I'll just let you know that Kathareuousa was the official language of the state until 1976. This means that all'' state documents (including school material) were written in this form of speech, so you can make your own conclusion regarding what you're heard. As for the intelligibility of Modern vs Ancient Koine Greek, I would urge you to have your local Greek restaurant owner translate a random text of the New Testament. Thus you'll get your answer. 

 Sample''' Sources:  

 *L. Roussel, Grammaire descriptive du romeique litteraire (Paris 1922) 
 *M. Perides, The Greek language and its contemporary form (Athens 1959) 
 *A. Mirambel, La langue grecque moderne - Description et analyse (Paris 1950) 
 *da Somavera, Treasures of the Frankish and Romaic language (Paris 1709) 
 *N.P.Andriotes, Great dictionary of the Greek language (Athens 1949-1950) 
 *K. Krumbacher, The problem of the modern Greek literary language (1902) 
 *V. Rotolo, A. Korais and the linguistic question in Greece (Palermo 1965) 

 And the list can go on and on. In fact I've never come across a linguistic source which characterised Ancient Greek a dead language. This is why I initially reverted without saying anything. 

  4 July 2005 20:21 (UTC)