Romaic

Romaic, a term for the popular Greek dialect developed before the fall of the Byzantine empire, essentially similar to the modern Greek tongue as now spoken. The first who wrote in this popular tongue is believed to have been a monk Prodromus in the 12th century. Those who clung to the old Attic which still maintained an artificial existence called themselves Hellenes; the party of the popular speech were called Romaioi, from Nea Rōmē ('new Rome'), the new name for the capital of the eastern empire. See GREECE, Vol. V. p. 392.