As is almost always the case we identify Greek with Ancient Greek, because that is what we hear about all the time,but it is highly wrong.When one talks about Greek he should specify what mode of the language he is referring to:Ancient-Byzantine-Modern,because these are not different languages but different modes of the same language.

Therefore it is wrong to say that the Greeks tried to reinvent Greek as an alive language,because it always was alive.It was ancient Greek they wanted to reintroduce,as many others before them already by the Hellenistic period,which was wrong as it went against the natural linguistic evolution.Kathareuousa was the artificial bit against which other scholars put forward the healthiness of the popular tongue,the contemporary phase of Greek that proved correct the claim of continuity.What were the Greeks speaking at that time if not Greek?Slavish or Albanian?just have a look at their popular culture to get an answer.My example of the language of the Testaments being 'largely intelligible' is valid enough for the people of Greece long before the Declaration Of Independence.

Ancient Greek died out as an older form of the language,but the same had happened to Myceanean Greek; was not classic Greek the continuation of Myceanean?was it another language??The language changes each generation.I for one don't speak the same Greek my grandfather or father spoke,but its Greek.So expand this fact to 4000 years of evolution and u might get the picture.