{"id":508,"date":"2022-01-06T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T12:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/?p=508"},"modified":"2022-06-08T16:49:11","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T15:49:11","slug":"greek-through-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Greek Through Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The world is made up of a wide range of languages, from Portuguese to Russian, to Mandarin. But, today I will be looking at one of the oldest Indo European languages: Greek!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Greek language originated in Greece before 1600 BCE, according to Britannica, an online encyclopaedia, with some of the earliest Greek scripts dating back to 1500, and 1400 BCE from Mycenae. The Mycenaean writing system fell out of use between 1200, and 1100 BCE, and a more efficient Greek alphabet was developed, largely derived from the alphabet of the Phoenicians, who spoke a Semitic language. However, it was only in 403 BCE that the Classical Greek alphabet, which is used today by Greeks, was officially adopted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Part of a Mycenaean script (source: Britannica)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 334 BCE, according to National Geographic, Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire, spreading the Greek language and culture as far as India and Spain. He replaced the majority of Greek dialects spoken in different parts of the world with Koine Greek, which has a strong resemblance with the modern language. Babble, a language learning app, estimates that nowadays nearly the entire population of Greece, 10.7 million people, speaks Greek. Cyprus is the only other country where Greek is an official language. However, it is also spoken by hundreds of thousands of people in Greek communities of the diaspora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are similarities between both the modern, and ancient Greek language with Latin, in terms of their complex grammatical structures. Surprisingly, German too, shares much of its grammar with Greek. Furthermore, the Latin alphabet, used in many European languages such as French, Spanish and English, is a descendant of the Greek alphabet, according to Britannica. In terms of vocabulary, English and other languages have \u2018borrowed\u2019 many Greek terms, for example \u2018\u03c6\u03bf\u03b2\u03af\u03b1\u2019 which translates to \u2018phobia\u2019, meaning fear. Many more have their etymology in Greek, such as \u201chexagon\u201d and \u201cpolygon, a shape with six sides and a shape with many sides. The word \u201c\u03b5\u03be\u03b9\u201d (exi) means six, \u201c\u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03c5\u201d (poly) means many and the suffix \u201c-gon\u201d means angle, as explained by WordReference.com, an online dictionary. Thus, the translations of \u201chexagon\u201d and \u201cpolygon\u201d give you the meanings \u201csix angles\u201d and \u201cmany angles\u201d. In addition, many mathematical and scientific symbols are Greek, for example \u2018\u03c0\u2019 used in circle-related problems in mathematics, \u2018\u03b5\u2019 for \u2018efficiency\u2019 in science and \u2018\u03be\u2019 for the universal sets of Venn diagrams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, there have been concerns about the reverse happening. As put by Helena Smith from The Observer, a magazine of The Guardian, the Greek language has been \u2018deluged by English terms\u2019. Professor Georgios Babiniotis, former education minister, and Greece\u2019s leading linguist, fears that the pandemic has worsened the impact of English. Phrases such as \u2018lockdown\u2019, \u2018click-and-collect\u2019 and \u2018curfew\u2019 are being used frequently, in both written and spoken language, while their Greek counterparts are being ignored, even by the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the past years, Greek companies have increasingly adopted English names, and slogans. American films, and music are highly popular in Greece, and tourism is a huge part of the economy. In fact, 10% of employment was in the tourism industry in 2018, according to OECD iLibrary, the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD iLibrary also recorded roughly 3,000 visitors from the UK in 2017, and a slightly lower number the following year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery aligncenter has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"512\" height=\"281\" data-id=\"836\" src=\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Greek-through-time-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-836\" srcset=\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Greek-through-time-2.jpg 512w, https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Greek-through-time-2-300x165.jpg 300w, https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Greek-through-time-2-150x82.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><figcaption>Part of a Mycenaean script (source: Britannica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The influence of the English speaking world on everyday life is visible, with Greek business owners anglicising their businesses in hopes that their English will attract business from tourists. In other cases, English sounding names appeal to local buyers as American music and television is popular in Greece. As a result of this, one of Greece\u2019s largest supermarket chains is called \u2018MyMarket\u2019. American names for foods, have also been populating Greece\u2019s menus, with many restaurants and caf\u00e9s now offering \u2018\u03ba\u03b5\u03b9\u03ba\u2019 (pronounced cake), \u2018\u03c7\u03b1\u03bc\u03c0\u03bf\u03c5\u03c1\u03b3\u03ba\u03b5\u03c1\u2019 (hamburger) and \u2018\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5\u03b9\u03c4\u03c2\u2019 (sandwich) even though, there are the Greek alternatives \u2018\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5\u03c1\u03c4\u03b1\u2019, \u2018\u03bc\u03c0\u03b9\u03c6\u03c4\u03b5\u03ba\u03b9\u2019 and \u2018\u03c8\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03b9\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Babiniotis fears that the Greek language, having withstood \u2018the test of time\u2019 for 40 centuries, may be crumbling. With the spread of English, it is important to many linguists, such as Babiniotis, that not only Greek, but all ancient languages are taught to younger generations to secure the future of the historic tongues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>by Maria <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The world is made up of a wide range of languages, from Portuguese to Russian, to Mandarin. But, today I will be looking at one of the oldest Indo European languages: Greek! The Greek language originated in Greece before 1600 BCE, according to Britannica, an online encyclopaedia, with some of the earliest Greek scripts dating [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[74,73,96],"wf_post_folders":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Greek Through Time - The Abbey Correspondent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Greek Through Time - The Abbey Correspondent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The world is made up of a wide range of languages, from Portuguese to Russian, to Mandarin. But, today I will be looking at one of the oldest Indo European languages: Greek! The Greek language originated in Greece before 1600 BCE, according to Britannica, an online encyclopaedia, with some of the earliest Greek scripts dating [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Abbey Correspondent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-06T12:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-08T15:49:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Greek-through-time-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"343\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Abbey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Abbey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/\",\"name\":\"Greek Through Time - The Abbey Correspondent\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Greek-through-time-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-06T12:01:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-08T15:49:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/cd2319d34052138d479b67ec368ac436\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Greek-through-time-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Greek-through-time-1.jpg\",\"width\":512,\"height\":343},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Greek Through Time\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Abbey Correspondent\",\"description\":\"Confidence - Purpose - Joy\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/cd2319d34052138d479b67ec368ac436\",\"name\":\"The Abbey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Correspondent-Profile-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Correspondent-Profile-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"The Abbey\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/author\/the-abbey\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Greek Through Time - The Abbey Correspondent","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Greek Through Time - The Abbey Correspondent","og_description":"The world is made up of a wide range of languages, from Portuguese to Russian, to Mandarin. But, today I will be looking at one of the oldest Indo European languages: Greek! The Greek language originated in Greece before 1600 BCE, according to Britannica, an online encyclopaedia, with some of the earliest Greek scripts dating [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/","og_site_name":"The Abbey Correspondent","article_published_time":"2022-01-06T12:01:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-08T15:49:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":512,"height":343,"url":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Greek-through-time-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"The Abbey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Abbey","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/","url":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/","name":"Greek Through Time - The Abbey Correspondent","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Greek-through-time-1.jpg","datePublished":"2022-01-06T12:01:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-08T15:49:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/cd2319d34052138d479b67ec368ac436"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Greek-through-time-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Greek-through-time-1.jpg","width":512,"height":343},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/greek-through-time\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Greek Through Time"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/","name":"The Abbey Correspondent","description":"Confidence - Purpose - Joy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/cd2319d34052138d479b67ec368ac436","name":"The Abbey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Correspondent-Profile-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Correspondent-Profile-96x96.png","caption":"The Abbey"},"url":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/author\/the-abbey\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1012,"href":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions\/1012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/correspondent.theabbey.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}