History of the language
Greek is an ancient language that has been spoken for thousands of years. It is considered to be one of the oldest recorded languages in the world, with its earliest written records dating back to the 15th century BC. In ancient times, the Greek language was spoken by the people of Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean, including Cyprus, Turkey, and parts of Italy and Egypt. Greek became the language of trade, culture and philosophy throughout the region – perhaps its most famous application is that it is the language in which the famous epics of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were composed.
During the Hellenistic period, Greek became the dominant language in the Eastern Mediterranean and was widely spoken and understood by people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It was also during this time that the famous works of Greek literature, including the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, were written.
In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great spread Greek culture and language throughout his empire, which included parts of Asia and Africa. This served to further establish Greek as an international language and spread its influence across different regions. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Greek continued to be spoken in the Byzantine Empire, which endured until the 15th century AD. During this time, Greek became the language of religion, and many of the great works of Christian literature were composed in Greek.
Today, Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus, and it is spoken by over 13 million people worldwide. It has also influenced many other languages, including English, which has borrowed numerous words and phrases from Greek. Some examples include academy, cosmos, geography, television and zoology.
Learning Greek, no easy task
Learning and speaking Greek does take patience and time, as it’s not an easy language to master. Much like Spanish and German, for example, it is a gender and case sensitive language. Unlike in English, every noun is gender-based and needs its corresponding article assigned when forming a sentence, which in turn affects the spelling of adjectives.
Although Modern Greek is fairly simplified compared to Ancient Greek or even its conservative form (Katharevousa) used in the 20th century and up to 1982, it is a lot to take in. In phonology, it uses a system of vowels and diphthongs and a stress accent. The morphology of Greek features an extensive set of productive derivational affixes, a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Spelling of words depends on gender, case, singular or plural form of the word and tense.
As for diacritics (symbols), the use of a single accent indicates stress in the pronunciation of words, and the diaeresis ( ¨ ) usually indicates a hiatus but occasionally indicates a diphthong in Greek words.
In syntax, verbs agree with their subject only, we see the use of the cases (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors). Articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow the noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. To make matters more interesting, Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for person, number, tense, aspect, mood and voice.
Let’s not forget about punctuation symbols. The Greek question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia (άνω τελεία). In Greek, the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words.
That said, it remains a beautiful, lyrical language with a rich, ancient and multi-layered history that sets it apart from many more modern languages. For anyone who wants to practice their Greek, there are plenty of websites online to explore. Depending on your level, there are many books to recommend – if you’re looking for something more classic, try the work of some of Greece’s most important writers from the 20th century such as the poets Kostas Karyotakis, Yiannis Ritsos, Giorgos Seferis and Odysseas Elytis. Or writers Yiorgos Theotokas, Dido Sotiriou and perhaps one of the best-known Greek novelists, Nikos Kazantzakis.
Penelope Delta, meanwhile, is a favourite writer of children’s books from the early part of the 20th century. The roots of Greek comic books can also be found in the early 20th century, with the evolution of the satirical cartoons in strip form. Nowadays, we mostly see the translated comic books of well-known titles such as Lucky Luke, Asterix, Disney’s Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck, as well DC and Marvel comic books.
Greek fact sheet
- Language family: Hellenic (part of the Indo-European family)
- Number of speakers: 13.5 million native speakers
- Writing system: Greek alphabet, which has 24 letters
- Official language in: Greece & Cyprus
- Recognised minority language in: Albania, Calabria & Salento (Italy), regions of the Balkans, Black Sea coast, Asia Minor and Eastern Mediterranean
Useful phrases in Greek
- Hello – Γεια σας (formal: yah sahss), Γεια σου (informal: yah soo)
- Goodbye – Αντίο (ahn-dee-oh)
- Please – Παρακαλώ (par-ah-kah-loh)
- Thank you – Ευχαριστώ (ef-hah-rees-toh)
- You’re welcome – Παρακαλώ (par-ah-kah-loh)
- Yes – Ναι (neh)
- No – Όχι (oh-hee)
- Excuse me – Συγγνώμη (seen-yoh-mee)
- I’m sorry – Λυπάμαι (lee-pah-meh)
- How are you? – Πώς είστε; (formal: pohs eeste), Πώς είσαι; (informal: pohs eeseh)
Speak Greek with First Edition Translations
Translating ever since 1981, First Edition is a certified translation agency located in the leafy town of Cambridge. Our professionally qualified linguists cover a long list of languages and specialist subjects. So when a client sends us biographies detailing the life of sports personalities, medical research papers, or an 18th-century work on tarot cards (all genuine examples!), we have exactly the right person in mind. We collaborate with a range of medical communication agencies, publishers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and cultural institutions across the European continent and beyond. Simply email our multilingual project managers at enquiries@firstedit.co.uk to find out more.