Greek language

Greek (Modern Greek: Ελληνικά, Elliniká; Ancient Greek: Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet which arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer, ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon. Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics.

Quotes

• To speakers of modern Greek the Homeric poems of the 7th century BC are not written in a foreign language. The Greek language has enjoyed a continuous tradition from earliest times until now. [...] The only other language which enjoys comparable continuity of tradition is Chinese.
  • Robert Browning, Medieval and Modern Greek (Cambridge University Press, 1983)

• She knew the Latin—that is, ‘the Lord's prayer,’
    And Greek—the alphabet—I’m nearly sure.
  • Lord Byron, Don Juan, canto I, stanza 13

• A university teaches. What does it teach? It must obviously teach all the languages in which the great literatures which have been preserved were written — Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German, Scandinavian, and English.
  • Charles William Eliot, as quoted by Z. Elmarsafy; A. Bernard; D. Attwell, Debating Orientalism (Springer, 2013), p. 82

• He was still in a world of Greek gods and sacrifices, of Greek plays and Greek language, though the natives might speak Greek with a northern accent which hardened 'ch' into 'g','th' into 'd' and pronounced King Philip as Bilip.
  • Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great (1973), p. 30

• Small Latin and less Greek.
  • Ben Jonson, from the famous preliminary poem to Shakespeare's First Folio (1623)

• Cassius: Did Cicero say anything?
  Casca: Ay, he spoke Greek.
  Cassius: To what effect?
  Casca: Nay, and I tell you that, I’ll ne’er look you i’ the face again. But those that understood him smil’d at one another and shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to me.
  • Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act 1, scene 2
  • Cp. the Latin Graecum est, non legitur and the Medieval Latin proverb Graecum est; non potest legi (i.e., "It is Greek; it cannot be read").

• The Greeks Had a Word for It
  • Zoe Akins, Title of play (1930)

External links

• Greek language edition of Wikiquote
• Greek phrasebook at Wikivoyage