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May 25, 2005 The Greek that I am writing about here is Modern Greek. I chose to call this article "The Virtues and Vices of the Greek Language" instead of "The Intricacies of the Greek Language", analogously to articles I wrote on Russian, Hebrew and Arabic, because, unlike those three nightmarishly-difficult languages, Greek does have some, but not many, learner-friendly features. As might be supposed, Modern Greek is quite different from Ancient Greek, so if an outsider, having gained a moderate proficiency in the former, thinks he is ready to take on Homer, Aristotle or Plato, he will be sorely disappointed. Similarly, Biblical Greek, though easier than Ancient Greek, is quite removed from Modern Greek. Then there was the Byzantine Period, from the 4th till the 15th century, which presents another stage in the development of the Greek language. By the nineteenth century there were two contending forms of Greek, the Katharevousa and the Demotiki. The Katharevousa, an attempt to purify Greek and restore classical forms, was fostered by the intelligentsia. The Demotiki was the popular language of the everyday affairs. At the beginning of the 20th century, under the influence of the Greek leader Eleutherios Venizelos, the Demotiki was finally adopted, and is used almost exclusively in Greece today. Nowadays, eta, iota and upsilon have the same pronunciation, like Spanish 'i', but in view of their classical values, some people transcribe them as (e, i, y), which can be a little confusing. Similarly, omicron and omega are both like Spanish 'o', but some people make them (o, w) in English letters. It would be better, in my opinion, to Romanize them as they are currently pronounced, 'i' for the first three, and 'o' for the other two. The vowels (a,e,u, as in Spanish) are represented by alpha, epsilon and omicron-upsilon. A small problem arises with respect to beta, delta and gamma, which were pronounced classically as (b,d,g), but today are pronounced (v,dh,gh), where 'dh' is the sound of 'th' in 'either' rather than 'ether', and 'gh' is like intervocalic Spanish 'g', as in 'rogar', a sound unknown in English. Thus 'vivlíon' (book) is spelled with two betas, and one who is mindful of etymology may be tempted to write 'biblión', from which we have 'Bible', 'bibliography' and other words, but this is misleading. The digraphs mu-pi, nu-tau and gamma-kappa stand for the sounds (b,d,g). The letters theta and chi are (th,kh), where 'th' is as in 'ether' and 'kh' is like Spanish jota 'j'. The letters xi and psi (ks, ps) must always be pronounced fully. Thus, we have 'psikhoanálisis' not 'sikhoanálisis{ (psychoanalysis) and 'ksanthúla' not 'santhúla' (blonde). Lambda is palatalized before eta, iota or upsilon. For example, 'portokáli' (orange, the fruit) is pronounced 'portokályi', but his is not usually indicated in transcribing Greek words. Otherwise the values of the letters are self-explanatory. Every Greek word bears an accent mark, as in the words I have listed above. This would be helpful in English too. Is it 'ábdomen' or 'abdómen', 'Détroit' or 'Detróit', 'ínnovative' or 'innóvative'? These questions do not arise in Greek. The only possible flaw in Greek orthography is that mu-pi, nu-tau and gamma-kappa have two different pronunciations intervocalically: (b, mb; d, nd; g, ng). Otherwise, if one knows the above rules, Greek is 99% self-pronouncing, which is a real boon to the learner. Some Greek words have groups of consonants that may be difficult for English-speaking people: ksékhno (I forget), fthinóporo (autumn), vrokhí (rain), áfksisis (growth), psári (fish), psés (yesterday), ktírion (building), khthés (yesterday), ghláfks (goat), etc. Despite these tongue-twisters, Greek is the most euphonious language of all. Greek has three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), but things may be masculine or feminine, as well as neuter. Greek also has two numbers (singular and plural) and three cases (nominative, accusative, genitive), which makes for a sixfold declension. Classical Greek had four cases, not counting the vocative, but the old dative has merged with the genitive. So, for example, we have 'móu' (of me, to me), whereas the ancient language had separate words. Articles (a, the) and adjectives are also declined to agree with their governing nouns. A typical declension is: adhelfós, adhelfó, adhelfú, adhelfí, adhelfús, adhelfón (brother). I have transcribed them phonetically rather than trying to use a one-to-one correspondence between letters, as is usually done. Greek has four monolexical (one-word) tenses of verbs (present, subjunctive, imperfect and perfect), and two voices (active and passive), accounting for eight sets of six forms each. An example would be the active imperfect tense: aghapúsa, aghapúsas, aghapúse, aghapúsame, aghapúsate, aghapúsan (were loving, used to love). This is but one of eight sets for the entire verb, which then has 48 forms, not counting participles. Greek has no infinitive. To say, "I want to go", one says, "I want that I go", using the subjunctive. Thus, the conjugation resembles that of the Romance languages with two exceptions. Firstly, Greek has a monolexical passive. Compare 'vrískondai' (they are found) with Spanish 'son hallados'. Secondly, all 48 Greek forms are different. Compare the above conjugation of 'to love' with the corresponding Spanish: amaba, amabas, amaba, amábamos, amabais, amaban. Here the word 'amaba' does double duty, which is very annoying. In Greek, this doesn't happen. Additional tenses are formed by adding helping words. For example, the future is formed by adding the helping word 'tha' before the subjunctive. Verb conjugations tend to be very erratic, and dictionaries and grammars are always inadequate. However, Greek is superior to Russian in that eventually you will encounter all the verb forms in reading and know how to pronounce them, since they have accent marks. One reading Russian will also see all the forms, but not know how to pronounce them, since the wandering accent isn't evident from the spelling, as Russian has no accent mark. I've read about a dozen books in Modern Greek, including two novels by the most famous Greek writer, Nikos Kazantzakis, who wrote "Zorba the Greek" and others. I also read in Greek several books on the history of Greece, the history of Athens and the Byzantine Empire, as well as lots of newspapers. I spent three months in Athens in the early nineties. Today I'm a little out of practice, but can stil read without too much trouble. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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