Latin: history and heritage. Greek language: a reminder for a beginner Greek Byzantine language when it appeared
The Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantine culture as a whole played a gigantic, not yet adequately appreciated role in the preservation and transmission of the Greco-Roman philosophical and scientific heritage (including in the field of philosophy and theory of language) to representatives of the ideology and science of the New Age.
It is to Byzantine culture that Europe owes its achievements in the creative synthesis of the pagan ancient tradition (mainly in the late Hellenistic form) and the Christian worldview. And one can only regret that in the history of linguistics insufficient attention is still paid to the contribution of Byzantine scientists to the formation of medieval linguistic teachings in Europe and the Middle East.
When characterizing the culture and science (in particular linguistics) of Byzantium, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of state, political, economic, cultural, religious life in this powerful Mediterranean power, which existed for more than a thousand years during a period of continuous reshaping political map Europe, the emergence and disappearance of many “barbarian” states.
In specifics cultural life this state reflected a whole series of significant historical processes: early separation within the Roman Empire; the transfer in 330 of the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, which had long before become the leading economic, cultural and scientific center of the empire; the final collapse of the Roman Empire into Western Roman and Eastern Roman in 345; the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and the establishment of complete domination of the “barbarians” in Western Europe.
Byzantium managed to maintain centralized state power over all the Mediterranean territories in Europe for a long time, North Africa, Asia Minor and Western Asia and even achieve new territorial conquests. She more or less successfully resisted the onslaught of tribes during the period of the “great migration of peoples.”
By the 4th century Christianity had already established itself here, officially recognized in the 6th century. state religion. By this time, Orthodoxy had emerged in the struggle against pagan remnants and numerous heresies. It became in the 6th century. the dominant form of Christianity in Byzantium.
The spiritual atmosphere in Byzantium was determined by a long rivalry with the Latin West, which in 1204 led to the official break (schism) of the Greek-Catholic and roman catholic churches and to the complete cessation of relations between them.
Having conquered Constantinople, the crusaders created the Latin Empire (Romania) on a large part of the Byzantine territory, but it lasted only until 1261, when the Byzantine Empire was restored again, since the masses did not accept attempts to forcibly Latinize government, culture and religion.
Culturally, the Byzantines were superior to the Europeans. In many ways, they preserved the late antique way of life for a long time. They were characterized by the active interest of a wide range of people in problems of philosophy, logic, literature and language. Byzantium had a powerful cultural impact on the peoples of adjacent countries. And at the same time, until the 11th century. The Byzantines protected their culture from foreign influences and only later borrowed the achievements of Arab medicine, mathematics, etc.
In 1453, the Byzantine Empire finally fell under the onslaught of the Ottoman Turks. A mass exodus of Greek scientists, writers, artists, philosophers, religious figures, and theologians began to other countries, including the Moscow state.
Many of them continued their activities as professors at Western European universities, humanist mentors, translators, spiritual leaders, etc. Byzantium had a responsible historical mission to save the values of the great ancient civilization during a period of abrupt changes, and this mission successfully ended with their transfer to Italian humanists in the Pre-Renaissance period.
The features of Byzantine language science are largely explained by the complex linguistic situation in the empire. Here, an archaic in nature atticistic literary language, a relaxed folk-colloquial speech, continuing the folk language of the common Hellenistic era, and an intermediate literary-colloquial koine competed with each other.
In government administration and in everyday life, the Byzantines / “Romans” initially widely used the Latin language, which gave way to the official status of Greek only in the 7th century. If during the era of the Roman Empire there was a symbiosis of Greek and Latin with an advantage in favor of the second, then during the period of independent state development the advantage was on the side of the first. Over time, the number of people fluent in Latin decreased, and a need arose for orders for translations of works by Western authors.
The ethnic composition of the empire's population was very diverse from the very beginning and changed throughout the history of the state. Many of the inhabitants of the empire were originally Hellenized or Romanized. The Byzantines had to maintain constant contacts with speakers of a wide variety of languages - Germanic, Slavic, Iranian, Armenian, Syriac, and then Arabic, Turkic, etc.
Many of them were familiar with written Hebrew as the language of the Bible, which did not prevent them from often expressing an extremely puristic attitude towards borrowings from it, contrary to church dogma. In the 11th-12th centuries. - after the invasion and settlement of numerous Slavic tribes on the territory of Byzantium and before they formed independent states - Byzantium was essentially a Greco-Slavic state.
Byzantine philosophers and theologians of the 2nd–8th centuries. (Origen, Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Proclus, Maximus the Confessor, Similicia, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, John Chrysostom, Leontius, John Philomon, John of Damascus, many of whom were officially recognized as “saints” and “fathers of the church” ) along with Western representatives of patristics, took an active part in the development of Christian dogmas with the involvement of the worldview ideas of Plato and partly Aristotle, in the development within the framework of the Christian system of views of a coherent philosophy of language, in the preparation of the isolation of scholastic logic (together with logical grammar) from philosophy.
They had a considerable influence on representatives of contemporary and subsequent Western philosophy and science. Later Byzantine theologians (Michael Psellus, Maximus Planud, Gregory Palamas) also addressed philosophical problems of language.
Indicative (in contrast to the Latin West) is the careful attitude of the Byzantine church and monasteries to the preservation and rewriting of ancient (pagan in content) monuments. Associated with this process of rewriting was the transition to the 9th and 10th centuries. for minuscule writing.
I.P. Susov. History of linguistics - Tver, 1999.
A catechism is “a book containing a summary of the fundamental truths of Christian faith and morals in a simple and clear form, usually in the form of questions and answers, and intended for the initial religious instruction of the faithful.”Most dictionaries of the modern Russian language give similar definitions. Moreover, in some of them the word is given in two versions: catechism and catechism. In the dictionary V.I. Dahl's interpretation is more complete - “the initial, basic teaching about the Christian faith; book containing this teaching || The initial and basic teaching of any science.” The word itself is of Greek origin. It goes back to the noun ή κατήχησις - announcement, (oral) teaching, edification, formed from the verb κατηχέω - announce, (orally) teach, instruct. This verb is a prefix formation from the verb ὴχέω - ήὴχη- make a sound, sound ή ὴχώ - (cf.: ό ήχος - sound, rumor; sound, noise; echo, echo; sound, noise, scream; rumor, rumor ) and contains the prefix κατα - with the meaning of the completeness of the action. About the words announce (κατηχέω) and 2. catechumen(κατηχούμενος) materials for the dictionary of Church Slavonic paronyms are of interest: to κατηχέω - “1. train, teach, dedicate... tune (about a musical instrument)
"; to κατηχούμενος - “ preparing for baptism, one to whom the fundamentals of the faith have been communicated" with the corresponding Church Slavonic texts.< греч. katēchēsis - поучение, назидание; оглашение, от katēcheō - устно поучать, от ēcheō - звучать, от ēchō - эхо; слух, молва» . В словаре-справочнике, в котором собраны наиболее распространенные в русском языке слова латинского происхождения, включая и те, которые вошли в латынь из греческого языка, объяснение несколько иное: «Catechesis, is f (греч.: наставление, познание) - катехизис, элементарный курс богословия. С сер. XVII в., первонач. в формах Etymological dictionaries of the Russian language indicate the mediation of the Latin language in the borrowing of this word: “from Lat. catechēsis from Greek. teaching, instruction
" ;
In modern times, two systems of phonetic transmission of ancient Greek words have been identified, named after the Renaissance scientists who proposed them, Erasmus of Rotterdam and Johann Reuchlin. The Erasmian system correlates the pronunciation of a word with its graphics and reflects the sound of Greek words in Latin. It is accepted in most European countries and is used in Russia in gymnasium and university practice when reading secular texts. Reuchlin's system was focused on living Byzantine speech. This system is adhered to by Greek scientists; in Russia it was adopted before Erasm’s, directly from the Greeks and strengthened in spiritual institutions. In the Reuchlin system it is customary to read liturgical texts.
In the Greek noun κατήχησις we will be interested in the pronunciation of the letters η and σ, which are rendered differently in these systems. In the Erasmus tradition, η is pronounced as “e”, and σ, according to the rules of the Latin language, is voiced. In the Reuchlinian tradition, η is pronounced “and”, while σ remains voiceless (“s”). Thus, in the Erasmus tradition our word should sound like “catechism”, and in Rechlinova like “catechism”. What happened?
It turns out that in a living language both traditions could interact: either the transformation took place according to the Latin stereotype, but was not maintained ( rhetorician And retor, philosopher And philosopher), or the transformation took place according to the Greek-Byzantine stereotype ( cathedra And department, orthography And spelling), but was also not always maintained ( library And vivliophics, leg And cafe). If borrowings entered the Russian language in a double form, the Greek-Byzantine variants were often not retained ( And theory, Feoria And physics physics ). However, mixed forms could also appear when there are two or more phonetic differences in one word: dithyramb (in the 18th century - And praises, dithiram) (apotheosis And apotheos apotheosis ) . The word refers to this type ) . And catechism.
Of course, of the forms presented in modern Russian ( catechism, which may contribute to the intensification of its use in the modern Russian language. After all, the circulation of this book is not small in modern times: 10,000 copies. In conclusion, for clarity, we present the opening lines of this outstanding theological and literary monument.
« Question. What is the Orthodox Catechism?
Answer. The Orthodox Catechism is an instruction in the Orthodox Church Christian faith, taught to every Christian for the sake of pleasing God and saving the soul.
IN. What does the word mean catechism?
ABOUT. The Catechism, translated from Greek, means announcement, oral instruction; and according to its use from the times of the apostles, this name signifies the original teaching about Orthodox faith Christian, what every Christian needs (see: Luke 1:4; Acts 18:25).”
Christianity: Dictionary / Under general. ed. L.N. Mitrokhina et al. M., 1994. P. 193.
See, for example: Dictionary of the Russian language / Ed. A.P.
Evgenieva. T. 2. M., 1981. P. 40. Dal V.I.
Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language. T. 2. M., 1998. P. 98. Ancient Greek-Russian dictionary / Comp. THEIR. Butler. T. 1. M., 1958. P. 924; Weisman A.D.
Greek-Russian dictionary. M., 1991. P. 694. Sedakova O.A.
Church Slavic-Russian paronyms: Materials for the dictionary. M., 2005. P. 222. Vasmer M.
Etymological dictionary of the Russian language / Transl. with him. and additions by O.N. Trubachev. T. 2. M., 1967. P. 210. Dictionary foreign words
: Current vocabulary, interpretation, etymology / N.N. Andreeva, N.S. Arapova et al. M., 1997. P. 124. Ilyinskaya L.S.
Latin heritage in the Russian language: Dictionary-reference book. M., 2003. P. 86. For more information about these traditions, see: Slavyatinskaya M.N.
Textbook on the ancient Greek language: Cultural and historical aspect. M., 1988. S. 158-160; Ancient Greek: Beginning Course / Comp. F.Wolf, N.K. Malinauskiene. Part 1. M., 2004. pp. 6-8. For more details see: Romaneev Yu.A.
Structure of words of Greek origin in Russian: Cand. diss. M., 1965., 2006.
In the indicated text of the Gospel of Luke we read: “So that you may know the solid foundation of the teaching in which you have been instructed.” In the original Greek, the form “was instructed” corresponds to the passive aorist form κατηχήθης from the verb κατηχέω already known to us. In the Acts of the Apostles, a descriptive form is used with the passive perfect participle of the same verb ὴυ κατηχημένος, which in the Russian translation is rendered similarly to the first: “He was instructed in the rudiments of the way of the Lord.”
The official and spoken language of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, especially its capital, Constantinople; a transitional stage between the Ancient Greek language of antiquity and the modern Modern Greek language of Greece and Cyprus.
Chronology
Chronologically, the Middle Greek stage covers almost the entire Middle Ages from the final division of the Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The following periods are distinguished in the history of the Byzantine language:
prehistory - up to the 6th century; 1) from VII to century;2) from before the fall of Constantinople.
Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages
First (Early Byzantine) period In conditions of almost universal illiteracy, incomprehensibility and inaccessibility of education in an archaic literary language, dilution ethnic composition empire due to Slavic migrations to the Balkans and constant foreign intervention after 1204, many Greek peasants were better able to foreign languages than your own literary language . In the late Byzantine period, the role of lingua franca of the coast was played by French and Italian. In the mountainous regions, the Albanian language, many South Slavic languages and dialects, the Aromanian language, and even the Romani language are also used. As a result of constant interethnic communication
In the late Byzantine period, the folk language, expelled from literary circulation, was left to natural development in popular use and was preserved in a few monuments of folk literature. How great the difference was between the artificially maintained pure literary language and the one used by the people can be judged by the numerous versions or translations into a generally understandable language by the most famous historical writers.
Patterns of development of the Central Greek language
The chronological and genetic development of the Byzantine language from ancient Greek and its gradual transition into the current modern Greek language are different, for example, from the history of the Latin language. The latter, after the formation of the Romance languages (Old French, etc.), ceased to be alive and developing organism. Greek, on the other hand, basically retains the unity and graduality of development until modern times, although a detailed analysis of the series shows that this unity is largely imaginary.
The Byzantine language shows tendencies towards divergent development. Characteristic the Byzantine period - a gap between the literary-written and spoken language, developed diglossia: knowledge of both the literary language (among the upper strata) and spoken dialects. The end to this process was put only in the modern Greek period (in the 20th century) after the Greek-Turkish population exchange and the gradual Turkification of native speakers outside independent Greece.
The organizing principle in the development of new formations (neologisms) of the Greek language was folk dialects and provincialisms, as well as the individual traits of writers. The influence of folk dialects (vernacular), expressed in differences in the pronunciation of sounds, in the structure of sentences (syntax), in the decomposition of grammatical forms and in the formation of new words according to the law of analogy, is detected even in the pre-Christian era.
The Greeks themselves, aware of the difference between the literary and the language used in ordinary conversation and popular circulation, called this latter γλώσσα δημώδης, άπλή καθωμιλημένη (glossa dimodis), finally, ρωμαϊκή (romayka) in contrast to the first - καθαρεύουσα, κοινή διαλεκτος (kafarevus- literally "purified" koine). Earlier traces of grammatical and lexical features are observed on Egyptian papyri and inscriptions. In the Christian era, the literary and popular language are separated even further and deeper, since the features of the folk language have found application in the Holy Scriptures and in church practice, that is, in chants and teachings. One would expect that the folk language, which has already moved significantly away from the literary one, would gradually find application in various types of literature and enrich it with new forms and word formations. But in fact, due to the extreme purism of Dimotika, the spoken language continued to oppose Kafarevusa (written literary language) until the reform of 1976, when the two variants were brought closer together, with Dimotika predominant.
GREECO-BYZANTINE
Greek-Byzantine
Lopatin. Dictionary of the Russian language Lopatin. 2012
See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what GREECO-BYZANTINE is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:
- GREECO-BYZANTINE in the Complete Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language.
- GREECO-BYZANTINE in the Spelling Dictionary.
- GRECO in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Greco) Emilio (b. 1913) Italian sculptor. Rhythmically pointed, exquisitely stylized works of decorative plastic arts (“Leah”, ... - GRECO CHESS PLAYER
(Gioachino Greco) - famous Italian chess player (1600-1634), wrote a theoretical essay on the game of chess in 1626. New ed. 1859 and... - GRECO ARTIST in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
(el-, El Greco) - see Theotokopouli... - GRECO in the Modern Encyclopedic Dictionary:
look El... - GRECO in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
look El... - GRECO in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
-... The first part of complex words with meaning. Greek, e.g. Greco-Latin, ... - BYZANTINE in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
, oh, oh. Relating to Byzantium - a state of the 4th-15th centuries, formed after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Byzantine art. Byzantine... - GRECO in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
GREECO, see El Greco... - GRECO
(Gioachino Greco) ? famous Italian chess player (1600-1634), wrote a theoretical essay on the game of chess in 1626. New ed. 1859 and... - BYZANTINE in the Complete Accented Paradigm according to Zaliznyak:
Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine ysky, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, ... - BYZANTINE in the dictionary of Synonyms of the Russian language.
- BYZANTINE in the New Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language by Efremova:
adj. 1) Related to Byzantium, associated with it. 2) Peculiar to Byzantium, characteristic of it. 3) Belonging to Byzantium. 4) Created, manufactured... - BYZANTINE in Lopatin’s Dictionary of the Russian Language:
Byzantine (from ... - BYZANTINE in the Complete Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language:
Byzantine (from... - BYZANTINE in the Spelling Dictionary:
Byzantine (from ... - GRECO
The first part of complex words with meaning. Greek Greco-Latin, ... - BYZANTINE in Ozhegov’s Dictionary of the Russian Language:
relating to Byzantium - a state of the 4th-15th centuries, formed after the collapse of the Roman ... - GRECO in the Modern Explanatory Dictionary, TSB:
see El Greco. - (Greco) Emilio (b. 1913), Italian sculptor. Rhythmically pointed, exquisitely stylized works of decorative plastic art (“Leah”, ... - BYZANTINE in Ephraim's Explanatory Dictionary:
Byzantine adj. 1) Related to Byzantium, associated with it. 2) Peculiar to Byzantium, characteristic of it. 3) Belonging to Byzantium. 4) Created... - BYZANTINE in the New Dictionary of the Russian Language by Efremova:
- BYZANTINE in the Large Modern Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language:
adj. 1. Related to Byzantium, associated with it. 2. Peculiar to Byzantium, characteristic of it. 3. Belonging to Byzantium. 4. Created, manufactured... - THEODOR OF BYZANTINE
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "TREE". Theodore of Byzantium (+ 1795), martyr. Memory February 17 (Greek) Originally from Constantinople. Suffered … - STEPHAN OF BYZANTINE in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "TREE". St. Stephen (8th century), martyr. Memory November 28. Holy Martyrs Stephen, Basil... - PAUL OF BYZANTINE in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "TREE". Paul of Byzantium (+ c. 270 - 275), martyr. Memory June 3. Suffered for... - LEONTIUS OF BYZANTINE in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
(Jerusalemite) (by place of birth - Byzantine, by place of residence - Jerusalem) - church historian and hereseologist († around 590). At first … - Paganism GRECO-ROMAN in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia:
¬ 1) Animism in the strict sense of the word (cult of souls). We must recognize the most ancient stage of the Greco-Roman religion as that which is for... - BYZANTIUM* in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia:
Contents: Byzantium? the colony. ? Byzantine Empire. ? Byzantine literature. ? Byzantine law. ? Byzantine art. ? Byzantine coin. Byzantium... - EL GRECO in Collier's Dictionary:
(El Greco) (c. 1541-1614), Spanish artist of Greek origin, was born on the island of Crete, which was at that time under the rule of Venice; his … - SPAS (HONEY, APPLE, NUT) in the Dictionary of Rites and Sacraments:
SPAS (14/1, 19/6, 29/16 August) As promised, without deceiving, the sun penetrated early in the morning with an oblique strip of saffron From the curtain to the sofa. ... - FERRARO-FLORENTINE CATHEDRAL in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "TREE". Ferraro-Florence Council 1438 - 1445, - a council of the Western Church, convened by Pope Eugene IV in ... - UNION in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "TREE". Attention, this article is not finished yet and contains only part of the necessary information. Union (church; lat. unio ... - STEFAN DECANSKI in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "TREE". Stefan Uros III, Decani (1285 - 1331), King of Serbia, great martyr. Memory … - THE MEETING OF THE LORD in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "TREE". The Presentation of the Lord, a holiday of the Orthodox Church, belongs to the twelve. Celebrated on February 2. IN … - SPASSKY ANATOLY ALEKSEEVICH in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "TREE". Spassky Anatoly Alekseevich (1866 - 1916), professor at the Moscow Theological Academy in the Department of Ancient History ... - DIVISION OF THE CHURCHES in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "TREE". Attention, this article is not finished yet and contains only part of the necessary information. Christian Church, according to... - LEBEDEV ALEXEY PETROVICH in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "TREE". Attention, this article is not finished yet and contains only part of the necessary information. Lebedev Alexey Petrovich (... - IRINA-PIROSHKA in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "TREE". Irina-Piroshka (Piroska), in the schema of Xenia (1088 - 1134), empress, reverend. Memory … - JOSEPH (SEMASHKO) in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "TREE". Joseph (Semashko) (1798 - 1868), Metropolitan of Lithuania and Vilna. In the world Joseph Iosifovich... - UNION OF BREST in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree.
- NOVEL in the Directory of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
I LEKAPINUS Byzantine emperor in 920-945. June 115, 948 Roman came from the city of Lacapa in the Likand theme. ... - RUSSIA, SECTION CHURCH MUSIC (PREHISTORIC AND ANCIENT PERIOD) in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia.
- RUSSIA, SECTION CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY
In Rus', Greek was learned earlier in both ancient languages, and works written in this language were first read and translated... - RUSSIA, SECTION STORY in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia:
The main subject of historical science in Russia is the past of the native country, on which the largest number of Russian historians and ... - BOLOTOV VASILY VASILIEVICH in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia:
Bolotov, Vasily Vasilyevich, is a famous church historian (born December 31, 1853, died April 5, 1900). The son of a deacon from Tver... - ANTONY ZUBKO in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia:
Anthony, Zubko, Minsk Orthodox Archbishop (1797 - 1884), Belarusian by origin, the son of a Greek-Uniate priest. He studied at the Polotsk Greek-Uniate Seminary, in ... - RUSSIAN SOVIET FEDERAL SOCIALIST REPUBLIC, RSFSR in big Soviet encyclopedia, TSB.
- MIKHAIL PSELL in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB:
Psellos (Michael Psellos), before tonsure - Constantine (1018, Constantinople, - about 1078 or about 1096), Byzantine politician, writer, scientist. ...
One of the oldest languages in the world. Even today, Greek is spoken by 10 million inhabitants of Greece, the majority of the population of Cyprus and, of course, the Greek diaspora scattered throughout the world. Of course, we can say that this is not so much. But it would be in highest degree It's strange to judge the Greek language based only on how many people speak it these days.
The most interesting thing about this language is its amazing history: after all, the Greek language stands at the origins of everything that has shaped Western thought - philosophy, literature, Christian Church... And therefore, in almost any European language you can find a huge number of words with Greek roots: space, telephone, grammar, lamp, astronomy and many others. So it's safe to say that we all speak a little Greek!
A little history
Of course, modern Greek differs in many ways from the language spoken by the greatest thinkers of antiquity, such as Plato or Aristotle. Over the many centuries of its existence, the language has changed a lot, so the phrase “Greek language” often requires clarification. The following names are used for the different stages of its development:
- Ancient Greek language- the language of ancient Greece, including as part of the Roman Empire (until the 5th century AD).
- Byzantine (or Central Greek)- the language of the Greek and Hellenized population of the Byzantine Empire (VI-XV centuries). However, many neo-Hellenistic scholars oppose this term and propose to talk about the coexistence of early modern Greek and ancient Greek: this is explained by the fact that the Greek language of that period was extremely heterogeneous.
- Modern Greek language has existed since approximately the 15th century as the language of the Greek and Hellenized populations of late Byzantium and Ottoman Empire. Today it is the official language of Greece and Cyprus.
The 19th and 20th centuries in Greece were marked by the presence of a special language situation — diglossia(this is the name given to the simultaneous existence of two language variants). However, in 1976 the official language became dimotika(δημοτική), and from Cafarevus(καθαρεύουσα) - a language variant oriented towards the Greek literary tradition and following ancient Greek writing standards, but with modern pronunciation - only certain elements have been preserved.
About Greek dialects
Most Greek regions have their own local dialects. For example, there are Cypriot, Cretan, Tsakonian, southern Italian and northern Greek languages. Dialects are exclusively spoken and are not used in writing (with the exception of literary works, where the characters can speak one dialect or another). In each region there are also pronunciation features that are noticeable to a foreigner to varying degrees.
The biggest differences are between the Cypriot dialect of Greek and what is called classical Greek. It must be said that the Cypriot dialect as a whole is characterized by the presence of the sounds “sh” and “ch”, which are not present in modern Greek, as well as long vowels and duplication of consonant sounds or their “swallowing”, which is also not typical for the modern Greek language. These phonetic differences are also recorded in writing:
Μούττη - μύτη - nose
(mutti - miti)
Όι - όχι - no
Μυάλος - μεγάλος - big
(mYalos - megAlos)
As you can see, the difference is quite significant, not to mention the fact that there are words that are completely different from their Greek “brothers”:
Καρκόλα - κρεβάτι - bed
(karkOla - kravAti)
Ιντυχάνω - μιλώ - talk
(indiHano - miO)
Φκάλλω - βγάζω - take out, pull out
(fkAllo - vgAzo)
But there is no need to be afraid of these differences: no matter where you are in Greece or Cyprus, if you speak classical Modern Greek (which is spoken in mainland Greece - Athens and Thessaloniki), you will be understood everywhere without any problems!
How and where to start learning Greek
Start with the alphabet and clearly work out the pronunciation of sounds, since in Greek, along with the correct stress, it is pronunciation that plays a decisive role: in Greek there are many seemingly similar sounds, the substitution of which can lead to funny and sometimes sad consequences. This is especially true for those sounds that do not exist in the Russian language.
The next step - and in this case it does not matter whether you study Greek on your own or under the guidance of a teacher - will be to master the grammatical basis of the Greek language. Many people note the similarity of Greek grammar with Russian grammar. This is partly true: both in Greek and in Russian, nouns change by gender (there are three of them, as in Russian - masculine, feminine and neuter), numbers, cases (here it’s even easier for Russian speakers, since in Greek there are only cases four - nominative, accusative, genitive and vocative), and verbs have categories of conjugation, mood...
Since Modern Greek is a simplified version of Ancient Greek, there are not many rules compared to Russian, but there are quite a few exceptions. But this is precisely what makes it even more similar to the Russian language, and until you start learning Greek, you can’t even guess how many similarities there are between these languages!
That is why it will not work to start learning Greek, like English, by memorizing a certain number of words: without becoming familiar with the grammatical structure of the Greek language, you will not be able to compose even the simplest sentences. So, be patient and spend due time on Greek grammar.
And learning words may well turn into a game. Take, for example, the word άνθρωπος (Anphropos) - man. What kind of science in our country deals with the study of man? Anthropology! Or τραπέζι (trapEsi) - table. What do we do at the table? We have a meal, that is, we eat. And similar examples can be given endlessly.
Learning Greek may seem difficult at first glance. However, everything is in your hands, and success depends on the regularity and intensity of classes - preferably, of course, under the guidance of an experienced teacher - and subsequent language practice.