Latin: history and heritage. Greek language: a reminder to the beginner Greco-Byzantine language when it appeared
The Eastern Roman Empire and the Byzantine culture as a whole played a gigantic, not yet properly appreciated role in the preservation and transmission of the Greco-Roman philosophical and scientific heritage (including in the field of philosophy and the theory of language) to representatives of the ideology and science of the New Age.
It is to the 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 it remains only to 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, one must take into account the specifics of the state, political, economic, cultural, and religious life in this powerful Mediterranean power that existed for more than a thousand years in a period of continuous reshaping political map Europe, the emergence and disappearance of many "barbarian" states.
In specificity cultural life this state was reflected in a whole series of significant historical processes: early isolation within the Roman Empire; the transfer in 330 of the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, which long before that had become the leading economic, cultural and scientific center of the empire; the final disintegration of the Roman Empire into Western Roman and Eastern Roman in 345; the fall in 476 of the Western Roman Empire and the establishment of the complete domination of the “barbarians” in the West of Europe.
Byzantium managed to maintain for a long time the centralized state power in reality over all the Mediterranean territories in Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor and Western Asia, and even achieve new territorial conquests. She more or less successfully resisted the onslaught of the tribes during the period of the “great migration of peoples”.
By the 4th c. Christianity was already established here, officially recognized in the 6th century. state religion. By this time, in the struggle against pagan remnants and numerous heresies, Orthodoxy had developed. It became in the 6th century. 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 rupture (schism) of the Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic churches and to the complete cessation of relations between them.
Having conquered Constantinople, the crusaders created a Western-style Latin Empire (Romania) on a significant part of the Byzantine territory, but it lasted only until 1261, when the Byzantine Empire was again restored, since the masses did not accept attempts to forcibly latinize state administration, culture and culture. religion.
Culturally, the Byzantines were superior to the Europeans. In many ways, they retained the late antique way of life for a long time. They were characterized by the active interest of a wide range of people in the problems of philosophy, logic, literature and language. Byzantium had a powerful cultural impact on the peoples of neighboring 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 Arabic 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, theologians to other countries, including the Muscovite state, began.
Many of them continued their activities as professors at Western European universities, humanist mentors, translators, spiritual leaders, and so on. Byzantium had a responsible historical mission to save the values of the great ancient civilization during the period of steep breaks, and this mission successfully ended with their transfer to the Italian humanists in the Pre-Renaissance period.
The features of the Byzantine science of language are largely explained by the difficult language situation in the empire. Here, the atticistic literary language, which was archaic in nature, competed with each other, a casual colloquial speech that continued the folk language of the general Hellenistic era, and an intermediate literary and colloquial koine.
In public administration and in everyday life, the Byzantines / “Romans” initially widely used the Latin language, which gave way to the status of the official Greek only in the 7th century. If in the era of the Roman Empire there was a symbiosis of the Greek and Latin languages with a preponderance in favor of the second, then in the period of independent state development, the preponderance turned out to be on the side of the first. Over time, the number of people with a good command of Latin decreased, and the need arose for orders for translations of works by Western authors.
The ethnic composition of the population of the empire was very diverse from the very beginning and changed during 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, contrary to church dogmas, to borrowings from it. In the 11th-12th centuries. - after the invasion and settlement of numerous Slavic tribes on the territory of Byzantium and before the formation of independent states by them - Byzantium was in fact a Greek-Slavic state.
Byzantine philosophers-theologians of the 2nd-8th centuries. (Origen, Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Proclus, Maximus the Confessor, Similiky, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, John Chrysostom, Leonty, John Philomon, John of Damascus, many of whom were officially recognized as “saints” and “fathers of the church” ) along with Western representatives of patristics, they 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 of a coherent philosophy of language within the framework of the Christian system of views, in the preparation for isolating scholastic logic from the philosophy (together with logical grammar).
They had a considerable influence on representatives of contemporary and subsequent Western philosophy and science. Later Byzantine theologians also addressed the philosophical problems of language (Michael Psellos, Maxim Planud, Gregory Palamas).
Indicative (unlike 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. to a minuscule letter.
I.P. Susov. History of linguistics - Tver, 1999
A catechism is "a book containing a summary of the basic truths of the 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 believers". Most dictionaries of the modern Russian language give close definitions. Moreover, in some of them the word is given in two versions: catechism and catechism. In the dictionary of V.I. Dahl's interpretation is more complete - “the initial, basic doctrine of the Christian faith; book containing this teaching || The primary 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 - to announce, (orally) teach, teach. This verb is a prefix from the verb ὴχέω - make a sound, sound(cf.: ό ήχος - sound, rumor; ήὴχη- sound, noise; ή ὴχώ - 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 catechumen(κατηχούμενος) materials for the dictionary of Church Slavonic paronyms are of interest: to κατηχέω - “1. educate, educate, educate... 2. tune (of a musical instrument)»; to κατηχούμενος - " preparing for baptism, one to whom the foundations of the faith have been communicated" with reference to the relevant Church Slavonic texts.
Etymological dictionaries of the Russian language indicate the mediation of the Latin language in borrowing this word: “from lat. catechesis from Greek. teaching, instruction» ; "Late Late. catechesis - catechism, an elementary course in theology< 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 catechism, catechism. Through staroslav. from Greek." .
To understand how this word penetrated into the Russian language, it is necessary to turn to its phonetic appearance. And he did not even settle in modern Russian (catechism and catechism). To understand this issue, let us turn to the traditions of the transmission of Greek words in Russian.
In modern times, two systems of phonetic transmission of ancient Greek words were identified, named after the Renaissance scientists Erasmus of Rotterdam and Johann Reuchlin who proposed them. The Erasmus 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. Greek scientists adhere to this system, in Russia it was assimilated earlier than Erasmova, 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 Reuchlin tradition, η is pronounced "and", while σ retains the voicelessness ("s"). Thus, in the Erasmus tradition, our word should sound like a "catechesis", and in the Rekhlinov tradition, like a "catechesis". 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 retained ( rhetorician And retor, philosopher And philosopher), or the transformation took place according to the Greek-Byzantine stereotype ( cathedra And department, orthography And spelling), but also not always kept ( library And vivliofika, leg And cafeteria). If borrowings were included in the Russian language in a dual form, the Greek-Byzantine variants were not retained more often ( theory And feoria, physics And physic). However, mixed forms could also appear in the presence of two or more phonetic differences in one word: dithyramb(in the XVIII century - praises And dithyramb), apotheosis (apotheos And apotheosis) . The word belongs to this type catechism. Of course, from the forms presented in modern Russian ( catechism And catechism) the second one is more consistent. But even in it there is an element of mixing traditions: a voiced “z” in place of a deaf Greek “s”.
Recently, for the first time, a scientific, textually verified reprint of the famous catechism compiled by St. Philaret (Drozdov) in 1822 appeared for the first time, accompanied by a preface about the history of its creation, notes and indexes. This edition uses the less commonly used form catechism, which, perhaps, will contribute to the activation of its use in modern Russian. After all, the circulation of this book is not small at the present time: 10,000 copies. In conclusion, for clarity, we present the opening lines of this outstanding theological and literary monument.
« Question. What is an Orthodox catechism?
Answer. The Orthodox catechism is instruction in the Orthodox christian faith taught to every Christian for the pleasing of God and the salvation of the soul.
IN. What does the word mean catechism?
ABOUT. Catechism, translated from Greek, means announcement, verbal instruction; and according to the use from the time of the apostles, by this name is signified the original doctrine of Orthodox faith Christian, which is necessary for every Christian (see: Luke 1:4; Acts 18:25).
Christianity: Dictionary / Under the general. ed. L.N. Mitrokhina et al. M., 1994. S. 193.
See, for example: Dictionary of the Russian language / Ed. A.P. Evgenieva. T. 2. M., 1981. S. 40.
Dal V.I. Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language. T. 2. M., 1998. S. 98.
Ancient Greek-Russian Dictionary / Comp. THEM. Butler. T. 1. M., 1958. S. 924; Weisman A.D. Greek-Russian dictionary. M., 1991. S. 694.
Sedakova O.A. Church Slavonic-Russian paronyms: Materials for a dictionary. M., 2005. S. 222.
Fasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language / Per. with him. and additions by O.N. Trubachev. T. 2. M., 1967. S. 210.
Dictionary foreign words: Actual vocabulary, interpretations, etymology / N.N. Andreeva, N.S. Arapova et al. M., 1997. S. 124.
Ilyinskaya L.S. Latin heritage in Russian: Dictionary-reference book. M., 2003. S. 86.
For more on these traditions, see: Slavyatinskaya M.N. Textbook on the ancient Greek language: Cultural and historical aspect. M., 1988. S. 158-160; Ancient Greek: Elementary Course / Comp. F. Wolf, N.K. Malinauskene. Part 1. M., 2004. S. 6-8.
For details see: Romaneev Yu.A. The structure of words of Greek origin in Russian: Cand. diss. M., 1965.
A lengthy Christian catechism of the Orthodox-Catholic Eastern Church / [Compiled by St. Filaret (Drozdov); Foreword, prep. text, note. and decree: cand. ist. Sciences A.G. Dunaev]. M.: Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, 2006.
In the indicated text of the Gospel of Luke we read: "That you may know the solid foundation of the doctrine in which you have been instructed." In the original Greek, the form "was instructed" corresponds to the form of the passive aorist κατηχήθης from the verb κατηχέω already known to us. In the Acts of the Holy Apostles, a descriptive form with a passive perfect participle of the same verb ὴυ κατηχημένος is used, which is rendered similarly to the first in the Russian translation: “He was instructed in the first principles 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 - until the VI century; 1) from VII to the 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 the migration of Slavs to the Balkans and constant foreign intervention after 1204, many Greek peasants are better at foreign languages than own literary language. In the late Byzantine period, the roles of the lingua franca of the coast are played by French and Italian. Albanian, many South Slavic languages and dialects, the Aromanian language, and even the Romani language are also used in the mountainous regions. As a result of constant interethnic communication in the Greek language in the Byzantine period, a number of features were developed in common with other Balkan languages (see Balkan linguistic union). After the capture of Adrianople (Edirne) by the Turks in 1365, the Byzantine dialects are increasingly influenced by the Turkish language; many Greeks (Asia Minor, Thrace, Macedonia) finally switch to the non-Indo-European Turkish language and convert to Islam.
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 was the difference between the artificially maintained pure literary language and the one used by the people can be judged by the numerous versions or transcriptions into a commonly understood language by the most famous historical writers.
Patterns of development of the Middle Greek language
The chronological and genetic development of the Byzantine language from Ancient Greek and its gradual transition into the modern 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 its unity and gradual development until modern times, although a detailed analysis of the series shows that this unity is largely imaginary.
The Byzantine language tends to divergent development. Characteristic the Byzantine period - a gap between the written and spoken language, developed diglossia: knowledge of both the literary language (among the upper strata) and spoken dialects. This process was put to an end only in the modern Greek period (in the 20th century) after the Greek-Turkish population exchange and the gradual Turkification of native speakers outside of 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 found even in the pre-Christian era.
The Greeks themselves, aware of the difference between the literary and the language used in ordinary conversation and in popular circulation, called this latter γλώσσα δημώδης, άπλή καθωμιλημένη (glossa dimodis), finally, ρωμαϊκή (romaika) in contrast to the first - καθαρεύουσα, κοινή διαλεκτος (kafarevusa literally "purified" koine). Earlier traces of grammatical and lexical features are observed on Egyptian papyri and inscriptions. In the Christian era, the literary and folk language are separated even further and deeper, since the features of the folk language have found application in Holy Scripture and in church practice, that is, in hymns and teachings. One might expect that the vernacular language, which has already departed considerably from the literary one, will gradually find application in various kinds of literature and enrich it with new forms and word formations. But in reality, because of the extreme purism of Dimotica, the vernacular continued to oppose Kafarevusa (written language) until the 1976 reform, when the two were brought closer together, with Dimotica predominating.
GRECO-BYZANTIAN
Greek-Byzantine
Lopatin. Dictionary of the Russian language Lopatin. 2012
See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what is GRECO-BYZANTINE in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:
- GRECO-BYZANTIAN in the Complete Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language.
- GRECO-BYZANTIAN in the Spelling Dictionary.
- GRECO in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Greco) Emilio (b. 1913) Italian sculptor. Rhythmically pointed, exquisitely stylized works of decorative plastic art ("Liya", … - GRECO CHESS PLAYER
(Gioachino Greco) - the famous Italian chess player (1600-1634), wrote in 1626 a theoretical essay on the game of chess. New ed. 1859 and ... - GRECO ARTIST in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
(el-, El Greco) - see Theotokopuli ... - GRECO in the Modern Encyclopedic Dictionary:
see El... - GRECO in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
see El... - GRECO in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
-... The first part of compound words with meanings. Greek, eg. Greek-Latin, ... - BYZANTINE in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
, th, th. Relating to Byzantium - the state of the 4th-15th centuries, formed after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Byzantine art. Byzantine … - GRECO in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
GRECO, see El Greco... - GRECO
(Gioachino Greco) ? the famous Italian chess player (1600-1634), wrote in 1626 a theoretical essay on the game of chess. New ed. 1859 and ... - BYZANTINE in the Full accentuated paradigm according to Zaliznyak:
Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine th, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, Byzantine, ... - BYZANTINE in the dictionary of Synonyms of the Russian language.
- BYZANTINE in the New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language Efremova:
adj. 1) Pertaining to Byzantium, associated with it. 2) Peculiar to Byzantium, characteristic of it. 3) Belonging to Byzantium. 4) Created, manufactured ... - BYZANTINE in the Dictionary of the Russian Language Lopatin:
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 compound words with meaning. Greek Greco-Latin, … - BYZANTINE in the Dictionary of the Russian Language Ozhegov:
relating to Byzantium - a state of 4-15 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 (“Liya”, … - BYZANTINE in the Explanatory Dictionary of Efremova:
Byzantine adj. 1) Pertaining 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 Efremova:
- BYZANTINE in the Big Modern Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language:
adj. 1. Pertaining 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. Commemorated February 17 (Greek) Originally from Constantinople. Suffered … - STEPHAN THE BYZANTINE in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "TREE". St. Stephen (VIII century), martyr. Commemorated November 28th. Holy Martyrs Stefan, Basil... - PAUL BYZANTINE in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "TREE". Paul of Byzantium (+ c. 270 - 275), martyr. Commemorated June 3rd. Suffered for... - LEONTIUS OF BYZANTINE in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
(Jerusalem) (at the place of birth - Byzantine, at the place of residence - Jerusalem) - church historian and theologian-ereseologist († about 590). At first … - Paganism Greco-Roman in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron:
¬ 1) Animism in the narrow sense of the word (the cult of souls). We must recognize the oldest stage of the Greco-Roman religion as that which is for ... - BYZANTIUM* in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron:
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), a 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:
SPASY (14/1, 19/6, 29/16 August) As promised, without deceiving, The sun penetrated early in the morning With an oblique stripe of saffron From the curtain to the sofa. … - FERRARO FLORENTINE CATHEDRAL in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "TREE". Ferrara-Florence Cathedral 1438 - 1445, - the cathedral 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 ... - STEPHAN DECHANSKY in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "TREE". Stefan Urosh III, Dechansky (1285 - 1331), King of Serbia, great martyr. Memory … - MEETING OF THE LORD in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "TREE". The Presentation of the Lord, a feast of the Orthodox Church, belongs to the Twelve. Celebrated on February 2nd. 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 the History of Ancient ... - 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, by... - 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 schema 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 LAKAPIN The Byzantine emperor in 920-945. June 115, 948 Roman came from the city of Lakapi in the theme of Likand. … - RUSSIA, DIV. CHURCH MUSIC (PREHISTORIC AND ANCIENT PERIOD) in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia.
- RUSSIA, DIV. CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY
From both ancient languages in Russia, they learned Greek earlier, and from the works written in this language, they first read and translated ... - RUSSIA, DIV. HISTORY 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 of Tver ... - ANTONY ZUBKO in the Brief Biographical Encyclopedia:
Anthony, Zubko, Minsk Orthodox archbishop (1797 - 1884), Belarusian by origin, 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.
- MICHAEL PSELL in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB:
Psellus (Michael Psellos), before being tonsured - 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, most of the population of Cyprus and, of course, the Greek diaspora scattered around the world. Of course, we can say that this is not so much. But it would be in the highest degree it's strange to judge Greek 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 is 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 bit of 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" often requires clarification. The following names are used for the different stages of its development:
- Ancient Greek- the language of ancient Greece, including as part of the Roman Empire (until the 5th century AD).
- Byzantine (or Middle 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 due to the fact that the Greek language of that period was extremely heterogeneous.
- Modern Greek has existed since approximately the 15th century as the language of the Greek and Hellenized population of late Byzantium and Ottoman Empire. Today it is the official language of Greece and Cyprus.
XIX and XX centuries in Greece are marked by the presence of a special language situation — diglossia(this is how the simultaneous existence of two language variants is called). However, in 1976, the official language became dimotica(δημοτική), but from kafarevuses(καθαρεύουσα) - a language variant oriented towards the Greek literary tradition and following ancient Greek writing standards, but with modern pronunciation - only a few elements have survived.
About Greek dialects
Most Greek regions have their own local dialects. So, for example, there are Cypriot, Cretan, Tsakonian, South Italian and Northern Greek. Dialects are exclusively oral and are not used in writing (with the exception of literary works, where the characters can speak one dialect or another). In each of the regions, there are also pronunciation features that are noticeable to a foreigner to varying degrees.
Most of the 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 “h”, which are not present in modern Greek, as well as long vowels and duplication of consonants or their “swallowing”, which is also not typical for the modern Greek language. These phonetic differences are also fixed in writing:
Μούττη - μύτη - nose
(mutti - miti)
Όι - όχι - no
Μυάλος - μεγάλος - large
(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 - krevAti)
Ιντυχάνω - μιλώ - to talk
(IndiAno - cute)
Φκάλλω - βγάζω - to take out, pull out
(fkAllo - vgAzo)
But there is no need to be afraid of these differences: no matter where in Greece or Cyprus you are, if you speak the classical Modern Greek language (which is spoken in the continental part of 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 the pronunciation that plays a decisive role: in Greek there are many seemingly similar sounds, the substitution of which can lead to curious and sometimes sad consequences. This is especially true for those sounds that are not 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 the development of the grammatical basis of the Greek language. Many note the similarity of the grammar of the Greek language with the grammar of the Russian language. 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 is 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 so many rules compared to Russian, but quite a few exceptions. But this is what makes it even more related to the Russian language, and until you start learning Greek, you can’t even guess how much these languages have in common!
That is why it will not work to start learning Greek, like English, by memorizing a certain number of words: without getting acquainted with the grammatical structure of the Greek language, you will not be able to make even the simplest sentences. Therefore, please be patient and take the time to study Greek grammar.
And the study of words may well turn into a game. Take, for example, the word άνθρωπος (Anfropos) - man. And what kind of science is engaged in the study of man? Anthropology! Or τραπέζι (trapEzi) - table. What are we doing at the table? We eat, that is, we eat. And you can endlessly give such examples.
Learning Greek may seem difficult at first glance. However, everything is in your hands, and success depends on the regularity and intensity of classes - better, of course, under the guidance of an experienced teacher - and subsequent language practice.