Greek
Greek comprises its own branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It
is spoken by the 10 million inhabitants of Greece and some 82% of the population
of Cyprus, numbering a further half million. In terms of total number of native
speakers it ranks well down the list of world languages, however its cultural
importance is disproportionately large. As the language of classical Greek philosophy
and literature and, later, as the language of the Christian Gospels and the
early Church, Greek literature has profoundly shaped Western thought.
The question many non Greek speakers want to ask and no Greek speaker seems
to want to answer is "How close is Modern Greek to Classical Greek?"
One problem is that the term "ancient" covers a broad range of language
phases. The Greek of Plato (427 - 347 B.C.), the epitome of classical Attic
prose, is very different from that used by Homer, and from that used in the
New Testament. However, if one were to compare Platonic Greek to Modern Greek
the differences might be said to be along the lines of the difference between
the English of Chaucer and modern English, and far less than the differences
between say Latin and Italian.
Most regions of Greece have their own local dialect, some of which are very
marked, however, dialects are never used in written Greek other than for special
effect. Indeed, the very centralized organization of Greek education and the
effect of films and television is leading to a decline in the use of dialects
outside the most rural of areas. Rather different is the question of accents.
Virtually every region of Greece has its local accent, some being clearer for
the foreigner to understand than others.
Sources:
Information on writing system:
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Mingei museum of folk art
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