Within the multinational, multilingual and multicultural history of Europe, the Greek language, which has been since 1981 one of the official languages of the European Community, constitutes a special case of interest.

According to the general acknowledgement of linguists, Greek is the historically unifying language of the European peoples, distinguished by the oldest written texts (the Knossos tablets in the syllabic writing system known as Linear B, dated to at least approximately 1450 BC) [1] covering a time of about 3,450 years until today, while according to the hellenist James Thomas Hooker, “We can hypothesize validly that [Linear B] appeared in a somewhat quite older chronology” (1994, p. 53).

Apart from the tremendous historical interest which the Greek language presents with its oldest and rich written tradition among the languages of Europe, it also constitutes a case of particular significance because of its steady cohesion and uninterrupted diachronic continuity. This is evidenced by the high percentage of words used since antiquity until the present day, [2] without ever losing their original Greek character. Regarding the uninterrupted historical continuity and the unbroken cohesion of the Greek language, which has been used since antiquity in the same geographical area by the same people (the Greeks), the linguist Brian D. Joseph affirms characteristically that “[…] Greek is essentially a single language throughout its long history, yet constitutes a separate and distinct branch of Indo-European, though it too has considerable dialect diversity at all points in its history” (2007, p. 163).

For these reasons, but also for its early and in-depth cultivation by celebrated Greek intellectuals of an international and diachronic range for the expression of high modes of thought (philosophy, rhetoric, science, poetry, logic, etc.), the Greek language succeeded in rising to a high level of value and did not merely develop to a structurally flexible communication medium. Consequently, it became a base of semantic expression indicating a causal relation between the word itself and its meaning (semantic language). [3] As such the Greek language is a source of continuous direct and indirect contribution to other languages, especially the European ones and through them to other languages even in remote parts of the world. Furthermore, Greek never lost its vitality nor its plasticity and it never reached the point of breaking down into daughter languages, as happened, for example, with Demotic Latin into the so-called Neolatin or Romance languages, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian. In fact, the cultural and purely linguistic prestige which the Greek language acquired even beyond its geographical area, wherever it was spoken as mother tongue (national language), is acknowledged indicatively by the linguist Kenneth Katzner. In his work The Languages of the World he states: “Greek, the first great language of Western civilization, is considered by many to be the most effective and admirable means of communication ever devised. Its lucidity of structure and concept, together with its seemingly infinite variety and modes of expression, render it equally suitable to the needs of the rigorous thinker and the inspired poet. We can only surmise how classical Greek must have sounded to the ear, but the spoken word was probably no less beautiful that the written” (2003, p.98).

So, while the influx of the richness of Greek into Latin, for example, was impressively extensive and diverse, its influence even on other more recent languages, especially to most European ones, has not been insignificant. Compared with some languages it has been diachronic and at the same time deep and multifaceted. In the past, Greek words and word stems entered mainly indirectly through Latin, French or other European languages, while in modern times they entered through newly structured words. In the latter case, these newly made words have, as a base, mainly Greek word stems adopted into every day communication, as well as into scholarly and scientific expression, although frequently this escapes our attention or proves difficult to pinpoint in all its extent. This is a process which has been going on for centuries now, especially since the Renaissance (14th to 17th centuries) until our times. This is the unceasing capability of Greek as a special case of a language of civilization to give expression to new knowledge, something which makes it appear always expressive and timely. This is why we are not surprised that various languages, particularly the European ones, as well as European education and science in general, continue to utilize to full advantage both the linguistic and cultural qualities of the Greek language to the extent that specialist scientists and intellectuals in general acknowledge the inventive dynamism of Greek for a deeper understanding of their own language.

A relevant example, among many others, is the opinion of the American lexicographer John C. Smock, who observed that “the mastery of a relatively small number of Greek words infuses with significance tens of thousands of English words and […] these circumstances justify continued emphasis of the importance of the study of Greek in institutions of general culture” (Smock and Long (Ed.), 1931, p. xi).

In more recent years, among other scholars, worth noting are the opinions of the French linguists Jean Bouffartigue and Anne-Marie Delrieu who in the prologue of their book Trésors de racines grecques [Greek roots in the French  language] point out characteristically: “In reality what we were interested in more was to reveal how suitable the Greek language is to describe other worlds as well, apart from the one in which it developed” and then, referring to French, their native language, state that “the understanding of our language, the rediscovery of its essence – this is the usefulness of knowing the Greek word stems. The Greek stems give the French language its deepest support and, at the same time, they provide it with the highest ability for abstraction. Greece is a distant source of our civilization, and is alive in the words we say. It shapes our language every day” (1993, p. 9).  This is why, for the above reasons, according to the renowned linguist David Crystal, “Some writers have even begun to talk of … Eurogreek” (2013), while the noted Spanish linguist Professor Francisco Rodriguez Adrados, in his address in March 2013 at a conference of the Academy of Athens, characterized “a large number of languages of the world as semi-Hellenic or crypto-Hellenic”.

However, as we very rarely come across absolutely pure civilizations, in the same way rarely do we come across pure languages. According to the linguist Ronald W. Langacker, “Living languages never hold still. Every language is the product of change and continues to change as long as it is spoken. […] In all probability, no language whose speakers have ever had contact with any other language is completely free of borrowed forms” (1968, p. 176).

To reiterate, the Greek language’s influence and contribution to other languages, especially to those of the peoples of Europe during antiquity and mainly during the Renaissance period and through them to other languages of the world, is a historical-cultural phenomenon of particular concern. The Greek language, thanks to its lexical flexibility, semantic accuracy and diachronic multidimensional cultivation in a broad spectrum of fields (sciences and humanities) and, therefore, to its international cultural and linguistic prestige, has succeeded in developing into a steady base of reference. It is very interesting that as early as the 1st century BC the famous Roman poet Horace, regarding the Greek language, acknowledged that “And new and lately-formed words will have authority, if they descend from a Greek source”. After all, the Greek language, being a profoundly cultivated and developed language of civilization has proven a rich source for the linguistic and cultural creative utilization of the human intellect, a fact reflected in the old adage, “The Greeks have a word for it”. In parallel, it has become a continuous source of enrichment for various languages, especially of Europe, and through them for many others in other parts of the world, for example Thailand, Kenya, Israel, the United States, Canada and, in our context Australia, with Australian English.

Footnotes:

[1] Among other sources see Chadwick, 1967 (2nd ed.), p. 13; Chadwick, 1987, p. 8; Joseph, in Christidis (Ed.), 2007, p.163. 

[2] According to the celebrated linguist George Hadzidakis, of the 6,840 words of the Homeric epics 3,385 were used by the Attic writers and 1,165 have survived until today. As well, of the approximately 4,900 words of the New Testament, 2,280 are still used in today’s Standard Modern Greek, while another 2,200 are comprehensible to all Greeks, and only 400 are unintelligible because they are either foreign or they are archaized written words, not of the spoken form of their time (Contossopoulos, (Vol. A'), 1998, p. 59.

[3] The term “semantic language” indicates that there is primary, that is, causal relation between the word (signifier) and its meaning (signified), in contrast to the so-called “semiological languages” in which the words (signifiers) are conventional and their meanings (signified) arbitrary.

For information visit Emeritus Professor George Kanarakis, Charles Sturt University, Australia at https://peridotpublications.com/