Greek, The most Influential Language of Humankind?

Let’s start this article with 5 sentences in different languages. What do they have in common?

-“This country has one of the strongest democracies in the world”.

-« Les pesticides sont désormais interdits en Ontario parce qu’ils sont considérés toxiques pour l’environnement. » [French]  (“The pesticides are now banned in Ontario because they are considered toxic to the environment”)

-“A magyar diplomának mindenhol értéke van, de nem minden ország honosítja őket” [Hungarian]  (“An Hungarian diploma is valid everywhere, but not all the countries recognize them”)

-“Багато книг надійшло до бібліотеки від викладачів, науковців та мешканців міста” [Ukrainian]  (“Bahato knyh nadijšlo do biblioteky vid vykladačiv, naukovtsiv ta meškantsiv mista”) {“Many books were received for the library from teachers, scientists and residents of the city”}

شما دوست دارید موسیقی گوش کنید؟ -

[Persian]  (Shoma dust darid musiqi gush konid?) {Do you like to listen to music?}

If you read the title of this article, you may think that the answer to the question is related with Greek Language. In fact, we have 5 sentences related with different subjects and in 5 different languages, not all of them in the same family, but all of them use at least one Greek word.

Let’s take a look:

-“This country has one of the strongest democracies in the world”.

The word “Democracy” comes from the Greek word “δημοκρατíα” (demokratía) that is a compound word. The word  δῆμος (demos) = “people” + κρατíα (kratía) = “rule”. According to etymonline the word demokratía means “popular government”.

-« Les pesticides sont désormais interdits en Ontario parce qu’ils sont considérés toxiques pour l’environnement. » [French]  (“The pesticides are now banned in Ontario because they are considered toxic to the environment”)

The word “toxique” or “toxic” in English, comes from the Greek word “τοξικóς”  (toxikós). Interestingly, this word in ancient Greek is related with archery and bows. Arrows were poisoned before being used in the wars.

-“A magyar diplomának mindenhol értéke van, de nem minden ország honosítja őket” [Hungarian]  (“A Hungarian diploma is valid everywhere, but not all the countries recognize them”)

The word “diplomának” is related with “δíπλωμα” (diploma). This word is a “Folded paper”. This word became the synonym of an Official document, licence. (See etymonline)  

-“Багато книг надійшло до бібліотеки від викладачів, науковців та мешканців міста” [Ukrainian]  (“Bahato knyh nadijšlo do biblioteky vid vykladačiv, naukovtsiv ta meškantsiv mista”)   

The word “biblioteka” is related with “βιβλιοθήκη” (bibliothéke). This is a compound word. The word βιβλíον (biblíon) = “book” + θήκη (théke) = “box”

شما دوست دارید موسیقی گوش کنید؟ -

[Farsi]  (Shoma dust darid musiqi gush konid?)

The Word “musiqi” is related with “μουσική” (mousiké) = “music”. The original phrase was “μουσική τέχνη” = art of the Musas.

I don’t know anyone who can speak in those 5 languages (I personally do not speak Hungarian), but I am sure most of my readers can identify the words highlighted in every sentence.

Here we can see the strong influence that Greek has exercised over multiple languages. Although today it is only spoken by approximately 13 million people, and it is only official in 2 countries and one of the 24 official languages of the EU, this ancient language is one of the major donor languages that have ever existed. According to an estimation published by British Council more than 150,000 words of English are derived from Greek words. We can say that aprox 25 – 30 % of English words have Greek roots. Some sources talk about 10% of the French language has Greek origin and the same happens with Spanish. You can find most of those Greek roots used in languages like Russian, German, Italian, and even in non-European languages like Persian and Arabic. Its influence is felt over many modern languages.

Some people may think that Chinese, is a language immune to those borrowings, but in a paper in from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, they provide a list of borrowed words in Chinese, and there are some with Greek roots. We can see words such as 马拉松 (mǎlāsōng) = “marathon” (from Greek: μαραθών), 荷尔蒙 (hé'ěrméng) = “Hormone” (from ὁρμή), 乌托邦 (wūtuōbāng) = “Utopia” (from οὺ + τóπος).

How this language did become so influential in today’s world, reaching a point that we can easily find its words spread all over modern languages? To find an answer to this question, we must understand the history of this language. A good article, in my opinion, is “The Greek Language Through Time” by Roderick Saxey II from Brigham Young University. In brief, we can say that Greek is the oldest Indo-European language that has been producing written records without interruptions. Since Homer’s epic works The Iliad and The Odyssey, the earliest known compositions from this language back to 1200 BC, we feel a fascination for the writings in this language, that later included the writings of great philosophers and thinkers. From epic poetry to Comedy, from Rhetoric to Oratory and then from Philosophy to Mathematics and general sciences, they all owe much to somebody who wrote in Greek.

After the conquests of Alexander the Macedon, a form of Greek became the Lingua franca of most of the Mediterranean Sea and parts of the near east. Romans later kept this language for business purposes. Thanks to this international Greek language, its culture was well known in different lands.  

The spread of Christianity as a religion with its main message based in the Ευαγγέλιον (Evangelion) = “Good News”, texts that today we know as Gospels, who were mainly composed in Greek, and then with the support of a collection of religious texts known as τὰ βιβλíα (tà biblia) or “the Bible” with compositions that were either written in Greek or translated into it, they help to shape our western culture and mindset. I have to add that an important set of compositions about Christianity from later periods were written in Greek

Greek continued to be the official language of the Byzantine Empire until the fall of Constantinople. In the west of Europe, Latin was more popular. But Latin relied on the use of Greek words for specialized terms. Highly educated thinkers, philosophers and scientists used Latin as an academic language. When new terms were coined, they used Latin in order to find those new terms so everybody could understand them. Words with Greek roots were included.

Greek has influenced English and other languages in many ways:

-Direct borrowing: some words were borrowed directly from Greek. Based on what I read in pages like etymonline some words borrowed into English were: “Amnesia” = αμνησíα (amnesia), “Cosmos” = κóσμος (kósmos), “orthodox” = ορθóδοξοσ (orthódoxos).

-Some words have been borrowed through other languages. In the case of English, most of indirect borrowings came through Latin and Old French. In fact, there are much more cases of indirect borrowings from Greek through those languages than direct borrowings. Some examples are: “Alphabet” that comes from αλφάβητος (alfábetos) through Latin “alphabetum”. Other word that came through Latin is “therapy”, from θεραπεíα (therapeía), in Latin = “therapia”. Words that came through Old French (OF) are: “Ethics”, from ὴθικóς (ethikós), “ethique” in OF; “Mathematics”, from μαθηματικóς (mathematikós) through OF word “mathematique”; “Sphere”, also Sphere in OF, from Greek σφαῑρα (sphaira).

-Some words were coined in English using Greek words. We have “Astronaut” = ἄστρον + ναúτης (astron = Star + naútes = Sailor); “telephone” = τῆλε + φωνή (tele = afar + phone = voice); “kaleidoscope” = καλóς + εΐδος + σκοπέω (kalós = beautiful + eidos = shape + skopéo = examine, look to).

But this influence is not limited to words. Some expressions that we use in English and in other languages, like Spanish, for example, come from Greek culture. In an article on how Greek influenced English language we can read the examples of “Achilles heel” to refer to a vulnerable point (in French: Talon d’Achille, in Spanish: Talón de Aquiles), or “Crocodile tears” to refer to an insincere display of emotions (in French: Larmes de crocodile, in Spanish: Lágrimas de Cocodrilo).

Greek has also influenced through his alphabet. Latin and Cyrillic alphabets both have letters from the Greek one. You can read more in my article "The Alphabet Connection" .

Being aware of the influence of Greek over other languages is very useful. This language has been an important source of scientific vocabulary and many words we use often have Greek roots. To know them is a great opportunity to know their real meaning. Here is an example of how etymology leads us not only to learn another modern language easier but to learn also how to use properly our own language.  

Today, English is considered the most important donor language in the world. But among the words that English is contributing to everyday dialogues in different modern languages, an important group of them have Greek roots. But other languages like Latin, French or Spanish have helped to spread words with Greek roots. The Greek Language may be the world’s most influential language.