8 Lesser Known Facts About Greek Language

Ancient Greece. The simple utterance of these words projects in our minds the grandiose image of Greek civilization. Greece was the home of some extremely important personalities in human history, including philosophers like Plato and Socrates, scientists such as Aristotle and Hippocrates, and, of course, leaders who influenced the entire history of mankind, including the famous Alexander the Great.

Even if you are a true encyclopedia of history or philosophy and all these things seem familiar to you, how much do you know about Greek? Did you know that Greek was the first language to introduce vowels into the alphabet? Or that the semicolon acts as a question mark? Below are some lesser known facts, described in detail.

The Greek language was initially written from right to left

In the older times, Old Greek, just like contemporary Hebrew and Arabic, was written from right to left. After that, for a while, it was written in both directions, before finally being written only from left to right.

Greek is the oldest language used

Greek is a language that began to be spoken over 3500 years ago. The first known Greek language form, spoken in the 2nd millennium BC., is proto-Greek. This later evolved into the ancient Greek- the lingua franca of Antiquity.

Modern Greek was born with the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453.

The word alphabet comes from Greek, from the Greek letters: α (alpha) and β (beta). So even though the Romanian language uses the Latin alphabet and not the Greek alphabet, the term ‘alphabet’ refers initially to the two Greek letters.

The longest word in literature is a Greek word

It is known that the longest word that has ever appeared in literature can be found in the play “The Assembly of Women” written by Aristophanes in 391 B.C. It is a 171-letter word, a dish invented by the author, from several types of meat. If you ever feel brave enough, try to pronounce it flawlessly:

λοπαδο­τεμαχο­σελαχο­γαλεο­κρανιο­λειψανο­δριμ­υπο­τριμματο­σιλφιο­καραβο­μελιτο­κατακεχυ­μενο­κιχλ­επι­κοσσυφο­φαττο­περιστερ­αλεκτρυον­οπτο­κεφαλλιο­κιγκλο­πελειο­λαγῳο­σιραιο­βαφη­τραγανο­πτερύγων

By 1976, there were two official dialects of Greek

Katharevusa, used at the university, in law, medicine, press and the army.

Demotic, used in both current speech and literature.

In 1976, the Greek government declared the Demotic dialect the only official language.

The Greek alphabet introduced vowels for the first time

The Greek alphabet has a long history, of over 3500 years. The Greeks were the first to introduce vowels into their alphabet; until then only the consonants were noted.

For the question mark, the Greeks use semicolons

Not only do the Greeks use a different alphabet from the Latin one, but some punctuation marks are also different. For example, for the question mark, they use “;”.

Greek courses

The word “polyglot”, which defines a person who speaks several languages, comes from Greek, from the words poly and glossa (many languages).

If you are interested in becoming a polyglot or simply wish to learn Greek, think about how great it would be to take some Greek language courses with a native speaker!

Learn this wonderful language with me and during the Greek courses, you will have the opportunity to learn much more about this super language, which has influenced the destiny of the world in such a profound way.