Greek is not only one of the most ancient languages but also one of the most important languages belonging to our history on account of the cultural and scientific value of the ancient Greek scripts that are preserved till the present day.
On the 9th of February, we celebrate International Greek Language Day, formally stated in 2017.
“It is important to learn and love the Greek language, because of its virtues, but mainly because it has expressed a great culture” expressed the Greek Ministry of Education. The purpose and the meaning of dedicating a whole day to Greek is to give recognition to this language that contributes to Western civilization in so many possible and different ways throughout centuries. This aim encourages Greek people around the world — not only, furthermore to everyone else who is captivated and fascinated by the Greek language and culture — to get to know this most ancient language.
Academy (Ακαδημία), Air (Αέρας), Anatomy (Ανατομία), Bacterium (Βακτήριον), Bible (Βίβλος), Biology (Βιολογία), Cinema (Κινημα), Climate (Κλιμα / Κλιματικό), Democracy (Δημοκρατία), Diagram (Διάγραμμα), Ecology (Οικολογία), Economy (Οικονομία), Energy (Ενέργεια), Galaxy (Γαλαξίας), Genetic (Γενετικός), Geography (Γεωγραφία), Geometry (Γεωμετρία), History (Ιστορία), Idea (Ιδέα), Kilometer (Χιλιόμετρο), Logic (Λογικό), Logo (Λογο), Macro (Μακρο), Mega (Μεγα), Nectar (Νεκταρ), Ocean (Ωκεανός), Olympic = Ολυμπιακός (Olympiakos), Organism (Οργανισμός), Oxygen (Οχυγόνο). These are only just a few words that come from and take origin from Greek, just a small part of the more than 150,000 English words of English whose roots are from Greek words.
Infinite Greek words enrich and ameliorate other languages and cultures, helping us and being present in our daily life. A great example of it is international medical terminology. Approximately 80% of the science-based terms have a Greek root, as previously cited. Nevertheless, English is not the only language whose words proceed from Greek. As the world’s oldest noted living language, spoken in the same geographical region for around 4,000 years, Greek words have been taken into many other Indo-European languages, including French, Italian and Spanish among others. To be in possession of the facts, about 10% of Spanish words are adopted from Greek.
As a Western Civilization, we took over not only Greek words into our language, making it ours, but also the culture, tradition and political life in some way. The best example of it is democracy (which you can read more about it at: https://evs-mediart.weebly.com/blog/democracy-is-a-privilege#comments).
Adding to all of it, it’s significant to name the philosophical way of thinking. Greek philosophers shaped and contributed meaningfully to our world. Pythagoras and Socrates, are both present in our day to day. The first one, at school, taught his mathematical system and the second one, present mostly in modern-day law schools, but not only, studied for his teaching methods and for asking thought-provoking questions, known as the ‘Socratic maieutics’. As an alternative to sermons to his students, he asked them tough questions as a way to challenge their speculations, ideas and beliefs.
The Greeks with their elegant language, composed epic poems, such as the ‘Iliad’ and the ‘Odyssey’ of Homer, still named and read up on in every school, Platonic dialogues, which questioned everything that human beings took for granted and, as well as the works of Aristotle.
“Teaching the Elementary and Intermediate Modern Greek classes has always been a great pleasure for me. I will agree with Ms. Dina Skias that at first, the students feel apprehensive and uneasy with the Greek language, but after the first couple of weeks, they are driven to use it and even quite well, in fact! …Primarily, survival Greek is the aim of the course so that students will feel comfortable and proud of themselves for being able to communicate and integrate within daily society. …At the end of these courses, the students are able to surprise themselves and often exclaim that ‘This is not all Greek to me anymore!’” declared the Greek language professor, Joanna Vasiliou.
As we see, the Greek language allows us to get to know more about our way of communication, culture, literature and the mindset of our country, giving therefore, relevant importance to this language itself, making this day important to celebrate.