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Interesting that Greek is so isolated, even though so many European languages are derived from it. Maybe it's because Greek was essentially a dead language that

Interesting that Greek is so isolated, even though so many European languages are derived from it. Maybe it's because Greek was essentially a dead language that was reintroduced, so other languages had drifted far from it?

maw 11y ago
But what languages are derived from Greek, as opposed to having a lot of vocabulary derived from it?
yoklov 11y ago
Not sure that very many european languages are derived from it in any form other than it's alphabet (and even then its fairly removed). I could be wrong (this is well outside my area of expertise), but I think maybe you're thinking of Latin?
- umanwizard 11y ago
  He's probably getting confused by the fact that a lot of technical vocabulary is borrowed from (ancient) Greek.
  - jasperry 11y ago
    I guess I did assume that since there are quite a few Greek roots in English, that there was more direct influence.
    - DonaldFisk 11y ago
      No, you have to look at the core vocabulary. For example, most English words are derived from Latin (often through French), but all its core vocabulary (except for one or two words such as "very") is Germanic. So English is a Germanic language. Its earliest written form is Anglo-Saxon, the language of King Alfred. Greek words in English are rarer, and are generally not core vocabulary, e.g. "telescope", "bacteria", "paragraph", "angel". There are Greek cognates, which found their way into both English and Greek from their common ancestor Indo-European. These are harder to recognize. Examples include ἔργον which is cognate with "work", and πέτομαι/πτερόν (I fly/wing) which are cognate with "feather".
      - pavlov 11y ago
        It's fun to read everyday signs in Greece without understanding the language. The words are familiar yet the meaning is lost in translation. For example, I saw a truck labelled "ethniki metafora". Pretty sure it doesn't literally mean "ethnic metaphor" though! (I think the proper translation would be "national transport".)
davidw 11y ago
> Maybe it's because Greek was essentially a dead language that was reintroduced How is that? Haven't they continued to speak it in Greece all these years? Granted, modern Greek is different than the classic version of the language, but that's to be expected over thousands of years...
koenigdavidmj 11y ago
Maltese was excluded too, and falls into a similar position of being unrelated genetically but having imported a lot of vocabulary through Italian and English. It started as an Arabic dialect, but has a very high loanword rate, so a simple sentence is indistinguishable from Arabic, but a complex sentence is easy to understand for a speaker of a Romance language. It's stuff like that which can't be drawn in a chart like this.
DonaldFisk 11y ago
No languages are closely related to Greek except for other varieties of Greek. It's on its own branch of the Indo-European family. English, like all other Indo-European languages from Irish to Sinhalese, is a distant relative. Also, Greek has been continuously spoken since classical times.

maw 11y ago

But what languages are derived from Greek, as opposed to having a lot of vocabulary derived from it?

yoklov 11y ago

Not sure that very many european languages are derived from it in any form other than it's alphabet (and even then its fairly removed). I could be wrong (this is well outside my area of expertise), but I think maybe you're thinking of Latin?

umanwizard 11y ago
He's probably getting confused by the fact that a lot of technical vocabulary is borrowed from (ancient) Greek.
- jasperry 11y ago
  I guess I did assume that since there are quite a few Greek roots in English, that there was more direct influence.
  - DonaldFisk 11y ago
    No, you have to look at the core vocabulary. For example, most English words are derived from Latin (often through French), but all its core vocabulary (except for one or two words such as "very") is Germanic. So English is a Germanic language. Its earliest written form is Anglo-Saxon, the language of King Alfred. Greek words in English are rarer, and are generally not core vocabulary, e.g. "telescope", "bacteria", "paragraph", "angel". There are Greek cognates, which found their way into both English and Greek from their common ancestor Indo-European. These are harder to recognize. Examples include ἔργον which is cognate with "work", and πέτομαι/πτερόν (I fly/wing) which are cognate with "feather".
    - pavlov 11y ago
      It's fun to read everyday signs in Greece without understanding the language. The words are familiar yet the meaning is lost in translation. For example, I saw a truck labelled "ethniki metafora". Pretty sure it doesn't literally mean "ethnic metaphor" though! (I think the proper translation would be "national transport".)

davidw 11y ago

> Maybe it's because Greek was essentially a dead language that was reintroduced How is that? Haven't they continued to speak it in Greece all these years? Granted, modern Greek is different than the classic version of the language, but that's to be expected over thousands of years...

koenigdavidmj 11y ago

Maltese was excluded too, and falls into a similar position of being unrelated genetically but having imported a lot of vocabulary through Italian and English. It started as an Arabic dialect, but has a very high loanword rate, so a simple sentence is indistinguishable from Arabic, but a complex sentence is easy to understand for a speaker of a Romance language. It's stuff like that which can't be drawn in a chart like this.

DonaldFisk 11y ago

No languages are closely related to Greek except for other varieties of Greek. It's on its own branch of the Indo-European family. English, like all other Indo-European languages from Irish to Sinhalese, is a distant relative. Also, Greek has been continuously spoken since classical times.