Read and Speak Greek / Multimedia CD-ROM

Some Greek grammar

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Greek and English Languages

1.    Background
From about 700 BCE to 300 AD, Greece had a profound influence in the Western Civilization.  Many of the masterpieces of world literature, arts and sciences were created by Greeks that lived during this period.  Alexander the Great helped spread Greek culture over a vast area.  He conquered the world and exposed the conquered lands to the Greek language and culture.  Because of Alexander the Great the number of people that knew Greek or wanted to learn Greek exploded.

2.    Greek, the International Language
Greek was the international language between 300 BCE and 300 AD.  If you were an intellectual that wanted to become known and influence others, you had to write in Greek.  To enable learning of Greek by foreigners that were not able to secure a teacher, the Alexandrian version was developed based on the Attic dialect spoken by the Athenians.  This version is also called Koine , which in Greek means common, to emphasize the fact that it was a replacement of all the Greek dialects (Attic, Doric and Ionic).  Koine introduced accents and punctuation marks to make pronunciation and writing clear.  In order to accommodate the increased demand for material written in Greek, publishers hired "typists" and "speakers" to produce copies.  The speaker would pronounce the text to a pool of typists who would write it on papyri or parchments.  Spelling skills would vary and misspellings were possible especially in writing letters that sounded the same.

3.    Greek and English Grammar
It is well known that many Greek words are part of the English vocabulary.  In addition, grammar structure is similar except that English has many significant simplifications.  Differences between Greek and English are noted in 3a, 3b and 3c.  The Parts of Speech are noted in 3d.

3a.    Greek nouns, articles, pronouns and adjectives have cases.
The spelling of  Greek nouns or pronouns, and associated adjectives and articles, changes depending on whether they are subjects or objects of the verb.  In contrast, except for a few pronouns such as he/him, she/her and who/whom, English articles, nouns, adjectives and pronouns do not vary their spelling with their position (subject/object) relative to the verb.  As an example consider the sentences below and see how the spelling of the Greek words for Peter and Catherine change with their position relative to the verb love.

(click the Greek text to hear the sound)

(Peter loves Catherine.)
Verb subject:      (Peter)
Verb object:   (Catherine)
 

(Catherine loves Peter.)
Verb subject:    (Catherine)
Verb object:       (Peter)
 

3b.    Greek nouns, articles, pronouns and adjectives can have one of three genders.
Greek nouns, and words associated with nouns such as articles, adjectives and pronouns, have gender.   As an exampler consider the definite article "the".  The Greek language uses three sets of definite articles for the.  One set is used for masculine nouns, another set is used for feminine nouns and another set is used for neuter nouns.  In contrast, the English language uses only one definite article for all nouns.

 (click the Greek text to hear the sound)

Number/Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	English
Singular/  Nominative				the
Singular/  Possessive				of the
Singular/  Objective				the
Singular/ Vocative
Plural/  Nominative				the
Plural/  Possessive				of the
Plural/  Objective				the
Plural/  Vocative

3c.    Greek verbs change ending depending on the verb person and number.
The ending of Greek verbs changes depending on who does the verb action.  Specifically, the ending of Greek verbs changes with person and number.  In contrast, English verbs do not change, except in the third person singular of some tenses,  because personal pronouns are used to indicate the person and number.  As an example consider the Present Tense of the verb  (I love).   Click the Greek text to hear it pronounced.

Present Tense - I love

	I love
	you love
	he/she/it loves
	we love
	you love
	they love

 

Some especially powerful grammar simplifications are in the areas of English adjectives and verbs.  For example, English uses only one adjective to mean black.  In contrast, Greeks may use one of 11 different adjectives to mean black depending on the gender,  case and number of the associated noun.

Singular Number / Nominative Case (click the pictures or Greek text to hear the pronunciation)

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
(the dog)	(the cat)	(the horse)
(the black dog)	(the black cat)	(the black horse)

Plural Number / Nominative Case

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
(the dogs)	(the cats)	(the horses)
(the black dogs)	(the black cats)	(the black horses)

Because of the above reasons, English is more efficient than Greek in the sense that one needs to know fewer words to say what he wants in English.  On the other hand, Greek is more precise.  Different Greek verb endings make clear whether the verb person and number is second person singular or second person plural.  An illustration is the verb form "you want".  In Greek, the verb form you want is eitherordepending on whether the "you" in "you want" refers to one person or many.

It is amazing to find that English vocabulary is sometimes closer to Classical Greek than Modern Greek is to its past.  The word cinnamon comes to mind.  Cinnamon is calledin Modern Greek, based on the Italian word cannella, and in Classical Greek.

3d.    Parts of Speech
The Parts of Speech are the fundamental building blocks of a language.  The Greek language has 10 Parts of Speech.  The classification system of what is called a Part of Speech differs among languages.  The table below shows the Greek Parts of Speech and the corresponding English Parts of Speech.  It is evident that Greek and English have the same language structure.

Parts of Speech

Number	Greek Name	English Name
1		Article
2		Adjective
3		Pronoun
4		Noun
5		Adverb
6		Conjunction
7		Preposition
8		Verb
9		Participle
10		Interjection

Revised: 30 July 2000
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georgeb@anotek.com