Preface and Acknowledgments

All languages are, of course, equally “old”: what sets Greek apart from most other languages (apart from Chinese) is that (a) it has been recorded in alphabetic writing continuously for over 2800 years (and there is in addition a brief attestation in Mycenean ­syllabic script from around 600 years earlier); and (b) it has kept its identity as “Greek” for most of that period. Latin would have a ­written history of around 2300 years if one included the modern Romance languages in the calculation; but Latin changed both name and ­cultural identity when it became known as Italian, Spanish, French, etc. If the territories of the Hellenistic empire of Alexander the Great and his successors had remained Greek-speaking, as those of the Roman empire in the West mostly remained Latin-speaking (with the exception of North Africa, and, for a time, the Iberian peninsula), it is likely that a number of competing “Hellenic” ­vernaculars would have emerged, and there would thus be not one but several Greek languages, some or all of which might have been renamed by speakers anxious to carve out separate national ­identities. The modern Cypriot dialect is about as distinct from standard Greek as the Spanish of Madrid is from the Italian of Florence; but Cypriots are taught standard Greek in school, and it is used in most printed material, so that there is constant pressure in the direction of the standard. In situations where such political, ideological, and cultural pressure does not exist, a new “language” emerges.

In the classical tradition in the West it is customary to use the term “Greek” to mean ancient Greek, and to use the qualifier “­modern Greek” where necessary. Greeks do exactly the reverse for obvious reasons, thus “Greek” and “ancient Greek”. In this book the term Greek will refer to whichever period is under discussion in the chapter in question (modifiers are used if there is a risk of ambiguity). Greek words are transliterated and translated (longer passages are translated only): transliteration of ancient Greek gives vowel length, but not the ancient pitch accent; transliteration of modern Greek gives the modern stress accent. Transliteration of Greek names follows the inconsistent but widely adopted mixed ­system: familiar figures are given in their traditional Latin version (Aeschylus not Aiskhylos), and others are transliterated directly from the Greek (Alkaios).

Greek and Latin are the two “classical” languages of European culture; and since this is a book about language we can start off at once by looking at this word. They are classical because they are traditionally the languages learned in class: this is a late meaning, from French, which connects the adjective classique with the word classe “class.” They are also classical because they belong to the ­highest rank, are of the first order: this is the meaning of the rare Latin word classicus, which is merely an adjective derived from the noun classis, “group, class” (originally “called-up group, levy,” from the Indo-European root which also gave the Greek kaleō, “I call”). The Latin adjective denoted citizens of the top social class, and was not metaphorically extended to writers, let alone languages, until very late. It may seem odd to start a book on the history of Greek with a discussion of a Latin word: but it is an appropriate reminder that the two languages became quite intertwined (reflecting the interaction of the two civilizations), and penetrate the languages of Europe at every level and in every conceivable way.

For example, English has Greek words which were (a) borrowed into Germanic (bishop < OE biscop < ἐπίσκοπος [episkopos] “one who watches over”), (b) borrowed by Latin, and retained in the Romance languages, reaching English via Norman French (treasure < Fr. trésor < Lat. thēsaurus < θησαυρός [thēsauros] “store-room, treasury, treasure”), (c) borrowed by Latin, and borrowed from Latin into French and from French into English (allegory < Fr. allégorie < Lat. allēgoria < ἀλληγορία [allēgoria] “speaking differently”), (d) borrowed by Latin, and then borrowed directly by English (comma < κόμμα [komma] “short clause”), and (e) borrowed directly from Greek, both existing words (neuron), and new compounds (photograph < phot- “light”, graph- “write”).

The vocabulary of modern Greek is similarly intricate: the largest part consists of native Greek words derived from the ancient lexicon, mostly via the Hellenistic koine and the modern dialects of the Peloponnese, on which the modern standard language is based. This inherited stock is intermixed with (a) ancient Greek words, either taken from modern European languages and re-naturalized (ψυχολόγος [psichológos] “psychologist”), or borrowed directly, (b) borrowings from Latin (κλασικός [klasikós] “classical”), and (c) borrowings from other languages such as French, Italian, and English, some of which are from Greek roots (σινεμά [sinemá] < Fr. cinéma[tographe]: Anc. Gk. κίνημα [kinēma] “movement”).

This is in addition, of course, to a number of words borrowed from Turkish during the Ottoman period (1453–1821). Modern Greek καλέμι [kalémi] “nib, chisel” comes from Turkish kalem, itself a borrowing from Arabic qalam < Ancient Greek καλάμιον [kalamion], “reed, pen.” This word also survives in its “native” form in Modern Greek καλάμι [kalámi] “reed, bullrush,” extended to mean “(telescopic) fishing rod” (and the diminutive καλαμάκι [kalamáki] “drinking straw”). The history of Greek is a lesson that languages are cultural artefacts, and that a linguistic study is always part of a sociolinguistic study.

The word Greek and its relatives in the European languages derive from a Latin, not a Greek word. The Romans called the Greeks Graeci, from a tribe that they or some other Italic people encountered in the region of Epirus (opposite the heel of Italy, an obvious first point of contact). This is a perfectly common phenomenon in the naming of foreign peoples and places: the Germans call themselves “Deutsch” (a word simply meaning “of the people”), while the French call them after the Alemanni, a Germanic tribe (English German < Lat. Germānus, the origin of which is disputed).

The Greeks themselves called their country Ἑλλάς [Hellas] (modern Eλλάδα [Elláða]), and themselves Ἕλληνες [Hellēnes]. Ancient Greek did not have a word for “Greek” (the language): the Greeks referred either to “the...