Is Greek really an Indo-European language?

[Pecheneg]

yes it is.

[jerney]

And who told you we don’t understand Ancient Greek? We understand Ancient Greek as much as British people understand ancient English and Italians and Spaniards understand Latin…

Most English speaking people can't understand a word of Old English. I'm willing to bet the average Greek can understand quite a lot of ancient Greek, though.

[Siginulfo]

This thread doesn't deserve consideration.

[finþaų]

To illustrate it visually for the internet generation:

[Onur]

Most English speaking people can't understand a word of Old English. I'm willing to bet the average Greek can understand quite a lot of ancient Greek, though.

If some Greeks can understand the ancient Greek language it`s only because of the revival attempts of ancient Greek language in Greece which continued from 1830s to very recent times. Also Greek schools teaches ancient Greek to the children.

Without these actions, they wouldn't be able to understand ancient Greek at all. If they would do the same in England, you can be sure that English people would understand old English as much as Greeks can understand old Greek today.

Read this;

Katharevousa (Greek: Καθαρεύουσα, [kaθaˈrevusa], lit. "puristic [language]"), is a conservative form of the Modern Greek language conceived in the early 19th century as a compromise between Ancient Greek and Dimotiki of the time. Originally, it was widely used both for literary and official purposes, though seldom in daily language. In the 20th century, it was increasingly just for official and formal purposes, until Dimotiki became the official language of Greece in 1976 and Andreas Papandreou abolished the polytonic system of writing in 1981.

Katharevousa was conceived by the intellectual and revolutionary leader Adamantios Korais.[1] A graduate of the University of Montpellier, Korais spent most of his life as an expatriate in Paris. Being a classical scholar, he was repelled by the Byzantine and later influence on Greek society and was a fierce critic of the clergy and their alleged subservience to the Ottoman Empire[2]. He held that education was a prerequisite to Greek liberation.

Part of its purpose was to mediate the struggle between the "archaists" favouring full reversion to archaic forms, and the "modernists". The name "Katharevousa" implies a pure form of Greek as it might hypothetically have evolved from ancient Greek without external influences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharevousa

Did Brits imposed English people to use and learn old English for about 200 years `till recent times as 1981? Nope, and you wonder why modern Greeks can understand ancient Greek while Brits cant for old English.

Also lets remember that the imposition of ancient Greek to the people of Greece by using modern education system has been thoroughly discussed for years in 19th century by the western European philhellenes. They were thinking like 19th century Greek language [it was called as Rum language at that time, both by the Greeks and others] infested with Turkish vocabulary and expressions beyond recovery. So philhellenes offered that it would be better for neo-hellenes to completely abandon their rum language in favor of ancient Greek supported with new Latin/French vocabulary. Western European philhellenes already knew how to speak and write in ancient Greek, so they tried this in their schools opened in Athens but failed to do so because it was so different than the dialect of the local folk and they couldn't manage to understand anything from it.

[chipriota]

If some Greeks can understand the ancient Greek language it`s only because of the revival attempts of ancient Greek language in Greece which continued from 1830s to very recent times. Also Greek schools teaches ancient Greek to the children.

Ha ha ha, you are so pathetic. We do only some basic things of Ancient Greek in the first classes of high school, and nobody pays attention to that lesson unless they are going to study Greek Literature. I understand Ancient Greek when it's written, I can get what a text is about, without even opening a dictionary. The most words are the same but it different forms, and some words that are not used anymore as infinitive ones, they are used in some double words. Like the word pyr (which means fire), now is not used as it was, the word for fire in modern Greek is "fotia" but that word is used in double words like pyrotechnima (firework), or the word ydor (water) is not used as it was, but in modern Greek the word for water is "nero", but we all know that ydor means water, because it is used in other words like ydragogio (aqueduct), ydravlikos (hydraulic) and many other examples...

And what the heck are you talking about, the revival attempts of ancient Greek language in Greece which continued from 1830s? So, before that, people spoke another language?

[Γέλως]

So philhellenes offered that it would be better for neo-hellenes to completely abandon their rum language in favor of ancient Greek supported with new Latin/French vocabulary.

You always pull data out of your ass. Katharevousa was not only meant to purify the Greek language from the Turkish vocabulary, but also from the Latin and Slavic ones. Also, katharevousa hasn't influenced modern Greek much. The language is almost identical to the one spoken in the 17th century.

[Queen B]

If some Greeks can understand the ancient Greek language it`s only because of the revival attempts of ancient Greek language in Greece which continued from 1830s to very recent times. Also Greek schools teaches ancient Greek to the children.

If Greeks understand ancient Greek is because they are similar, simple as that.
My worst class was ancient Greek (and then, biology) yet, I understand quite good ancient Greek.

[Vojnik]

I think every Greek here can at least confirm that there are many Turkish loan words in the modern Greek language?

[Queen B]

I think every Greek here can at least confirm that there are many Turkish loan words in the modern Greek language?

Yes, there are Turkish loanwords (so are Latin and Italian).
Αround 150-200 are very very common and in total are around 2.500-3.000 as I have read somewhere.

How is this related, again?