Modern Greek

[Loki]

I'm even too lazy to look up Wikipedia.

How close is the modern Greek language to the ancient one? Can modern Greeks understand and read the ancient texts?

[Linet]

Yes, we do.
The gospels have never been translated, they are still in their original language because everyone can understand them anyway.

[Loki]

Yes, we do.
The gospels have never been translated, they are still in their original language because everyone can understand them anyway.

That's really cool!

I'm sure some of the expressions and words have changed through the centuries, or haven't they much?

[Linet]

The expressions not so much since we tent to use them as they have been told. So even the ancient Greek expressions are still said in the original language and if you translate them and tell them to someone in modern Greek , he will probably blink few times before to understand what you have told him
But yes, some words are not in use any more or they have been replaced by other. But even those not in use will still be understood because their "theme" will be found throughout the Greek language in other paragoge words or as synthetics.

[Queen B]

I'm even too lazy to look up Wikipedia.

How close is the modern Greek language to the ancient one? Can modern Greeks understand and read the ancient texts?

Yes, we can

[Scholarios]

It depends which ancient Greek you mean. When people say "Ancient Greek" they usually mean Koine- the Ionic-Attic dialect of Alexander's Empire and later much of the Roman Empire. That one is pretty much totally understandable.. at least in written form.

Other dialects of Ancient Greek are more obscure or strange. I can get some words out of it and some meaning and sentences, but I doubt any of us can understand totally some Doric dialect or Ancient Macedonian or whatever without some training. In addition, without training you can't understand very much of say... Oddyssey or Iliad (some Greeks can of course, but it requires some advaned training). Once you get to the Classical Age, you can understand a lot more, it becomes more familiar- as Koine is based on much of this Athenian literature and hence the dialect of Modern Greece is its descendent. But even then there are a few problems to total comprehension: a. verb and noun forms are complicated. I can understand the word "love" or "wage war" or "eat" but not exactly who loved or waged war or ate and exactly when they did it (in the future or past or if they will do it later etc.)- again, Greeks with classical training (and we do study it) can understand it much easier. Second is syntax. If the sentence is too long, it gets very complicated. Simple sentences are easier to understand. As languages advance, syntax becomes easier. Last is some difference in vocabulary meaning. Of course, the famous example of Greek words for "love" is a good one. Some major differences are also some loand words (consider the Modern Greek word "house" is "spiti"- from Latin Hospitum" rather than the Ancient Greek oikos (which actually survives in Modern Greek words for "household" or "housework" and "economy". So it's complicated, like language change always is.

There are some dialects of Modern Greek that are not descended from these dialects of Athens though.. like Tsakonia (which has only few speakers) and is probably partially descended from Doric of Spartans and Korinthos- though it has features of other dialects. Pontic also preserves some parts of Ancient Ionic dialect even better than Athens and Peloponnese language- for instance it kept the Ancient Greek infinite verbs.

On the whole though, this is probably more similar than Old English is to Modern English... and considering the timeframes involved, that is impressive.

[Comte Arnau]

Hmmm. I remember translating parts of the Iliad and other authors back in school days and while no doubt it's the same language, it was pretty much harder than modern Greek. Many basic words have changed too, like eye, wine, house... But that's just my impression as a foreigner, obviously they'll know better.

[Skerdilaid]

It's normal for any language to change over time, I myself have a hard time readind the Albanian texts that were written 500 years ago.

For Greeks to understand texts from 2000 years ago I will say its quite impressive.

[Tyfani]

Hmmm. I remember translating parts of the Iliad and other authors back in school days and while no doubt it's the same language, it was pretty much harder than modern Greek. Many basic words have changed too, like eye, wine, house... But that's just my impression as a foreigner, obviously they'll know better.

I cannot say ancient Greek is harder. To me it is really easy, there is mathematical logic (which I love) and you cannot make mistakes just because you forgot something. It is a beautiful combination...

And to the question of Loki, yes we can understand ancient Greek, even the kids above 10

[Comte Arnau]

So you mean an 11-year-old kid would understand this? That is great!

Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληιάδεω Ἀχιλῆος
οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί’ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε’ ἔθηκε,
πολλὰς δ’ ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν
ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν
οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ’ ἐτελείετο βουλή·
ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε
Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς.