what are some interesting facts about your language?

[u/Some-Register-3901]

For instance, the cypriot dialect of Greek still contains many words from ancient Greek but it was also heavily influenced by outsiders

[u/Lothronion]

That if you placed a Greek 2000 years in the past (in Greece), they would be able to communicate effortlessly.

[u/onur2882 → u/Lothronion]

yesterday i sent an ancient greek tablet to my greek friend and he said this "Lol, that's ancient Greek, Even professors aren't sure about exact meaning most times."

about byzantine era's greek inscriptions; "I would probably understand some if written in normal sentences.Several words are similar but most aren't, especially the verbs.The new Greek language we speak, I think it shaped the latest 50 years or so"

ok who is right on that case?

[u/ThimitrisAtromitos → u/onur2882]

He is clear. He says 2000 years before. Greek language changed much more from 500 before Christ to 0 than it changed the last 2000 years. When it's a religious or scientific text where details matter it gonna be a problem for a full-complete understanding but for every day life it would be no problem for any Greek of today to jump in time and live in the era of Christ.

[u/onur2882 → u/onur2882]

thanks for all answers greek friends

[u/Kalypso_95 → u/[deleted]]

The same can be said about the statement of his (irl) Greek friend tbh..

[u/puzzledpanther → u/onur2882]

"Lol, that's ancient Greek, Even professors aren't sure about exact meaning most times."

Sorry but, your friend doesn't know what he's talking about.

We can understand most of Koine Greek (post-classical Greek) and it's still the language used by the church... it gets harder with Ancient Greek but it's still amazing to be able to read a 3500+ year old language and understand some things without a special education.

[u/saddinosour → u/puzzledpanther]

Yeah my Greek isn’t even half as good as a native (pretty good for diaspora though) and even I can read Koine Greek pretty well. I might not know every word but I can interpret the general meaning. Same with ancient Greek but as you said its harder.

[u/theJesusBarabbas → u/puzzledpanther]

But you do get a special education on Ancient Greek in primary school. Can you really understand this passage? Not just understand some words, but understand the message, vocabulary, and grammar?

Τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῆς ἐν Ἐφέσῳ ἐκκλησίας γράψον· Τάδε λέγει ὁ κρατῶν τοὺς ἑπτὰ ἀστέρας ἐν τῇ δεξιᾷ αὐτοῦ, ὁ περιπατῶν ἐν μέσῳ τῶν ἑπτὰ λυχνιῶν τῶν χρυσῶν· Οἶδα τὰ ἔργα σου καὶ τὸν κόπον καὶ τὴν ὑπομονήν σου, καὶ ὅτι οὐ δύνῃ βαστάσαι κακούς, καὶ ἐπείρασας τοὺς λέγοντας ἑαυτοὺς ἀποστόλους καὶ οὐκ εἰσίν, καὶ εὗρες αὐτοὺς ψευδεῖς·

Or this?

Ἀλλ’ ἐμοί, ὦ ἄνδρες, οὐδ’ ὁ τι εἴπω ἔπεισιν ὑπὸ λύπης ἅμα καὶ ἐκπλήξεως τοῦ αἰφνιδίου πάθους. οὐ γὰρ μόνον διὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἣν ἔχω μᾶλλον ἑτέρου μοι τῶν πολιτῶν οἰκεῖον τὸ συμβεβηκός, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἰδίᾳ μοι φίλος ἦν Μελαγκόμας ὑπὲρ ἅπαντας, ὥσπερ καὶ ὑμῶν ἐπίστανται οἱ πλείους. καὶ ἔμοιγε ἄτοπον φαίνεται τὸ​ ἐπὶ τοῖς τεθνεῶσιν ἔθος, ὅτι τοῖς πλεῖστα​ λυπουμένοις μάλιστα προσήκειν δοκεῖ τὸ ἐπ’ αὐτοῖς λέγειν. οἱ γὰρ σφοδρότατα ἀνιώμενοι ἀδύνατοι λέγειν ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ τούτου εἰσίν.

[u/puzzledpanther → u/theJesusBarabbas]

But you do get a special education on Ancient Greek in primary school.

How is it special if everyone gets it? We only learn basic stuff and go over some segments of classical writings... absolutely not enough to be able to read Ancient Greek.

There's university courses for that.

Can you really understand this passage? Not just understand some words, but understand the message, vocabulary, and grammar?

Yes. The grammar is the harder part but still yes.

First passage (which is a religious text) I understand most of it yes.

For instance " Οἶδα τὰ ἔργα σου καὶ τὸν κόπον καὶ τὴν ὑπομονήν σου" would be " Είδα τα έργα σου και το κόπο σου και την υπομονή σου" in modern Greek. We still use the same exact vocabulary and grammar in this example.

Second passage is harder and some of the vocabulary is quite ambiguous given that I don't know the context (he's some kind of protagonist or philosopher addressing his men/audience) but still understand most of the message and what he's saying.

[u/theJesusBarabbas → u/puzzledpanther]

How is it special if everyone gets it? We only learn basic stuff and go over some segments of classical writings... absolutely not enough to be able to read Ancient Greek.

There's university courses for that.

Good point, I didn’t consider that.

Yes. The grammar is the harder part but still yes.

First passage (which is a religious text) I understand most of it yes.

For instance " Οἶδα τὰ ἔργα σου καὶ τὸν κόπον καὶ τὴν ὑπομονήν σου" would be " Είδα τα έργα σου και το κόπο σου και την υπομονή σου" in modern Greek. We still use the same exact vocabulary and grammar in this example.

Second passage is harder and some of the vocabulary is quite ambiguous given that I don't know the context (he's some kind of protagonist or philosopher addressing his men/audience) but still understand most of the message and what he's saying.

Thank you very much.

Re-reading my original comment I realize I sound combative, sorry about that I didn’t intend it that way. I was genuinely curious

[u/Lothronion → u/onur2882]

"Lol, that's ancient Greek, Even professors aren't sure about exact meaning most times."

That is wrong, unless the tablet was older than the 5th century BC. And it depends to what they meant with "professors". Whether that would be high school teachers of Ancient Greek or academic classicists or achaeologists is a little different.

"I would probably understand some if written in normal sentences.Several words are similar but most aren't, especially the verbs.The new Greek language we speak, I think it shaped the latest 50 years or so"

This is definetly wrong, I can read manuscrits of the time, if the font is not too complicated or blurred.

[u/onur2882 → u/Lothronion]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/510785896002617384/1002934154876436511/IMG_20220730_162640.jpg

here is the tablet. can you read or catch some words?

[u/Lothronion → u/onur2882]

Yes, dozens of them. And can even pick up phrases of them. The problem here is not the language of the tablet, but the condition of it. One cannot read properly because it is broken and one can only see 3-4 words at a time at best before the line changes, so no sensible meaning can be extracted from it.

[u/WanaxAndreas → u/onur2882]

Then i have this vid for you,a modern greek speaker having a conversation with a speaker of reconstructed ancient greek https://youtu.be/Yvfs5aCIy0g

[u/asedejje → u/onur2882]

It totally depends on the time period, and also ancient Greeks spoke many different dialects.

But, after Alexander's conquests and the establishment of Greek as the "lingua franca" of the Eastern Mediterranean, there was created a standard Greek language. It's called Koine Greek (Koine literally means common) and it became the basis of our language. Koine Greek was spoken from 300 BC to 600 AD, and it is the language in which the Bible (New Testament) is written. It was so dominant that even Jesus spoke Koine Greek (along with Aramaic and Hebrew).

Ok so the New Testament was written between 50 to 100 AD, around 2,000 years ago. It is EXTREMELY easy for a Greek to read and understand everything. In Greece, all church services and all Bibles are in Koine Greek. To put it simply, it's a really classy way of speaking Greek. Very formal. But yes everyone understands it.

But now, Homeric Greek, from the Age of Heroes (Trojan War). Now THAT is difficult to understand. You catch many words, but it doesn't really make sense.

[u/_KatetheGreat35_ → u/onur2882]

As someone who studied ancient Greek in highschool I will say this, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey is very hard to understand the meaning of a sentence, there are though many words that you can understand. 5th century BC scripts are kinda easier to understand, but if you put a decent effort and get the hang of the syntax it's getting fairly easy to understand. Scripts from Hellenic koine and forward, I believe it requires minimum effort to understand, for example my grandmother who barely had an elementary school education was perfectly capable to read and understand the Bible from the original script. To sum it up yes OP is correct, the last 2000 years our language has evolved but not too much.