Greek What\'s The Difference Between Ancient And Modern Greek?

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mabajsas Saturday 14th of October 2006 02:07:55 AM
What\'s the difference between ancient and modern Greek? - Is ancient Greek understandable (readable) to you native speakers? What are the differences? Are they minor, or major?

Thanks in advance
Mathias

Sophie Saturday 14th of October 2006 04:28:23 AM
- I\'ve been taught ancient greek to school, and for me and most of my classmates, is a totally different language. The alphabet is the same and the words used today have their roots in ancient greek, but there are major differences. Also I think ancient greek has a more rigid syntax (but I study physics, so what do I know).
Most people can\'t understand ancient greek. Studying it though, can help you understand why some things in grammar are the way they are. But I think you should better treat ancient and modern greek as two different languages.

Panos Saturday 14th of October 2006 07:47:13 PM
- I think that it depends on the historical period that the language is examined. For example, the language of Homer (in Iliada and Odysseia)in 9-8th centurey B.C. is quite different from the language that gospels are written (in 1st century A.D.). I have been taught ancient greek in the 3 last classes of high school as Sophie mentioned and because i was oriented in science and not in classical studies i was paying not much of attention. So, i can understand quite good the language of the gospel and in some cases the language of 5-4th cent. B.C. (the famous Attic dialect) but i cannot uderstand Homeric language at all (only some words).
The grammar can be characterized better as cosistent,it it is very like the grammar and syntactic rules of German language, it is well structured (and so with a lot of rules).

Jairo_Spain Thursday 01st of March 2007 03:32:40 AM
- I am studying ancien modern in my hight school and I think that the msjor difference is the pronuntation and the rest is similar.
There are also new words but the ancient greek and the modern greek is similar: the decline is the same....

nena77 Thursday 01st of March 2007 08:05:11 PM
- I think ancient Greek is a much more complicated language than modern Greek, epecially in terms of grammar.

As Panos said, it all depends on the historic era we are talking about. But I don\'t think that the major differrence is pronounciation.

Of course, it was pronounced a bit differently. In modern Greek we have clear cut sounds, no long or short vowels and we use the accent above the words only to denote where we should raise our voice. Ancient Greek had long, medium and short-timed vowels, more accents above the words and accent-like marks that denoted even differences in the pronounciation [when compared to a non-accented vowel].

But the main thing is grammar. Ancient Greek had five cases [instead of four in modern Greek]. There were moods, infinitives, modalities, participles etc that do not exist in modern Greek, all with their individual conjugations. Even exceptions had rules!

A hell of a grammar, of course, but it gave the language the highest degree of structure and perfection.

Ivan16 Wednesday 07th of March 2007 12:52:18 AM
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I can\'t pronunciate Ancient Greek, it\'s imposible! :p

Phrasebase Archive
	mabajsas	Saturday 14th of October 2006 02:07:55 AM
	What\'s the difference between ancient and modern Greek? - Is ancient Greek understandable (readable) to you native speakers? What are the differences? Are they minor, or major? Thanks in advance Mathias
	Sophie	Saturday 14th of October 2006 04:28:23 AM
	- I\'ve been taught ancient greek to school, and for me and most of my classmates, is a totally different language. The alphabet is the same and the words used today have their roots in ancient greek, but there are major differences. Also I think ancient greek has a more rigid syntax (but I study physics, so what do I know). Most people can\'t understand ancient greek. Studying it though, can help you understand why some things in grammar are the way they are. But I think you should better treat ancient and modern greek as two different languages.
	Panos	Saturday 14th of October 2006 07:47:13 PM
	- I think that it depends on the historical period that the language is examined. For example, the language of Homer (in Iliada and Odysseia)in 9-8th centurey B.C. is quite different from the language that gospels are written (in 1st century A.D.). I have been taught ancient greek in the 3 last classes of high school as Sophie mentioned and because i was oriented in science and not in classical studies i was paying not much of attention. So, i can understand quite good the language of the gospel and in some cases the language of 5-4th cent. B.C. (the famous Attic dialect) but i cannot uderstand Homeric language at all (only some words). The grammar can be characterized better as cosistent,it it is very like the grammar and syntactic rules of German language, it is well structured (and so with a lot of rules).
	Jairo_Spain	Thursday 01st of March 2007 03:32:40 AM
	- I am studying ancien modern in my hight school and I think that the msjor difference is the pronuntation and the rest is similar. There are also new words but the ancient greek and the modern greek is similar: the decline is the same....
	nena77	Thursday 01st of March 2007 08:05:11 PM
	- I think ancient Greek is a much more complicated language than modern Greek, epecially in terms of grammar. As Panos said, it all depends on the historic era we are talking about. But I don\'t think that the major differrence is pronounciation. Of course, it was pronounced a bit differently. In modern Greek we have clear cut sounds, no long or short vowels and we use the accent above the words only to denote where we should raise our voice. Ancient Greek had long, medium and short-timed vowels, more accents above the words and accent-like marks that denoted even differences in the pronounciation [when compared to a non-accented vowel]. But the main thing is grammar. Ancient Greek had five cases [instead of four in modern Greek]. There were moods, infinitives, modalities, participles etc that do not exist in modern Greek, all with their individual conjugations. Even exceptions had rules! A hell of a grammar, of course, but it gave the language the highest degree of structure and perfection.
	Ivan16	Wednesday 07th of March 2007 12:52:18 AM
	- I can\'t pronunciate Ancient Greek, it\'s imposible! :p