English Comes From Greek?! (How much?)
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- čas přidán 4. 04. 2017
- “How did Greek influence English?” This video explores the answer to that question, with lots of examples.
Here's the link to the speeches of Xenophon Zolotas: www.cs.toronto.edu/~themis/ewo...
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Music: Intro and outro courtesy of bensounds.com
Main music: “Thank you RGE” by Joe Bagale.
The main purpose of this video is to show the extent of Greek influence on English, not to give examples of Modern Greek. Note that most English words of Greek origin are not pronounced like they are in Modern Greek, because their pronunciation is usually based on the Erasmian pronunciation of Ancient Greek. Those pronunciations may sound strange to native speakers of Modern Greek.
Also, here are the links to the Xenophon Zolotas speeches: www.cs.toronto.edu/~themis/ewords/zolotas.html
Langfocus You made some slight mistakes but all and all you have one of the best greek pronounciation i have ever heard from a foreigner,it is obvious that you have tried really hard and as a greek i thank you for this
is that the real greek macedonia, or the fake slavic macedonia?
I am a native Greek speaker I come from Greece and as always Paul you did an excellent job . Indeed most of the words make no or liitle sense in terms of pronunciation to a modern Greek but it's because of accent evolution ,although I think a couple of words like "Xenos " were wrongly pronounced in the first place. Anyway keep up the good work. Χαιρετίσματα από την Ελλάδα!!! greetings from Greece
Nice try, but still most of the greek words you are spelling sound more like latin than greek to me, as a native greek speaker. Also I dont think that anyone, like Erasmus, could have known how ancient greeks spelled words since they did not have voice recorders back then, so why not use the modern greek pronunciation?
geokon3 That's a common question for me to why not just adopting the modern Greek pronunciation so that we could all communicate in Greek easily
Greek is a beautiful language. Who agrees?
When the Romans had conquered Greece, they ''gathered fascinated to hear the nightingale songbirds sing'' said a Latin Historian (i don't remember his name right now). He was referring to the Greek rhetors using the Greek language at its finest in the Agoras and the Ecclesies.
Latin Cicero, commenting on Plato's works, said ''If the Gods can speak, they speak in their language'', referring to the language of the Greeks, the Greek language.
William Rhodes your surname is Greek! You probably already know that it's a Greek island in the Aegean. William is definitely not Greek though.
Post translated roughly into Greek: To epitheto sou einai Elliniko! To xereis auto omos oti einai ena nisi sto Aigaio. Oposdipote, William den einai Elliniko omos.
Dimitrios Freedom Yeah I know about the island. I'd love to visit it someday!
linkuei83 What?
εγώ!
I'm not surprised, Greek influenced almost all European languages, not only English lol...around 10% of Spanish vocabulary is also Greek...we use museo, olivos, catástrofe, democracia, parrafos, fotografía, televisión, automóvil, antro, crono, dem, ped (pediatra), bi/bio, geo, dermatología, encefalitis, oftalmología, all your examples are found in Spanish.
We have the same river name, search Ebros/Ebro in Spain and Greece
When you pronounce these, you also sound like Greeks because you have all the sounds like delta theta that other people can't pronounce and spanish has a nice flow like greek and italian.
You must be suprised...All these words came from the greek lagnuege,this is really importand and instresting.If greek languege never exist now we maybe dont even know how to speak!
Spanish is influenced heavily by Arabic though, and Scandinavian countries (as well as Germanic ones) have a lot of pre-European influence in their language. Especially the Scandinavian ones, by Odin's hammer lol
I wish my maternal language: Spanish had more Greek influences, the rest is with arabic words, ewww.
I have an idea, lets replace arabic terms by Greek ones in Spanish! That would make a lot of Prestige!
As a Brazilian I realized how much we've borrowed from Ancient Greek ourselves. Of course it's because the Ancient Romans borrowed from Greek and we're just speaking a vulgar form of Latin, but it's still quite surprising.
Alice In Salt Land the ancient Romans were billingual and the percentage of Latin vs Greek varied by location. The laws of Rome were initially written in Greek as the Latin alphabet didn't exist then. Julius Ceaser's last words according to many sources were in Greek. The word Rome means strength in Greek, the term Colloseum was derived from Collosus the giant protector of the Greek island of Rhodes...the Roman God's were the Greek gods in Latin names , many Ceaser's were Greeks and the Roman Empire for the last 1000 years was a Greek speaking empire that we now refer to as Byzantium
hey alice m from turkey
A a Os dias da semana em português derivam diretamente do latim eclesiástico medieval (secunda feria, tertia feria, quarta feria, etc) justamente para abolir os nomes de deuses pagãos grego romanos.
You're not speaking a vulgar form of Latin; you're speaking a _descendant_ of a vulgar form of Latin. Latin is dead.
@@jackknight5896 u are Greek
Greek words that used every day in the English vocabulary:
energy, android, apology, megabyte, school, music, tune, icon, zoo, metallica, trophy, idol, catalog, polyglot, scorpion, saxophone, poem, stereo, idea, rhythm, gym, cosmopolitan, practice, atlantic, stomach, symptom, fantasy, academy, genesis, giant, philadelphia, telegraph, metropolitan, anatomy, autograph, monologue, geography, organization, alexander, logic, magic, photo, erasmus, chorus, irony, lamp, stephen, encryption, episode, plastic, pathetic, biography, phantom, mystery, psychology, menopause, diet, poet, ego, logic, telepathy, gregory, dialogue, electronic, theodore, metamorphosis, oxygen, paradise, telephone, helicopter, automatic, margaret, platform, theater, idiot, history, harmony, climax, clinic, astronaut, mythology, timothy, pathology, astronomy, economy, galaxy, atmosphere, octopus, aphrodisiac, elephant, practice, galaxy, theory, central, encyclopedia, symbol, magnet, georgia, parody, cosmetic, cosmos, fantastic, trilogy, wiki-pedia, guitar, cinema, mathematics, character, machine, symbol, tragic, tonic, geography, kilogram, all, Christmass, telescope, electric, antique, symphony, ocean, angel, planet, melody, and so on......
Just to name a few....
After 2600 years 70% words remain the same between Greek Homeric and Greek modern. Divergence major are sintactic and grammatic. Homeric poems were written this way , in Ionian-Athenian dialect.
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Start Odysseia - Τext Greek Omeric , 6th cent bc.
1 .ΑΝΔΡΑ ΜΟΙ ΕΝΝΕΠΕ ΜΟΥΣΑ ΠΟΛΥΤΡΟΠΟΝ, ΟΣ ΜΑΛΛΑ ΠΟΛΛΑ ΠΛΑΓΧΘΗ, ΕΠΕΙ ΤΡΟΙΗΣ ΙΕΡΟΝ ΠΤΟΛΙΕΘΡΟΝ ΕΠΕΡΣΕ ΠΟΛΛΩΝ Δ΄ΑΝΘΡΩΠΩΝ ΙΔΕΝ ΑΣΤΕΑ ΚΑΙ ΝΟΩΝ ΕΓΝΩ.
.......................................................................................................................................
Odysseia - Traslasion in modern Greek by Constantinos Doukas 2007.
1.ΑΝΔΡΑΝ ΕΙΠΕ ΜΟΥ ΜΟΥΣΑ ΠΟΛΥΤΡΟΠΟΝ ΠΟΥ ΠΑΡΑ ΠΟΛΥ ΠΛΑΝΗΘΗ,ΤΗΣ ΤΡΟΙΑΣ ΙΕΡΗΝ ΠΟΛΙΝ ΠΟΡΘΗΣΕ,ΠΟΛΛΩΝ Δ'ΑΝΘΡΩΠΩΝ ΕΙΔΕ ΑΣΤΕΑ ΚΑΙ ΝΟΥΝ ΕΓΝΩΡΙΣΕ.
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Start Iliade - Text Greek Omeric 6th cent bc.
2.ΜΗΝΙΝ ΑΕΙΔΕ , ΘΕΑ, ΠΗΛΗΙΑΔΕΩ ΑΧΙΛΗΟΣ ΟΥΛΟΜΕΝΗΝ , Η ΜΥΡΙ΄ ΑΧΑΙΟΙΣ ΑΛΓΕ
ΕΘΗΚΕ,ΠΟΛΛΑΣ Δ΄ΙΦΘΙΜΟΥΣ ΨΥΧΑΣ ΑΙΔΙ ΠΡΟΙΑΨΕΝ , ΗΡΩΩΝ.
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Iliade - Traslasion in modern Greek by Constantinos Doukas 2007.
2 .ΜΗΝΙΝ ΑΔΕ ,ΘΕΑ,ΤΟΥ ΠΗΛΕΙΑΔΟΥ ΑΧΙΛΛΕΩΣ,ΟΛΕΘΡΙΑΝ,ΠΟΥ ΜΥΡΙΑ ΣΤΟΥΣ ΑΧΑΙΟΥΣ ΑΛΓΗ ΕΘΕΣΕ,ΠΟΛΛΕΣ ΓΕΝΝΑΙΕΣ ΨΥΧΕΣ ΣΤΟΝ ΑΔΗ ΕΣΤΕΙΛΕ , ΗΡΩΩΝ.
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Homeric words in Italian language.1 .andro-(ide), epico, musa, tropo-(sfera) , poli-(edro) , iero-(monaco) , antropo-(centrico) , (para)-noia.
2 .mania* , dea , myriade , algia , teca , psyche , Ade , eroe.
* L'ILIADE Begin with the word μῆνιν -(menin) , accusative of μῆνις .Homer, wrote in Ionic dialect . Μῆνις in Doric dialect --> μᾶνις (manis , mania).
you listed several words twice or more (I think practice, is there 3 times) several words with the same root (fantasy and fantastic, cosmos and cosmopolitan) and used a lot of proper nouns, so this specific list is a biiiiiiitttttttt artificially inflated.
also, I doubt even Metallica uses the word (and proper noun that exclusively refers to a rock band) Metallica in their every day speech lol. that one got a big chuckle out of me.
also, "all" has a Germanic root. it's been a part of (what would become) the English language since before the Roman occupation of Britain, so it def didn't come from a Greek root.
@@Evagelopoulos862 You misspelled the Italian words. In Italian we don't use the following letters :
J, K, W, X, Y
We call them "Foreign Letters" because we only use them in loanwords (Yogurt, Xilofono, Water which is not Water but the Toilet Seat or the entire Restroom and several others).
So the words you elencated are actually :
Myriade -> Miriade
Algia and Teca aren't words rather parts of words (Ludoteca, Biblioteca, Paninoteca)
Psyche -> Psiche
@@fanaticofmetal
OK, But your observation don't change the reality , these are Greek words.
You forgot the important one alphabet - alpha beta lol
My favourite word from Greek origin is "School" not because I like schools so much, but rather from the irony that it's original meaning was "free time". As in time to go to learn stuff instead of working in the fields.
Now, we crave free time from school and work.
But modern world tranfsormed the word for freetime into forced time haha
He have a verb in modern greek "σχολάω-scholao", which means exactly that: When someone finished their work or occupation or even school classes (so it's time for free time!). So we may say something that sounds like "I just schooled (from school/work etc)", meaning that daily classes/lessons/activities are over.
sholeion
Schools were not supposed to be like this, govt. ruined it for us.
Unexpected greek word--chair. Comes from old french chaiere, from the latin cathedra, from the greek καθέδρα.
I would have never expected that one, nice!
The chair is at a desk (from δίσκος). On the desk is paper (from πάπυρος).
Sometimes the non-greek derivative is more closely related to the modern greek derivative of the original word, I don't know if it makes sense :P
@Pierre Abbat
Desk is from Δίσκος, but English etymologists often stop their etmologycal citations at Latin Discus.
Desk < Desca (Medieval Latin) < Desco (Italian) < Discus (Latin)
and they stop there without including
"< Diskos (Greek)"
The Italians of course provide the full etymology from Greek.
Any idea on why they do this?
Irish word for chair is cathaoir, obviously from the Greek. Of course the English word cathedral is from the Greek as the Bishop's chair is an essential part of a 'cathedral'.
the language of wisdom!!!!
The world language to end all world languages, period ! Such a dirty shame it's not the case !
Greek, the language of everything for the Spartans it was the language of war, for the Athenians, wisdom, for the Ptolemies, the enlighten language, for the Seleucids, the language of administration for a huge empire, for the Romans and post Roman Europe, a prestige language that it was spoken mostly by the Elite to look snob (Greek Latin were languages spoken by the Elite in the modern world not so long ago) it was also the language of trade (silk road) the official language of the Parthian Empire was also Greek
YES.
We use the same word for wind and air.
@@siderism1062 άνεμος αέρας
I'm italian our language is a mixture of Latin and Greek, also our culture
Una faccia una razza
@@GeorgeTsak in ur dreams
@@Matt-lp1iu lol?
@@Matt-lp1iu It’s a phrase we tell to each other when we met an Italian and the opposite, because of our history. Why so pressed?
Cosimo, it also goes vice versa, there are extremely lots of words in Greek that have Italian origin . Some are international, eg. lasagna,pizza and some others are just shared between Greek And Italian : Scufo, Capelo, Panteloni/a , Cuverta, Fortuna, Cardega/Carecla (this one is not the same but quite similar), Magari/Makari, Macaroni, Faccia/Faza, Calza/e, Adio(goodbye), Petra, porta, pomolo, Cravata, Saloni, Canape, Baño, Bravo, Cusina, Vila, Cazarola, Forza, and many many more everyday words .
Actually Italian is the foreign language that has mostly affected modern greek, way more than what you'd expect , even more than French (Rose, Mauve, Papillon),
Turkish (Capac, Tsanta, Dulap,) and Russian(Kazo).
Some people (not anymore) would even use Italian verbs of movement like avisar (but again it doesn't happen anymore)
Last but not least there are some Italian-root words in Greek but with an entirely different (although similar) meaning (eg. Stringla -> Stringelo , Parla->Parlare, Compania, Custodia, Forma)
A lot of words oddly sound exactly the same but have very different meanings (Eg. "via" it.street, gr.violence)
And the Italian words that are in fact of Greek origin are endless, and are way more in Italian than any other language (Eg . Urlare -> Urliazo , Voglio->Vulome, Scezzo->Shedio , uno->ena, duo->duo(but pronounced as dio),
Italian and Greek are the only 2 languages that form the plural by converting o and a to i and e respectively, instead of just adding s like in English,Spanish etc .
These are some of the words you mentioned but in Spanish: autonomía, museo, oliva, caos, catástrofe, democracia, párrafo, fotografía, xenofobia, televisión, automóvil, sociología, antropología, crónico, pediatra, biología, hiperactivo, microscopio, geografía, antivirus, dermatología, encefalitis, filosofía, etc. I am Spanish, but as a lover of Ancient and Modern Greek culture, i believe Greek should be the actual lingua franca. Φιλάκια. Νατάλια.
Basically we are speaking Greek every day, only that some people don´t know it. I laugh when people say: what´s the point of learning Ancient Greek or Latin? (Meaning they are not spoken anymore). Such a big mistake...
Italian: autonomia, museo, oliva, caos, catastrofe, democrazia, paragrafo, fotografia, xenofobia, televisione, automobile, sociologia, antropologia, cronaca, pediatra, biologia, iperattivo, microscopio, geografia, antivirus, dermatologia, encefalite, filosofia
Yeah it's funny how many of those make sense of well all of them both for the Italian and Spanish ones as an English speaker. Could even manage to read a handful of the Russian ones like xaoc but I only have some partial knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet so couldn't translate the pronunciations of most of those. I did attempt to make sense of it once when I was getting ready to visit Bulgaria but failed to commit it all to memory lol.
Артур Щербин well actually the rus vocabulary is kinda of greek origin since it was created during the byzantine era (10th century) from Κυριλος and Μεθόδιος to complete the process of converting the slavic people to orthodoxy.We Greeks can actually read Russian if we overcome the different letters stuff which again is no big thing since they are not actually different but rather kinda differently written.Thats why our people have many things in common, we are not only of the same faith but have a very VERY long history of good relations.
Portuguese:autonomia, museu, oliva, caos, catástrofe, democracia, parágrafo, fotografia, xenofobia, televisão, automóvel, sociologia, antropologia, crônico, pediatra, biologia, hiperativo, microscópio, geografia, antivírus, dermatologia,encefalite,filosofia
I love greek language. It's on my list of languages to learn. I hope I'll learn it some day
Guillem lm Good luck, Greek is a beautiful language :)
me too greek language is the coolest sounding language i ever heard....not to mention its geological influence....
Malakas0000 is right. Saying you 'hope' that you will do something doesn´t mean it is a sure thing you´ll do. Hoping that something will happen one day is good, but just doing it is far better than this.
So in case you really want to learn this language, I´d recommend you to get your ass up and get a notepad and motivation. Never say you hope or you maybe do it. No, that´s stupid to say, since you will give up easily.
I am greek
I've been learning Greek for around 6 months and I have to say it's not as difficult as people make out, at least I think so :p It's amazing to see all the 'English' words that keep coming up that we've acquired from Greek
The three words that describe the whole european civilazation.Democracy, christianity , europe.And the three of them are greek.
Europa is Europa
Well,Christianity is more like Hebrew but Democracy and Europe are Greek. Like Phylosophy and language.
@@nestororiginal2344 No, he means that 'Christos' is a Greek word. I believe it's a translation of the Hebrew word 'Mashiach', or 'Messiah' as it is written in English.
@@nestororiginal2344 Christianity is Greek but Jesus is Hebrew.
@@gazibizi9504 The new Testament is written in Greek and the old in Hebrew. So Christianity started in Jerusalem because Jesus was born there and the Greeks brought it to Europe . So it is Greek and hebrew
Another sign of a Greek word in English is the "ch" cluster being pronounced as "k" (e.g. school, stomach, etc.)
Oh, good point!
Ch = Χ
So, "schedule" is from Greek in North America but not in Britain? :)
@@ghenulo Because in Britain, historically the word schedule was received through French, and words with ch in French are soft e.g. chateau, champagne. Many words in US English use pronunciations based on the linguistic origin of the word
Yeah but in greek school is pronounced as sholìo so ch is basically h but not soft also stomach in greek is stomáhi but normally it would he stomáchi (ch is a hard h)
Synthesizing logical English phrases by synapsing Greek-based lexical monads harmonically is a Herculean task, but practicable! Massively comical too! :D
Andreas Bampouris I see what you did there
Kudos!
and you used only Greek words to say that in English
Beautiful sentence. Every adjective, verb and noun is a Greek word!
Nice, only thing not Greek is massively
Also many popular names are Greek like: Alexander, Peter, Philipp, Mary, Stephan, Steven, Dennis, Dorothy, Theodor, Melanie, George, Andrew, Margaret, Berenice, Leonid, Leo, Arcadius, Agatha, Theresa, Catherine (Kate), Agnes, Alex, Anastasia, Basil, Nicolas, Chloe, Daphne, Cleopatra, Corinna, Cyril, Darius, Damian, Demetrius, Irene, Erasmus, Eros, Eugene, Thalia, Helen, Jason, Isidora, Cassandra, Melissa, Sebastian, Phoebe, Sophia, Timothy (Tim), Xenia, Zoe...etc...and many more :)
Mary is a Jewish name though, from Hebrew Myriam.
They are indeed Greek, except ''Mary'' which is Hebrew.
Scrotie McBoogerball Most people think it's a Hebrew name but the real origin of the name comes from the island of Crete which is known as Maira. The Philistines (people of Cretan origin) introduced the name to the area and turned into Mariah. Also there are many theories that Virgin Mary was Philistin hence Greek in origin...
Stavros Stavridis Theresa is not Jewish. Is a name of Greek origin Θηρεσια... Google it if you don't believe me...
Our prime-minister is Theresa :-)
CIRCULAR BORROWING - The modern Greek word μπάνιο (banyo) means bath, or bathtub. It is borrowed from Italian bagnio, which descends from Latin balneum, which the Romans borrowed from Greek βαλανειο (balaneyo). And round and round she goes!
That comes from βαλανος.
Wow. Although greek I never noticed that this word was greek! Interesting!!
also asphalt in modern greek is ασφαλτος which comes from italian asfalto which in turn comes from ancient gree ασφαλτος meaning not wrong. Im guessing the italians used this word because the roads were perfect, not wrong but in modern greek it's actually wrong to use the word ασφαλτος to mean that. (there also exists a meme about a popular singer using the quote "ουδεις ασφαλτος" meaning anyone makes mistakes, and people make fun of her for that, little do they know that ασφαλτος actually used to mean that :P)
Also the Greek word Μπόρα (Bora) was borrowed from the Latin Boreo which mend storm coming from the north, but it was borrowed from the Greek Βορέος(Boreos) meaning north wind.
So even Greek was influenced by Greek.
science terminology - thanks greece.
Nugget Lord greece*
Muiz Rahim terninOLOGY
Hellenic
*Phoenicians
@@geesixnine yeah nope
In Greek we say it's all Chinese to me! :)
I really wonder what the Chinese say.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me
Check the variations for different languages :)
@@mlliarm we say it's all alien language to me. I'm not joking.
@anni shi This is so interesting! Thank you! Greetings from Greece.
@Demy Troy το συμπέρασμα αυτό από που το έβγαλες.
(I am Dutch) I never noticed we had so many semi-greek words in Dutch.
The more you know🌠-greetings from greece
That the problem today in most European countries they don't teach yous the truth about the Greeks and how much Greek u speak every day in your life. How beautiful is the Greek philosophy mythology and history and all the achievements of the Greeks.
@TeunGamed Hey Teun. I'm Greek and I speak, write and read in Greek, English and... Dutch😃
Of course there are many, many words from Greek (niet enkel half/semi, maar ook ganse) in the Dutch language. But do you know which "Dutch" word really impresses me? -Bioscoop!!
Because even in Greek we might say "κινηματογράφος" (sounds like: kinimatografos) = Kinisi (moving) + Grafo (write down, register) or just "σινεμά" (cinema) but we could just as easy say: "βιοσκόπειο" (sounds like: Vioskopio), bioscoop = Vios (life) + Skopo (I watch, I observe). I think only in Dutch you'll find this beautiful term that certainly comes from Greek.
Groetten uit Griekenland. Maastricht is mijn favoriete stadt in Nederland😊
@@enastypos4212 Υπέροχο το Maastricht!
And let us not forget that "kimono" comes from the Greek word χειμώνας, meaning "winter."
Very funny
I hope you're joking
He is refering to the movie joke "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"
Which in the funny ways of mixing words and languages said (paraphrasing) you are Millers from μηλο than means apple and we are Portokalos that means orange so we are both fruits and your name is Greek. Millers are really a word coming from Greek because Mill is deriving from Μύλος (mylos
XDDDDDD that reference
I am a native Greek speaker, but not a teacher or linguist. The following phonetics are based on modern Greek as spoken today
Pronounciation legend:
υ,ι,η,ει,οι => ee as in "bee"
ου => οο as in "blue"
αι,ε => eh as in "leg"
χ => h as in "hat" (but rougher. It lies between the Η and Κ in English)
σ, ς => s as in "so"
δ => th as in "the"
γ => between "g" and "wh" (as in "what"). Toughest match.
ο,ω => oh as in "no"
ξ => ks as in "axe"
φ => f as in "fix"
β => v (for vendetta)
αυ => af as in "after"
ευ => ef as in "chef"
θ => th as in "theater" (θέατρο in Greek)
Capitals indicate the accent emphasis
κυριακόν => keeriakOn
αυτονομία => aftonomEEah
μουσείον => moosEEon
ελαία => ehlEHah
χάος => hAos
δημοκρατία => theemokratEEah
γράφω => whrAHfo
ξένος => ksEHnos
φοβία => fovEEah
αυτός => aftOs
λογία => lowhEEah
plethora => πληθώρα => pleethOrah
κοινή => keenEE (previous video)
As others have already said, your pronounciation and accent have flaws, but are nevertheless quite good for a non-native speaker. Purely as a means of contribution, I present the above suggestions which may give you some insight in the world of modern Greek phonetics. I hope you find them useful.
For a long time I have found your videos fascinating to watch. The latest ones about Greek are even more interesting, because rarely have I seen the Greek language described from a foreign linguist's point of view. Your videos also shows us (native speakers) how difficult Greek actually is, which one tends to forget once he/she embraces the language. Thank you and keep up the good work!
You nailed καταστροφή, παράγραφος, Xenofon Zolotas btw
X is a velar fricative, it doesn't make a /h/ sound.
In the 1850 this language was set up by king otto's father
@@julianameszarospereira2934 i dont really get what a velar fricative means in english but just think about the sound a cat makes when she hisses. That "h" is the "χ" we are looking for.
@@julianameszarospereira2934 Your name indicates that you must be a spanish speaker. So, to clarify, "χ" in greek makes exactly the same sound that "j" makes in spanish
edit: I just googled what a velar fricative is and you are right
Who are ancestors of greek
This channel deserves way more subscribers
I wasn't surprised at all by the amount of Greek in English. I studied Latin throughout high school and our teacher really emphasized the impact Latin had on shaping English vocabulary because he thought that would be more relevant to our lives than just telling us to memorize Latin words and translate passages written in Latin. He spent a week or two teaching us some of these Greek morphemes and affixes as well. I can say with absolute certainty that I learned more about English through my Latin classes than I did through my actual English classes.
Excellent comment. As a Greek native, I really used to struggle with English vocabulary (which no matter its origins seems to be huge by the way!), until I had a Latin course in high school (although our own Latin teacher was nothing as close as yours).. The great majority of English teachers (at least here in Greece) don't really seem to have the least idea about meaningful language learning and just guide poor students thought meaningless acquiring of certificates.
Love and Respect to Greece (Al-Yunan) and all Greeks, from your neighbors and brothers in Egypt.
May Zeus bless you and help you with your recent troubles.
Ευχαριστούμε πολύ αδερφέ
Thanks a lot brother
thank you brother ammon ra takes care of you
Thank you neighbor!
@manos tzortzoulakis put your finger in your brain..βαλε το δκτυλο στο μυαλο σου
@manos tzortzoulakis why do you say that?
When I was an undergrad a friend did a course in Classical Greek and got an A in it. She felt it necessary to stop using the phrase "it's all Greek to me".
Cyrillics originally was extended Greek alphabet.
Rei Ranmaru true Greece Which in turn means that the Greek language has influenced latin,Russian,English, we owe a lot of thanks to the Greek people
Pierce Williams glad you like it, friend.
diccus maximus thanks for the reply
Latin alphabet was also influenced by Greek.
Latin alphabet is a sort of simplified Greek alphabet,
As a greek who loves foreign languages, I am always amazed discovering new words of greek origin in other languages. Some words, are pretty obvious, but there are some hidden gems as well. Words like kiss, yahoo,kudos, censor, mix, super, are words with a greek origin but don't seem like greek...
Interesting. Can you tell me the greek origin of these words?
Sakon Ke they are greek words im not going to say the greek origin but search it up if you dont believe him or whatever
One word that comes to mind when i listen Super is (hyper) greek word for overdoing,oversized .
hyper=υπερ, certainly. Super is a word that has similar meaning with hyper, but is it coming from the greek word ''υπερ''? I'll have to search it a little more.
If i remember right greek language enterent guinnes record book about the most rich and accurate language
In Swedish, they are very similar words to English words with Greek roots but they have had a few things changed around:
Biology = Biologi
Physics = Fysik
Democracy = Demokrati
And some are very similar in one form, like Museum = Museum, however they change into museet (The museum) and Museer (Museums) so not exactly the same...
There are loads of others I'm sure as well
It is Hellas, not "grrece". Malaka.
@@user-mu7db7rl5q I guess you signed Malaka as your name at the end of your sentence. There is no other logical explanation.
German and most european languages aswell have almost as much Greek vocabulary as English.
Ah, i think you misunderstood me. Your point is absolutely right. However, i wanted to say that not only English has so many Greek borrowings, most European languages have a similar percentage. You are right with the meaning of my nickname, but it was never meant to mean anything :). Am i right if i assume that your Greek, because im totally a philhellene. I come from Germany.
Actually it's the Latin languages that have more Greek words compared to the others. And English has more in comparison with German or Russian for example because English has a lot of words from French/Latin, thus more Greek words
Yeah, ok, i think youre right. In this way it has more Greek Vocabulare than any non-Romanic languages or Languages near Greek in Europe.
I think numismatic plethora is my new favorite phrase.
Hippopotamus is a good one - ίππος (hippos) meaning horse and ποταμος (potamos) meaning river, so the whole thing is 'river horse'.
A beautiful name for an ugly animal!
The name Philip is short for Philos-Hippos, "Horse-Lover."
The funny thing is that in vn and china language hippopotamus is olso mean river horse , in vn and china hippopotamus pronunciation:河馬 hé ma in china and hà mã in vn , 河(hé ,hà ) mean river and 馬(ma , mã ) mean horse...srr my eng bads...
According to one estimate, more than 150,000 words of English are derived from Greek words. These include technical and scientific terms but also more common words.
I am amazed at the influence Greek has had on English.
I was surprised! I mean, I knew most of them, and I could assume most of them from context clues, but I hadn't really put thought to how many of the words I use on a regular basis are of Greek origin. It was definitely interesting.
basis :)
My main language is Spanish and it was very easy for me to understand the speech, most of those words are oftenly used and that surprised me! I didn't know Spanish has so much Greek becuase I use to think those words were in Latin, thank you Paul for this video, it really made me see new things in my language
Spanish and greek sound very similar to others in terms of phonetics because we pronounce some letters the same way. I'm talking about European spanish not spanish latinos speak, because as I've noticed they have slightly different pronunciation. Anyway, I'm always asked if I'm spanish when I go abroad for the skin tone, because although I'm quite fair for southern European I don't get burns from the sun and have darker skin during the summer, for the way I use my hands when I speak and for the sounds they hear when I speak. I swear I get the same three reasons everytime I'm asking just for fun why they think I'm spanish.
Spanish not only kept all the Greek words, but it's the only ones that pronounce and writing them almost exactly like us. For instance, for "Prototype" the original Greek word is "protOtypo" and you say "prototYpo" ( prototipo / first type/draft ) - I just placed in Capital the syllable that takes the tone.
Ladys and Gents as we see Greece have influence everything, maths,geometry,astronomy,theatre,poetry,linguistic and more a BIG thanks to greece.
My friend is learning Greek and I'm learning Russian. We are having a competition to see who can say "who has put the bread and butter pudding in the cold freezer that we bought in China" first without looking it up
• William • that's very cute!
Ποιος έβαλε την πουτίγκα ψωμιού και βουτύρου στον ψυχρό καταψύκτη που φτιάχτηκε στην Κίνα
Ποιος έχει βάλει το ψωμί και τη βουτυροπουτίγκα στον κρύο καταψύκτη , που αγοράσαμε από την Κίνα.
Great idea lol
Кто положил хлебный пудинг в морозильник, который мы купили в Китае?
Since you asked for additional examples I remember you've done a video on _"diglossia"_ which was first used as a linguistic term by a Greek writer in the 19th century. Also while we're on the topic of language and literature related terms, there is a very large number of words in that category which originate from greek like _glossary, polyglot, grammar, syntax, syllable, phrase, paragraph, calligraphy, stenography, orthography, phonology, philology, etymology, neologism, lexicon/lexical, dialogue, dialect, idiom, metaphor, euphemism, eulogy, aphorism, laconic, epigram, synonym, antonym, homo-nym/phone, metonymy, polysemy, semantic, typo, tonal, diacritic, apostrophe, hyphen, comma, alphabet, character/symbol, ideogram, hieroglyph, poetry, metre, rhyme, lyrics, chorus, hymn, ode, anthem, elegy, rhetoric, polemic, hyperbole, tautology, allegory, oxymoron, anecdote,_ etc. Also some of the linguistic terms that were borrowed from latin like "nominative", "accusative", "adverb", "preposition" etc were in fact latin translations of greek terms. Perhaps you should have mentioned the case of "loan translations" in your video though they're probably not that numerous.
I can list a bunch as well but only related to languages like Polyglot (Many languages) Monolingual (Mono meaning One, Lingual is a Latin word)
And I know some random medical terms like Macroglossia (Big tongue)
ancient greek language is the only language with structure so perfect that can be used for computer programming
As far as I know the language of computer programming is 1 and 0. Please say things that you are certain of . I am Greek and I am proud of the history that I have inherited, however truth should always be said and we must be conscientious or else arrogance will dwell in us.
@@s.papadatos6711 He may not know what he is talking about, but Greek and Chinese are competing as machine learning languages, Greek is winning. Some words in English for example don't make sense and an AI during the machine learning is getting confused. When you teach the Greek language to an AI, it is not getting confused, because everything makes sense. For example, if I were an AI, and I was taught english, my brain would go : Why is this word called this way? Greek and especially ancient Greek is a complete language by itself, english needs latin, greek, celtic , german etc. The future AIs that will talk to you, like droids , will either need to learn every language in the world, or simply , learn Greek. By speaking a complete language we cut a lot of time in the progress. But if you let two advanced AIs, talk to each other, they can invent a language that makes more sense to them than Greek, but you wouldn't understand it. That's why Greek will be the standard AI language in the future.
@@nermainmerl6108 To be honest its the first time I learn that an experiment like this has happened... Is it possible to send me any links ?
AIs learn what you tell them to learn. Snap out of the idea that AI is something out of this world
@@prekreich You have no idea what AI is or machine learning I presume
Loved Xenophon Zolotas' speech! Here's a similar word study exercise from Athenaze, an Ancient Greek course book:
The following passage contains twenty words derived from Greek; list them and explain their derivation and meaning. Then try to rewrite the passage without using these Greek derivations.
"The philosopher in her study can analyse political situations logically; she can propose hypotheses and produce ideal solutions to problems. The politician, however, agonises in the sphere of the practical; she is beset by a recurring cycle of crises, for which the therapy is empirical. Whatever her ideology, in the event, she is guided not by dogma or theoretical analysis but by pragmatic considerations."
I think the whole point is to show how it's pretty much impossible to have any such conversation without Greek, but all languages import loan words from others for new concepts and it's perfectly natural to do so. Anyway, I'd love to see an Anglish version of this text if anyone is up to the challenge!
Haha, that's amazing! I'd love to see some attempts to compete the assignment in fluent English :D
(I think I found all twenty.)
Police is a word of Greek origin, which comes from the word "Πόλις" or "Πολιτεία" which means the city
Your pronunciation of Ancient Greek is flawless! Many Greeks would say you are wrong and that is because the pronunciation of Modern Greek is different in many aspects (e.g diphthongs are now one phoneme -> ai = e, oi = i etc, φ was aspirated p (ph), now it is the same as the English "f" etc). Loved your video. Cheers from a linguist!
Chris Vlasopoulos I finally found a Greek that appreciates the reconstructed pronunciation! People like you are hard to find 😝
I adore it! I wish I could do research on it.
Tho he has mistaken Χχ and Ξξ hasn't he?
Rodrigo de Alencar yes, that's true
Chris Vlasopoulos, do you by any chance live in Athens?
Very interesting. As a native English speaker living in Greece the last 36 years, I have found Greek a most fascinating language and the fact that we use many Greek based words without realizing it is equally fascinating. Of recent discovery was the word “cemetery”. In Greek it’s “kymiteria”. Also recently discovered was the “omega and “Omicron”.
My recent discovery was the word panther. Originated from the greek word "πάνθηρ" (panther)
"παν(pan) + θηρ/θηρευτής (predator) also θήραμα (prey)
So it's the animal that hunts everything else
Not at all surprised to learn of how many English words have Greek origins -- I have a graduate degree in physics, so I spent a large portion of my life spewing pseudo-Greek. I learned enough of the Greek alphabet just from studying graduate math and physics that I can bash my way through some Russian words to this day thanks to the connection between Greek and Cyrillic.
From looking at the Russian word Император, and using my rudimentary knowledge of Greek symbols in math, I was able to figure out that it roughly said "Imperator" which I deduced with my rudimentary knowledge of Latin to mean "Emperor."
My English teacher had once given me a list of English words that were of Greek origin. Among them was the word me from the Greek word 'me' or 'eme'. I thought it very interesting
Wow it's true, it has been right before our eyes and we couldn't see it...until you noticed, thanks ;)
No, it's not "from Greek". The mistake here is that there are two linguistic terms that have been messed up. Loan words are words that come from one language and then another simply copies them. For example: Geography, History, Technology, Mathematics, anthropomorphism, biology, diacritics, dialect, phonetic etc are loan words from Greek to English.
Cognates on the other hand, are words that are similar because they derive from the same word in a common ancestor language. In this case, the common ancestor is ProtoIndoEuropean, a language that linguists think was spoken around 6000-4500BC in what is now Ukraine. From there, those people were the first to tame the horse, and spread very quickly in almost all of Europe and India. That language then split into dialects that over time became separate languages. Pronouns and the verb "to be" are commonly similar in most Indo-European languages. That's why me looks like Greek εμέ. And you're right, it's not only that. He is also related to Greek ἑ, an ancient pronoun in the accusative case, and meant "him". "You" is also related to Greek. You comes from Old English Thou, which is related to French/Latin "Tu". That tu is related (but doesn't derive from!) to Ancient Greek σύ which later became εσύ to resemble εγώ, I in Greek. In fact, in Doric Greek, the dialect of ancient Sparta, you was τύ. The reason why that τ became σ is very simple. Take as an example the English -tion suffix. It is pronounced like s. Same thing happened in ancient Greek.
@@georgios_5342 Oh. I didn't know that. I thought the information was valid because it came from a Greek who has studied the English language. Sorry for spreading misinformation, I guess. And thanks a lot for the clarification!
@@eleonoralydia8884 Yeah it's alright. Just remember that similarities between languages don't always mean that a word was taken from another. Sure to the way languages evolve, one common but very old ancestor language had a few key features, like the pronouns, that because of the small word size, remained more or less similar. More complex words diverged faster. That's a whole different thing from loan words. Another cognate, word from common ancestor language, between Greek and English is the verb "to be". Consider the English forms "am, is" and compare them too ancient Greek "εἰμί, ἐστί".
It has been found from linguistic research that the most ancient suffix of ProtoIndoEuropean is -mi, which existed in approximately 5500BC. This suffix was retained by Greek up until the 15th century, and in the literary language even until the 20th, in verbs such as ἐιμί (to be/exist) ὀλλυμι (to destroy), δείκνυμι (to show), ἴημι (to eject, suspected older form being jίjημι with a lost j letter pronounced y), τίθημι (to place) etc. All those changed in Modern Greek unfortunately. But as many things as Greek may have lost, it still retained many more aspects of PIE than other European languages. For example, a case system. Modern Greek has 4 cases, PIE had 8. Ancient Greek featured 5 cases and dual forms. But, a very ancient thing that has survived is the -mai passive. The -mai inflection has remained even today, and from what I remember is the PIE form for the office voice.
@@eleonoralydia8884 ΚΟΥΤΑΜΑΡΕΣ ΛΕΕΙ Ο ΤΥΠΟΣ.ΔΕΝ ΥΠΑΡΧΕΙ ΙΝΔΟΕΥΡΩΠΑΙΚΗ ΦΥΛΗ-ΓΛΩΣΣΑ.Η ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΓΛΩΣΣΑ ΟΜΙΛΕΙΤΕ ΔΕΚΑΔΕΣ ΧΙΛΙΑΔΕΣ ΧΡΟΝΙΑ ΣΕ ΕΥΡΩΠΗ ΒΟΡΕΙΑ ΑΦΡΙΚΗ ΔΥΤΙΚΗ ΑΣΙΑ.
Music, theatre, cinematography, drama, comedy, tragedy, poetry, academy, philosophy, alphabet, glossary, geometry, mathematics, geology, geography, biology, galaxy, star, planet, gaia (earth), aesthetics, and of course, democracy, monarchy, anarchy, oligarchy, economy, ecology, just to name a few Greek words...
@God Bless The Internet ALSO
Coma is a Greek word meaning “Sleep”.
Γεια σας φίλοι μου από την Ελλάδα 😁😁😁hello my friends from Greece 🇬🇷
Some more examples of prefixes of Greek origin:
pre- / pro- (means "before, in front of"): preorder, prefix, prothesis, ...
meta- (means "after, beyond", often indicating change): metamorphic, metastasis, metabolize, ...
exo- / ex- (means "out, outside"): exterior, exothermic, exotic, ...
mono- (means "only one, single"): monogamy, monocle, monarchy, ...
poly- (means "many"): polyphonic, polyglotism, polyester, ...
peri- (means "around, in a circle"): periscope, perineum, periodic, ...
dia- (means "through"): diaphragm, diagonal, dialect, ...
epi- (means "on, above" or "after"): epilogue, epidermis, epitome, ...
eu- (means "good, positive, easy"): euphoria, euphony, eupepsia, ...
pan- (means "all"): pandemic, pantheon, panorama, ...
ambi- / amphi- (meaning "both" or "around"): ambiguous, amphitheater, amphibious, ...
More often than not, the second root of the English words is also of Greek origin, i.e. many of these words are also modern Greek compound words.
Δεν ξέρω αν είναι όλες, είναι όσες μπόρεσα να σκεφτώ. Αν βρεις άλλες συμπλήρωσε :D
When I was a little child I thought that Greek was the proto language of Most european languages
it is :P
And btw ´´proto´´ (In Greek ''πρώτο''') means ´´first´´ :)
Bary Levi it kinda is
The fact is, not of most european languages only, but is the utero of all languages, of all western civilisation.
Well it is commonly believed that Ancient Greek is the closest recorded language form to the ProtoIndoEuropean language, the common ancestor of most of the European languages
Firstly, I would like to congratulate you for your work; your research is sound. In my opinion, Greek and Latin together are the two most important languages for someone to study and understand all Western European languages and cultures. Especially for Greek, if one studies Greek is able to understand the Slavic languages family tree as well and the respective cultures. If someone has a solid knowledge of Greek and Latin, then this is the way to learn whichever European language, faster than one would ever believed. Let's not forget that understanding a language is understanding a culture as well, and Greek and Latin is the common ground of a self-sattisfying (and not only knowledge) possession.
I spot the big difference between English and Greek on the fact that Greek in its first learning phases is way more complicated than English and while English remains simple on initial or primitive forms of communication, it creates a strong basis on acquiring the learning of the next English language levels. While, if one succeeds to conquer the difficult first-Greek-phase of learning, then he has a solid ground to become proficient in the Greek language very fast. An advantage of the Greek language is that Greek is much more accurate in descriptions, thoughts and ideas, thus, if you are able to speak Greek, then you are probably able to understand some 5-times or more words and meanings than in English or any other language and that's because of the mathematical (let's say) structure of the Greek language mindset. Let's not ignore that the one who has the thoughts, has the words, and the one who has the words, has the thoughts as well. Newton f.i., made all those great observations and discoveries of nature and in physics by converting his English thinking into solely Greek thinking (here is an example of Isaac Newton's notebooks cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-03996/1).
Today the most successful language is English, which is used as the common language worldwidely. That was achieved because of two reasons. 1) The supremacy of the British and the American cultures by managing to spread around the globe their culture and mixing/mingling it back with their own cultures and 2) the multiple levels of technological and sociological advancements. If it wasn't Greek involved in that process (a purely "mathematical" and "sociological" language) to provide the terms and descriptions, then English would have never managed to become that successful and English would have been very limited in thinking and expression. Therefore, for the above mentioned reasons, if a nation or individual wants to be knowledgable and prominent, then it is required that people should have a solid Greek language and cultural knowledge. I believe too, that a nation or an individual cannot go very far in terms of evolution without adopting Greek culture and language as a very important part of their being.
Vasileios Sokalis Most* European languages
Οι λατίνοι πήραν πάρα πολλές λέξεις από τα Ελληνικά και έφτιαξαν το αλφάβητο τους πάνω σε αυτά...
Xenophon Zolotas speech in norwegian and as one can see it is (of course) not only English that makes use of Greek loanwords. As in English, several of the words are not used in ordinary/common speech:
Det er Zevs bannlyselse på vår epoke, for dynamikken i våre økonomier og kjetteri av våre økonomiske metoder, at vi skal pines mellom Scylla av numismatisk mengde og Kharybdis av økonomisk anemi. Det er ikke min idiosynkrasi å være ironisk eller sarkastisk, men min diagnose vil være at politikerne heller er kryptopletoriske. Selv om de empatisk stigmatiserer numismatisk overflod fremkommer det gjennom deres taktikk og praksis. Våre retningslinjer må derfor være basert mer på økonomiske og mindre på politiske kriterier.
Tusen takk!
tusen takk, jeg er Gresk!💕
No I was not surprised by the amount of Greek words in English. It is one of the reasons I want to learn both Ancient and Modern Greek. The Greek word Hectoring as in constantly bothering someone for something. The word is an allusion to the Ancient Greek Epic, The Illiad, where Hector, commander of the Trojan Forces, kept harassing or hectoring the invading Greeks.
Great video. The Greek dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding would approve!
Lol
Mother/Wife: Lainie Kazan You were close. Racist
Father: Michael Constantine
At high-school in Mexico, we learnt greek and latin roots. Roman empire conquest Greece but at the end the greek culture absorbed the roman culture. Both languages, spanish and english borrowed the same words from latin and greek languages as a result spanish and english are very similar, although english has more words than spanish.
Personalmente no creo que el inglés tenga más palabras que el español, todo depende del nivel del español del hispanohablante.
English is a germanic language so it has also german roots in it and also scandinavik roots thanks to Vikings so yeah it has borrowed words from more places. Spanish is just an updated Latin language I believe.
I'm such a geek that I like to play around with Greek and Latin roots, inventing new words just for the fun of it. For example, if a werewolf is a "lycanthrope" (where "lyc-" stems from λύκος, meaning wolf), then a mermaid is a "cetanthrope." The "cet-" is the same as in "cetacean" and stems from κῆτος ("cetos"), the Greek word for whale or large fish. And as mentioned in the video, "anthrop-" stems from ἄνθρωπος (anthropos), which means human being.
I've even written a short joke around one such coinage. It plays on homophony between the coinage and a real English word.
Why are all horses hypocrites? Because a government run by horses would be a hippocracy.
The "-cracy" is the same as in "democracy," which derives ultimately from δῆμος (demos), meaning people, and κράτος (cratos), meaning power or strength. "Hippo-" (ἵππος) means horse, so "hippocracy" means rule by horses, but the most natural English pronunciation of this invented word makes it sound just like "hypocrisy."
LOL, hippocracy, good one!
You remind me of an anecdote/joke in Greek Pontic dialect. I'll try to translate it into English. Once upon a time it was Giorikas (George in Pontic Greek) with his mother, Soumela, talking. Soumela had read in a book about mermaids - mermaid in Greek is Gorgona, from the ancient Greek word 'Gorgo' - and she wanted to know what a mermaid was. So she asked her son, who told her that mermaid used to be half woman, half fish! So, without any interest in what she had heard, like it was the most natural thing, she turned to her son saying: 'Pfff, mermaid! Ne gamíetai, ne tiganíetai!'. Which means: Pfff! Neither you can fry her (as a fish), nor you can have sex with her (as a woman)! I hope it's not improper for your channel, and if it is so, please inform me to remove it!
It's a different word Ancient Greek ἵππος (híppos, “horse”), from Proto-Hellenic *íkkʷos, and hypocrisy =Υποκρισία from hypo- υπό "under" (see hypo-) + middle voice of krinein Κρίνω"judge.
That is some major geekdom you're laying down there, my friend.
I was surprised how much Greek influenced English. All those Greek words I use a lot of the time and really like the way they sound. I have been wanting to learn many great words for speaking about philosophy and important topics. Especially in speeches and writing literature. And many of my favorite words are apparently Greek words! Greek sounds very interesting and I am beyond surprised how much I learned about these words origins and topics I talk about involve these amazing words! Thanks for this great video! :D
As a Greek, the Greek language is unique and interesting but really hard to learn. 👍
its quite long a list with such words (among others) as heuristics, cybernetics, aphasic, ballistic, stalagmite, metropolitan, bishop, eucharist, anorexia, syndrom, cinetic/cinema, axiom, synagogue and your beloved dinosaurs :D needless to say, modern greek has also incorporated many french words, italian and turkish. fascinating world, this of languages, huh?
cheers kiddo :)
Greek used to pronounce musically every word, but it might sound easier to learn modern greek, as most of the southern european languages that used greek over the time lost their musicality. If I'm not mistaken Romans used to envy the way greeks used to speak, so they started to use more musicality which passed to Latin based languages when the Roman Empire spread, but lost because of influences from northern Europeans of the time.
Fan fact: Cyprus and Italy as well as some Greek Islands still maintain that, but apart from Italy, the other two use it when they are speaking in their own greek dialects and not in the official form of modern greek.
“If the violin is the most perfect musical instrument, the Greek language is the violin of the human thought.” Helen Keller
My favourite greek word is "idiot". In English it means someone who doesn't use logic, but in Greek it means a person who only cares about themself.
Great work Paul, as always. Also, I wish to apologise on behalf of the greek folk for those who are whining about the pronounciation, being nationalistic and overly proud of their heritage by stating that they are greek for no reason. We greeks can easily fall for the pride trap and cling to the past, even though we should do our best to honor our long ancestors by following their example, being virtuous and innovative, just like the rest of the western world did. Those ideas are universal. Cheers, scholars and philhellenes!
diccus maximus excellent comment
As a fellow Greek I’m very happy your point was made
One example that stood out to me when visiting Athens was the street signs on building facades with the Greek word for road (odos) and understanding then that English odometer means literally measuring the road.
I was very surprised by some of the examples. On the other hand, I had already studied some of that Greek vocabulary in college. I study phylosophy and it's evidente that there will always be Greek words involved whenever you study phylosophy, no matter in which language. In my case, Portuguese.
4:03 minor correction, the Greek word ξένος is pronounced "ksenos", not "chenos". The first letter is a Ksi (or Xi), pronounced "ks", not a Chi.
One of the more interesting examples of English vocabulary that originates with Greek, and shows how muddled etymologies can get over the eons, is the word "empathogen".
The Greek roots are "pathos", meaning pain or suffering, with the suffix "-gen", meaning create or produce, and the prefix "en-" meaning in or at. The very similar word pathogen means "creator of suffering", and refers to any microorganisms which can cause disease, so you'd assume that empathogen has a similar meaning, especially since it also comes from the fields of medicine and biology. In fact, the meaning is very nearly the precise opposite of pathogen.
Long ago, the prefix and root "en-" and "pathos" were joined in Greek to create the word "empatheia", which means affection or shared suffering. This word was borrowed into English as "empathy", which Wikipedia describes as the "capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within the other person's frame of reference".
Within the last century, a group of psychoactive drugs have been created which heighten that sense of empathy, and which are thought to have potentially significant therapeutic effects for people suffering from various forms of psychological trauma, such as PTSD, in conjunction with other therapies. These drugs are known as "empathogens": drugs which create empathy.
However many of them - notably MDMA (ecstasy) - also create intense feelings of emotional and spiritual pleasure. So an English word with the Greek roots for "create pain" refers to a class of drugs which have the opposite effect: they create pleasure.
Wikpedia is wrong about empatheia(εν=in+πάθος=passion)means in greek to have bad feelings for someone, empathy means the same in english.On the other hand συ(ν)μπάθεια means to feel for another person,sympathy means the same in english
Hey man, thanks for showcasing Zolotas' speech! It makes for a great example, and not many people are aware of that speech, even in Greece. My favorite part is when he finishes his speech by saying "I apologize for having tyrranized you with my Hellenic phraseology"
Loved the vid!! I am greek/spanish bilingual and it is easy for me to identify how greek has influenced other languages as i grew up with greek and spanish. it was so exciting to hear and read the text you analyzed as it was as you were speaking in greek. I felt that the jump from greek to that greek style english text is similar to the jump from ancient greek to modern. Love your vids and they are always very accurate!
In Dutch we have the word 'morosoof' from the roots Μωρία 'folly' and Σοφία 'wisdom'. It basically means crackpot. Someone who is so deeply involved in his own absurd theory, he's the only expert in it. The word is a neologism from 2001 in the Dutch language invented by Matthijs van Boxsel in his book De Encyclopedie van de Domheid, but its use does spread. The Dutch purist term would be 'waangeleerde' ('fallacy expert').
are you sure it's a "neologism" and not simply borrowed because μωρόσοφος and μωροσοφία also exist in greek
www.google.com/search?q=%CE%BC%CF%89%CF%81%CF%8C%CF%83%CE%BF%CF%86%CE%BF%CF%82
Ah, they do? I didn't know. I do know about the word sophomore though, which is used for second year students in English.
I also found this:
"Late 17th century; earliest use found in Thomas Urquhart (1611-1660), author and translator. From Middle French morosophe wise fool (Rabelais, 1546) from post-classical Latin morosophus wise fool from Hellenistic Greek μωρόσοϕος foolishly wise, wise fool (2nd cent. a.d.) from ancient Greek μωρός foolish + σοϕός wise. Cf earlier morosophist."
Matthijs van Boxsel just knew his classics and educated the Dutch some more. ;)
chemisch ,electrisch ,politiek ,economie
electrisch ,automatisch ,bom,democratie,organisatie, camera , foto bioscoop ,cirkel systeem ,machine ,plastic metaal ,school , bibliotheek, energie kaart ,fruit ,sterren idee ,theorie ,system ,opleiding stadium ,bal , cirkel , telefoon televisie bioscoop muziek, kaart ritme citroen salade theater ,ocean apotheek lamp leeuw alligator olifant soep biologie technologie bibliothecaris geographie gymnastiekzaal allergisch programmeur. politie Chemie
engel demon
hematologie
kliniek
skelet
crisis zone europe
dermatologie amnestie
academie
klimaat halo basis boulimia harp gen
diagnostisch
Grammatica dolfijn elastisch
drastisch
dieet dynamisch
epidemie
dialoog
icoon ego
euforie helikopter enzym
zefier zygoot
ethiek
heliocentrisch hemera
hegemonie thema
troon
magnetisch atheïsme lexicon dialekt dilemma
methode martelaar
marmeren nostalgisch nectar nautica
xenofobie xylofoon optic organiseren horizontaal
Octopus
oester
parasiet patriot
pool piraat
retoriek
rapsode reumatiek
schema tropisch trofee type hymne hypnose hygiëne hyper profeet
fantasie
fonetisch fobie chaos
koor psychologie
psalm
pseudoniem
horoscoop
uur
gitaar
idioom idioot
hiërarchie
logica
hiëroglief centrum
atletisch
barbaar
cardiologie dinosaurus AND MANY MORE RE GREEK!!
Bernharde Also in greek there is an other word which means the same and it is oxymoron(οξύμωρον) from oxy(οξύ) which means clever and from moron which means baby. It can't be and baby(so no mind) and clever.
Οξύ is not clever. When in front of a word it gives the idea of more in a way... of sharp or caustic can't explain it correct in English.
But I can give example :
Οξυγόνο = οξύ + γόνο , means the one that generates life expansively
Oxygen
Gen > generation > genomes etc
Ι σςιτψηεδ μυ κευβοαρδ το γρεεκ, λολ! ¨Δ
I switched my keyboard to greek, lol! :D
λολ, γρεατ!
Χαχαχα καλό
You did get one word..
😂😂
And what did you learn?
Honestly, this is my favorite video so far. I honestly did not realize how much of what I would call "normal English" is just straight up Greek. You blew my mind.
You have converted me to the "english is a hybrid language" school of thought that you spoke of in your German video, which I admit I was initially opposed to, but now I am a little proud of. I feel like English being adopted as a "world language" is rather fitting now.
Knowing Greek and latin radicals, suffixes and prefixes help a lot when studying and when one new world is found. I only learnt Taxonomy( A word that comes from greek words for order and administration) thanks to my previous knowledge of greek for example Chilopodas(Thousand feet), Osteichtys(Fish of bones) and Condroicthys(Fish of gristle) and even economics(The administration of the house) and ecology(the study of the house)
not ecology (for nature) but economy / οικονομία (for the house)
What people seem not to understand is that Greek influence on English does not end with direct words, like geography, grammar, catastrophe etc. There are greek words that have been processed through Latin, medivial English and more, for example: flower
Για αυτό εφευρέθηκε η ινδοευρωπαική μπούρδα για να μπορέσουν να κρύψουν αυτήν την τεράστια επίδραση, ώστε τις κοινές λέξεις μεταξύ Ελληνικής και άλλων γλωσσών να τις αποδώσουν σε ένα φανταστικό λαό που υποτίθεται προηγείτο όλων των άλλων άρα και των Ελλήνων.
An important hormone in the human body has both a Latin name and a Greek name, with parallel etymologies.
When produced naturally in the body, “adrenaline” is from Latin “ad-“ meaning toward or atop, “ren” meaning kidney, the adjectival suffix “-al,” and the chemical suffix “-ine.”
When made into a medicine and then injected by a physician, “epinephrine” is from the Greek “epi-“ meaning atop, “nephro” meaning kidney, and the chemical suffix “-ine.”
Adrenaline and epinephrine are the exact same compound, and both words literally mean “hormone from a gland on top of a kidney.” Apparently the drug industry wanted to distinguish their product from the naturally made hormone.
This must be the best video about this subject that I have ever seen. Euge(well done) for your research Langfocus!
Amazing vídeo, amazing channel, amazing lesson!
“Everyone has to learn Greek, because it is through Greek that one can understand one’s own language.” Jacqueline de Romilly
Excellent video. You may also comment names that have Greek origin as Philip (horse loving) Alexander , George ( earthworker), Andrew etc.
Awesome video! Been waiting for something like this. Keep em coming Paul!
"Idiot" is also Greek, applied to those without any concern in politics. The average voter today...
Ιδιωτεύειν , (Idiotevein) = Only concerned on him/herself not only politics but the society problems.
Wow, almost 300k subscribers, I remember when you only had 50k! Keep up the good work!
Thanks! I appreciate it!
Thank you for such a brilliant video, Paul :)
I've been looking forward to this one for quite some time.
Cool stuff. Probably my favourite of your videos to date. As someone who's just begun studying the sciences, I find it can help quite a lot knowing some Greek meanings when trying to remember what a particular scientific term means.
Whoa, another video about Greek?! Thank you so much, Paul! :)
You've been uploading a lot of content lately. I am very satisfied.
Fascinating video about my native language! Thanks for the added language terminology as I sometimes struggle to explain certain rules to English speaking friends. I love your videos, you would be an incredibly interesting person to hold a conversation with. Keep up the great work! 🇬🇷
Awesome, how does understanding the languages profoundly can actually be helpful! Thank you for your research and work, Paul. Amazing content.
Greece has a lot of philosophers.
Here's another example: Pi (π) is a Greek letter. It's also a number approximately equal to 3.14159.
Wow you did so much work for this video. Thanks for it Lang
Very good video Paul! I'm watching all your videos, continue the good work!
According to the Oxford University between 17-19% of all words in the Oxford Concise Dictionary are direct Greek words. That's not including the Latin entries that were also of Hellenic origin.
That sounds about right when you think about it. The most often used words like "you, them, where, why, yes, go, and" etc aren't Greek, but they make up only a fraction of the words in the dictionary, but a high percentage of usage. There's bucketloads of Greek words that are in English but many of them not used frequently. He covered that in the video, I now properly understand what he meant: Type frequency vs Token frequency.
Moon - also comes from the ancient word "Μήνη" (Σελήνη) (mini) which means moon in greek. Ορφικά κίμενα: "Σελήνη οι θεοί την ονομάζουν, ενώ οι άνθρωποι Μήνη".
Orphic hymns: "The gods call her Selini and the humans Mini". Εξ ου και η λέξη μήνας από τη Μήνη. Hence the word month from Moon. (I think)
If nothing else, the name Celine is from 'moon'. People think it's French but that's its origin.
Some special things about the Greek / Ελληνικά language.
The many ee's (η, ι, υ, οι, ει)
Many people think that the Greeks wanted to be tortured and so they put five different "ee" in the alphabet.
So this question is an opportunity to clarify a few things about the Greek language, the alphabet and the many ... "ee's".
The Greek language was created and codified over thousands of years of observing nature and human activity and slowly each word gives the exact meaning of the object or ideal (the signifier is related to what is pointed out and not random words that will be called everything). This development, when it came time to move on to the written record - and after the first attempts at representations, followed the rules of spoken language. Thus were discovered the forms of letters that could reproduce everything around us in the best possible way. No letter is random and of course none comes from a different language. How could that be?
When we open our mouths, we hear A (the letter shows above, the man looks up). B(V-eng), as one can easily see, represents the blast, the sound of B(V) > BBBB (VVVVouou), so the Βορρέας > North (cold wind) is written with B(V). The exact same rule applies to all letters, but that's not the point here.
The reason for the participation of more than one letter with the same phonetics was the need to illustrate various forms of things, which were not distinguished by oral speech. E.g. "Υδρία-(H)YDRIA - Υγρόν-(H)YGRON - Κύλιξ-KYLIX" etc.
These words could not be better defined than with the "Y-υ" scheme, showing a cavity (water accumulates in cavities). It is difficult and complicated to explain the existence of "H-n". Plato says that they used it for the grandeur of words, but that was not all. "H" is two "I's" joined together (I-I), which means a heavier
and more emphatic pronunciation of ee, for serious things (Ήλιος-Sun - Ήθος-Moral - Ήρα-Hera - Ηφαίστιο-Volcano) etc.
"I-i" says Plato in Kratylos, is used to express the "thin (Ιστίο-tissue) - thin - weak or for intelligence
(Ιδέα-Ιdea, which passes like an arrow from the mind).
The double "ει" and "οι" were created to represent the long "ee" that existed in the spoken language and
acquired spelling rules that we cannot analyze here. "οι" is always used in the suffixes of the masculine
plural and in words that are related to something that surrounds us or that are related to human activity,
eg. (οίνος-wine, οίκος-house, οίδα-I know, ο οποίος-which, (here "o" means the circle in which we act).
"Ει" is a long "ee" and combines "ε" and "ι" because "ε" has a close phonetic relationship with "ι-ee".
The "Ο-o" and the "Ω-ω" differ for the same reasons. The omega is a long o (oo), it always enters the endings of the verbs and the endings of the plural of all things or gernes e.g. (των ανθρώπων-of men, των παιδιών-of the children, των πόλεων-of the cities, των σκύλων-of the dogs, etc).
The "ο=circle" in everything that bothers us and is related to property, energy, etc. (κόσμος-world,
πόλεμος-war, τόπος-place, δρόμος-road, έξοδος-exit and so much more).
In closing, I will repeat that every letter and especially the many "ee" have to do with the root of each
word, so that we can understand what we are talking about to the one who reads us.
Great channel. Good job Paul !
Great video as always Paul.
I will be very honest with all you guys. I have studied Greek to some extent but I don't understand it or speak it well very much. But I do have some knowledge of it and to be honest I am actually surprised at just how many words of English is of Greek origin and how they entered and influenced English and I am also surprised and the huge amounts of words that are Greek in origin that appears in the sciences, Technology and Medicine.
Keep up the good work.
I was really mindblown when I realised that English words of Greek origin that start with an h- , their Greek counterpart starts with a rough breathing (δασεία) on the first vowel.
Examples: hypotenuse (ὑποτείνουσα), hyper (ὑπέρ), Heraclitus (Ἡράκλειτος), Helios (Ἥλιος). And so on.
Keep it up, and thank you so much !
They are also the remnant of a consonant loss, the consonant very often being s. hyper and super are the same word with super being the more ancient form. And Hel-ios was originally Sel-ios which corresponds to English sol-ar etc
I didn't know about that, thanks. Something relevant: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/s%C3%B3h%E2%82%82wl%CC%A5
What a great video!
You've earned yourself a subscriber!
Wonderful video. It's first time who someone refers the two speeches from Zolota. Bravo.
Also, usually words starting with "para" are most likely greek, or of greek origin. "Paragraph", "paralel", "paradise", "parasite", "parameter", all these are almost exactly the same with their greek versions. "Para" is a preposition that means something like "next to".
Συμφωνώ, εκτός από τον παράδεισο που ενώ φαίνεται Ελληνική είναι Περσική λέξη
@@andrem1403 Απίστευτη έκπληξη, δεν το γνώριζα και δε θα το φανταζόμουν ποτέ!!
@@opterios Εάν προσέξεις είναι η μόνη λέξη από αυτές που ανέφερες που δεν ετυμολογείται
Nope I was not surprised. I study dinosaurs lol.
Awesome! I used to dream of doing that job until I realized I had to be really smart to be able to do it. :)
Langfocus I'm not that smart I'm just passionate about dinosaurs. I suffer through the tough stuff until I get where I wanna be.
we all dreamt of that at some point in our lives...
ow yes I was surprised! the example you gave at the last part is amazing!
I've studied latin and ancient greek in uni, and i can say you did great job! It was interesting to watch :)