| Introduction |
| Usefulness | Most Greeks (under 60 anyway) can speak at least some English, but often
not enthusiastically. Although you could probably get away with living in
Greece and not speaking the language, it would certainly help. Definitely
a must if you want to discover true Greek life and culture. The modern
language is also a good stepping stone to help you with Ancient Greek. |
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| Chic factor | Greeks are amazed to hear anyone from another country speaking their
language, so very high. You will manage to easily impress nearly every
Greek you come across if you speak it well enough. |
| Countries | Predominantley Greece and most of Cyprus. |
| Speakers | Estimates range from 10.5-12.5 million speakers in total, the vast
majority of which leaving in Greece, Cyprus and communities in Australia
and the US. |
| Travel | Hundreds of Greek islands, millions of historical sites and plenty of
towns and cities to explore. Summer temperatures average 30 degrees and
the beaches are the best in Europe! |
| Variations | Many bewildering dialects which are luckily confined to the spoken
language. |
| Culture | Where to start? Greek culture has changed the shape of the world- it takes
just one glance at Plato's ' Republic" or Homer's "Iliad" to realise that.
Contemporary and traditional Greek music is quite fascinating, with the Sirtaki and the songs of Melina Mercouri. |
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| Difficulties |
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| Difficulty | From an English speaker's point of view, I'd rate this language as being
fairly difficult to learn. So if we were talking on a scale of 1-10, with
1 being the easiest, I'd probably place Modern Greek at about 7 or 8. I'm
sure, in fact I know, there are harder languages to study, but I find
Greek quite crazy at times. Still, it can be a very logical language and
is certainly worth learning if you have the effort or desire. I think the
only people who would find Greek quite easy may be native Russian
speakers, as the language shares vague similarities in its structure. |
| Pronunciation | Once you get past the different alphabet (which isn't hard), the sounds of
Greek aren't very difficult for English speakers. The most difficult
sounds are nothing more than the rolled 'r' and the 'ch' in 'loch'. A few
of the consonant combinations take a bit of getting used to but nothing is
too challenging. |
| Grammar | Despite first appearances, Greek syntax isn't as hard as you may imagine.
There are only 3 cases in modern usage (as well as the rarely used
vocative), 2 of which are often the same. Sentence structure is more free
than in English which can work for or against you. There are some
irregularities with noun declensions and seemingly endless ways to form
plurals but it isn't that hard to get to grips with. Verbs are
significantly harder than in many other languages, mainly due to the sheer
number of irregularities. It has even been said that "there is no such
thing as a regular Greek verb"! Aspect, mood and person are taken into
account and forming the simple past and subjunctive are particularly
tricky. |
| Vocabulary | It works two ways with Greek- some of the vocabulary is as easy as Spanish
or French, whilst most of it tends to be quite bewildering. Links can
sometimes be made with words in other languages but more often than not,
words are long (often 5-8 syllables) and unique to the modern language.
Another daunting point is that the size of Greek vocabulary is huge- we
are talking about one of the oldest languages still in existance, after
all. The language of the Ancient Greeks is still reflected in today's
usage, along side more modern words for the same things. Unfortunately for
learners there are often 2 or more words for everything. |
| Spelling | As far as languages go, quite awful. Although words can only be pronounced
one way, spelling is another matter altogether. It is nigh on impossible
to spell most Greek words right without already knowing its etymology as
there are various ways to spell the same sounds (notably the sound 'ee')
and some consonants are doubled. |
| Time needed | I'd say you'd need at least a good 6 months of consistent learning to
achieve even basic skills in the language. For a language expert or
someone studying the likes of Russian, it may be quicker. I can't imagine
how long it'd take to achieve fluency in the language but I imagine a long
stint in a Greek speaking area would be essential. |
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| Ressources |
| Books | Not very much, unfortunately. There are some good dictionaries available,
but that's more or less it. Other material I've found is in Greek only. |
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| Schools | Again, not very many places offer a course on the modern language. There
are some conversational classes (ie for holiday goers to Greece) but
nothing stretches past that. |
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