LESSON TRANSCRIPT

Absolute Beginner Questions

Answered by Stefania #25
Can I Understand Ancient Greek
if I Learn Modern Greek?

CONTENTS
2 Intro
2 The Question
2 Explanation
4 Outro

# 25
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INTRO

Hi, everybody! Stefania here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of
your most common Greek questions.

THE QUESTION

The question for this lesson is “Can I understand Ancient Greek if I learn Modern
Greek?”

EXPLANATION

"Ancient Greek" is a very general term for all the different forms of Greek that existed
before Modern and Medieval Greek. Archaic and Classical Greek with their many
dialects, such as Attic, Doric, Ionic, and Aeolic among others, are Ancient Greek as well
as Koine Greek, the common language of the Byzantine Empire.

The gap between these forms of Ancient Greek and today's Modern Greek, officially
called Demotic Greek, grows or becomes smaller depending on the era and dialect.
The older the Greek, the more different it is from Modern Greek.

You might be wondering "How different is Ancient Greek from Modern Greek?"

Well, although the alphabet hasn't changed much since the Classical Period, the
grammar and accentuation system have been simplified today. Apart from the active
and the passive voice, there used to be a middle voice, as well as a dative case along
with the nominative, genitive, accusative, and vocative case. Ancient Greek uses
infinitives in a way that Modern Greek doesn't. The optative verb mood as well as
some diacritics didn't survive and there used to be an extra number called "dual"
apart from the singular and the plural. Many words of course have changed, as well
as the endings of inflected words and the formation of tenses and other verb forms.

Here are some examples.

Το «ὕδωρ » σηµαίνει « νερό» στα αρχαία ελληνικά. (To "ídor" siméni "neró" sta arhéa
eliniká.)

GREEKPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY STEFANIA #25 - CAN I UNDERSTAND ANCIENT GREEK IF I LEARN 2
MODERN GREEK?
"Ὕδωρ means ‘water’ in Ancient Greek."

Το « πῦρ » σηµαίνει « φωτιά» στα αρχαία ελληνικά. (To "pir" siméni "fotiá" sta arhéa
eliniká.)

"Πῦρ means ‘fire’ in Ancient Greek."

So now you might be wondering if a native Greek speaker understands any Ancient
Greek at all.

Depending on the era and dialect, Ancient Greek might be totally incomprehensible
even to a native Greek, like the Archaic Greek in the works of Homer, also called
Homeric Greek, or somewhat comprehensible, like the Koine Greek of the New
Testament.

Actually, many people ask me if studying Modern Greek will help them understand
the New Testament. Koine Greek is not that far from Modern Greek. Most educated
Greeks would probably understand a large part of it because of the language feel
and instinct, also because ancient Greek is taught in high schools and there are still
relics of it in Modern Greek. Nonetheless, a translation is always required and there
are always many high school students who really struggle and end up going to cram
schools to keep up.

Here are some more examples.

Ο Όµηρος αναφέρεται στη θάλασσα ως «ἅλς». (O Ómiros anaférete sti thásasa os

"als." )

"Homer refers to the sea as ἅλς."

Δόξα τω Θεώ τα κατάφερα! (Dóxa to Theó ta katáfera!)

"Thank God I made it!"

A native Greek speaker who has never studied ancient Greek would struggle
understanding it and would misinterpret even texts in the somewhat more familiar
Koine Greek.

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MODERN GREEK?
A non-native who is just studying Modern Greek would recognize a few familiar
words here and there, but overall, a piece of ancient Greek text wouldn't make much
if any sense, unless his or her fluency is near-native level.

To give you an idea, at first sight the gap between Homeric Greek and Modern Greek
is probably near as great as the gap between Old English and Modern English, while
the gap between Koine Greek and Modern Greek is probably similar to the gap
between Middle English and Modern English, with Classical Greek being somewhere
in between.

Here are some sample sentences.

Η κοινή φράση « τοις µετρητοίς» είναι σε πτώση δοτική . (I kiní frási "tis metritís" íne
se ptósi dotikí.)

"The common phrase τοις µετρητοίς ("cash") is in the dative case."

« Ε ὖ ζ ῆν» σηµαίνει το να ζεις καλά. ("Ef zin" siméni to na zis kalá.)

"Ε ὖ ζ ῆν means ‘to live well.’"

Coming back to the initial question,

"Can I understand Ancient Greek if I learn Modern Greek?"

My answer would have to be "Not really."

So my advice is to focus on whatever Greek you need to know, either ancient or

modern, without any expectation that by learning one you will easily understand the
other.

OUTRO

How was the lesson? Pretty interesting, right?

Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to

GREEKPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY STEFANIA #25 - CAN I UNDERSTAND ANCIENT GREEK IF I LEARN 4
MODERN GREEK?
answer them!

Γεια χαρά! (Ya hará!)

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MODERN GREEK?