greek language, a slavic language?

JR   Mon Aug 14, 2006 1:17 am GMT
I haven't had a lot of exposure with the Greek language, but it sounded more Romance to me than Slavic. Slavic langauges tend to have alot of 'sh'/'zh' sounds, that I did not hear in Greek.
Guest   Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:23 am GMT
I thought Greek was a branch of Latin due to the earlier interactions between the Romans and the Greeks.
Aldvs   Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:36 am GMT
Greek, is actually similar to 'castilian' spanish in the phonological sense.
a.p.a.m.   Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:44 pm GMT
Greeks are not Slavs linguistically nor genetically. The Greek language is in a class of its own, it has no relatives. The Greeks are not Slavs in a racial/genetic sense either. I'm sure there was some Slavic penetration into Greece in the early Middle Ages, as Brennus said. The Greeks share a great deal of genetics with Italians. In fact, there's a popular Italian saying regarding Greeks and Italians. The saying is "Una faccia, una razza". One face, one race.
a.p.a.m.   Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:37 pm GMT
Brennus, in addition to that, what about the original, pre-Indo-European inhabitants of Ancient Greece and Ancient Italy. It is my contention that the original peoples of both those countries are basically the same pan-Mediterranean people. The people that long pre-dated the Latins, Romans, Hellenes, Celts and Etruscans. What do you think?
Sander   Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:46 pm GMT
>>The Greek language is in a class of its own, it has no relatives.<<

Last time I checked it was Indo-European.
Aldvs   Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:58 pm GMT
Scholars and Historians often exclaim, that Greek culture/language is the cradle of western civilization and the ancestor or mother tongue of many presence day (western/eastern) languages. So in that sense, it is an language of it's own.
a.p.a.m.   Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:05 pm GMT
The Greek language, within the Indo-European language group, is in a classification of its own. It has no "sister" languages the way French has "sister" Romance languages.
alex   Mon Aug 14, 2006 11:02 pm GMT
An American scientist, after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe,devided the world in five parts and declared that Greece, its people,language and culture in general, belongs to the slavic-orthodox one.I' m sorry but can't remember his name.
JR   Mon Aug 14, 2006 11:19 pm GMT
Sorry, Alex. But you are misinformed. Isn't Georgero your real name? Your grammar is what really makes me and perhaps others speculate that.
alex   Mon Aug 14, 2006 11:30 pm GMT
I' m not Georgero.What' s wrong with my grammar?
LAA   Tue Aug 15, 2006 4:59 am GMT
Ignorant baboons might mistakenly believe that the Greeks are Slavs, simply because they are in Eastern Europe, and are of the Orthodox faith. They should learn that it was the Greeks which transferred this religion and an adapted form of their alphabet to the Slavic world, and not the other way around, just as the Latins did for the Germanic peoples.

The Greeks are a Hellenic people, in a class of their own, just as Apam said. Greek is in its own branch of the Indo-European tree, and I would say its culture is unique. Greek culture, customs, etc, has a lot of near eastern influence due to its close proximity with the eastern mediterranean and Muslim world. Yet, it is still a European country with a southern European culture. Yet, it is part of eastern Europe, and thus different from western mediterranean cultures like that of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, which are of the Latin branch.

Genetically, the Greeks are a "Southern European/Mediterranean" ethnic group, and in no way are they Slavic, with the exception of a slight genetic influence amounting to no more than 5-10% of Greek ancestry. They are closely related to the peoples of southern Italy, and Sicily, as they founded several colonies in this area, and thus, were the ancestors of large parts of these populations. A great deal of western European culture stems from Ancienct Greece, as the Romans adopted much from the Greeks in ways of culture, art, architecture, language, mannerisms, dress, religion, etc, which they than transferred to peoples which they counquered, or whom their latter civilization influenced by means of cultural contact with the northern peoples and via the Roman Catholic Church.
greg   Tue Aug 15, 2006 6:55 am GMT
LAA : « Yet, it [LA GRÈCE] is still a European country (...) ».

Quelle découverte ! Tu postules pour le prix Nobel de géographie ?
JR   Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:24 am GMT
Quid cogitas? Debemus iram vitare. Nihil est vero. Credo quid veritas sta in universitas et magisteribum.
Magna cum Laude universit   Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:30 am GMT
vestras respostas non habent veracitate! Brennus est solus cum mentis compos per scribere bonae respostas per vos!