Greek discussions directory
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Hello everybody in the lovely duolingo community!!!! Here's a list with all the discussions which may be helpful for anyone who learns Greek or tries to discover the Greek culture and history!!!
Introduction
Culture
Greek lessons
Resources
Immersion (FR -> EN)
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For the alphabet, see also this discussion, made by danaie
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Also, you can see this discussion about the letter ι, made by danaie
Competitions
26 Comments
Very good work! I always thought that the way the language changed through time is very interesting, especially the distinction in modern times between καθαρεύουσα and δημοτική. It might be important for new learners to know that some texts, especially older ones (I believe before the 80s) are written in a different system and with different vocabulary, which confused me at the beginning. I thought it was ancient Greek because of the many accent tones whereas the Modern Standard Greek only has one.
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Don't get upset! An average Greek person can't read a document which was written before 1700-1800!!! Now we study texts of the revolution of 1821 at school and I can't say that I can understand them comfortably!!! :)
And yet it is so exciting for me, with my limited Modern Greek knowledge and non-existent Ancient Greek knowledge, to be able to understand just a few words in an ancient text and try hard to decipher it!
I want to clarify that the fact that a text is polytonic doesn't mean it's καθαρεύουσα. There are many texts before the 80s that are be simply polytonic δημοτική, those are perfectly readable because it's just a different orthography. Though I wouldn't use them as learning material for a beginner.
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Both δημοτική and καθαρεύουσα were used in Greece for same decades, while there were some mixed writing systems...So it's very difficult to distinguish...
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In Greece, Cyprus (although it's a bit different there, an average Greek person can hardly understand what a guy from Cyprus says, but it's considered as Greek too), and in the Greek minorities, which are expanded all over the world!!! The most known Greek communities are in the USA, Australia, Germany, Albania and Turkey but there are Greek people everywhere because many people immigrated from Greece in the 20th century and as Greece is in the centre of the worldwide financial crisis of the years 2010, many young Greek people immigrate abroad to find a job. You can also find Greek people in the UK, Ireland, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Slovakia (Greek students go there for cheaper university studies), Romania, Bulgaria, Sweden, Russia, New Zealand, Canada, Argentina, EVERYWHERE!!! If you type on google "Greeks in ...." and the place where you live, you'll see the site of the Greek community of your region. :)
Its an official language in Greece and Cyprus (though the average greek has trouble understanding cypriot greek due to the fact that they have a different accent and intonation).
Anywhere where there are greek immigrants there will be greek spoken, because we love our language and cannot bear to forget it.
Have you ever thought about applying for the Greek for English speakers incubator project?
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I've applied three times for that, but I haven't received a reply yet. :(
Great Job! Is there anyway we could co-operate and create these things at twice the speed?
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Yes, of course! I'd be so glad to cooperate with you! I think we had talked in the past, so we know each other. :)
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Greek and French too!!!
- https://www.duolingo.com/comment/5838681 (for Greek)
- https://www.duolingo.com/comment/5840156 (for French)
:)
Fantastic lessons! I'm curious; I took a year-long course in Ancient Greek last year; how different is Ancient Greek to modern Greek? Will my knowledge in Ancient Greek help me in any other way than simply knowing the alphabet already?
Ancient Greek will not help with the basics (except the ability to read) but later on it becomes very helpful with spellings and verb conjugations since many of them seem to come out of nowhere in SMG, but they do reflect on ancient greek. Having that background knowlege may help at that level
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I don't want to disappoint you, but no. It won't help you much. Ancient Greek is the form of Greek spoken in Greece about 3,000 years before. Since then, the language has changed dramatically... The only thing where may ancient Greek be useful is spelling. If your level in ancient Greek is very good, then you'' probably can guess how some Greek words are spelled, but this will be done instinctively and it will take many years to be able to do that, not to mention that your ancient must be in a very high level and your modern Greek must be also in a high level... Also, you must be careful, because you may get confused with modern Greek. The alphabet is the same in modern and ancient Greek but most letters were pronounced in another way then! Also, the accent system was very different! So, you have to start modern Greek from the beginning, ancient Greek won't help you at all, at least in the basics. :)
Thank you so much!! I've been trying to use the reverse course to learn some basic Greek, but finding this discussion will help me so much to be better able to navigate my way through this. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this lessons! I've always been interested in ancient Greek mythology and maybe next year I'll have to study some Ancient Greek. Now I'm focused on learning English and French but maybe in a few years I'll try to learn Modern Greek, it sounds interesting!
Hi! I'm just wondering if the Greek course on duolingo has any speaking activities like other languages do! I have been trialling the app before I introduce it to my students and so far I haven't encountered any which I thought was unusual! ! Thanks!
