It all started in 1599 when Shakespeare introduced it in his play Julius Caesar, in which the speech by Seneca is intentionally given in Greek. Why? So that very few could understand the true meaning of it. The Shakespearean phrase ‘it was Greek to me’ was therefore used literally rather than metaphorically. In other words, it did not refer to the difficulty of the Greek language but rather to the fact that another language which the audience was not aware of was used in the play. So why when people use its later version ‘It’s all Greek to me’ mean that something is very difficult to comprehend and therefore imply that the Greek language is very difficult too?

But let’s see first of all how easy the English language is. Is it as easy as claimed? Prepositional expressions, phonetic varieties, phrasal verbs and appropriate syntax order are some of the problems that non-native speakers of English have to face. All these ‘fancy’ words refer to concepts one uses everyday without any difficulty. For example (prepositional phrase), people (phonetic variety, in terms of the way the word ‘people’ is pronounced in English) all around the world try to give up (phrasal verb) smoking (syntax order, i.e. the way we put words one after another to make a comprehensible sentence). After the illustration of these ‘fancy’ linguistic terms with real examples, it seems as though they are not that difficult to understand after all. This is how one can make false assumptions about foreign languages and language use in particular.

Before we analyse the Greek language to see whether it is difficult or not, we need to understand how a language works. Languages came out of the need of human beings for better and deeper communication. If we tried to define what language is in general, we need to take into account everything its use achieves, as Brown (2000) claims. Language is not just one thing since it is used systematically to respond to a list of both simple and more complicated communicative activities. It uses symbols, both visual and vocal, depends on culture to build up its vocabulary, applies various rules to put words together in order to produce the necessary meanings through the use of grammar and syntax and, finally, in order to make sense, it depends heavily on human beings’ underlying world knowledge and specific context. All these are universal characteristics, in other words, they belong to all languages. In our case, this can also imply that what you already know about English can help you learn something more about Greek too!

Greek belongs to the Indo-European group of languages and although this language family is rather extended, Greek seems to have some characteristics which distinguish it from any other sub- group. This is why it belongs to its own group referred to as ‘Hellenic’. Most other sub-groups comprise at least 3 to 4 languages (e.g. the Latin group: Spanish, French, Italian, etc, the Germanic group: German, Swedish, Norwegian, Afrikaans, Dutch, etc, the Celtic group: Manx, Welsh, Breton, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, etc as well as other sub-groups).

As we saw earlier that languages have universal characteristics (e.g. vocabulary, grammar, syntax & phonology representation), we now need to look into each one of these areas in detail in order to understand how these characteristics are implemented in the Greek language.

Let’s start with the most fundamental system of any language, the phonological, in other words the system that deals with the sounds of a language. A person who attempts to learn the phonological system of the Greek language will soon realise that it is far from difficult. The main reason for this is that Greeks do not make as many distinctions in their vowel system as the English do (Papaeftymiou-Lytra, 2001) and, therefore, it is easier to acquire. The easiest way to start is by taking the individual letters which correspond to particular sounds. Fortunately in Greek, once one is familiar with the pronunciation of different letters or combinations of different letters, one is capable to pronounce correctly most, if not all, the Greek words! This is a characteristic that, unfortunately, does not apply to the English language as the pronunciation of words is quite arbitrary.

The Greek vowels are: α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ, and ω. When these vowels are found without other vowels after them, they are pronounced respectively:

• ‘α’ as in ‘apple’,
• ‘ε’ as in ‘elephant’,
• ‘η’, ‘ι’, ‘υ’ as in ‘machine’,
• and ‘ο’, ‘ω’ as in ‘octopus’.

It is quite evident now that ‘η’, ‘ι’, ‘υ’ are varieties of ‘i’ in English which are all pronounced in the same way. Also, ‘ο’ and ‘ω’ are varieties of ‘o’ in English, with a very specific pronunciation as presented in ‘octopus’. In other words, Greeks use more varieties of ‘i’ and ‘o’ to spell the Greek words. However, the pronunciation is still the same sound and this makes the task of learning the phonology of the Greek vowels much easier in terms of a second or foreign language!

As already mentioned, there are also combinations of vowels. These are separated into the following categories:

1. The compound vowels (‘δίψηφα φωνήεντα’),
2. the main diphthongs (‘δίφθογγοι’),
3. the catachrestic diphthongs (‘καταχρηστικοί δίφθογγοι’) and
4. the vowel combinations ‘α’ + ‘υ’ (i.e. ‘αυ’) and ‘ε’ + ‘υ’ (i.e. ‘ευ’).

1. The compound vowels are two vowels together which make up one vocal sound. They are:

   • ‘αι’ which stands for ‘ε’ as in ‘elephant’ (Greek example: ‘αίθουσα’, i.e. ‘room’)
   • ‘ει’ which stands for ‘ι’ as in ‘machine’ (Greek example: ‘τρέχει’, i.e. ‘run’)
   • ‘οι’ which stands again for ‘ι’ as in ‘machine’ (Greek example: ‘κάτοικοι’, i.e. ‘habitants’)
   • ‘ου’ which stands for /u/ as in ‘oops’ (Greek example: ‘ουρανός’, i.e. ‘sky’)
   • ‘υι’ which stands again for ‘ι’ as in ‘machine’ (Greek example: ‘υιοθετώ’, i.e. ‘adopt’).

   It is quite apparent that the compound vowels ‘ει’, ‘οι’ and ‘υι’ are all pronounced as /i/. This implies once more that Greeks use more varieties of ‘i’ in order to spell some words.

2. The diphthongs are two vowels which make up two vocal sounds within the same syllable. They are:

   • ‘αη’ as in ‘eyeliner’ (Greek example: ‘αηδόνι’, i.e. ‘nightingale’),
   • ‘αϊ’ as in ‘eyeliner’ again (Greek example: ‘αϊτοφωλιά’, i.e. ‘eagle’s nest’),
   • ‘όη’ as in ‘cowboy’ (Greek example: ‘χλόη’, i.e. ‘sward’),
   • ‘όι’ as in ‘cowboy’ again (Greek example: ‘κουβεντολόι’, i.e. ‘palaver’).

   Again, ‘αη’ and ‘αϊ’ as well as ‘όη’ and ‘όι’ are pronounced the same.

3. When two vowels make up a mixed sound which constitutes both vowels instead of two individual sounds one after another, then these are special types of diphthongs referred to as ‘catachrestic diphthongs’ (‘καταχρηστικοί δίφθογγοι’). They are called ‘catachrestic’ because the sound /i/ found in the Greek vowels or vowel combinations ‘ι’, ‘υ’, ‘ει’ and ‘οι’ is dominated by the pronunciation of the following vowel sound. In other words, the /i/ is pronounced less and mixed with the following vowel sound. To be precise:

   • ‘ι’ before another Greek vowel, for example ‘α’, so ‘ια’ is pronounced as ‘here’ with a voiceless ‘r’ (Greek example: ‘παιδιά’, i.e. ‘children’),
   • ‘υ’ before another Greek vowel, for example ‘α’, so ‘υα’ is pronounced as ‘here’ with a voiceless ‘r’ (Greek example: ‘λεπτοκαρυά’, i.e. ‘hazel’),
   • ‘ει’ before another Greek vowel, for example ‘α’, so ‘εια’ is pronounced as ‘here’ with a voiceless ‘r’ (Greek example: ‘αδειάζω’, i.e. ‘empty’, the verb form),
   • ‘οι’ before another Greek vowel, for example ‘ο’, so ‘οιο’ is pronounced as in ‘iodine’ (Greek example: ‘ποιος’, i.e. ‘who’).

4. Finally, there are vowel combinations of ‘α’ + ‘υ’ and ‘ε’ + ‘υ’. More specifically:

   • ‘αυ’ as in ‘available’ (Greek example: ‘Αυγερινός’, i.e. ‘morning star’), it is important to note here that this vowel combination is pronounced as in ‘available’ when after ‘αυ’ there is a vowel or a voiced consonant (one like /b/ for example that makes your vocal chords vibrate),
   • ‘ευ’ as in ‘every’ (Greek example: ‘απόγευμα’, i.e. ‘afternoon’), once more, it is important to mention that this vowel combination is pronounced as in ‘every’ even though after ‘ευ’ there is a vowel or a voiced consonant,
   • ‘αυ’ as in ‘after’ (Greek example: ‘ναύτης’, i.e. ‘sailor’), it is pronounced as in ‘after’ here, as a voiceless consonant (one that does not make the vocal chords vibrate) follows it, i.e. /t/,
   • ‘ευ’ as in ‘efface’ (Greek example: ‘ευτυχία’, i.e. ‘happiness’), it is pronounced as in ‘efface’ here, as a voiceless consonant follows it again, i.e. /t/.

You are now familiar with most of the phonological rules concerning the Greek vowel system and you should be able to pronounce most, if not all , Greek vowels correctly if you have Greek as a second or foreign language!

In the next issue, we will look into the phonological characteristics of Greek consonants, after which you should be able to pronounce correctly whole words and read whole sentences!

On each one of the next issues, we will be focusing on a particular linguistic aspect of the Greek language which will be analysed in relation to English so that learning becomes easier and, although the underlying rules will be analysed, this will be done in a simplified and straightforward manner in order to achieve comprehensibility. It is then that you can decide for yourself if ‘it’s all Greek to you’ too! ;-) Ω