Have you ever considered that sometimes all there’s to know in a new language is already there in your own one? Fortunately enough, English is an international language which means that a lot of English words are borrowed, used as well as abused in other languages. So which one is ‘the alter ego’ [το αλτέρ ίγκο] of the Greek language?

As any other language, Greek has been influenced by the English language too. Whether the international factor, or the need for communicating with other English non-native speakers using English as the lingua franca, or the advancement in the teaching of foreign languages and the spread of language schools in Greece, or the importing of subtitled English films allowing Greeks to be exposed to the English audio or even the English songs on the Greek radio stations, English words are used in everyday tasks in the Greek language, nowadays.

Let’s take a full day with the Greek letter ‘T, τ’, shall we?

You wake up in the morning, switch on your transistor (τρανζίστορ) and make some tea and toast [τoστ] to eat with your favourite chester (τσέστερ) cheese. You change your mind and grab some chips [τσιπς] too. You feel guilty because of that and you decide to go jogging [τζόκινγκ]. As you go through a tunnel [τούνελ], you bump into a gentleman [τζέντλεμαν] who wears a lovely jacket [τζάκετ]. When you are done, you step in a bank to cash a check [τσεκ]. You also get some tickets for your favourite jazz [τζαζ] concert. You mustn’t also forget that you have that dance party to go to, tomorrow, where you’ll have to dance Charleston (τσάρλεστον) and twist (τουίστ). Is there any case of people considering that as a taboo [ταμπού]?

You’ll have to wear that expensive tweed [τουίντ] trench-coat

(τρεντς-κοτ) you got the other day from a trendy (τρέντι) shop when you go dancing. As you return home and just before you get the trolley-bus [τρόλ(λ)εϊ], you pick up a tabloid (ταμπλόιντ) and you read about the setting up of α financial trust (τραστ) and that unfair time-out (τάιμ-άουτ) after that tricky jump-ball (τζάμπολ) by that teddyboy (τεντιμπόη), O'Neal. You enter your home, change your jogging [τζόκινγκ] suit to a pair of jeans (τζιν) and you pour yourself a shot of tequila (τεκίλα). You sent a telefax (τελεφάξ) to your friend John with a copy of your jazz [τζαζ] ticket to make him jealous and you try to switch on your TV [τιβί] but there’s something wrong with the chip[τσιπ] of your remote control. Nothing much is on, just a war movie with a tank (τανκ), a documentary about jaguar (τζάγκουαρ) leopards and tele-marketing adverts about tuppperware (τάπερ) from Tupperware! You search your teletext [τελετέξ] to find any better program and as you zap the channels, you come by your favorite movie trailer [τρέιλερ] set in Hawaii. Don’t you just love travelling [τράβελινγκ]? But wait! You’ve got that test [τεστ] tomorrow; you better stop dreaming and start studying!

♦Papakyriakou-Apergi S. & Papakyriakou H. (2005).  Foreign Words in the Greek Language. D. Athens: Gutenberg.

♦Babiniotis, G. (2002). Dictionary of the Modern Greek Language. Athens: Centre of Lexicography, E.P.E.