There are many different kinds of Greek-the Greek of conversation in the street, the Greek used at a fashionable dinner party, the Greek used in newspapers, the Greek of a government notice, the Greek used by a novelist or a poet, and more-and they can differ from one another in grammar and in vocabulary much more than the English of, for example, a conversation at the water cooler and that of an editorial in the New York Times. Why this is so is a long-and we mean long-story. Greek, like English, has a long written history molded by influential works that continue to be read and studied for centuries-in Greek even for millennia-so that, as in English, older words and styles of expression remain available for use even while the spoken language happily evolves on its own.
Also like English, Greek has kept the spelling of its words largely unchanged even though their pronunciation has changed in fundamental ways. In English this spelling lag has extended for some 5 centuries, but in Greek it is 25 centuries old. This makes it easier for us to read Shakespeare and for Greeks to read Herodotus than it might otherwise be, but it also means that Greek children, dike English-speaking children, have to learn to spell words that they already know to use in conversation.
Our dilemma is further complicated by the fact that many Greek words and names have entered our language not directly but by way of Latin or French, and so have become familiar to English speakers in forms that owe something to those languages. When these words are directly transliterated from- modern Greek (and that means from Greek in its modern pronunciation, not the ancient one that Romans heard), they almost always appear in a form other than the one you may have read about in school. "Perikles" for Pericles or "Delft" for Delphi are relatively innocent examples; "Thivi" for Thebes or "Omiros" for Homer can give you an idea of the traps often in store for the innocent traveler. The bottom line is that the names of towns, streets, hotels, items on menus, historical figures, archaeological sites-you name it-are likely to have more than one spelling as you come across them in books, on maps, or before your very eyes.
Sometimes the name of a place has simply changed over the centuries. If you think you've just arrived in Santorini but you see a sign welcoming you to Thira, smile, remember you're in Greece, and take heart. (Santorini is the name the Venetians used, and it became common in Europe for that reason. Thira is the original Greek name.) You're where you want to be. This appendix offers a few aids to help you make your way in Greek. First: remember that literacy is virtually universal in Greece. The table below will help you move from Greek signs or directions to a sense of how they should sound. This transliteration of modern Greek is used throughout this book, except in reference to names that have become household words in English, like Athens, Socrates, Olympus, and so on. The good news here is that you won't be confused as long as you have your nose in your book; the bad news is that confusion is probably inevitable as soon as your eyes leave the page. All you have to say is what you are looking for, raising your voice at the end of the word to let your listener know it's a question, and bingo!-someone will help.
Do remember that obi, although it can sound a bit like "okay," in fact means "no," and that ne, which can sound like a twangy "nay," means "yes." To complicate matters, some everyday gestures will be different from those you are used to: Greeks nod their heads upward to express an unspoken 6hi and downward (or downward and to one side) for an unspoken ne. When a Greek turns his or her head from side to side at you-and you will see this despite your best efforts-it is a polite way of signaling, "I can't make out what you're saying." And remember: Almost any 40-year-old Greek can read Greek, and most people under 30 can also make out some English. If you find that your attempts at speaking fall on deaf ears, show someone the word for what you want and if you stumble over efharisto (thank you) you can place your hand over your heart and bow your head slightl |
The Greek Language 
