WHAT IS A LINGUA FRANCA? WHAT IS AN EXTINCT LANGUAGE? AA lingua
franca is a language spoken in countries other than the country of
origin. This is usually achieved through conquest, commerce and
conversion Extinct language simply means that a language is no
longer natively spoken, not whether it can be understood by
speakers of a related language or a daughter language.
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The term Ancient, or Archaic, Greece refers to the time three
centuries before the classical age, between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C.a
relatively sophisticated period in world history. Archaic Greece
saw advances in art, poetry and technology, but most of all it was
the age in which the polis, or city-state, was invented. The polis
became the defining feature of Greek political life for hundreds of
years.
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Places : Athens, Sparta, Korinthos, Thebes and the islands of
Aegean. People who wanted to trade with the Greeks had to learn
alternate methods of communication. At its peak : under the command
of Alexander the Great the whole world spoke Ancient Greek.
Slide 6
Through the conquests of the great Alexander: Alexanders
father, Philip II, wanted to fight the Persians and eliminate them
so that they wouldnt have any more wars with them like they did in
the past. After his death, Alexander was the heir to the kingdom so
he took over this conquest as well. But Alexander surpassed his
fathers vision, he wanted to unite Greece with Asia due to his
belief that everyone should be equal to each other. Some years
after the conquest, Alexander wished to fully unite all the peoples
that he had taken over but he couldnt do it unless they all spoke
the same language. This process by which the Koine became the high
language of the conquered kingdoms became known as HELLENIZATION.
How did it become dominant?
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Which languages became alleviated? Although there is no actual
evidence that any of the Asian Languages were thoroughly
alleviated, they language and the culture of the conquered land
were highly influenced. They could now comprehend philosophy and
mathematics and they even modelled their Bhuda statues after the
Greek Kouroi.
Slide 8
Effects of Hellenization The influence that this conquest had
is mainly positive because Great Alexander managed to unite the
most part of the then known world without a high death toll and
they found a common language which led to the evolution of
literature, trade and sciences. Arts like poetry historiography and
astronomy flowed during these ages due to the fact that people
didnt feel conquered but they had the notion that they were equals
which gave them the freedom to develop in other fields. Worth
noting is the fact that Alexander gave the people the freedom to
believe in whichever god they wanted and generally believed that
all people are free and most of all equals
Slide 9
Has it affected the global community ? Of course, the rise of
this language and, generally, of the empire has affected the global
community. Discoveries from back then still exist until today and
they are considered to be the bases of many fields today. In
addition architecture knowledge like the churches during the
Byzantine Empire are still used today in the building of churches
and other buildings. The bases of church music were created during
the Byzantine Empire and they are used nowadays as well.
Slide 10
Slide 11
In Ancient Greece education was a privilege for a handful of
people. Therefore when the Romans conquered Greece this language
was lost
Slide 12
Many people feared that Greeces tradition and culture would be
lost because the language ceased to be spoken. However, this notion
turned out to be wrong because the Greek culture was carried on by
the civilization of Byzantium. For example, Democracy, as we know
it today, was developed in Greece. In the year 507 B.C., the
Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political
reforms that he called demokratia(democracy), or rule by the
people. This system was comprised of three separate institutions:
the ekklesia, a sovereign governing body that wrote laws and
dictated foreign policy; the boule, a council of representatives
from the ten Athenian tribes; and the dikasteria (courts), the
popular courts in which citizens argued cases before a group of
lottery-selected jurors.
Slide 13
Who were the poets songwriters and writers composing their
works in this language? -Greek literature extends from the Homer
ages and ends with the fall of ancient Greek. Homer is the known
composer of Iliad and Odysseus. The importance of these
compositions is recognized up until today -There were 3 great
philosophers during those ages, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
Plato was a student of Socrates and Aristotle was a student of
Plato. Socrates inspired Plato to write his work with the title
philosophic dialogues which is know until today. Finally Aristotle
was the last great philosopher of those ages whose thought is know
to be greater than those from the western peoples and also greater
than the people of the 17 century
Slide 14
- The known writers of this age were the historians Xenophon
and Thucydides who recorded the whole Peloponnesian war. Xenophon
took control of the composing after Thucydides death which
prevented him to finish his work himself. They were and they are
until today known for their objectivity and their descriptiveness.
Their works were so great that many people consider them two of the
greatest historians in history.
Slide 15
Nowadays, very few texts have been rescued that were written in
ancient Greek(approximately 15%). These texts are being used as an
educational method in order to teach youngsters ancient Greek.
However, its spoken form has been a bone of contention for many
generations because no one will ever know the exact pronunciation.
Thus, Greeks read it in their own way as if they were speaking
modern Greek and other people read it using the method of a well
known linguist. He is known by the name Erasmus.
Slide 16
Although Ancient Greek has been extinct for many years its
influence is massive in the fields of medicine, politics, science
and economics. Diseases names that stem from Ancient Greek :
syphilis, malaria, leprosy, diabetes etc.
Slide 17
To illustrate this point, we would like to refer to Professor
Xenofon Zolotas. In 1957 and 1959, the Greek economist Professor
Xenofon Zolotas, Governor of the bank of Greece and Governor of the
Funds for Greece, delivered two speeches in English using Greek
words only.
Slide 18
Kyrie, I eulogize the archons of the Panethnic Numismatic
Thesaurus and the Ecumenical Trapeza for the orthodoxy of their
axioms, methods and policies, although there is an episode of
cacophony of the Trapeza with Hellas. With enthusiasm we dialogue
and synagonize at the synods of our didymous Organizations in which
polymorphous economic ideas and dogmas are analyzed and
synthesized. Our critical problems such as the numismatic plethora
generate some agony and melancholy. This phenomenon is
characteristic of our epoch. But, to my thesis, we have the
dynamism to program therapeutic practices as a prophylaxis from
chaos and catastrophe. In parallel, a panethnic unhypocritical
economic synergy and harmonization in a democratic climate is
basic. I apologize for my eccentric monologue. I emphasize my
eucharistia to you Kyrie, to the eugenic and generous American
Ethnos and to the organizers and protagonists of this Amphictyony
and the gastronomic symposia.'' Prof. Xenofon Zolotas
Slide 19
Slide 20
www.history.com www.history.com History books of 8 th grade and
discussions with my history teachers. Wikipedia.com ( information
about Erasmus)