We were so excited when Lilia Mouma, our head linguist, came all the way from Greece to visit the Mango Grove for three weeks. We talk to her all the time via skype but having her here in person is awesome! Check out her welcome by the Elves! Warning…we are huggers!
Many times each day, through the course of our normal activities, we encounter some form of the phrase “…the Greeks invented that,” “The Greeks were the first to… “ or “that’s derived from the Greek…” We need to remember that some items of significance came from sources other than the Greeks.
Did you know: the cathode ray tube, BBQ sauce, Botox, carpet cleaner, the twin cam motorcycle engine, and Quebec, were all invented by Non-Greeks! Yes!! It’s true!!!!
Today is Greek Independence Day. Modern Greece was born on March 25, 1821. Wait, how can that be? – you are thinking…. Did they really invent everything in the last 200 years? The answer is “no” but I will highlight a brief history of Greece.
Ancient Greek Civilizations began with the Minoan civilization in Crete and the Mycenaean Greeks circa 3300 BC. Some accomplishments over the next 3000 years include: Democracy, The Parthenon, Olympics, The Hagia Sofia, Drama, Science, Trial by Jury, Greek Mythology, Philosophy, astrology, biology, mathematics, physics, Medicine, Fables, Comedy, Tragedy, and Satire. Men such as Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, Homer, Hippocrates, Herodotus, and Aristotle have had lasting impact on our present day civilization.
Around 300 BC the Hellenistic period began. This occurred when Alexander the Great left Greece and conquered 22,000 miles by foot over the next 8 years. He died at the age of 32, undefeated in battle. Though, his death resulted in his empire being split into 14 empires, there was a tremendous spread of the Greek language, culture, and population.
The Byzantine period followed over the next 1000 years and spanned 35 present-day countries in Northern Africa, Southern Europe, and Western Asia. Greece fell to the Ottoman Empire in the 15th Century. Over the next 300 years, Greeks held onto their culture through “secret schools” that were found underground and in caves. Greeks had never given up hope of regaining their country and did not want to lose their history, language, or culture.
During the early 1800′s, a period of Philhellenism (Love of all things Greek) began. Because of the Greek origin of so much of the West’s classical heritage, there was tremendous sympathy for the Greek cause throughout Europe. Many wealthy Americans and Western European aristocrats, such as the renowned poet George Gordon Lord Byron took up arms to join the Greek revolutionaries. Many more also financed the revolution. People thought, “wouldn’t it be really cool if Greece was a country again.”
In 1821 Greece had declared war on Turkey and the fight for independence gained momentum. Byron died with an army fighting for the Greek cause in 1824, but support continued to come in. But by 1830 the war had ended and Greece was free. Thus modern day Greece was born on March 25, 1821.
Though modern day Greece has not risen to the level of power or influence of their ancestors, Greece did get credit for the first Allied victory of WWII. After Greece had turned back Italy, Germany was forced to postpone battle with Russia to defeat Greece. Following the battle, Winston Churchill had declared, “Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks.“ Soon after, Roosevelt stated, “Greece has set the example which every one of us must follow until the despoilers of freedom everywhere have been brought to their just doom.”
Today many members of modern society continue to show respect for the accomplishments of the Greek people. This is never more evident than to look at the strong desire for people to display the colors of the Greek Flag – blue and white. Hanes indicates that its most popular color for T-shirts is white. Levis-Strauss indicates that its most popular color for jeans has consistently been – blue.
Halloween and dressing up occurs in October in the United States, but in Europe and South America (Rio) it is in February. So here are some things about how we celebrate it in Greece, including a bit of linguistics, folklore, and religion.
According to one view, the word “carnival” comes from early Italian carve + levare, which means “take away the meat” (carne). The Greek word for it is apokreea (stress on the last -a-), which again means “away from meat.” In both Orthodox and Catholic religions, the focus is on eating what meat is left in the house before Lent (the traditional period of fasting before Easter) starts.
Greek carnival is a combination of religious and pagan festivities. Following the Church, there are three weeks dedicated to gradually reducing the consumption of certain foods up to the beginning of Lent. In these three weeks people should also celebrate and have a good time before starting the fast, a period of repentance. Two are the high points of this season: the Thursday of the first week, which is dedicated to eating meat, is called tseeknopemptee: pemptee is the name of the day (Thursday or the fifth day of the week) and tseekna refers to the smell of charcoaled meat, what you smell at barbecues. On that Thursday night people go out to tavernas to celebrate and drink and have a good time; you can smell tseekna everywhere.
The last of the three weeks is dedicated to the consumption of dairy products and fish and the Monday just after it is called Clean Monday, something like Shrove Monday, which marks the beginning of Lent. On this Monday we should not eat meat or dairy products – we should be “clean” of all that. Only shellfish is allowed, and people go out to the countryside and have picnics and fly kites since the weather is usually permitting 
. During these weeks people dress up and play pranks. Parades are held in all the cities. Dressing up is a pagan custom that has to do with scaring away the evil winter spirits before spring comes.
How all this is connected to the way people lived:
According to Professor N.S. Margaris, all these traditions are closely related to the way people lived. Sheep and goats usually breed in January. Because there was lots of snow on the ground, shepherds could not take them out to the pastures and were forced to reduce their number: tsiknopemptee is a relic of this tradition. After that, spring comes and there is plenty of grass; eating meat is thus forbidden up to Easter so that sheep and goats can grow.
Another tidbit:
On two of the Saturdays during this period people honor the dead. In many places in Greece people cook pasta. Now, the food that is given to those who come to wake the dead is called makareea, which means “blessing.” According to one view, the word “macaroni,” a kind of pasta, derives from makareea, or makareea + (e)oni(a) [eon] = “eternal blessing.” And all this time you thought that pasta was Italian?
The Greek Flag made out of Olives and Feta Cheese
All over Greece you will see and smell fruit-bearing trees: olive trees, dating from ancient times, sweet-smelling orange and lemon trees, juicy peaches, apricot, apple, pear and fig trees, and vines loaded with bunches of grapes. The fields are full of all sorts of vegetables: red, sweet tomatoes; fresh beans and peas; cucumbers; artichokes; aubergines; onions; and fruits like melon and red, delicious watermelon, both a real treat in the heat of the summer.
In the sea hundreds of fish send out silver reflections. Swarms of bees in beehives produce the famous Greek honey. There are forests of walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, oaks, and pines. The pines give us a special ingredient for Greek wine, called retsina, and the pine kernels are also used in several dishes.
Most of the Greek foods are prepared with olive oil. It is the so-called Mediterranean ingredient, famous for being so good for the health. In Greece a main dish can consist of vegetables only cooked so as to offer a wholesome meal. But generally we are fond of meat, and this comes to its apogee during Easter, the great outdoor feast, where whole lambs are specially prepared on the spit, and all the neighbors celebrate together dancing, eating and drinking – a feast strictly not for vegetarians. Even the entrails of the animals are cooked, making the famous kokoretsi. Lambs, goats, and mainly cows give us milk from which we make the famous Greek cheese called feta, a white kind of cheese. Also yogurt, which mixed with crushed garlic, makes a famous dip called tzatziki. Feta cheese, tzatziki dip, aubergine dip, and a dip from fish roe, called taramas, olives and small cheese pies are the dishes served with ouzo, a transparent aperitif, which one could drink as is–but that is not recommended, remember what happened in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
In the northwest part of Greece they make delicious, crunchy pies with filo pastry or dough, with every imaginable ingredient, savory or sweet: pies with spinach, or other herbs, or a mixture of them, with cheese, tomatoes, aubergines, leak, meat, chicken, and also sweet pies, with rice and currants, or pumpkins and custard-filled pies. The list goes on and on…
Greek sweets are very… sweet. Honey and walnuts are mostly used to make the traditional Greek sweets. These together with filo pastry make baklava, and with dough they make the traditional Christmas sweets, melomakarona. Another kind of Greek confectionery is the preserves with fruits such as figs, grapes, apricots, sour cherries, plums, quinces, and even roses (the flower!), tomato, the skin of watermelon, the skin of orange and citrus, and whole walnut with its skin, which are cooked in water and sugar and then preserved in jars for the winter. The mild winter cold is fought against with soups made from beans and lentils. Several spices are added to improve the taste of dishes, all used moderately so as not to cover the taste of the meat or any other main ingredient: oregano, mint, garlic, dill, parsley, bay leaves, basil, thyme, cinnamon, clove, rosemary, saffron. All the dishes are accompanied with wines, sometimes home-made, as well as with retsina. At the end of the meal you can have coffee, Greek coffee, or frappe. Greek coffee is prepared on low heat until it froths – be careful, you do not have to drink the dregs. Frappe is instant coffee, served especially in the summer, for which you put coffee, sugar, and cold water in a shaker and then add milk and ice cubes. Enjoy it with a straw while watching people passing by.
There are many kinds of eating places in Greece, like restaurants; taverns – for a more informal meal – grill houses; fish taverns; small places where you can have ouzo and starters only; small, usually underground taverns where you can hear live music; but also kebab places, and cafes. There are also places where you can have light meals, usually to go, like pies or sandwiches (two pieces of bread filled with whatever you like), and also fast-food. The popular Greek fast food chain is called Goodies.
In conclusion, when dealing with Greece and the Greek culture, one should savor the flavor.
Many of you on our Facebook Fan Page and Twitter Stream have asked about which new languages Mango is releasing this year in the Complete 2.0 program. Here is the intended list of languages you can learn by region of the world.
Europe: Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Greek, Italian, Irish, Croatian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Hungarian, and Romanian
Asia: Chinese (Mandarin & Cantonese), Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Hindi, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Malaylam, Malay, Javanese, and Khmer
Africa: Swahili, Igbo, Hasua, Somali, Yoruba
Middle East: Arabic (Levantine, MSA, and Iraqi), Dari, Pashto, Hebrew, Yiddish, Turkish, Urdu, Farsi, and Kurdish
Misc: Haitian Creole, Icelandic, Kazakh, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Hawaiian, Navajo (Dine)
ESL: German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Cantonese, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Turkish, Vietnamese, Polish, Mandarin, Arabic (MSA), Hmong, and Somali
Please note: 95% of these languages are already in development. However, we are still looking for qualified developers for a couple of the more obscure languages. Unfortunately, these may be delayed if we cannot find high level educators to create and edit these programs. We want to ensure that only the highest quality products are produced for our users. Thank you for understanding.
We will be releasing the first set of languages in the next couple of weeks in the updated Complete 2.0 program with the upgraded interface and all the functionality of Mango Basic as well as added visual images.
The Mango elves are putting the finishing touches on the program as I type. Thanks to all those who provided feedback on Complete 1.0 – we have incorporated many of your suggestions into this new version of Mango Languages.
Dancing is a favorite form of entertainment in Greece. Apart from the western dances, there are two traditional kinds of dance in Greece: the folk and the popular. The first group comprises the old traditional dances. They are numerous, around 1000, and many people want to learn how to dance them in Greece as well as abroad. Every part of Greece, every village, has its own dances and also its traditional costume. There are many differences in the rhythm of the dances: those of the islands are more “happy” whereas those of the northwestern part are very slow and heavy. They are usually performed during celebrations, such as Easter and in weddings.
The second kind of traditional dances are the popular called the zeimbekiko, the syrtaki, the hassapiko and the hassaposerviko. Now, syrtaki is the dance of the movie Zorba the Greek, specially made for it and danced by Antony Queen. Hence, it is also known as the Zorba dance. The basis of syrtaki were hassapiko and hassaposerviko, which is the fast part of syrtaki. Hassapiko is a group dance: dancers line up the one next to the other, each holding the other’s shoulder, and they have to do set steps. Finally, zeimbekiko belongs to the group of songs and dances called Rembetika. It is a solo dance performed by men, but recently women have also started dancing it. The songs are about love and heartbreak, so the dancer acts out someone who has tried to drown his sorrows in drink and then gets up to express his feelings in dance. It is a slow dance requiring grace, balance, rhythm and creativity. Spectators usually form a circle around the dancer in a kneeling position, they clap their hands and encourage him by shouting “opa!” They may also throw petals or money at his feet and, most commonly, they may break plates.
To end this short account of Greek dances, a few words about Rembetika. The rembetiko song (plural rembetika) belongs to a genre of music that was created in Greece after the destruction of Smyrna, Turkey, and the killings and expulsion of the Greek population there. These people came to Greece which could not support them and they were forced to do all kinds of jobs, legal and illegal, in order to survive. Their consolation was their music, which could be compared to the Blues. The main instrument was bouzouki, the famous Greek instrument, and the main themes were taken from their life: misery, unemployment, hardship, and of course love. This music has obviously influenced modern Greek music.
Those of you who have seen the all-time classic film The Remains of the Day, with Antony Hopkins and Emma Thomson, may remember the “book” scene, in which she tries to grab a book from his hand. In this scene, you can unmistakably “hear” their feelings although neither of them speaks.
Language is considered by many as a means of communication. Nevertheless, verbal communication sometimes hides true feelings and thoughts: what we utter has gone through a filter and when it surfaces it may not represent exactly what we want to say and what we really think; as if our id is hindered by our superego, in Freudian terms. There is, however, another form of communication, the nonverbal, also called body language: it consists of our facial expressions, gestures and body movements, which we use in order to send out information about how we feel. When we listen to someone, we always try to discern what they really mean by watching their face or gestures.
The good, or bad, thing is that we cannot hide our feelings. We may say one thing, but our body language won’t hide what we really mean, which oftentimes may be the opposite of what we say. Like Stevens, we may be able to control our voice but our body will betray what we think and how we feel. Stevens and Kenton never exchanged a tender word but their body language expressed what they meant behind their typical “Mr.” and “Miss.” (Both Hopkins and Thompson proved what great artists they are here.)
Gestures are part of the body language and they are important in learning a language. While you may be used to accompanying your speech with gestures, you may need to be very careful when using the same gestures in a foreign country to accompany and boost your newly acquired phrases. Along with learning a language, try to learn these differences.
In Greece, for example, to say “no” you toss your head upward moving slightly the chin forward while clicking your tongue against the alveolar ridge (no, it’s not as complicated as it may sound) or you just raise your eyebrows doing the same click! (By the way, the Greek “no” sounds like Ok, so it may be difficult to say “no” in Greek either way!) In other countries, to say “no” you move your head right to left and left to right, which in Greece suggests that you feel pity for someone. Or, in Greece, extending your hand with the fingers apart is very insulting. However well you apologize, being proficient in Greek may not solve the issue!
Are there any gestures that are a no-no in your country?
Like many travelers, during trips to a foreign lands, I make it a point to pick up a new language., and usually, I return with a greater a understanding the spoken word. However, During a trip to Greece, my desire to pick up a new language was thwarted by my pre-existing proficiency. Thus I struggled with appeasing my language learning appetite….. Soon It occurred to me that, In Learning to speak a language, one usually strives to accomplish 2 goals.
1) To understand what is spoken
2) To orally communicate a thought to another.
However, a shortcoming of many language learners is that they tend to focus on what a fellow human being might say and disregard the language of many other inhabitants of that land.
Therefore, I focused on the communication of animals and thus both expanded and diversified my understanding of the Greek language.
I learned that in Greek a cat meow translates to “Niaow, and a dog ruff translates to “Gav”. But while a cat and dog from the states will be likely to successfully communicate, some animals may have more difficulty.
In Greece, a rooster says “Ko Ko Rico” when he wants to say cock-a-doodle doo. And a Pig that is used to saying oink oink, would have no idea how to translate “Gru Gru.”
Meanwhile a fish which is usually expressionless in the stated must cope with native fish could greet it with a “plats plats”.
So enriching was my new found vocabulary that as I was nearing the airport on my return, I didn’t hesitate when a bird said “Tsiou Tsiou” I knew he meant tweet tweet.
What other animal sounds do you know in another language?
Greek is not a widely spoken language and it may not give you the passport to learning other languages but it merits a seat in the pantheon of languages because it is one of the world’s oldest recorded living languages and because many words in English and other languages have been derived from Greek.
Greek is spoken in Greece, and it is one of the two official languages in Cyprus. It is also spoken by emigrant and minority communities in Germany, the USA, Australia, Canada, the UK, and in the neighboring countries Albania, Turkey, Southern Italy, as well as in the countries around the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. All in all it is spoken by about 14 million people.
It belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and it is an independent branch of it. According to some historical linguists the peoples in the plains of Europe and Anatolia spoke the Proto-Indo-European language until the 3rd millennium BC. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC this language had already been divided into the various Indo-European languages, one of which was Proto-Greek, the common ancestor of all dialects of Ancient Greek. Proto-Greek speakers came to Greece in the 2nd millennium BC. The first record of Greek is the script in Linear B on tablets in Mycenae dating from the 15th or 14th century BC.
Ancient Greece was the cradle of civilization and the means of expressing it was Ancient Greek. The great philosophical, scientific, and cultural texts of that era, which influenced the entire Western thought, were written in this language. It is only natural that a great number of Greek words has been borrowed in international science, philosophy, and technology vocabulary: words like mathematics, geometry, athletics, theater, philosophy, and many others have Greek origin. It is said that 12% of the English vocabulary is derived from Greek.
Ancient Greek has undergone many changes in phonology, morphology, syntax but the language was never interrupted and, although Greeks today cannot understand Ancient Greek texts without some help, the similarities are more than obvious and many words have survived unaltered as they were in ancient times. For example, the word for “child” was “pes” (“pedos” in genitive) in Ancient Greek and it is “pedi” in Modern Greek.
Most interesting is the search of the origin of words and how they changed meaning through the ages. For example, did you know that the word “enthusiast”, of Greek origin of course, comes from the Ancient Greek word “entheos” = en (in) + theos (god) and meant having or being inspired by divine ecstasy?
Having said all that, learning Greek, apart from giving you a means to communicate with the Greeks who live in the beautiful place you are going to visit, will also give you a better insight in your own language.
GREEK
Το καλοκαιράκι στην ακρογιαλιά,
μέσα στο νεράκι πλέουμε αγκαλιά.
Πέφτει το βραδάκι, πιάνει η δροσιά,
Δώσ’ μου ένα φιλάκι και έλα πιο κοντά.
Εγώ κι εσύ , εσύ κι εγώ,
μόνοι πάνω στη γη.
Ωωω! μόνοι στη γη.
Ήταν η Αθήνα κόμπος στο λαιμό,
νέφος και ρουτίνα και άγχος τρομερό.
Δώσ’ μου ένα τσιγάρο, δώσ’ μου και φωτιά,
Θεέ μου θα σε πάρω στη καυτή την αμμουδιά.
Εγώ κι εσύ , εσύ κι εγώ,
μόνοι πάνω στη γη.
Ωωω! μόνοι στη γη.
Τηλέφωνο χτυπάει, βουλιάζει το νησί,
και τ’ όνειρο σκορπάει στου γραφείου τη βουή.
Πετάγομαι ιδρωμένος, δουλεύεις και γελάς,
σ’ ακούω σαν χαμένος το ρεφρέν να τραγουδάς.
Εγώ κι εσύ , εσύ κι εγώ,
μόνοι πάνω στη γη.
Ωωω! μόνοι στη γη.
TRANSLITERATION
To kalokeRAki stin akroyaLIA
MEsa sto neRAki PLEume agaLIA.
PEfti to vraTHAki, PIAni i throSIA,
thos mu Ena fiLAki ki ELa pio koNTA.
eGO ki eSI, eSi ki eGO,
MOni PAno sti gi.
OOO! MOni sti gi.
Itan i aTHIna KOmbos sto leMO,
NEfos ke ruTIna ke Ag-hos tromeRO.
thos mu Ena tsiGAro, thos mu ke foTIA,
the mu tha se PAro stin kafTI tin amouTHIA.
eGO ki eSI, eSI ki eGO,
MOni PAno sti gi.
OOO! MΟni sti gi.
tiLEfono ktiPAi, vuLIAzi to niSI,
ke TOniro skorPAi stu graFIu ti vuI.
peTAgome ithroMEnos, thuLEvis ke geLAS,
saKUo san haMEnos to reFREn na traguTHAS.
eGO ki eSI, eSI ki eGO,
MOni PAno sti gi.
OOO! MΟni sti gi.
ENGLISH
In the summer at the beach,
In the water we swim together.
The night falls, it gets chilly,
Gimme a kiss and come closer.
Me and you, you and me,
All alone on the earth.
OOO! All alone on the earth.
Athens was a lump in the throat,
Smog and routine and lots, lots of stress.
Gimme a cigarette, gimme light too,
Gee, I’ll take you on the hot sand.
Me and you, you and me,
All alone on the earth.
OOO! All alone on the earth.
The telephone rings, the island sinks,
And the dream disperses into the hustle of the office.
I jump up all sweaty, you work and laugh,
I hear you speechless sing the refrain.
Me and you, you and me,
All alone on the earth.
OOO! All alone on the earth.
FRENCH
En été, sur la plage,
Nous nageons côte à côte
Le soleil tombe, il fait plus frais maintenant
Embrasse-moi chérie et viens donc plus proche de moi.
Moi et toi, toi et moi,
Seuls sur terre.
Oh, oh, oh ! Seuls sur terre.
Athènes devient un nœud qui nous prend à la gorge
Smog, routine et stress insupportables pour nous deux.
Donne-moi ta clope, donne-moi du feu,
Dieu ! Je te ferai l’amour sur le sable chaud.
Moi et toi, toi et moi,
Seuls sur terre.
Oh, oh, oh ! Seuls sur terre.
Le téléphone sonne ; l’ile sombre dans l’eau,
Le rêve se disperse dans le tourbillon du bureau.
Je saute tout en sueur ; tu travailles et tu ris,
Je t’écoute stupéfié chanter ce petit refrain.
Moi et toi, toi et moi,
Seuls sur terre.
Oh, oh, oh ! Seuls sur terre..
ITALIAN
L’estate, sulla riva del mare,
Nell’acqua abbracciati galleggiamo.
Cade la notte, viene fresco,
Dammi un bacino e vieni più vicino.
Io e te, tu ed io,
Soli sulla terra.
Oooh! Soli sulla terra.
Atene era un nodo nella gola,
Smog e routine e stress incredibile.
Dammi una sigaretta, fammi anche accendere,
Dio, ti prenderò sulla sabbia bollente.
Io e te, tu ed io,
Soli sulla terra.
Oooh! Soli sulla terra.
Il telefono suona, l’isola affonda,
E il sogno si dissolve nel boato dell’ufficio.
Salto tutto sudato, lavori e ridi,
Ti ascolto sbalordito cantare il ritornello.
Io e te, tu ed io,
Soli sulla terra.
Oooh! Soli sulla terra
