Learn About Greek Language and The Ancient Greeks to visit Greece, Cyprus or Greek Restaurants

 We use the Greek language all the time. We use the name of ancient Greek philosphers weven without realising it. When we speak about being stoical or stoicism.  We also quote the ancient Greeks constantly. 

Quotations from the Greeks

How To Learn Greek Easily

Useful Websites

Wikivoyage Greek phrasebook

If you are travelling to Greece, you might find this handy.

For Cyprus, the Berlitz pocket size book on Cyprus has a handy language guide of everyday useful phrases on the foldout front cover.

Duolingo.com Greek

Read alous as you do the exercises and hear the words on Duolingo.

Oozu.com

Laminatied card, under five pounds. 

Greek Words You Already Recognize

Greek is spoken in Greece, Cyprus and Greek restaurants. But you also use Greek words or roots regularly in English. Here is a handy alphabetical list.

Letter of the alphabet - Greek - English (meaning)
a - anti - (old) antique; agony; amphora (clay vessel for storing wine)auto - (self) - automatic,  automaton; axiom
b - bibl - bible - bibliography
c - catastrophe, chaos; criteria ; critical; cynicism
d - democracy - diabolic - dinosaur; diagnosis; dogma
e - eccentric; economic; emphatic; episode; epoch; eulogise
f - frenetic
g - gastronomic; genesis - birth - genes, genetic; generous
h - horo - hour, horoscope
i - idiom; ironic
j
k kaleidoscope (beautiful, eye); kinetic
l - logos - word -logic
m - marathon; melancholy; method
n - numismatic (relating to stamps). nemesis (Greek god)
o - organizer; orthodox
pan Greek god - panic, papyrus; phobia; phos - light (photographic); plethora; policy; poly; problem; protagonist
q (None. All the q words in my concise Oxford dictionary are from Latin.)
r
s - sarcastic;  scandal; symposia/symposium; synagogue
t -tactic; tele - far; therapeutic; thesis; tonic
u
v
w
x xeno - stranger (xenophobia is fear of strangers) ; xylo (wood (xylophone)
y
z - zeal (zealous); Zeus (Greek God)

A representative of Greece, prime minister Xenophon Zelotos, gave a speech (if I remember rightly, according to my guide to the Thessalonika,( second scity of Greece) to the United Nations) in English and all the nouns and adjectives were Greek words or words of Greek origin and roots and component parts.
Wiki says

Two of his speeches in English at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development are considered to be historic and notable because they contained mainly terms of Greek origin.^[6] Here are the texts:

1957

I always wished to address this Assembly in Greek, but realized that it would have been indeed "Greek" to all present in this room. I found out, however, that I could make my address in Greek which would still be English to everybody. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I shall do it now, using with the exception of articles and prepositions, only Greek words.

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 euharistia to you, Kyrie to the eugenic and generous American Ethnos and to the organizers and protagonists of his Amphictyony and the gastronomic symposia.

1959

Kyrie, it is Zeus' anathema on our epoch for the dynamism of our economies and the heresy of our economic methods and policies that we should agonize the Scylla of numismatic plethora and the Charybdis of economic anaemia. It is not my idiosyncrasy to be ironic or sarcastic, but my diagnosis would be that politicians are rather cryptoplethorists. Although they emphatically stigmatize numismatic plethora, they energize it through their tactics and practices. Our policies have to be based more on economic and less on political criteria. Our gnomon has to be a metron between political, strategic and philanthropic scopes. Political magic has always been anti-economic. In an epoch characterized by monopolies, oligopolies, monopsonies, monopolistic antagonism and polymorphous inelasticities, our policies have to be more orthological. But this should not be metamorphosed into plethorophobia, which is endemic among academic economists. Numismatic symmetry should not hyper-antagonize economic acme. A greater harmonization between the practices of the economic and numismatic archons is basic. Parallel to this, we have to synchronize and harmonize more and more our economic and numismatic policies panethnically. These scopes are more practicable now, when the prognostics of the political and economic barometer are halcyonic. The history of our didymus organizations in this sphere has been didactic and their gnostic practices will always be a tonic to the polyonymous and idiomorphous ethnical economies. The genesis of the programmed organization will dynamize these policies. Therefore, I sympathize, although not without criticism on one or two themes, with the apostles and the hierarchy of our organs in their zeal to program orthodox economic and numismatic policies, although I have some logomachy with them. I apologize for having tyrannized you with my Hellenic phraseology. In my epilogue, I emphasize my eulogy to the philoxenous autochthons of this cosmopolitan metropolis and my encomium to you, Kyrie, and the stenographers.

See also

If you have a question about languages, try the Facebook page Polyglots the community.

• ἀμυγδάλη amygdala, almond;
• ἀντίφωνα antiphon, anthem;
• ἀσϕόδελος asphodel, daffodil;
• αὐθεντικός authentic, effendi (αὐθέντης via Turkish);
• βάλσαμον balsam (probably itself a borrowing from Semitic), balm;
• βλάσφημος blasphemy, blame;
• βούτυρον butyr(ic), butter;
• διάβολος diabol(ic), devil;
• δραχμή drachma, dram, also dirhem via Arabic;
• ἔλαιον elaeo-, oil, olive, oleum;
• ἐλεημοσύνη eleemosynary, alms;
• ἐπίσκοπος episcop(al), bishop;
• ζῆλος zeal, jealous;
• καθέδρα cathedra(l), chair, chaise;
• κέρας/κέρατ- 'horn' keratin, carat via Arabic;
• κόλπος 'lap, womb, hollow, bay' colp(itis), gulf
• κυβερνᾶν cybernetics, govern
• πάπυρος papyrus, paper;
• πόδιον podium, pew;
• πρεσβύτερος presbyter, priest;
• πυξίς pyx(is), box;
• σκάνδαλον scandal, slander;
• τρίπους/τρίποδ- tripod, trivet;
• τύμπανον 'drum' tympanum 'eardrum', timbre, timpani;
• φρενετικός frenetic, frantic;
• χειρουργός chirurgical, surgeon;
• χορός chorus, choir;
• χρῖσμα chrism, cream;
• χρῑστιᾱνός Christian, christen, cretin?
• ὥρα horo(scope), hour.

Useful Websites
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/21-english-words-that-are-actually-greek-and-the-stories-behind-them
Etymological dictionary
https://www.etymonline.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophon_Zolotas

More Sources
https://www.etymonline.com/columns/post/sources

About The Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, speech trainer, teacher of English and other languages. Member of four Toastmasters International Clubs, one in the UK and three in Singapore. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Greek speeches in English using only Greek words - a eulogy

Problem
Where is the speech in English using only Greek words? I thought it was given to the United Nations.

Answer
Today I did yet another search and this time I found an example.

Learning Greek
Learning Greek is an anathema to those who say, "it's all Greek to me". For them learning Greek fills them with agony. Is it a cacophony? Or a crisis? I sympathise with their melancholy, but I am enthusiastic that if you analyse
hellenic phraseology you'll find magic.In our epochorganisations have methods and tactics to energise.

Story
I printed the page giving a speech using Greek words and used a green highlighter on the Greek words. I am now listing Greek words in alphabetical order for quick reference, and hunting for some useful words for a speech about teaching and learning Greek.

Greek Words

acme
Agony
analyse
apologise
axiom
basic
cacophony
catastrophe
chaos
characteristic
climate
criteria
critical
democratic
dialogue
dogma
dynamism
eccentric
economic
emphasise
emphatic
enthusiasm
enthusiastic
episode
e p o c h (spaces because this word was turned into pooch by spell checker)
ethnic
eulogise
gastronomic
generate
generous
harmony
harmonise
hellenic
heresy
hypocritical
idea
idiosyncrasy (oddity or eccentricity)
melancholy
method
monologue
numismatic (related to stamp collecting)
o r a m a (spaces inserted because automatic spell checker turns the word into drama)
organisation
panorama
parallel
phenomenon
policy
political
plethora
problem
program
prophylaxis (preventive treatment)
protagonist (chief actor or character)
sphere
stigma
stigmatise
symmetry
symposium
synthesise
tactic
therapeutic
Thesaurus
thesis


Tip
http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~themis/ewords/zolotas.html (Speech using Greek words)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_words_of_Greek_origin
You can give an amusing speech at a wedding, prize giving, birthday party, funeral, wedding anniversary, using Greek for any gathering which includes people from Greece, or those learning or teaching Greek


Author
Angela Lansbury, BA Hons, Toastmasters International awards: Advanced Communicator Gold (ACG - involves presenting a minimum of 40 prepared speeches) Competent Leader (CL).
I am the author of ten books by other publishers, plus ten self-published books.
Please follow and like my posts on blogger and Facebook, also profiles and posts on LInkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram. Share my posts.

Yes, you do speak GREEK ! + Two English Speeches Using Greek Words

   I studied philosophy at University College, London. In our first term we had a list of classic books to read, including Plato and Socrates. We were very proud of ourselves and thrilled that we had got to university, all determined to do well. Imagine our horror after our first lecture on hearing from one of the abashed students that we had all been outclassed, 'There's a boy in the front row reading Plato in Greek!'
    We were very relieved to hear later that the boy who was reading in Greek, was a boy from Greece.

   It is much easier to learn the Greek alphabet if you are familiar with mathematic signs.

   On my first day on a trip to Greece I could not read any of the words or road signs. Then we drove out of Athens and back again. I kept looking at the motorway signs. I was delighted when I recognised the word Athens written in Greek alongside the English. I could then take the TH in Athens, to help me to recognise the other letters and other place names.
   Our English speaking guide around Thessalonika told us that the Greek ambassador age a speech to the United Nations using almost entirely Greek words which everybody would know.  I found two speeches in Wikipedia.

'Xenophon Zolotas (Greek: Ξενοφών Ζολώτας, 26 March 1904 – 10 June 2004), was a Greek economist and served as an interim non-party Prime Minister of Greece.

'Early life and career[edit]

'Born in Athens in 1904, Zolotas studied economics at the University of Athens, and later studied in Leipzig and Paris. He came from a wealthy family of goldsmiths with roots in pre-revolutionary Russia. In 1928 he became Professor of Economics at Athens University and at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, a post he held until 1968, when he resigned in protest at the military regime which had come to power in 1967. He was a member of the Board of Directors of UNRRA in 1946 and held senior posts in the International Monetary Fund and other international organisations in 1946 and 1981.

'Zolotas was director of the Bank of Greece in 1944–1945, 1955–1967 (when he resigned in protest at the regime), and 1974–1981. He published many works on Greek and international economic topics. He was a Keynesian, and was active in socialist circles with his close friend, Professor Angelos Angelopoulos. He is also famous for demonstrating the contribution of Greek language to the English vocabulary by making English speeches, as he said, "using with the exception of articles and prepositions only Greek words", to foreign audiences.

'When the elections of November 1989 failed to give a majority to either the PASOK party of Andreas Papandreou or the New Democracy party of Constantine Mitsotakis, Zolotas, then aged 85, agreed to become Prime Minister at head of a non-party administration until fresh elections could be held. He stepped down after the election of April 1990 which gave Mitsotakis a narrow majority."

Speeches[edit]

'Two of his speeches in English are considered to be historic and notable because they contained mainly terms of Greek origin. Here are the texts:

1957[edit]

'I always wished to address this Assembly in Greek, but realized that it would have been indeed "Greek" to all present in this room. I found out, however, that I could make my address in Greek which would still be English to everybody. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, l shall do it now, using with the exception of articles and prepositions, only Greek words.

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 euharistia to you, Kyrie to the eugenic and generous American Ethnos and to the organizers and protagonists of his Amphictyony and the gastronomic symposia."

1959[edit]

'Kyrie, it is Zeus' anathema on our epoch for the dynamism of our economies and the heresy of our economic methods and policies that we should agonize the Scylla of numismatic plethora and the Charybdis of economic anaemia. It is not my idiosyncrasy to be ironic or sarcastic, but my diagnosis would be that politicians are rather cryptoplethorists. Although they emphatically stigmatize numismatic plethora, they energize it through their tactics and practices. Our policies have to be based more on economic and less on political criteria. Our gnomon has to be a metron between political, strategic and philanthropic scopes. Political magic has always been anti-economic. 

'In an epoch characterized by monopolies, oligopolies, monopsonies, monopolistic antagonism and polymorphous inelasticities, our policies have to be more orthological. But this should not be metamorphosed into plethorophobia, which is endemic among academic economists. Numismatic symmetry should not hyper-antagonize economic acme. A greater harmonization between the practices of the economic and numismatic archons is basic. Parallel to this, we have to synchronize and harmonize more and more our economic and numismatic policies panethnically. These scopes are more practicable now, when the prognostics of the political and economic barometer are halcyon. 

'The history of our didymus organizations in this sphere has been didactic and their gnostic practices will always be a tonic to the polyonymous and idiomorphous ethnical economies. The genesis of the programmed organization will dynamize these policies. Therefore, I sympathize, although not without criticism on one or two themes, with the apostles and the hierarchy of our organs in their zeal to program orthodox economic and numismatic policies, although I have some logomachy with them. I apologize for having tyrannized you with my Hellenic phraseology. In my epilogue, I emphasize my eulogy to the philoxenous autochthons of this cosmopolitan metropolis and my encomium to you, Kyrie, and the stenographers.'

(I have put in bold some well-known words. Angela.)

Some Greek words you may use and recognise:

aer air
agora - marketplace (agoraphobia - fear of open spaces)
adelphos brother as in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love
anti opposite (antipathy, antiseptic)
aster star (asterisk)
auto self (automatic)
haemo blood (anaemic, haemorrhage)
stenographer

See wikipedia List of Greek words with English derivatives
Wikipedia has the Greek alphabet.
You can also look for other alphabets and symbols on your computer under fonts.