Greek is the only language in the world that has been continuously used for almost 4000 years. The first written monuments on Greek dates back to the XIV -XII centuries BC. International Greek Day is celebrated annually on February 9.
On this day they honor the memory and Greek national poet Dionysius of Solomos, who wrote the national Greek “Anthem of Freedom”.
Today's holiday emphasizes the fundamental role of the Greek language and its determining contribution to the development and formation of European and world literacy and culture. It remains a language that significantly enriches international scientific discourse. This is a language that formed and expressed the majority of scientific theories, philosophical thoughts and literature in the modern languages of the Western world. Georgios Babiniotis, a famous professor of linguistics and former Minister of Education, notes:
“This is a language in which they already speak forty centuries without a break. It is also written the same, using the same alphabet, for the 28th centuries, and it adheres to the same spelling rules for 24 centuries. ”
Greek language remains native only for 13 million people around the world, but its influence and contribution to the development of the whole world have no equal, Writes GreekrePorter.
Visiting countries that are far beyond the borders of Europe, native speakers are often perplexed: the languages that they hear there use words, phrases, grammatical and syntactic rules that are directly borrowed from Greek. And this is not surprising. The phrase “Greeks have a word for this” uses, for example, native speakers of English every time they face difficulties when describing an object or idea.
Officially, the International Greek Day started in 2018 and laid the foundation for initiatives aimed at spreading this great language and culture around the world.
Profile Commission of the Greece Parliament in December 2016 supported the proposal Minister of Education of the country Kostas Gavroglu about the establishment of World Greek Language Day. On February 9, it was not by chance that the anniversary of the death of the national poet Dionysios Solomos was chosen. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, responsible for interaction with national diasporas, Kerens Kuik emphasized:
“Greek language has a global meaning: it enriches many languages of the planet daily, is used in such a fundamental science as medicine, therefore it is certainly worthy of his own World day.”
Initially, the initiative was nominated in 2014 by the Greeks communities in Italy, who were the first to suggest establishing International Greek Day. The Greece government ultimately accepted the proposal in 2016, and the plenary meeting of the Greek parliament unanimously approved him.
Many languages have their roots in the ancient Greek language. The history of the Greek language is a history-synonym for conflicting concepts of modesty and glory. Modern Greeks are proud that their country has never colonized other countries in the recent past. But Greece was the first Western civilization that colonized almost all other countries, thanks to its great cultural influence for centuries.
A native of France, England, Italy or other country at some point uses the word or phrase, the roots of which are in Greek, in the works of the Greek philosopher or poet.
After almost four thousand years since the first Hellenic tribes began their way to fame in the world, their cultural and linguistic heritage is still vividly. It is alive through ourselves, regardless of whether we are citizens of Greece or not. Because being Greek means something more than just the nationality specified in the passport. With International Greek Day!
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