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What does Greek sound like to a non speak |
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eaglecap 
Tsar 
Retired AE Moderator Joined: 15-Feb-2005 Location: ArizonaUSA Online Status: Offline Posts: 3959 |
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 Topic: What does Greek sound like to a non speakPosted: 02-Apr-2005 at 14:28 |
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I have been to Greece twice and having a Greek mother I have been around the language a lot but I know only a few words and short sentences.
It does sound unique but it does sound much closer to the Romance languages such as Spanish than English. I have a hard time with pronunciation, but I struggled with Spanish as well, still do. A good story; we went to Tijuana, Mexico to tour. We stopped at the various shops but I remember the store clerks speaking Spanish but they knew English. I think my mother and cousin were a bit irritated so they started to speak Greek and the store clerks just scratched their heads. Probably thinking "What strange language is that???" What do you think Greek sounds like?? 
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Cywr
King 
Retired AE Moderator Joined: 03-Aug-2004 Online Status: Offline Posts: 6003 |
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Posted: 02-Apr-2005 at 23:04 |
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Eh, it sounded nothing like Spanish to me.
Hard to describe, but there seemed to be a lot of 'iki's and 'os's  |
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 Arrrgh!!"
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Capt. Lubber
Shogun 
Joined: 27-Jan-2005 Location: Norway Online Status: Offline Posts: 238 |
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Posted: 03-Apr-2005 at 04:26 |
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Sounds like a mix of spanish and some slavic language. Not altogether ugly
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Loke, Attila, the grete conqueror,
Deyde in his sleep, with shame and dishonour, Bleedinge ay at the nose in dronkenesse, A captayin shoulde live in sobrenesse |
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Guests
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Posted: 03-Apr-2005 at 05:45 |
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It sounds like lots of "ki", "is" and "os". It sounds unique, and doesnt sound like Spanish nor any Slavic languages.
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Teup
Earl 
Joined: 25-Jan-2005 Location: Netherlands Online Status: Offline Posts: 287 |
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Posted: 03-Apr-2005 at 08:45 |
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To me it sounds a little like Dutch in a way, rather plain, no fancy romance pronounciation like Italian, no smoothness like French, more 'down to earth' maybe. If I'd hear it at a very low volume in the background at some place where it wouldn't make sense, I'd mistake it for Dutch Anyway it doesn't sound like a mixture to me, it sounds more distinct. |
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Whatever you do, don't
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Colchis
Pretorian 
Joined: 07-Aug-2004 Location: Vatican City State Online Status: Offline Posts: 164 |
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Posted: 04-Apr-2005 at 20:56 |
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I really like the certain sounds which are special to Greek like the
lisping s, which is like th and the subtle gh like when you're saying
"sighnomi" (excuse me). What does it sound like? Well, like Greek.
 Sometimes the lisping sound reminds me of Spanish but it's obvious that it is not.
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Spartakus
Tsar
terörist Joined: 22-Nov-2004 Location: Greece/Hellas Online Status: Offline Posts: 4489 |
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Posted: 05-Apr-2005 at 13:33 |
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Like Chinese to Greeks......The Hellenic language is really unique.It does not request a spesific accent,it is very complex and WAY too big than Spanish and English.
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"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. "
--- Joseph Alexandrovitch Brodsky, 1991, Russian-American poet, b. St. Petersburg and exiled 1972 (1940-1996) |
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Phallanx
Chieftain 
Joined: 07-Feb-2005 Location: Greece Online Status: Offline Posts: 1283 |
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Posted: 10-Apr-2005 at 00:13 |
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I can't really say how it would sound to a non-speaker, but the
speakers of Spanish, Latin, German and English do know exactly what the
Hellinic lang. might have sounded since half their language is filled
with ancient Hellinic loan-words.
A simple example from the thousands available, would be "Dollar" that origrnates from the Germanic "taler" and that, from the Homeric "TALAROS" |
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Gazi
Earl
Joined: 16-Mar-2005 Location: Turkey Online Status: Offline Posts: 282 |
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Posted: 10-Apr-2005 at 12:27 |
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As a Turk living in Anatolia Greek doesnt sound alien to me as Turks and Greeks have intermingled and lived together for hundreds of years.Consequently there are many Greek words in Turkish.(of course they have been altered slightly)And there are probably quite a few Turkish words in Greek as well.
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Freedom is the recognition of necessity.-Friedrich Engels
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Serge L
Baron 
Joined: 03-Aug-2004 Location: Italy Online Status: Offline Posts: 485 |
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Posted: 11-Apr-2005 at 05:54 |
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To an Italian ear, Greek sounds certainly "Mediterranean" (comparatively fewwell-distinct vowels, not that mess there is in languages like English or French, and a certain "harmony" of the pronunciation . . .) , with a distinct "Eastern" inflection: I could confuse it with Turkish, not with Spanish. |
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Guests
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Posted: 11-Apr-2005 at 08:06 |
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Yeah, you are quite right. There are lots of common words in both languages. Greek has lots of Turkish words and Turkish has lots of Greek words. For example in Turkish most of the words about sea, sailing, fish and islands in Turkish are from Greek or Italian. And in Greek most of the words about military, musical insturments, lots of food and object names are Turkish originated. Also some heavy insult words are common btw Turkish and Greek. It is proved that about 13,000 Turkish words are used in Greek, and more than 10,000 Greek words exist in Turkish. Mostly the sound "ch", "gh" and "sh" in Turkish became "is", "si", "tsz" "ki", "g" in Greek.
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Yiannis
Sultan 
Joined: 03-Aug-2004 Location: Neutral Zone Online Status: Offline Posts: 2329 |
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Posted: 11-Apr-2005 at 08:16 |
Now this is intriguing Please name a few (other forumers won't mind since they don't understand!) Is "malaka" one of them?
PS It's however strange to compare it with Turkish, since these languages belong to entirelly different language trees. But you're right, we share many words (mainly for nouns) But when I was in Iran, I could sometimes mistake what was spoken at a distance as Greek (at least the sound of it)! Edited by Yiannis |
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The basis of a democratic state is liberty. Aristotle, Politics
Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin |
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Guests
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Posted: 11-Apr-2005 at 08:50 |
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I dont know if "malaka" is in common use, but I know its meaning and usage as "vre malaka" but I heard "pazavank", "kerata", "orospu", "pich", "hassiktir", kerhaneci (karanagi?) are used with small differences in Greek. |
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Yiannis
Sultan
Joined: 03-Aug-2004 Location: Neutral Zone Online Status: Offline Posts: 2329 |
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Posted: 11-Apr-2005 at 10:45 |
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I love this topic Malaka is THE most common "bad word" in Greek. It's comparable to "wanker" and is a Greek word. "Keratas" refers to "cheated husband", where does it come from in Turkish? pazavank, orospu", "pich & karanagi I don't recognize, but of course we use "ai sihtir" |
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The basis of a democratic state is liberty. Aristotle, Politics
Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin |
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Phallanx
Chieftain
Joined: 07-Feb-2005 Location: Greece Online Status: Offline Posts: 1283 |
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Posted: 11-Apr-2005 at 15:21 |
Military????? I would like some examples Musical instuments????? Same here 13000, is more than a far streched number, of course there are loan-words, but under no circumstance do they reach this number. I do recall a link to a site that was posted some time ago, that attempted to prove exactly what you mention. Unfortunately all efforts were proven wrong since half of the words weren't even of Turkish origin. "pazavank" I think you are refering to the word "pezevengis" but that is only used by Hellinic Cypriots, in Hellas we don't use it. The Hellinic Cypriots have a much larger number of turkish loan-words that they use as synonyms for Hellinic words. "Kerata" is another misconseption probably also found in the site mentioned, what you or whoever gave you this info neglected to inform you, is that the word "Keras"= horn, and from that we have the words "kerasphoros, kerastis, keratinos" (just to mention a few) have been used in the Hellinic lang. for over 2.800yrs, since we do find it in Homer's Iliad. As for the other words you mention, I haven't once heard any of them and believe me, I do swear alot. Edited by Phallanx |
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Guests
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Posted: 11-Apr-2005 at 16:45 |
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I said I wasnt sure about all of them, maybe they are used in Greek in some different structures. But I am sure about kerata and hasiktir I didnt say these words were loaned from Turkish, I said these were common, but I am not sure about their origins. But I know that Greeks use "Malaka" like the word "fu** in English. About the militarical names, did you know that the current army system in most of todays modern armies of tens are originated from old Hunnic system found by Mete Han (MaoDun), who was a Turkic warior king? So some soldier types' names (for ex: akinci, sipahi, svari, etc.) are all loaned from Turkish. I cant deny the enormous number of Greek originated and modified words in Turkey Turkish, but there are even more Turkish words used in current Greek, maybe not used oftenly but exist. This is the normal exchanging after more than a thousand years of life together... |
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Phallanx
Chieftain
Joined: 07-Feb-2005 Location: Greece Online Status: Offline Posts: 1283 |
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Posted: 11-Apr-2005 at 19:20 |
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Malaka
as Yiannis pointed out means wanker, synonym "αυνανας", literally means
"he who mastrubates" but we use it as already mentioned.
As for the military terms you mention, I've never heard of them and can definitely say that we don't use them. Maybe if you give a list of these words along with their meaning we could get somewhere. What I did manage to find is that : Spahis (also spelled as Sipahis, Sepahis or Spakh, in Turkish sipahi) were an elite mounted force within the Six Divisions of Cavalry of the Ottoman Empire. The word Spahi is taken from Persian سپاهی Sip hi meaning "soldier". So it's actually Persian not Turkish |
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Guests
Guest
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Posted: 12-Apr-2005 at 05:03 |
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Yes, you are right, but Ottoman Turkish was a mixture of real Turkish, Arabic and Persian, so that word is loaned from Ottoman Turkish.
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Phallanx
Chieftain
Joined: 07-Feb-2005 Location: Greece Online Status: Offline Posts: 1283 |
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Posted: 12-Apr-2005 at 05:07 |
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I still fail to see where these terms are used today as you said. I had no knowledge of the word sipahi untill you mentioned it and did a google for it, but still it isn't found in the Hellinic lang. as you suggested.
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Yiannis
Sultan
Joined: 03-Aug-2004 Location: Neutral Zone Online Status: Offline Posts: 2329 |
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Posted: 12-Apr-2005 at 05:40 |
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Can we focus on the real issue, that is the "bad words"? No-one has answered my question on the literal meaning of "ai sihtir" (as Greeks say). When used in Greece it has a meaning of "piss off" or "get lost"... But apart for that one, I haven't found other curses with Turkish origin. Perhaps I have to dig deeper in my vocabulary!
Edited by Yiannis |
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The basis of a democratic state is liberty. Aristotle, Politics
Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin |
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Sure I will write them if this doesnt disturb other members (I dont think they would be disturbed.
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