How Latin and Greek Languages Have Affected Us Today in Various Ways

Over 60% of the words in the English language contain a Greek or Latin root (“Online English Dictionary”). This quantitative figure conveys the importance of Greek and Latin on the development of the words in the English language. One commonly used root, astr, has origins in the Greek language (“Alphabetical Index”). Many words that use the root astr in them relate to stars or space. The root astr, meaning star, comes from the Greek language, and it !is! used in words such as astrolabe, astronomy, and astronaut (Harper).

We find that the “oldest written sources of western medicine are The Hippocratic writings from the 5th and 4th centuries BC; which covers all aspects of medicine at that time and contain numerous medical terms.”(Wulff) This was the beginning of the Greek era of the language of medicine, which lasted even after the Roman

“The History of the English Language”. http://www.uni-due.de/SHE/. Univ. of Duisburg Essen. April 2013. Web 4 Oct. 2013.

Let us see how prefix and suffix changes can alter the meaning of a term without changing its central meaning by keeping the root the same:

In an ever changing world we have seen the number and complexity of languages become reduced. In a Wall Street Journal article entitled What the World Will Speak in 2115, John H. McWhorter advocates for the world to see these changes as necessary and a way for communication worldwide to become more efficient and simplified. McWhorter shows how language has been streamlined for centuries as a way for citizens to adapt rather than viewed as an extinction of culture. Modern English is likely to become the dominant language worldwide but more so for the fact that it can be easily learned and is open to transformation with the times. Despite the fears of a world where lingual diversity is reduced, McWhorter suggests that there will still be variation to promote culture and communication with people from all backgrounds will be easier. The following is a summary and analysis of McWhorter’s main points describing the simplification of language. Following the summary of main points will be a hypothetical situation in what the world language could consist of 100 years from now.

How the Greek Mind Changed the World Ancient Greece had a major impact on modern day society. Had we chosen to follow in the footsteps of a different civilization and culture, our world would look completely different. Many of their influences have shaped the human mind; how we think and how we view the world. Some of aspects of their culture whose influences are seen in modern day society include art and poetry, philosophy, and religion.

Classical civilizations have had a great impact on modern society. Ancient Greece can be considered as a very influential classical civilization. Geography plays a crucial role in shaping civilizations, and this is true of ancient Greece. Three geographic factors in Greece influenced the development of Greek society. The first one is the sea. As a matter of fact, Greece has a very easy access to water. Because the Greek people live around the sea and not on a land, they naturally become traders. Greece is a very mountainous country. Indeed, ¾ of the Greek land consists of rugged mountains, and this factor made transportation difficult. The third factor is the climate. Thanks to a Mediterranean climate, the moderate temperature present throughout

Even though it’s called Ancient Greece, doesn’t mean that all their ideas and lifestyles are ancient. Greeks have influenced lives today in many ways. They are the base of many different creations. Greeks have influenced the world today through education, architecture, government, and many more things. Many people's ideas are still used today and really affect society and how people live.

Many Greek gods and goddesses helped to make medicine what it is today. Many medical terminology comes from or is name after these Greek gods and goddesses. There are even symbols that are derived from Greek gods. First we have Asclepius, the god of medicine. Asclepius is the son of Apollo and Coronis.

According to Professor Joshua J. Mark from Marist College, New York, “Writing is the physical manifestation of a spoken language.” (Mark et al, 2011) In fact, from this quote, this attains this topic needed for discussion in this research paper, in order to how writing was used for monumental purposes in the classical era.

These include technical and scientific terms but also more common words like those above” (Peraki and Vougiouklaki). The English language has Greek roots and words in and exponential part of its language. For example, in science, many scientific words and names include at least one greek root in it that helps name the object or organism. In conclusion, the Greek language played a major role in the development of the english among others

The affinity between languages can best be brought out by an accurate transmission of the form and meaning of the original

The Greek and Roman alphabet is important today because it was used to record and make us understand the Ancient World and to learn another language. Without this information, we wouldn’t know much about the use of language, writings, poems, speeches, plays, histories, books of science, books of thoughts about the world, and time, all of which the alphabet lead and guide us to. “The Greek alphabet is of paramount importance to world culture and writing, because it was used to record the most cultured and philosophical thought of the ancient world, which guides us today, It is the base not only the new Greek script, but a number of other writings, such writings in Latin characters,” according to this website. All of these elements affect the

In Hopi, there is one word (masa’ytaka) for everything that flies except birds-- which would include insects, airplanes, and pilots. This seems alien to someone used to thinking in English, but, Whorf argues, it is no stranger than English-speakers having one word for many kinds of snow, in contrast to Eskimo, where there are different words for falling snow, snow on the ground, snow packed hard like ice, slushy snow (cf. English slush), and so on. In Aztec, a single word (with different endings) covers an even greater range of English notions--snow, cold, and ice. When more abstract notions are considered (such as time, duration, velocity), the differences become yet more complex: Hopi, for instance, lacks a concept of time seen as a dimension; there are no forms corresponding to English tenses, but there are a series of forms which make it possible to talk about vari- ous durations, from the speaker’s point of view. It would be very difficult, Whorf argues, for a Hopi and an English physicist to understand each other’s thinking, given the major differences between the languages. Examples such as these made the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis very plausible; but in its strongest form it is unlikely to have any adherents now. The fact that successful translations between languages can be made is a major argument against it, as is the fact that the conceptual

Word borrowing is a common linguistic phenomenon. However, there is no denying the fact that for most lexical borrowing a socio-cultural and linguistic interaction between two or more linguistic communities is essential. The contact with Arabs and Islamic culture had exercised an immense impact on the socio-cultural life of the Muslims in Indian subcontinent. The interaction of Muslim army: Arabs, Iranian, Turks, Afghans resulted into arrival in the Indian Territory which later became the basis for an emergence of a language like Urdu that etymologically means an ‘army’. The political, social, and religious events over these centuries had not only affected Urdu speakers but also had a recognizable effect of their language culture. The socio-cultural contact between the Muslim soldiers speaking different languages including Arabic and the local population of the Indian sub-continent resulted in the development of Urdu. The Urdu language of today reflects the growth and development over the past few centuries. Consequent upon this sustained contact between the languages of the soldiers and the dialects spoken by the local population, the process of linguistic amalgamation started. Lexical borrowings into the Urdu vocabulary may be considered as the outcome of the socio-cultural impact of Arabic and Persian on various groups of people of the Indian sub-continent and their culture. The presence of groups of lexical borrowings from different languages