Italian VS Greek: How Different or Similar Are They?

Let's do a brief comparison between Greek and Italian, shall we?

Greek (Modern Greek: Ελληνικά, romanized: Elliniká, pronounced [eliniˈka]; Ancient Greek: Ἑλληνική, romanized: Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records.[2] Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years;[3][4] previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary.[5] The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer, ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon. Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek.[6][7] Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics.

During antiquity, Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world.[8] It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek.[9] In its modern form, Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora.

Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary.

Italian (italiano [itaˈljaːno] i or lingua italiana [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna]) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin.[6][7][8][9] Spoken by about 85 million people (2022), Italian is an official language in Italy, San Marino, Switzerland (Ticino and the Grisons), and is the primary language of Vatican City. It has official minority status in Croatia and in some areas of Slovenian Istria.

Italian is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia.[1] Italian is included under the languages covered by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Romania, although Italian is neither a co-official nor a protected language in these countries.[5][10] Some speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian (either in its standard form or regional varieties) and a local language of Italy, most frequently the language spoken at home in their place of origin.[1]

Italian is a major language in Europe, being one of the official languages of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and one of the working languages of the Council of Europe. It is the second-most-widely spoken native language in the European Union with 67 million speakers (15% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%).[11][12] Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland, Albania and the United Kingdom) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is approximately 85 million.[13] Italian is the main working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian has a significant use in musical terminology and opera with numerous Italian words referring to music that have become international terms taken into various languages worldwide.[14] Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy,

#greek #italian #comaprison

[gtangari]

I'm Italian but coming from Calabria in an area where Greek had a great influence not just on the language but on the overall culture. Said that, I'm learning modern Greek and I personally find easier than learning German, the language I needed to learn, having moved in Germany. Is it for personal reason or because this "far" background helped? I don't know. But anyway, I'm super interested in this topic :)

[flyvez]

I'm Italian and Greek is my favourite foreign language

[altralinguamusica]

Half-Greek Cypriot English (Brit) native speaker here who's spoken Greek since childhood (not Cypriot, unfortunately, but standard modern Greek) and studied Italian while continuing to learn French after secondary school at uni (I'm at about B2 in Italian).

Metatron, there are more similarities than you realise! There are words and grammatical structures I learnt faster than my classmates thanks to my Greek and I kept note while I was at uni.

A lot of everyday Greek vocabulary is of Italian origin and entered the language recently (mostly through Venetian):

αντίο / addio, βαλίτσα / valigia, βόλτα / volta (though in Greek it means a 'stroll' rather than 'time' [as in 'occasion']), γκρίζο / grigio, γούστο / gusto, κάλτσα / calza, καπέλο / cappello, καριέρα / carriera, κουβέρτα / coperta, κουζίνα / cucina, κουνέλι / coniglio, μα / ma, μπίρα / birra, πορτοφόλι / portafoglio, ράτσα / razza (*), σκούρο / scuro, τρένο / treno, φασαρία / fesseria, φάτσα / faccia (*), φέτα / feta (slice; not the cheese), φράουλα / fragola, φρένο / freno, φρέσκο / fresco (fresh), φρούτο / frutto and so, so many more; not to mention those to do with food, music or art (though these are probably universal)! There are also plenty of reborrowings, too, which are fascinating: βραχίων – bracchium – braccio – μπράτσο (this is my fave).

Just one example off the top of my head when it comes to grammatical structures are imperatives and the order of pronouns which is the same (whereas in French, it's the other way around):

δως του το / daglielo BUT donne-le-lui
πες μου το / dimmelo BUT dis-le-moi

(Admittedly, the pronouns in Greek can go the French way, too.)

The word order's the same with gerunds, too:

βλέποντάς το / vedendolo
απαντώντας του / rispondendogli

Oh! The verb endings are very similar, too! That was my first inkling at uni when I thought to myself "OMG!":

1st pers. sg. -ω / -o
1st pers. pl. -με / -mo
2nd pers. pl. -τε / -te
3rd pers. pl. -νε / -no

These ending similarities are also found in the other Romance languages, too (Spanish is usually the one most people notice these similarities in first), of course. Then there's how Greek verbs have become more... I forget the linguistic term; analytical? Anyway, what I mean is, the infinitive has been lost and replaced by subjunctive constructions (even in the first person which is weird for Romance speakers: θέλω να πάω στην παραλία / lit. voglio che (io) vada (!) alla spiaggia; and then the perfect is formed in much the same way as in Romance languages, except it's always έχω (have): έχω δει / ho visto; είχα δει / avevo visto.

There are shared idiomatic expressions, too (and here I'll include the most famous one used when these cognates come up between Greeks and Italians meeting – there's also been a series of TikToks [**] about it!):

δε βλέπω την ώρα / non vedo l'ora
(*) una faccia (φάτσα), una razza (ράτσα)


Of course, noticing all of these requires a lot of knowledge and experience as it can be very easy upon hearing Greek from afar to miss all these little words. Anyway, knowing Greek already meant I learnt Italian super quick and I'm sure you'd find the same thing!

I hope that you'll appreciate me essay of a comment here and revisit the topic in another video because it most certainly deserves more attention! Modern Greek is a sadly often overlooked language and I was very excited to see this video pop up in my notifications!

Michael

[djgeorgetsagkadopoulos]

I'm Greek. My father used to be a truck/lorry driver (18 wheeler for Americans). He traveled from Greece to Italy and back every week. He was able to learn basic modern Italian language through experience and by talking to common people during his travels.
Also, he told me that there's a huge difference between how the language is spoken in North vs South. In fact he told me that in a lot of places in South Italy (and probably around Sicily as well) a Greek person could possibly perform basic communications with locals in Greek, as their local idioms derive from Greek origin.
Myself have never been to Italy. However I have a couple of Italian friends and I was able to identify quickly some loan Italian words used in modern Greek.

PS: Excellent work for pronouncing "theta" and "delta". Another Greek letter that's difficult for a lot foreign speakers is the letter "gamma". Most people tend to pronounce it "G" as in "Garry" or "G" as in "George". In Greek however those pronunciations require two letters (GK for Garry and TZ for George)

[AristarchusEsti]

I'm an American that speaks Greek. I learned it from churchgoers and online a while, it helped me a lot to learn Russian. Mainly it taught me how to use IPA, really niche phonetics like retracted S, inflected grammar, etc. And it taught me to learn cases by natural method rather than reading grammar books. It's admittedly easier than Russian, but also extremely challenging compared to something like Mexican Spanish. (Due to exposure and limited cultural connection to Greece rather than Mexico) So far I'm around b1-b2. Fascinating language, and is also extremely consistent in inflection rules.

[panathatube]

In Greece we say "una faccia una razza" (one face one race) meaning we're so very much alike with Italians especially Southern Italians, that we're practically brothers. Of course that doesn't apply all that much in the languages! There's a variety of common words though, like φινιστρίνι/ finistrini (meaning the small window used in ships and especially planes, we don't use this word for house windows) from the Italian word finestra or the word faccia / φάτσα for face. Other common words is opera (όπερα), duetto (ντουέτο), duro (ντούρο), diva (ντίβα), numero (νούμερο), tomata (τομάτα), ombrella (ομπρέλα), pacchetto (πακέτο), pappagallo (παπαγάλο-ς), gato (γάτο-ς/ γάτα). As for Spanish, truth be told Greek and Spanish are of course totally different languages, but the pronunciation is basically identical to the point a Spanish who has learned Greek has almost no foreign accent and vice versa. I'm talking about castilian spanish of course. PS in Calabria they still speak a form of Greek dialect descending from the ancient world. A dying dialect I'm afraid.

[elevatorisland]

I've lived in both Italy and Greece. There are some Italian words that have made it into Greek, some of which I think entered Greek when there were Italian colonies. When I lived in Italy I sometimes heard words that seemed to have a common root with Greek, like coniglio and kouneli, or lucanica and loukaniko. I also had Italian friends from Calabria whose last names were definitely Greek in origin.

[janetmackinnon]

I first started to be interested in learning Greek in a restaurant. The place mats had phrases in Greek, and it looked interesting. yt husband and I became friendly with one of the waitresses, whose family came from Cyprus.We soon decided to go the Greece, but after the rule of the Colonels (yes, i'm nearly old...)
When we got there, to the Dodecanese I was instantly recognised as having a Cypriot accent. I was pretty proud that me accent was Cypriot and not Glaswegian!

[melmar]

Πολύ καλή ανάλυση, φίλε μου! Συγχαρητήρια!
Also, you forget to mention that they are 2 nations that can have a quite long debate without one's speaking the language of the other! The understanding is achieved just with hands, eyes and similar mindset. Thank you.

[thegreekguy]

First off, I ought to say, FINALLY, finally we get a dedicated video about Greek! This language is just incredible, and I swear, I am not saying that because am a native, its truly fascinating that even as a native I still learn new things on a regular basis. I am really proud of that fact, our language has such a huge vocabulary that a lifetime of learning wouldn't be enough to learn it all, meaning you'll always learn as you go.

Btw pretty good pronunciation for an untrained person

[giuseppedelfino]

If you come from Salento, Southern Calabria, and the area of Messina - and you speak the local variety - Modern Greek is easier, since the Romance varieties spoken there are influenced by Greek not only in vocabulary, but also in syntax: let's not forget Greek (which survives today, even though in danger of extinction, in the forms of Grecanico in Calabria and of Griko in Salento) was widely spoken in those areas until the 13th century.

[AthanasiosJapan]

Χαίρε! Please remember that the south part of Italy, was part of the Greek world, and was called Magna Graecia. Many Italian cities have Greek names. For example Napoli is from Greek Neapolis and it means "New City".

Fun fact: NPC's in Assassin's Creed Odyssey speak and sing in ancient Greek, but with modern Greek pronunciation.

[film-noirvideo]

My father was Sicilian and my mother Greek. They shared Italian as she was born in Cairo in the early 20th Century, which was then a cosmopolitan city. As an aside she also spoke as well as Greek & Italian, French, English and Arabic. My father spoke Italian to my brother and I, so we rarely heard his Sicilian (he was from Lipari), and my mother spoke to us in Greek. I never formally study the languages, and so I would say that while I speak Italian and Greek, it is at elementary school level. I would say that Italian is much easier to learn than Greek, but I love both languages. I never realised the subtle differences in the "s” sound!

[LNTutorialsNL]

I'm a native Dutch speaker, moved to a Greek island two years ago and I'm learning both Modern and Attic. For me it's not a very hard language to learn as the grammar is pretty regular and relatively easy to learn, I should dedicate more time to expanding my vocabulary, though reading Modern Greek for me is a lot easier than speaking and listening right now.

[achastos]

I am Greek and when I listen Italian (in a movie for example) I understand more than I would expect, even though I never studied Italian. Maybe it is the knowledge of English (which almost every Greek has), maybe because I studied some basic Latin at school, maybe because there are many Italian words in the Greek vocabulary, or a combination of all of that. The Italian pronuncination is very clear too. That helps.

[ian_sch]

I'm learning Greek right now! And believe it or not, the previous language I've studied was Italian hahahha

So right I speak Portugues as my native language, English as second, German was the third one I've studied but unfortunately most of it I lost after years without practicing it.

Then the forth one was Italian after an amazing trip to Italy ( I needed to have more of "Italy" in some way or another until my next trip, so learning the language was a no brainer).

The fifth was Greek. I was looking for a different language, with a different alphabet. Russian and Japanese were among them but right at that moment when I was deciding which one to study, the Russian invasion happen so my desire to learn it went away really fast. And Japanese... multiple alphabets, nahhh too much.

Greek was a perfect choice for someone like me who loves history mythology etc. It’s quite a challenge, but very rewarding as it opens your comprehension for other languages that used Latin and Greek as foundation.

[DonaldOlsen-fy]

Great job metatron. Ive been speakong Greek all my life! Yet i was born and raised in chicago Il. I had to speak Greek to hear the s you were speaking of. Yes we do it just aren't aware of it. Thanks so much fascinating video. My maternal grand mother was from Tripoli, dead center on the Peloponesos. My grandfather was from Catania in Sicily. Im fluent in both but was exposed more to the Greek than the Sicilian. I loved your Sicilian video. Your fast Palermo dialect blew my mind. Understood very little!

[DafniKem]

I'm Greek living in Spain and you're absolutely right. My boyfriend is Spanish, he's fluent in greek and has no accent. He sounds native. Also he speaks latin and he's now learning ancient greek and he says the same. That ancient and modern greeek are not that different in comparison to latin and

[anthimoshatzianthimou]

I am Greek amd i was in Spain for vacations. When i was talking with my wife in Greek the Spaniards around us believed that we were taking a Spanish dialect maybe from Latin America...and they spoke to us in Spanish..

[Tonitrws]

A dedicated video to ancient greek pitch accent with Luke would be AWESOME. You could also compare and contrast it with the Japanese pitch accent!