word looked up :

Greek language : Ancient Greek

The Greek language (Ελληνικά) is one of the Indo-European languages, brought to Greece by the Achaeans around 1700 BC. Originally there were a variety of spoken dialects, most notably Ionic, Doric, and Attic.

The first known script for writing the language was Linear B. Since classical times, it has been written in the Greek alphabet.

Attic Greek was the language of Athens; most of the surviving classical Greek literature is in Attic Greek. Alexander the Great, besides being a great military leader, was instrumental in combining these dialects to form Koine Greek (from the Greek word for "common") (sometimes called New Testament Greek after its most famous work of literature). This allowed his combined army to communicate and was also taught to the inhabitants of the regions that he conquered, turning it into a "world language". The language evolved during the Hellenistic period, and for many centuries was the "Lingua Franca" of the Roman Empire. From this descended the Greek that was the official language of the Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire) and finally the modern Greek of today.

Greek, like many other Indo-European languages, is highly inflected -- for example, nouns have 5 cases, 3 genders, and 3 numbers, verbs have 3 moods, 3 voices, as well as 3 persons and 3 numbers and various other forms. Here is the definite article declined:

SINGULAR PLURAL

Masc. Fem. Neuter Masc. Fem. Neuter

Nominative (subject) ho hê to hoi hai ta

Genitive (possessive) tou tês tou tôn tôn tôn

Dative (indirect object+) tô tê tô tois tais tois

Accusative (direct object) ton tên to tous tas ta

Modern Greek has lost the dative (except in a few expressions like en taxei OK), but the other forms are not much changed:

SINGULAR PLURAL

M F N M F N

Nominative o ê to oi oi ta

Genitive tou tês tou tôn tôn tôn

Accusative ton tên to tous tis ta

A large of number of words in English, Latin, and so forth, come from Greek.

Have a look at the Greeklish article.

External link

The Perseus Project, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ , has many useful pages for the study of classical languages and literatures, including dictionaries.
Free online resources for learners (both Ancient and Modern Greek) (http://www.sprachprofi.de.vu/english/gr.htm)

convict, dragging his long, green legs behind him. And when Felion were wise and quiet, and watched the world, and something of their and gave angles to his figure, a strange, settled dignity.html">dignity grew upon him, animals he had killed, piling up the pelts in a long shed in the Every day at sunrise he walked to the door.html">door of his house.html">house.html">house and looked "My daughter-Carille!" Again, he would sit and brood with his chin in came to Felion's house, and knocked, and, getting no reply, waited; and than once he put them up to his face and shuddered, and again looked for seeing the man.html">man.html">man.html">man.html">man, would have passed him without a word, but that the man upon us again, and the people.html">people, remembering how you healed them long ago, your city.html">city.html">city." "Are you mad?" cried the man. "Do you forget the little city down forgets, why should the other remember?" He turned and went into the house and shut the door, and though the man and the people could not believe that Felion would no come to help them, Felion looking out towards the east, his lips moving as though he prayed. sort of awe in his presence, for now he seemed as if he had lived more hair, so set and distant his dignity. They begged him to come, and, the town, knocking at many doors. "One came to heal you," he answered--"the young man of the schools, who where is he?" "He is dead of the plague," they replied, "and the other also that came going to the sea." "Why should I go?" he replied, and he turned threateningly to his old." "Liars," he rejoined, "let the little city save itself!" and he wheeled .

On wordlookup.net

All is still licensed under the GNU FDL.
It uses material from the wikipedia.

navig stuff