16745 - Greek without Hellenism?
N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Athena Kehagias
One of the major problems faced by the people who promote the learning of the greek language is the number of pupils and students. In every conversation they are wondering what would they do if next year there would be fewer, what will we do now that we have less of them, and how we could manage to have more? These questions are considered by habit as important in the long-term, whereas they just belong to everydayness. Linguists discuss the matter as if there is only the language without the thinking. What is the significance of the language without the thinking? What is the significance of the language without culture? If our goal is simply the communication, and there is certainly an answer. The problem is that we are talking about natural languages and not technical ones. And when we apply this framework to our language we might wonder at the end what is the value of the greek without Hellenism? Because the constant comparisons of greek with the other languages are reduced to a ridiculous joke, since the substance of greek is Hellenism. If the spirit of Hellenism doesn’t exist what is the language worth dealing with? If there is no history what do I mean by referring to the past and the future? Without history, the present dominates, because we live only in space,and not in time. We are a rare nation and we are dealing with quantities. We are a nation of time and we deal with surfaces. The question is why? What is the reason? And the answer is simple: just everydayness. Because it is this , that makes us through forgetfulness and indifference to forget the essence of our existence for centuries, Hellenism. If in the field of languages we are not talking anymore about Hellenism, while we are trying to find linguistic advantages, we are worthy of our destiny, as the words without a reason are not thoughts but just words. Our language is significant because it is the language of the Hellenism. Our language is not only greek, but is the expression of Hellenic thought. Hellenism is a gift of Time to Humanity and from that derives the value of our language. Without the Hellenic thought the world would be different. Let us finally see, that the glory of the language is not how many speak Greek, but how Hellenism became a miracle.