The Association of Italian Universities S.E.P.I. in collaboration with the Italian Educational Institute of Athens, in the context of the World Day of the Greek Language, held on Wednesday 08 February, a workshop on the topic: The spread of the Greek language and culture in Italy.
The 2017 η February 9th, proclaimed by the Greek Parliament World Greek Language Day, linking it to the date of death of our national poet Dionysiou Solomou (9 February 1857)
Dionysios Solomos is considered the "progenitor of Greek literature", the man who, coming into contact with other European languages, chose the Greek language as the official language of his Poems, and today, on February 9, he is honored for the special position he held in Greek literature and intelligence. He was the one who connected the concepts of language and nation, who formed a national secretariat and became the "pure" expression of the feelings of his time and his country. He sought to capture in depth the concept of Freedom, a freedom both linguistic and expressive, as well as moral. He wanted to cultivate a language that would express national and at the same time universal values and ideas
The Common Greek language that Greeks speak and write today is unbroken continuity which connects us directly with the greatest moments of Greek thought and language.
The continuity of our language is that which connects us with the language of the texts of Homer and the ancient tragedians, with the speech of the philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, as well as with the language of Thucydides, Herodotus and Plutarch, but also with the language of the New and Old Testaments.
The Greek language and the Greek culture expressed in written texts, with the Greek alphabet, εthey are the ones with which the whole civilized world taught us, knows us and distinguishes us.
This is our great heritage. This is our great cultural capital. This is the privilege of which every people of the earth would be proud.
Perhaps not everyone knows that the initiative of this celebration started in Italy, as a vision of the Greek diaspora there. It was then adopted by the Greek State as World Day of the Greek Language, a day of celebration for Greek communities, expatriate organizations, and friends of Greece and the Greek language in general around the world.
Personally, I don't think this initiative was started by accident in Italy by Greeks living there. This country was a partner and continuation of Greek culture. It is therefore perfectly logical in such an environment, in a country with an equally long and important history, which has equally decisively contributed to the formation of world culture, to find fertile ground for the promotion of an innovative idea, such as that for the celebration of World Greek Day Language.
It is also no coincidence that with the support of the president and its deputy Union of Romanian Greeks, of Mr. Dragos Gabriel Zisopol, this celebration was instituted, outside of Greece, in Romania, confirming the unbreakable cultural and linguistic ties between the two countries.
There is no doubt that the ancient Greek culture, and the timelessness of the Greek language, is a heritage of incomparable value and an indivisible component of modern world culture. In today's age, when the 'usefulness' of things is gaining more and more ground, we tend to forget that language is not just a means of expression and communication – but a carrier of culture and history.
Certainly the most important contribution of the Greek language concerns the dissemination of global values: such as democracy, philosophy, rationalism, sciences, art, theater and, of course, poetry.
Its history, its richness, its plasticity, the ingenuity of the Greek language, cannot but make proud both its native speakers and those who adopt it as a foreign language, much more so all those who make sure that it is not lost the historical link they have with her.
Odysseus Elytis
They gave me Greek as the language
They gave me Greek;
the poor house on the sandy beaches of Homer.
My only concern is my tongue on the sandy beaches of Homer.
There spars and bass
windswept verbs
streams green in the blue
what I saw in my bowels burning
sponges, jellyfish
with the first words of the Sirens
shells pink with the first black streaks.
My only concern is my tongue, with the first black chills.
There pomegranates, quinces
dark gods, uncles and cousins
pouring the oil into huge bowls;
and breaths from the ravine scenting
wicker and schino
asparagus and ginger
with the first peeps of the spines
chants sweet with the first early Doxa Soi.
My only concern is my language, with first and foremost Glory to You!
There laurels and bay leaves
incense and incense
blessing the fights and the carnations.
On the soil laid with the vine cloth
scratches, crunches
and Christ Risen
with the first sbaras of the Greeks.
Secret loves with the first words of the Hymn.
Only concern my tongue, with the first words of the Anthem!
photo cocoparisienne / https://pixabay.com/
