Russian And Greek Languages

Hello, my name is Kerrin. As a student who is studying both Russian and Greek languages, I have noticed some similarities between the Russian and the Greek language, which helps me to learn and improve efficiently in both languages.

Both are from Indo-European family tree

The Indo-European family tree is a large ethnolinguistic family tree consisting of many languages with their shared linguistic roots. The Indo-European family tree consists of many branches with a lot of notable languages, such as English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Russian and many more. When both of the languages are from the same family tree, it means that they have the same ancestor group, evolved from the same previous ancient language. When the two languages share the same common ancestor, usually they inhibit similarities in either the pronunciation, grammar, or vocabularies.

While both Greek and Russian belong to the Indo-European language family, they belong to different branches within the Indo-European language family. Greek belongs to the Hellenic branch while Russian belongs to Slavic branch, which means that, significant difference exists between both of them. Such differences exist because they had diverged at some point, which contributes to significant differences between both languages.

Both have similarities in their alphabets

Although the Greek language uses the Greek alphabet while Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, there are some similarities. Some letters have similar shapes and pronunciations, while others are evolved from the Greek alphabets with some shape modifications.

Whilst creating the Cyrillic alphabet, St. Cyril with St. Methodius heavily got inspired for their alphabet based on Greek alphabets with some additional characters for representing Slavic sounds not found in Greek. Some letters which are usually being used in Greek don’t have phonetic value to the Russian language, so that’s why it was removed.

Both have shared vocabularies

Both ot the two languages have shared vocabularies due to several factors:

  • The spread of Orthodoxy and Byzantine influences.

Following the spread of Orthodoxy, the Russian people have borrowed a lot of Greek loanwords. Many religious texts that had originally been written in Greek were being translated, which added loanwords from Greek to Russian. Besides, Russia and Byzantine used to have trade and diplomatic relationships. The examples of these shared vocabularies are:

Икона (ikona) - εικόνα (eikóna)

Ангел (angyel) - άγγελος (ággelos)

Дьякон (d’yakon) - διάκονος (diákonos)

Дьявол (d’yavol) - διάβολος (diávolos)

Схизма (skhizma) - σχίσμα (schísma)

  • Scientific loanwords. The Greek language serves as a scientific language to communicate technology, ideas, and science, that means Greek is being used for naming technical concepts in many studies such as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and many more. Here are some of the examples:

Мидия (midiya) - μύδια (mydia)

Метеоризм - μετεωρισμός (meteorismós)

Палата (palata) - παλάτι (paláti)

Кефаль (kefal’) - κεφάλι (kefáli)

Театр (teatr) - θέατρο (théatro)

Besides that, since Russian and Greek are from the same language family tree, they also have shared vocabularies cognates too. For example, the Greek and Russian shared the same roots for the word “five”.

Greek have “πέντε“ (pénde) while Russian have “пять” (pyat’), which comes from the Indo-European “pénkʷe”

Both have stressed pronunciations

Both Greek and Russian are stress accented languages, with both giving emphasis on its pronunciations. Stress accented language focuses on giving emphasis on a particular place of a word, which may be used to give an emphasis or a distinctive meaning.

In the Greek language, the stress features are being shown with tones ( ‘ ), a diacritic mark in their vowels. Here are the examples:

Ποτέ - Poté (Never)

Πότε - Póte (When)

Πως - Pos (That)

Πώς - Pós (Where)

Γέρος - Géros (Old)

Γερός - Gerós (Strong)

While in Russian, there are also stress features, but they are only being shown in Russian dictionaries. Here are the examples:

Зáмок - Zámok (Castle)

Замóк - Zamók (Lock)

Плачу́ - Plachú (I’m paying)

Плáчу - Pláchu (I’m crying)

Дóрого - Dórogo (expensives)

Дорогó - Dorogó (dearly)

Both have case system

Both Greek and Russian have extensive case systems. Case system is a category of nouns which denotes its functions in a sentence. While Greek has four cases, Russian has six cases. Greek has Nominative, Accusative, Genitive and Vocative, while Russian has Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Instrumental and Prepositional cases. Here are the functions of the cases which both exists in Greek and Russian:

  • Nominative

Nominative case is a case that denotes the subject in a sentence. It answers the question “who” or “what”.

In Russian, here is the example of the nominative cases:

Мальчик во что-то играет (mal’chik vo chto-to igrayet)

The boy plays something

In Greek, here is the example of the nominative case:

Το αγόρι παίζει κάτι (to agóri paízei káti)

The boy plays something

The word “το αγόρι”, “мальчик” or “the boy” are the nominative case.

  • Genitive

Genitive case refers to a possessive relationship between two nouns. It answers the question “whose” or “of whom”.

Here is the example of genitive case in Russian:

Детская собака (dyetskaya sobaka)

Children’s dog

Here is the example of genitive case in Greek:

Ο σκύλος του παιδιού (o skylos tou paidioú)

The dog of the kids (or “children’s dog”)

The word “детская”, “του παιδιού”, “children’s” or “of the kids” are the genitive cases

  • Accusative

Accusative case refers to the direct object affected by a verb in a sentence. It answers “what” or “whom”.

Here is the example in Russian:

Ребёнок гладит собаку (ryebyonok gladit sobaku)

The child strokes the dog

Here is the example in Greek:

Το παιδί χαϊδεύει τον σκύλο (to paidí chaïdevei ton skylo)

The child strokes the dog

The word “собаку”, “τον σκύλο” or “the dog” are the accusative cases.

While the previous three cases exists in Greek and Russian, the four others are exists only in either Greek or Russian.

Both have grammatical genders

Grammatical genders are forms in noun classifications. Both Greek and Russian consists of three nouns, which are masculine, feminine and neuter. In both languages, the adjective, the articles and the nouns must agree with the grammatical genders. Here are the examples of the grammatical genders:

Russian: красивый дом (masc) (krasivyy dom)

Greek: το όμορφο σπίτι (neuter) (to ómorfo spíti)

Translate: Beautiful house

As we can see, both in Greek and Russian, the endings determine the grammatical gender of a noun in both languages.

Both are inflectional languages

Both Greek and Russian are inflectional language, which means that both of them have endings in a verb determine their grammatical categories. In both language’s verbs, their endings showcase who do the action.

Cases

Although Greek and Russian have similarities in cases, there are some differences. Greek has only 4 cases, while Russian has 6 cases. Both Greek and Russian have Nominative, Genitive and Accusative, but they have different cases for the rest.

Here are the breakdowns of each cases:

  • Vocative (only exists in Greek) A vocative case is a case used for addressing someone. For example, when trying to directly call someone’s name, the vocative case is being used. Here are the examples of vocative cases in Greek:

Γεράσιμε, τι κάνεις; (Gerásime, ti káneis?) Gerásime, what are you doing?

The word Γεράσιμε (Gerásime) is the vocative version of Γεράσιμος (Gerásimos), a Greek person’s name. While the Russian vocative case doesn’t exist, in Greek there is a vocative case.

  • Dative (only exists in Russian) Dative case refers to the indirect object affected by the verb in a sentence. It’s different from the accusative case, which refers to the direct object affected by the verb.

я дал коту рыбу (ya dal kotu rybu) I gave the cat a fish.

The word “коту” or “the cat” is the dative case.

  • Instrumental (only exists in Russian) Instrumental case refers to the instrument used to do the action in a sentence. It answers “with what” or “by what”.

Я ловлю звëзды стрелой (ya lovlyu z vyozdy streloy) I catch the stars with an arrow.

The word “стрелой“ or “with an arrow” indicates the instrumental case.

  • Prepositional (only exists in Russian) Prepositional case refers to the location of someone, a subject or an object in a sentence. It answers the question “where” or “in what”.

Я в Америке (Ya v Amerike) I’m in America

The word “в Америке” or “in America” indicates the prepositional case.

Phonetics

Both Greek and Russian have different phonetics that don’t exist in both languages, which affects their pronunciations.

Greek have the sound:

  • th or θ (IPA pronunciation voiceless dental fricative /θ/)
  • dh or δ (IPA pronunciation: voiced dental fricative /ð/)
  • gh or γ (IPA pronunciation: voiced velar fricative /γ/),

While Russian have the sound:

  • y or ы (IPA pronunciation: close central unrounded vowel /ɨ/)
  • ch or ч (IPA pronunciation: voiceless aveolo-palatal affricate /tɕ/)
  • sh or ш (IPA pronunciation: voiceless retroflex fricative /ʂ/)
  • shch or щ (voiceless aveolo-palatal fricative /ɕ/)
  • zh or ж (IPA pronunciation: voiced retroflex fricative /ʐ/)

Which have implications for challenges between learners of both languages respectively.

Consonant Clusters

Also, both of the two languages have consonant clusters. For instance:

In Greek, here are some the common consonant clusters:

  • ρθ (rth). For example έρθω (értho) - I come
  • πτ (pt). For example Πτολεμαίος (Ptolemaíos) - Ptolemy
  • χθ (chth). For example χθές (chthés) - yesterday
  • χτ (cht). For example χταπόδι (chtapodi) - octopus
  • σβ (sv). For example σβήνω (svíno) - I erase
  • στ (st). For example στραπατσάδα (strapatsáda) - Strapatsada
  • τσ (ts). For example τσίπουρα (tsípoura) - Gilthead fish
  • γκ (gk). For example γκουγκλάρω (gkougkláro) - I am googling
  • μν (mn). For example μνήμη (mními) - memory
  • γγ (gg). For example άγγελος (ággelos) - angel
  • μπ (mp). For example μπορεί (mporeí) - he/she/it can
  • ντ (nt). For example νταηδες (ntaides) - bullies
  • νθρ (nthr). For example άνθρωπος (ánthropos) - human

In contrast, in Russian, there are some types of consonant clusters:

  • Two-consonant clusters. For example Где (gdye) - where
  • Three-consonant clusters. For example Страна (strana) - country
  • Four-consonant clusters. For example Взгляд (vzglyad) - glance

As we can summarize, Greek consists of a shorter consonant cluster, while Russian contains a longer consonant cluster.

Infinitives

Infinitives are verbs used for the base form of a verb or function as a noun. This form doesn’t show tense, number nor person. While Russian has infinitives, Greek doesn’t have infinitives at all. Let’s see this example:

“I want to sleep”

The word “to sleep” is infinitives. Now let’s see how does it translates in both of the two languages

Russian: “я хочу спать” (ya khochu spat’)

The word спать (spat’) means “to sleep” and it functions as infinitives.

Greek: “θέλω να κοιμηθώ“ (thélo na koimithó)

Literally, it means “I want to I sleep”. Since Greek doesn’t have infinitives, it uses the singular present tense form of a verb as the base of the infinitive. The word κοιμηθώ (koimithó) means “I sleep”, but add the word να (na) - which means “to”, it will be infinitives. So, the word να κοιμηθώ (na koimithó) means “to (I) sleep”

As we can see, the presence and the absence of the infinitives showcases the differences between the two languages.

Articles

Articles are words that precedes the noun in a sentence. In English, it is manifested as “a, an and the”. While Greek has articles, Russian doesn’t have them. Here are the examples of articles in Greek:

Definite article (the):

  • Masculine article: Ο

For example, ο σκύλος (o skylos) - the dog

  • Feminine article: Η

For example, η γάτα (I gáta) - the cat

  • Neuter article: Το

For example, το σαλιγκάρι (to saligkári) - the snail

Indefinite article (a/an):

  • Masculine article: ένας (énas)

For example, Ένας μάγκας στο Βοτανικό (énas mágkas sto Votanikó) - A guy in the Botanical garden

  • Feminine article: μία (mía)

For example, Μία γάτα παίζει (mía gáta paízei) - A cat plays

  • Neuter article: ένα (éna)

For example, Ένα σουβλάκι (éna souvláki) - A souvlaki

In order to convey the concept of the article, Russian uses another means, which is by understanding the context.

In Punctuation Marks

Whilst learning Greek and Russian, I’ve found out that there are some differences in punctuation marks. In order to make a question, the Greek use (;) or semicolon, while the Russians use (?) or question mark. For example, here is the usage of semicolon in Greek and the comparison with Russian.

I want to say “Hello, what are you doing?”, here are the translations:

Greek: Γειά σου, τι κάνεις; (Geiá sou, ti káneis?)

Russian: Привет, как ты дела? (Privyet, kak ty dyela?)

For the (—) dash mark, the Greek uses them for indicating the parenthetical expressions or listing things, while the Russian uses them for attaching between the subject and the predicate, since Russian doesn’t have a copula.

For example in Greek usage:

For indicating parenthetical expressions:

Η Κενδι—η γάτα της φίλης μου—έχει μία μαύρη γούνα (I kendi—I gáta tis fílis mou—échei mía mavri goúna)

Candy—my friend’s cat—has a black fur

For listing things:

Το ψωμί, το αυγό και τα λαχανικά—είναι απαραίτητα τρόφιμα (to psomí, to avgó kai ta lachaniká—eínai aparaítita trófima)

Bread, egg and vegetables—they are essential foods.

Meanwhile, here is the example of the usage in Russian:

Он—дракон (on—drakon)

He is a dragon

Additionally, the Russians use the round brackets ) & ( for showing emotions in chats, just like emojis. While in Greek, the round brackets aren’t used for showing emotions.

As can be seen, the round bracket ) is being used to show happy emotion while the round bracket ( is being used to show sad emotion.

And these are the differences between Greek and Russian. Thank you!