Overgrown and Simplified

Greek Lessons

Although I don’t speak Greek, I’ve been studying it off and on for years. That’s why, when at the neighborhood bookstore, I saw a book entitled “Greek Lessons”, I felted provoked and bought it.

The book, by South Korean writer Han Kang, is about a woman who’s lost her speech and a Greek teacher who is losing his sight. It’s a sad story and one I’d prefer not to think about. But I don’t mind thinking about Greek.

The Greek language has Indo-European roots. The earliest known Greek writing comes from Mycenaean tablets dating to the 14-13th century BC. The Greeks at this time were rapidly evolving and making new discoveries which reflected in the language. There was an increase in demographics and people travelling around that also had an impact on the language.

And imagine how philosophers and mathematicians were adding to the language as new ideas were created and these ideas needed new words to describe them. The language kept growing. And over the centuries, the language became bulky and awkward and too complicated for the common person.

Like an overgrown garden, the Greek language was out of control. The language had become too complex to be functional. So it had to be pruned.

After the Greek War of Independence in 1821, the modern Greek state emerged. And with it the desire to declutter the language to make it more accessible to the people.

In 1829, with the modern Greek state established, the Greek language was now in question. What should be the prevailing language? Should it be the cultivated literary language, Katharevousa, or the vernacular of the masses? It was quite a controversial topic in Greece for some time. Then, in 1976, a resolution passed declaring Demotic Greek, “language of the people”, the country’s official language.

Sometimes it is the too much that leaves us with so little. In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius quotes Democritus: “If you want to be happy, do little.“ We should, continues Marcus himself, do only what is necessary because “most of what we say and do is unnecessary: remove the superfluity, and you will have more time and less bother.” (Meditations, book 4, verse 24).