Is it accurate to say that the Spanish language has no connection whatsoever with the Greek language? If not, and if possible, about how much can we safely say there is?
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1>about how much can we safely say there is - that would be problematic. I'm not aware of any quantitative measure of a degree of languages' connection.– tum_Jul 26, 2019 at 22:11
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There is something called conditional entropy explained in this NativLang video to measure how similar two languages are. However, this relies on a mathematical formula, which places it out of reach of a casual linguist.– Toby MakAug 4, 2019 at 4:26
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1And yet... and yet there is an unexpected affinity of the respective phonologies. People have puzzled about it for decades, but I have not heard anything suggestive, so far. In particular, the transitional b,d,g --> β, γ, δ transition, ongoing in Spaanish, and all-but-completed in Modern Greek has been an enduring source of public fascination.– Cosmas ZachosAug 6, 2019 at 19:45
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Many medtierranean & european languages sound somewhat similar, in an earthly manner. The fact that the two have similarities is a fact, and they cannot be no connected at all, as the approved answer dictates.– ZapJun 16, 2021 at 12:47
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1 Answer
No, it isn't.
Spanish and Greek are both part of the Indogermanic language family and therefore historically connected. However, this historic connection is rather old, the split between proto-Greek and proto-Italic dates back at least 4000 years. The split is that old that there is no mutual intelligibility between Spanish and Greek left.
In addition, Modern Spanish has absorbed a lot of learned loans coined from Ancient Greek mostly for medical and technical vocabulary. This gives another connection to the Greek language.
answered Jul 26, 2019 at 16:13
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2UNAM, the national university of Mexico, requires incoming students to pass an examination on Greek and Latin etymology in Spanish. dgenp.unam.mx/planesdeestudio/quinto-2017/…– jlawlerJul 26, 2019 at 19:39
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2Modern Greek has more than a few Latinate words as well. More than Spanish has Greek in some areas of daily life, like toponyms. And even Greeks' endonym for most of recent history. Jul 26, 2019 at 19:57
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3Why do you call it the Indogermanic rather than the more common Indo-european?– curiousdannii ♦Jul 27, 2019 at 0:08
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1@curiousdannii I think you know that already, it's my personal preference explained here: linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/25522/… Jul 27, 2019 at 13:17
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