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?
0
-
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 at 22:11
-
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 Mak Aug 4 at 4:26
-
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 Zachos Aug 6 at 19:45
7
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 at 16:13
jknappen - Reinstate Monicajknappen - Reinstate Monica
15.6k2 gold badges35 silver badges67 bronze badges
-
1UNAM, 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/… – jlawler Jul 26 at 19:39
-
1Modern 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. – Adam Bittlingmayer Jul 26 at 19:57
-
2Why do you call it the Indogermanic rather than the more common Indo-european? – curiousdannii Jul 27 at 0:08
-
1@curiousdannii I think you know that already, it's my personal preference explained here: linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/25522/… – jknappen - Reinstate Monica Jul 27 at 13:17
-
1
