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1、希腊语对英语的影响Greek is one of the eight main branches into which the Indo-European languages are divided. The area in which it is spoken has been curiously constant throughout its recorded history. These limits are, roughly speaking, the shores of the Aegean 爱琴海, on both the European and the Asiatic side
2、, and the intermediate islands (one of the most archaic of Greek dialects being found on the eastern side in the island of Cyprus), and the Greek peninsula generally from its southern promontories as far as the mountains which shut in Thessaly on the north. Beyond Mt. Olympus 奥林匹斯山 and the Cambunian
3、 mountains lay Macedonia,马其顿 in which a closely kindred dialect was spoken, so closely related, indeed, that O. Hoffmann has argued (Die Makedonen, Gttingen, 1906) that Macedonian is not only Greek, but a part of the great Aeolic dialect which included Thessalian 塞萨利 to the south and Lesbian to the
4、east. In the north-west, Greek included many rude dialects little known even to the ancient Greeks themselves, and it extended northwards beyond Aetolia 埃托利亚（古希腊地名） and Ambracia to southern Epirus and Thesprotia. In the Homeric age 荷马时代 the great shrine of Pelasgian Zeus was at Dodona, but, by the t
5、ime of Thucydides, Aetolia and all north of it had come to be looked upon as the most backward of Greek lands, where men lived a savage life, speaking an almost unintelligible language, and eating raw flesh ( , Thuc. iii. 94, of the Aetolian Eurytanes). The Greeks themselves had no memory of how the
6、y came to occupy this land. Their earliest legends connected the origin of their race with Thessaly 塞萨利（希腊地名） and Mt. Pindus, 品都斯山脉(希腊中部山脉 )but Athenians and Arcadians also boasted themselves of autochthonous race, inhabiting a country wherein no man had preceded their ancestors. The Greek language,
7、 at any rate as it has come down to us, is remarkably perfect, in vowel sounds being the most primitive of any of the Indo-European languages, while its verb system has no rival in completeness except in the earliest Sanskrit of the Vedic literature. Its noun system, on the other hand, is much less
8、complete, its cases being more broken down than those of the Aryan, Armenian, Slavonic and Italic families.约在公元前 9 世纪出现的荷马史诗伊利亚特和奥德赛就是用希腊语最后分化出来的四种方言写成的。由于希腊文化早于罗马文化，不少希腊语单词被借入拉丁语中。所以在古英语时期或中古英语时期，英语中的希腊语外来词主要是通过拉丁语为媒介而借入的。然而到了文艺复兴时期， 受过教育的英国人开始热衷于研究希腊文学，并直接从希腊语中借用单词。因而, 许多希腊词被直接借入英语中。其中, 绝大部分是科技专门术
9、语。古希腊医学家波克拉府斯(H ippocrates, 公元前 460公元前 377) 著有不少医学文献，成了西方医学的鼻祖。因而, 许多医学术语来源于希腊语。如: cardiology (心脏学) , hepatitis (肝炎) , heliosis (中暑) , heliotherapy (日光疗法) , stethoscope (听诊器) 等等。人们不仅从希腊语中直接借用希腊词, 而且更多的是借用希腊词的字首与字尾，因为这样一个前缀或后缀往往可以派生出几十个单词。在现今, 用借入英语的希腊语前缀或后缀构成新词，表达一种新概念，是屡见不鲜的。常见的从希腊语借入的字首: anti- (反)
10、 、 geo - (地) , hydro - (水) ,micro -(小) , poly- (多、众) , psycho- (心理) , tele- (遥) , auto- (自身、自动) , holo- (全) , homo- (同) 等等。常见的源出自希腊语的字尾： - gy (学) , - meter (计、表、仪器) , - graph (写法) , - phone (声音) , - scope (器械) 等等。有些希腊语词源的外来词仍保留希腊语的复数变化形式, 如: crisis crises; emphasis emphases; 有的则按英语习惯在词尾加- s 或- es, 如
11、: system, dogma, climax 等等。希腊语对英语的影响远不能和 Latin(French)相比。在各种专业术语中，医学词汇中希腊语构词成分较多(如 oncology 以及所有以 -ology，-lysis 结尾的词） 。而在日常用语里，来源于希腊语最常见的英语词大概是 air, Bible, chair 等语词了，其他著名的希腊词有 Eureka, dinosaur, hippopotamus, elephant 等, 而 charisma, strategy 逐渐流行通用也不过是最近几十年的事。另有零星词汇散布在宗教文学艺术词汇中，比如 agape, hyperdulia,
12、 ecclesiastical，entelecheia, eleemosynary, stylite，epiphany, eon, Ionic, Doric, aegipan，porphyrogene 等等。或者是一些历史名词，和希腊历史有关，比如 Delphic, Delian, homoiousian, homoousian, Nicene 等等。希腊语几乎每个方面都比 Latin 要 challenging 一些，词汇多，语法更复杂。在和希腊人接触之前，罗马人还根本没有文学艺术历史戏剧的观念，拉丁的书面语最多只用来日常记账或一些宗教活动礼仪规范等等，罗马人全面接受先进的希腊文明，建设了自
13、己的文学艺术门类。虽然他们的成就总的来说没有超过希腊人，但他们是个很好的学生，通过收藏和翻译希腊著作方式保存了很多希腊文明的成果。规模宏大的亚历山大图书馆达到鼎盛期时也正处在罗马的庇护之下。以“- is”结尾，变复数时，将“- is”变为“-es”。例如：crisis - crises(危机)， axis - axes(轴)， parenthesis - parentheses(圆括号)。以“-on” 结尾，变复数时，将“-on” 变为“-a”。例如：phenomenon - phenomena(现象)，criterion - criteria(标准)， automaton - automata(自动装置，机器人)等。以“-ma”结尾，变复数时在词尾加 “-ta”。例如： stigma-stigmata (特征)， phantasma-phantasmata (幻觉)等。拉丁语和希腊语极大的丰富了英语词汇，她们的词缀词根也被英语积极吸纳，使英语使用起来更加灵活。而作为非英语国家的人来说，掌握了这些词的来源，以后学习起来就不用死记硬背了。
