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What are some connections between the ancient Greek alphabet and the modern world?

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What English owes to the Greek language

The Oxford Companion to the English Language states that the 'influence of classical Greek on English has been largely indirect, through Latin and French, and largely lexical and conceptual...'.

According to one estimate, more than 150,000 words of English are derived from Greek words. These include technical and scientific terms but also more common words like those above.

Words that starts with 'ph-' are usually of Greek origin, for example: philosophy, physical, photo, phrase, philanthropy.

Many English words are formed of parts of words (morphemes) that originate from the Greek language, including the following examples:

phobia (fear of), as in arachnophobia – the fear of spidersmicro (small), as in microscopic – so small it's hard to seedemos (people) as in democracy – government by the peopleA great example of the influence of the Greek language are the two speeches written in English but actually consisting of only Greek words (with the exception of articles and prepositions) by the former Prime Minister Prof. Xenophon Zolotas, who was also an economist.
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