Is true that in1821, just before Greece was established as a country, its people did not speak Greek?

Question

In 1829 when Greece became a state, for the first time, it was a small country covering the region of Morea, modern day Peloponnesus (Greece proper). The majority of people living in Morea at the time spoke Albanian, Turkish, Vlach and Slav. Athens itself, the cradle of the ancient civilization, was nothing more than an Albanian village.

http://mk.wikibooks.org/wiki/BIG_Greek_Lie_10_-_Greeks_claim_no_Macedonians,_Turks,_Albanians_or_Vlachs_live_in_Greece_today

Answer 1

ya its true. they spoke click language.

Answer 2

Many "national" states are like that. Like, Italy had many many different languages completely different from each other, each city fighting for supremacy over others all through the Middle Ages. Then comes the concept of nationality, one language is deemed the "correct" one and forced upon the rest of the population within borders. And I really mean force when I say force.

Of course, you have to read history to know that, not just your high school history books.

Ask people if they know about Venetian as a language.

We have a saying, "Stick the small needle into yourself before sticking the bigger one into someone else." Greeks got away with sticking needles to others for too long.

Answer 3

No, that's not true. Greece is indeed an invention of the westerns, who didn't want the "rebirth" of the Roman Empire. The people who organized the revolution were Romioi (=Romans) and not Greeks. Romioi (or Rum in turkish) were the citizens of the Eastern Roman Empire (collapsed in 1953), who were orthodox christians, spoke mainly greek, had greek ancestry and had a Roman heritage. The word Romioi in 1821 was used for all the orthodox christians of the Ottoman Empire, including the greek-,arvanitic-,vlach-,pontic-, cretan-, turkish-, slav- etc. speaking populations of the southern balkans, the minor asia, and the middle east. The arvanitic, turkish, vlach and slav speakers were predominantly bilingual as they used the greek language for their church services and the other one for everyday life.

"Athens itself, the cradle of the ancient civilization, was nothing more than an village". That's true. The neighbouring also glorious and ancient cities of Boeotia (Thebes, Plataeae, Thespiae etc) had a better developpement throughout the centuries and that's why Athens was nothing more than a village. The residents of the suburbs of Athens were mainly Arvanites, who identified themselves as Romioi but never as Shqiper (or whatever) and fought against the soldiers of the Ottoman Empire along with the other Romioi of southern Greece. (Those soldiers were mainly muslim Albanians (Turkalbanians called then) who slaughtered and burnt the villages of the Arvanites and the other Romioi  with  much cruelty). King Otto in 1834 decided to trasfer the capital from Nafplio to Athens.

When the new state of Greece was created, the Westerns denied the name Romania or sth similar and so the Romioi chose the name Hellas and Hellens cause they spoke hellenic. The Westerns didn't like that name either and so they call us Greeks and our country Greece (as the Pope did for many centuries to deny our "Romanship"). It's like Albania which is not called Shqiperia by the rest of the world.

P.S. I advise you that you don't call a native Athenian or other Arvanite Albanian, cause I cannot guarrantee about your physical safety.

Answer 4

Yes, it is true.   " Greece" like most modern European countries, is largely an invetion of the past two centuries.  The Greek speaking population of the Eastern mediterranean was spread across the Southern Ottoman Empire, and it took a lot of ethnic cleansing to put them all on boats to Piraeus.    Modern Greeks no more speak the same language as the ancient Greeks than you speak Anglo-Saxon, and most of the major classical Greek cities are in places like Turkey and Egypt.

Answer 5

Just like you say, they spoke Turkish, Albanian, Slavic languages etc... Greece was quite a mixture. I'm sure they will deny that aspect of their past now.

Answer 6

That's not true my friend, Greek language has a continuous history for thousands of years. The Cyrillic alphabet is based on the Greek Alphabet. Also l am not fond of your provocative "questions", l have seen you many times. Please do some prober reading before posting such nonsenses. As much as you try you cannot  blacken our history and heritage, especially our literature. I can see in your words not only hate but also racism against many nationalities, you are no different than your former friends the n***s.

Answer 7

They spoke Greek and all of them except the small villages knew Turkish. But no they did not speak other languages as their first language. And yes south epeiros spoke Albanian since they were Albanians

Answer 8

That's what you get when you try to rewrite history my friend.

If you were confident about your country's place in the world ( I assume that you come from FYROM ),your own history and the righteousness of what you are saying, you wouldn't feel the need to refer to such articles. You would go directly to serious universities and world wide acknowledged historians to support your sayings. Too bad you can't find any to go along with your beliefs. Perhaps now that you BOUGHT yourselves a university, you may buy a history too!! You never know!!!

Answer 9

I don't believe it....again?

Did u forget again to take your medication ?

Doctor said that u should never miss any pill.

GO GO GO GO quickly to the pharmacy !

Answer 10

I know you haven't asked this question with the best of intentions but I really can't understand why people insult you with such ardour if what you say is really THAT ridiculous. (Can someone explain to me what is wrong with being Slavic or Ex-Yugoslavian?) Some of the answers are nice, informative and calm, some, by obvious users, are filled with insults and I think I've even seen Rigas Feraios in one of the answers lol

Totally Blunt has written the most sensible answer so far, which, I guess, is the reason why she received so many thumbs down :)

Answer 11

No, it is not true. There were some villages   inhabited by Arvanites, who spoke ancient Albanian, and who had lived there for centuries. They were and felt so Greek, that most of the people who fought for the Greek Independence were among them. And of course they spoke Greek as well. As for people who spoke Vlach, they were Greek indigenous populations that had been latinised in terms of language long ago. By the way, what are you trying to prove? Racial purity is not anything to be seeked by any other than Hitler. Greece is not claiming n**i ideals!

By the way, folk poetry and songs, which are in a beautiful Greek language and were made and sung by the simple people during the ottoman rule, prove that you are wrong.

Answer 12

Believe me it's not good to say all these ridiculous things.

You only insult and humiliating your self and most important your country (FYROM) .

No country worth all this situation. And i refer to your country (FYROM) because with all these actions you show in international level that you are a "weird" nation.

Instead of  making propaganda and say ridiculous theories full of nationalism i suggest you to be more serious because at the end you will be alone.

All the countries in the Balkans make a progress ...you are the only country that stay behind.

Answer 13

And so you all answered the silly question and all of you are right.The question is what did you accomplish?

If you ignored him he would be standing all alone and humiliated,and that would have been the best answer

The world knows the glorious past of Greece,it extends thousands of years,even before Jesus,2 major languages at that time Greek and Aramaic,I don't know about Aramaic but Greek is alive and doing very well thank you very much.  

Edit:Zoltan i think you are playing his game

Answer 14

oh my God!!!!!!!!!!You should read some history books!!!That's total lie!Totaly ridiculous!  

Answer 15

yeah yeah...and the earth is flat !

Answer 16

Really? Did they start learning Greek in 1829?

Don't be ridiculous!

Greeks have been speaking Greek all through the centuries and their children were taught in secret by clergymen in hidden chapels, caves and monasteries through the Ottoman occupation in Greece. The Greek Orthodox church played a major part in writing down the works of the ancient Greek writers and in teaching Greek to Greeks.

Moreover, just read the traditional/folk Greek poetry and songs: they are written in Greek all through those centuries and we sing them even nowadays. How come a people speak a different  language from Greek and sing in Greek at the same time?

Everybody spoke Greek: even the people in the villages who were illiterate spoke Greek. I come from Peloponnesus and half of my origin is from the Mani, where no Turks set their foot on. Greeks all over the then Ottoman Empire spoke Greek, the Orthodox Mass at church was in Greek, the Greeks have always been religious and the Church helped them a lot in keeping their Greek language and identity.

http://www.europeans.co.za/cafeneio/hist...

http://www.greekspider.com/greekpoems/kr...

http://www.greekspider.com/religious_wri...

http://www.helleniccomserve.com/musichis...

http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/ca...

Answer 17

So...you say all Greeks abandoned their previous language and got to speak perfect Greek in 150 years time? Must be so smart then. No?



Being nuts is fine. Being stupid is hilarious. Go on! What else smart Greeks managed to do within just 150 years?

They are annoying..aren't they?

Answer 18

hahaha...maybe you are a Turk or something like that, feeling so much inferiority towards the Greeks that you want to punish them with your stupid questions. 10000 years of history can not be changed or spoiled in any way by any Allan D

Answer 19

Κsereis, i psychosi einai kako pragma, prepei na to antimetiposeis oso einai kairos... O giatros tha se voithisei, min ton fovasai...

It is obvious that allan, partillac and and all these guys have nothing else to do than occupy themselves with Greece 24/7.

And to answer your question, it's true. We mainly spoke SWAHILI back at the time... We started speaking Greek in 1997.

Answer 20

no its not true

to begin the bible was originally written in greek and latin about 2000 years ago

greece was a collection of city states that were constantly fighting most of the time before the unification and all of the city states spoke greek

by the way wikibooks is an open content thing and nothing is verified

if i wanted to i could put that i am the god all mighty in heaven who may smite you

in a more vulgar manner i would not be censored until reported

Answer 21

Of course is not true.

as a person with a proper mentality (me) i advise you (no brain left ) to not read wikipedia too much,especially entries not approved just as this wikibook (look at the author down at the page)

also I would like to advise you to visit a doctor called psychiatrist

you know-inferiority complex and schizophrenia is not normal.....

Answer 22

Oh yea???And where was Macedonia and Epirus??How about Crete and the islands??Silly and childish!!Open up a book from time to time,they won't bite you!!!! Regards from beautiful Athens. Yia sou.

Answer 23

A lot of people took time to answer your silly "question".

You deserve the embarrassment and humiliation you caused to yourself and your compatriots.

Next time you spread trash like that, make sure is from a more reliable source (however it may be impossible to find such source) and not from a  "wikibook club"written by a FYROMian

Edit: Totally blunt , she needs to reverse the word "Greeks" with the word "Turks" in her statement.

She clearly ignores the fact her country has imposed all kinds of restrictions to the occupied countries, especially Greece.

If anything, Turks should be the last ones to put the blame to Greeks. Did they forget the restrictions they imposed on Greeks while they occupied Greece,about choosing to keep their language or their religion, but not (choosing to keep) both??

Now, who is sticking needles here?

Answer 24

no! They spoke Greek, but they were also aware of Turkish!

Answer 25

Yes, yes, u are right, whatever you say is true.  

Don't u get embarrassed when u make a fool of yourself?

Answer 26

No, they spoke Greek, as did most of the Mediterranean did about 2000 years ago.