Why is greece still using the cyrilic alphabet?

Question

turkish people changed theirs and made it look sort of latin..whatever you call it...do you think greece will change greek to a more latinized form

Answer 1

We use the Greek Alphabet. We still speak and write the same language after so many centuries...giati eimaste poli oraioi typoi!

:-)

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/greek.ht...

http://images.google.gr/images?q=Greek+a...

http://www.quinapalus.com/gr0.html

http://www.greek-language.com/alphabet/

Answer 2

The cyrillic alphabet....is based on Greek alphabet but is not the same. I don't think that anybody will wish to change an alphabet of thousand of years history: "It is the oldest alphabetic script in continuous use today"

I suggest to do some reading before you pot such questions. Your ignorance is not excused especially today that the entire source of the internet is available!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alpha...

Answer 3

Oh, Christ...History wasn't your best subject, was it?

Look, Cyrillic was developed based on the Greek alphabet(there were some intermediate stages, such as the Glagolitic alphabet which was developed by the Saints Cyril and Methodius when they went to convert the Slavs). Most of the letters are of Greek origin, but there were certain sounds that the Greek alphabet could not represent, so these letters had to be borrowed from other alphabets or created. So you see, Greeks have been using their own alphabet all along and have successfully influenced other cultures' alphabets as well.

Actually, the Latin alphabet itself is derived from the Greek alphabet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_alpha...

As for Greeks switching to the Latin alphabet, why should they? Transliteration is always an option (although not as aesthetically pleasing as the Greek alphabet) for users whose phones/ computers are not localized. The Turks switched to Latin in their attempt to Westernize, which I doubt is one of Greece's primary ambitions. Why would you voluntarily abandon your own alphabet for someone else's?

Answer 4

goddess ..i really dont know why all these poor people answered your question...especialy when some one ask a question...and ends it with  ...(some thing like that)....do you have any idea  how that reflects on us greeks..you really got to think before you ask a question..your manner towards the answer is  that you dont care about the facts..only an answer..and your whole life is just knowledge from answers...have you ever read a book of history at all? YOU  know all these people are greeks through and through even a few ellinipholies ..and you know what they know what it means to be greek iam beging to think you dont...if i tear open each of these peoples hearts they will all sing the  hellenic alphabet..it is in grained in to our blood..it will NEVER CHANGE ...and please never call it CYRILIC again ever its an insult.....

Answer 5

It is called Greek alphabet not Cyrillic and it can never be changed because it's our culture, our history, our past. The same goes with other nations that use other types of alphabet. It is also called diversity, you know...

Answer 6

Greek language is very complicated. also the meaning of one word shows by the letters. moreover many words have the same sound and if we change the alphabet we cant recognize then the words. for example the word βάζω have the same sound with the word βάζο. both of them call vazo... moreover Greeks are very proud of their history and they are negative to changes that have negatives effects to their history..also Latin alphabet is The alphabet of one ancient Greek region. and Cyrillic alphabet created by Greeks so all others alphabets are from Greece....

Answer 7

well, i think greek people could answer: why english/american ppl still use latin alphabet, it's only the original alphabet for latine or even italian, but not english... greek civilization was built with the ancient temples, but also the tongue AND the alphabet. i dont think they accept to switch.

so i think the best answer is : WHY NOT ?

about cyrillic... they dont use the cyrillic alphabet ; russian or serbs or bulgars do, but the greek alphabet is greek. that looks (from far) similar, but the greek and cyrillic alphabets are not the same.

finally about turks... for 2000 yrs, they used several alphabet (i heard sthg about 30). so nowadays they use latine alphabet... but not for long ? we could imagine, if china is growing, they could use the chinese way of writing.

Answer 8

We use the Greek Alphabet and we're never going to change it.

Answer 9

Greeks use Greek Alphabet.

which is very old....

Cyrilicc alphabet was many years after,when the byzantine monks Cyrillus and Methodios go to the Slavs to teach them Alphabet

ANd why to change our ALphabet?is the most beautiful of all....

Answer 10

Greeks use Greek alphabet

see the map half way down the link page and it will show you which countries use which alphabet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet

also info on the Turkish alphabet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_alp...

Answer 11

It's not Cyrillic, it's Greek alphabet. I'm sure others already told you this, but I had to answer as well. Also, Russians don't use Greek alphabet, they use Cyrillic. Those are 2 different alphabets, but since Greek alphabet is older than both Roman and Cyrillic, of course it influenced the latter two.

Answer 12

I agree with Vasiliki, Greek script looks the coolest of all. Tho I cant read then comes the Hebrew script and Viking Runic script for me.

Greeks need not change their alphabet, a Greek person can read and understand an Attican (the most widely tongue used in Ancient Greece) writing which was scripted 2500 years ago. Not fully but they can still get the core of its meaning (if they hadnt abandoned Katharevousa -and this itself was kind of a made up language by some Greek scholars in an attempt to "cleanse" the language from foreign vocabulary and first and foremost from Turkish- they would have been able to understand more)

About Turks: We did not make Turkish look Latin, it just uses the Latin Alphabet with additional accented characters, also we removed some letters that Latin used (Q and X namely and we dont have W which Latin also doesnt have) Turkish is not a language that is suitable for Arabic script anyway. Ottomans had trouble identiying the original Turkish words in Ottoman scripts (confusing them with some other words which had similar consonats but different vowels and Turkish is full of them) since Arabic script doesnt use a seperate letter for each vowel and consonant normally.

EDIT: If i dont remember wrong Kyrillos and Methodios did not create Cyrillic alphabet as the name implies but they created Glagolitic alphabet which more or less took symbols from Hebrew alphabet rather than Greek one. It was a Bulgarian disciple of those 2 monks who created the Cyrillic alphabet. Correct me if im wrong

EDIT2: To posters who claim that Cyrillic alphabet was the creation of Kyrillos and Methodios:

Although it is widely accepted that the Glagolitic alphabet was invented by Saints Cyril and Methodius, the origins of the early Cyrillic alphabet are still a source of much controversy. It has been attributed to Saint Clement of Ohrid, disciple of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius and founder of Ohrid Literary School in southwestern Bulgaria. Recent studies have suggested that the Cyrillic alphabet was more likely developed at the Preslav Literary School in northeastern Bulgaria.

From wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_al...

Answer 13

The cyrillic alphabet is an offshoot from the Greek alphabet. So we are not using a cyrillic alphabet, our alphabet is GREEK. As for when are we going to change it, NEVER.

Answer 14

The layout of the early Cyrillic alphabet shares a common root with the ninth-century Glagolitic alphabet which was based on the Greek uncial script and the Latin alphabet. The original mother letter-forms are closely related to uncial (ustav) cursive Greek. Saints Cyril and Methodius, Byzantine Greeks from Thessaloniki, are usually credited with the Glagolitic alphabet's development.  

The Greek alphabet gave rise to various others:

The Latin alphabet, an offshoot of the archaic western form of the Greek alphabet;

The Gothic alphabet, devised in Late Antiquity to write the Gothic language;

The Glagolitic alphabet, devised in the Middle Ages for writing Slavic languages;

The Cyrillic alphabet, which replaced the Glagolitic alphabet shortly afterwards;

It is also considered a possible ancestor of the Armenian alphabet, and had an influence on the development of the Georgian alphabet.

So my friend it is the other way around It the Greek alphabet that gave birth to both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets like in most areas of a scholarly nature we must once again educate and guide to rest of the world towards progress by laying out the foundations.

Answer 15

Greeks don't use the Cyrillic alphabet (which was invented in the 10th century.)   Greeks use the GREEK alphabet.   It has been in use for the last 30 centuries......why change now???    If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!

Answer 16

They are still using it because it is part of their culture - just as Japanese and Chinese writing is part of their culture, Arabs use their script, and the Inuit and Eskimol use their runic letters. The world would be a much blander place if everyone used the same alphabet!

Answer 17

The alphabet is Greek. The cyrillic alphabet derives from the greek one. Cyrril (Κύριλος) and Methodios (Μεθόδιος) were greek and were them who invented the cyrillic alphabet and "bring" it to all those countries.

Answer 18

Greek doesnt use a cyrillic aphabet!

The Greek alphabet is UNIQUE, its been used by Greeks for the past 3,000 years since ancient times. Writing in the Greek alphabet, the same alphabet the ancient Greeks did, its one of the things that makes us GREEK. The Greek language is an Indo-European language, and it belongs to the Hellenic language family, and no other language in the world except Greek belongs to the Hellenic language family.  The continuity of using this alphabet symbolizes the contuinity of our Greek language and culture. ITS ONE OF THE THINGS THAT MAKES US GREEK !

Answer 19

1- Greeks use Greek alphabet, it is not Cyrilic alphabet. Do not confuse them, they are two seperate alphabets. And please do not believe everything you read on Wikipedia. It is not always accurate.

2- I don't see any reason for them to change their alphabet which they use for, I don't know a couple of milleniums maybe. Why would they do it? It would be complete nonsense.

3- The Turks changed their original alphabet when they converted to Islam into Arabic alphabet. They were still speaking Turkish of course but they were writing it in Arabic letters. But most of the Turkish population in the Ottoman times were always at odds with the Arabic alphabet. Because it was really complicated. They could not familiarize themselves with it which is quite understandable. That is why Atatürk finally changed it with the latin alphabet. Why latin alphabet? Well, first there was not only one Turkish alphabet, there were several of them. Secondly, It would be anachronistic if he had changed it to one of the original ancient Turkish alphabets. And the most obvious reason is the Latin alphabet's being the easiest one.

Answer 20

we are not using a cyrillic alphabet! we use Greek alphabet!

ΛΟΙΠΟΝ ΤΡΑΒΑ ΝΑ ΜΑΘΕΙΣ ΠΟΛΥ ΚΑΛΑ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΑΣ! Άντε τράβα να μάθεις....πρέπει να Μάθεις πριν Πεθάνεις ρεεε γτ δεν ξερεις τιποτα!!!!!!

Sorry, I forgot that u are not Greek, and even speak a good greek, sorry...

Answer 21

you are not only illiterate, you are also amusing as h**l!

first of all, Cyrillic alphabet is a reform of the Greek one which is in use for thousands of years. in other words, we could say that it is simply an ingenious invention of two Greek brothers from Thessaloniki. it is also known that the "Latin" alphabet was taken- passed to Latins by a Greek colony in south Italy (the then called Magna Græcia), so Latin alphabet is in fact a variation of the Greek one as most top linguistics state.

secondly, Turkish people can chose to do whatever they want with THEIR alphabet/ culture/ history and so on, we don't give a dame as long as we are not directly concerned/ affected by their choice.

as for whether we are going to change our alphabet to a more Latin form, no, that is never ever gonna happen. of course, you can change yours to ours if you want to! but, now that i think of it again i don't think we would really liked that though, because then you would claim it was your creation. LOL!

still, in general, keep in (your little) mind that diversion means production. got it?

PS. i am looking forward for your new (allow me to say idiotic) questions.

Answer 22

The Greek Alphabet is not the Cyrillic Alphabet! The modern Greek alphabet is the evolution of the ancient Greek Alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet, was created by Methodius and Cyrillus, in order to teach Orthodox Christianity to Slavic Nations, which didn't have a written form of their language. So, Cyrillus created an alphabet in order to translate the Holy Bible from Greek to Slavic and used letters from the Greek Alphabet.

The Greek Alphabet is part of the Greek civilazation. Why should we change it?