The Greek language is a living language that has survived not because we say so, but because, in the absence of any other recent language, it has remained in the international vocabulary and "fertilized" most European languages.
Every year students of classical studies abroad rush to obtain books and teaching methods of learning Ancient Greek from Oxford, Cambridge, and all the well-known publishing houses.
It is well known that almost all schools in Europe have aroused the interest and enthusiasm of children to learn the classical languages, Latin and Greek which are not called "dead" so as to condemn them a priori.
Unfortunately, Greece failed to keep up with Europe for centuries under the Turkish yoke during the Renaissance in Europe, when the arts and writing were very much inspired by Greek mythology, history and philosophy. So in Greece, when in the French, German, Italian salons the aristocrats spoke to each other in Ancient Greek, we spoke a mixed language of Greek, Turkish, Italian, a language that consisted of a mixture of languages that we would have difficulty understanding if we heard it today. And fortunately, our language was saved thanks to the Church and the Gospels, which were written in Ancient Greek.
As Andrea Marcolongo says in her book "La lingua geniale", which translates exactly as "the ingenious language", with the subtitle "9 ragioni per amare il Greco", that is, "9 reasons to love Greek" (of course, this means ancient, since everyone in Europe, when they tell about Greek, they mean ancient Greek), there is no language that is "richer, more precise and better studied" than Greek.
We say "αρχαιολογία/archaiologia" and in English, we pronounce "archeology" or "παλαιοντολογία/palaiontologia" and "paleontology". We say "αρχαία/archaia" and in English, we pronounce "archaic".
Let's look at a few more words: We say "ατμόσφαιρα" which is spelled atmosfera in Latin. We say "αίνιγμα", which is Latin enigma. We say "ενέργεια", Latin energia / "αιθήρ", Latin ether / "Αίγυπτος", Egitto / μυστήριο, mistero / φαινόμενο, phenomenon / εγκυκλοπαίδεια, enciclopedia. The list is long and if we enter the scientific vocabulary (ginecologo, ematologo, pediatro) we will never finish. In short, the Latin language, sister of Greek, has stored in it the accent of Ancient Greeks.
Unfortunately, such a beautiful, rich and lively language is more appreciated, loved and used with more respect abroad than in Greece. We admire people who try so hard to learn from the beginning a language whose alphabet they do not even know. And yet they try, they learn it, they speak it, they teach it, and that is the reason why the great publishers continue and publish books about methods for teaching ancient Greek even today.
