it's claimed that the Greek people can speak a bit Turkish...?

Question

is it true? what do u think?

Answer 1

You can not generalize your statement and I would explain thoroughly.

Greek and Turkish are two different languages. The Greeks can not understand Turkish and vise versa. It is true though that the Greeks use some words that originate from Turkish because they lived for many years under the Turkish occupation. The same applies for the Turks but not that much. You see the Turkish goverment has some kind of insitution that creates new words to replace the words that come from foreing languages and more or less are imposed.

In the north Greece there is a muslim minority of about 130,000 people. This minority speaks both Greek and Turkish. Actualy many people of the minority speak Turkish better than Greek.

Moreover there are the displaced Greeks of Turkey. From 1950's to 1970's the Turkish deported or forced the Greeks who lived there to leave the country. About 500,000 Greeks that came to Greece from Turkey can speak Turkish but not that fluently anymore. They can understand and speak but with difficulty. My parents for example came from Istanbul to Greece in 1978 and they can speak Turkish but me for example I know only some words. It is impossible for me to understand Turksih.

In the last decade Greece has received a lot of imigrants. Many Kurds that had to leave Turkey have come to Greece. So you have also some Kurds that speak all three languages Turkish, Greek and Kurdish. I think they are about 20,000 but i am not sure about the number

In Turkey, on the other hand, some Turks can speak Greek but not very well. These cases are the Turks that worked for Greeks or Turks that leaved in Greek areas.

Also in Turkey there are some old people (if they are still alive) that speak Greek. They mostly originate from Crete and moved to Turkey after the exchange of Greek and Turkish populations between the two countries at the end of WW1. Their kids and grandchildren do not speak Greek though.

I hope I made that clear. As for Greeks learning Turkish now it is in some extent true. It is not a big trent but many people started doing business with Turkey and they believe that by speaking Turkish they can achieve more. Also they consider it as advantage and that it would be easier to make business.

Answer 2

I know Greece fairly well, I even lived there and, you know, I can speak some Greek too. I was under the impression that when a foreigner tries to speak Greek in Athens the Greeks always replied in English. The last time I went there I found out they were all speaking Turkish. I asked why. "You megalos malakas!", someone said in Greek (!), "Turkish is the new fashion here. And the Turkish are speaking Greek in turn!" Of course, there are far more people in Turkey than in Greece (and some more turkeys as well), so now Greek managed to be spoken by a lot more people than usually did, whereas Turkish became a language spoken by only about 10 million people. Curious, ain't it?

Answer 3

The Turks left Greece more than 150 years ago; the last Greeks left Turkey 80+ years ago. There is no ancestral memory of the Turkish language in today's Greeks.

Some Greeks speak Turkish if they do business with Turks, just like some Turks speak Greek if they have needed to learn it for some reason. They are neighbors, after all, but that's all they are now. Greek and Turkish are mutually unintelligible languages, only very distantly related.

Answer 4

Well, Greeks are very intelligent people and can easily learn languages, as it is proved by research done by US Universities and Agencies.
Also, there is a group of Greeks who lived in Turkey, thus they know Turkish. Also, there is another group who being Muslims, have studied Koran in Turkish.
Also, there are millions of Greeks living in Turkey who thus speak perfect Turkish!
All the best!

Answer 5

Well it depends on waht part of Hells you're visiting. On islands close to Turkey,you might find some people speaking turkish ,but it's not like we learn turkish at school.We have a lot of turkish words that we use in everyday talking but we're not so proud of it!!!!We should try and replace them ,but 400 years of occupation by our "neughbours " is a long time...

Answer 6

Well, we use some Turkish words but just a few. We wouldn't be able to communicate in Turkish

Answer 7

I'm neither, but I now every country lends a few words from their neighbours. However that doesn't mean Greeks speak Turkish or vice versa.They might know how to say "hi, bye, thanks, come here etc" but that's just common knowledge.

Answer 8

u
I think that the old people new some of the old Turkish
language but Young gen ration they dont

Answer 9

not so true, but they have some words which sounds like turkish

Answer 10

well they were ruled once by turkish people, and their country does border turkey and there are turks living in greece who would be able to speak both languages and their neighbours would pick it up.......you get it