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91-591: The Cimbri ( Greek : Κίμβροι , Kímbroi ; Latin : Cimbri ) were an ancient tribe in Europe. Ancient authors described them variously as a Celtic , Gaulish , Germanic , or even Cimmerian people. Several ancient sources indicate that they lived in Jutland , which in some classical texts was called the Cimbrian peninsula. There is no direct evidence for the language they spoke, though some scholars argue that it

182-922: A Cimbrian chieftain who is enslaved by the Romans after the Battle of Vercellae. Cimbri is referenced in Italo Calvino 's novel If on a Winter's Night a Traveller as a fictional country that warred with a similarly fictionalised version of Cimmeria , thus imposing its own written language onto the Cimmerians. Jeff Hein's historical fiction series The Cimbrian War tells the story of the Cimbri and their migration across Iron-Age Europe. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ )

273-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

364-625: A central town square in Aalborg , the capital of the region of North Jutland . A German ethnic minority speaking the Cimbrian language , having settled in the mountains between Vicenza, Verona, and Trento in Italy (also known as Seven Communities ), is also called the Cimbri . For hundreds of years this isolated population and its present 4,400 inhabitants have claimed to be the direct descendants of

455-456: A common ancestry, recalled from two hundred years previous, but that is not certain. Henri Hubert states "All these names are Celtic, and they cannot be anything else". Some authors take a different perspective. Countering the argument of a Celtic origin is the literary evidence that the Cimbri originally came from northern Jutland , an area with no Celtic placenames, instead only Germanic ones. This does not rule out Cimbric Gallicization during

546-413: A corruption of th, with the initial t not expressed. Jordanes had read Ptolemy, but he claimed to be writing of times before those of Ptolemy. A comparison of Germanic geography in the works of the two men has raised some questions concerning the direction in which some Germanics migrated. On the whole, based on Jordanes, the direction has been taken to be southward from Scandinavia, and it is possible that

637-583: A derivation from tḱei- "live" (> Greek κτίζω , Latin sinō ); then, the Germanic * himbra- finds an exact cognate in Slavic sębrъ "farmer" (> Croatian, Serbian sebar , Belorussian сябёр syabyor ). The name has also been related to the word kimme meaning "rim", i.e., "the people of the coast". Finally, since Antiquity, the name has been related to that of the Cimmerians . The name of

728-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in

819-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

910-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near

1001-417: A prophecy, while still others would split open the body and from an inspection of the entrails would utter a prophecy of victory for their own people; and during the battles they would beat on the hides that were stretched over the wicker-bodies of the wagons and in this way produce an unearthly noise. If the Cimbri did in fact come from Jutland, evidence that they practiced ritualistic sacrifice may be found in

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1092-436: A reason for their having become a wandering and piratical folk as this that while they were dwelling on a Peninsula they were driven out of their habitations by a great flood-tide; for in fact they still hold the country which they held in earlier times; and they sent as a present to Augustus the most sacred kettle in their country, with a plea for his friendship and for an amnesty of their earlier offences, and when their petition

1183-734: A row (104–100 BC). In 104–103 BC, the Cimbri had turned to the Iberian Peninsula where they pillaged far and wide, until they were confronted by a coalition of Celtiberians . Defeated, the Cimbri returned to Gaul, where they joined their allies, the Teutons . During this time, C. Marius had the time to prepare and, in 102 BC, he was ready to meet the Teutons and the Ambrones at the Rhône. These two tribes intended to pass into Italy through

1274-527: A visit and was greeted as their king. The population, which kept its independence during the time of the Venice Republic, was later severely devastated by World War I . As a result, many Cimbri have left this mountainous region of Italy, effectively forming a worldwide diaspora. The Cimbri are depicted as ferocious warriors who did not fear death. The host was followed by women and children on carts. Aged women, priestesses , dressed in white sacrificed

1365-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

1456-549: Is also known from Germanic, but with an a (* mari- ), whereas a cognate of marbh is unknown in all dialects of Germanic. Yet, given that Pliny had not heard the word directly from a Cimbric speaker, it cannot be ruled out that the word he heard had been translated into Gaulish. The known Cimbri chiefs have Celtic names, including Boiorix (which may mean "King of the Boii" or, more literally, "King of Strikers"), Gaesorix (which means "Spear King"), and Lugius (which may be named after

1547-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system

1638-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During

1729-501: Is linguistically unrelated to Cimbri. Scholars generally see the Cimbri as originating in Jutland , but archaeologists have found no clear indications of any mass migration from Jutland in the early Iron Age . The Gundestrup Cauldron , which was deposited in a bog in Himmerland in the 2nd or 1st century BC, shows that there was some sort of contact with southeastern Europe, but it is uncertain if this contact can be associated with

1820-878: Is not generally accepted. Latin Harudes is also attested in Old English as Hæredas and related to Old Norse Hörðar "Hords". This name is considered to be an extension of Germanic * xaruþaz ( PIE * ḱosdho- ) "forest" (cf. OE harað , OHG hard "mountain forest, wooded hills", MHG hart ), making the Harudes the "forest-dwellers". This root is considered to stem from Indo-European * ḱóss meaning "pine, conifer", akin to Russian сосна́ sosná "pine", Ancient Greek κῶνος kônos "pinecone, pine-seed, cone", κῶνα kôna "pitch", κώνειον kṓneion "hemlock; giant fennel", Oroshori sānǰ "post". Alternatively, it may be related to Proto-Celtic * karut- ,

1911-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

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2002-836: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Charudes Sometime before 60 BC,

2093-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around

2184-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

2275-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with

2366-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

2457-735: The Haraldskær Woman discovered in Jutland in the year 1835. Noosemarks and skin piercing were evident and she had been thrown into a bog rather than buried or cremated. Furthermore, the Gundestrup cauldron , found in Himmerland, may be a sacrificial vessel like the one described in Strabo's text. In style, the work looks like Thracian silver work, while many of the engravings are Celtic objects. A major problem in determining whether

2548-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

2639-592: The Italian peninsula , the Cimbri were decisively defeated at the Battle of Vercellae by Gaius Marius , and their king, Boiorix , was killed. Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebellious gladiators in the Third Servile War . The origin of the name Cimbri is unknown. One etymology is PIE *tḱim-ro- "inhabitant", from tḱoi-m- "home" (> English home ), itself

2730-546: The Romans , who usually came out the losers. In 109 BC, they defeated a Roman army under the consul Marcus Junius Silanus , who was the commander of Gallia Narbonensis . In 107 BC they defeated another Roman army under the consul Gaius Cassius Longinus , who was killed at the Battle of Burdigala (modern day Bordeaux ) against the Tigurini , who were allies of the Cimbri. It was not until 105 BC that they planned an attack on

2821-554: The Second Punic War and destroyed Rome , but Carthage proved unable to rule Italy – which fell into utter chaos. Thus, there was no one to stop the Cimbri two hundred years later. They filled the vacuum, conquered Italy, assimilated the local population to their own culture and by the equivalent of the 20th century had made of Italy a flourishing, technologically advanced kingdom speaking a Germanic language. He also wrote an unrelated historical novel "The Golden Slave", about

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2912-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in

3003-703: The "rex Germanorum" Ariovistus had been petitioned by the Celtic Sequani for assistance in their war against the Aedui . In return, Ariovistus was promised land grants in Gaul, although exactly where is not certain. Gathering forces from a wide area of Germany, Ariovistus crossed the Rhine with large numbers and defeated the Aedui at the Battle of Magetobriga . It is in the context of Ariovistus' subsequent land claims that

3094-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into

3185-563: The Celtic god Lugus ). Other evidence to the language of the Cimbri is circumstantial: thus, we are told that the Romans enlisted Gaulish Celts to act as spies in the Cimbri camp before the final showdown with the Roman army in 101 BC. Jean Markale wrote that the Cimbri were associated with the Helvetii , and more especially with the indisputably Celtic Tigurini . These associations may link to

3276-556: The Charudes of Ptolemy's Jutland arrived there in prehistory from a more ancient Hordaland. On the other hand, the Hǫrðar could have intruded locally and late into Norway. Some have expanded this idea into a theory that the Goths originated in Germany and entered Scandinavia in the age of Germanic migration. As this hypothesis discounts Jordanes' judgement but accepts his tribal picture, it

3367-488: The Cimbri retreating to this area after the Roman victory over their tribe. However, it is more likely that Bavarians settled here in the Middle Ages. Most linguists remain committed to the hypothesis of a medieval (11th to 12th century AD) immigration to explain the presence of small German-speaking communities in the north of Italy. Some genetic studies seem to prove a Celtic, not Germanic, descent for most inhabitants in

3458-590: The Cimbri were again in Italy at this time, i.e. over ten years later. According to Julius Caesar , the Belgian tribe of the Atuatuci "was descended from the Cimbri and Teutoni , who, upon their march into our province and Italy, set down such of their stock and stuff as they could not drive or carry with them on the near (i.e. west) side of the Rhine , and left six thousand men of their company there as guard and garrison" ( Gall. 2.29, trans. Edwards). They founded

3549-516: The Cimbri were speaking a Celtic language or a Germanic language is that, at that time, the Greeks and Romans tended to refer to all groups to the north of their sphere of influence as Gauls, Celts, or Germani rather indiscriminately, and not based upon languages. Caesar seems to be one of the first authors to distinguish the Celtae and Germani , and he had a political motive for doing so, because it

3640-510: The Cimbri with the Jutland peninsula. According to the Res gestae (ch. 26) of Augustus , the Cimbri were still found in the area around the turn of the 1st century AD: My fleet sailed from the mouth of the Rhine eastward as far as the lands of the Cimbri, to which, up to that time, no Roman had ever penetrated either by land or by sea, and the Cimbri and Charydes and Semnones and other peoples of

3731-496: The Cimbrian militia expeditions against Rome of the 1st Century BC. It is known that the peoples of Northern Europe and the British Isles participated in annual partial population seasonal Winter migrations southward to what is now central Iberia and southern France where goods and resources were traded and cross-culture marriages were arranged. Advocates for a northern homeland point to Greek and Roman sources that associate

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3822-462: The Danish region Himmerland (Old Danish Himbersysel ) has been proposed to be a derivative of their name. According to such proposals, the word Cimbri with a c would be an older form before Grimm's law ( PIE k > Germanic h ). Alternatively, Latin c- represents an attempt to render the unfamiliar Proto-Germanic h = [x] (Latin h was [h] but was becoming silent in common speech at

3913-616: The Gallic War , I.31) In the following battle against Caesar near Vesontio ( Besançon ), the Harudes formed one of the seven tribal divisions of Ariovistus' host. After suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of the Romans, the Germans fled back over the Rhine. The Harudes (in the graecized form "Charydes") are next mentioned in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti , in which Augustus claims that his fleet had "sailed from

4004-538: The Germans of that same region through their envoys sought my friendship and that of the Roman people. The contemporary Greek geographer Strabo testified that the Cimbri still existed as a Germanic tribe, presumably in the "Cimbric peninsula" (since they are said to live by the North Sea and to have paid tribute to Augustus): As for the Cimbri, some things that are told about them are incorrect and others are extremely improbable. For instance, one could not accept such

4095-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

4186-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than

4277-495: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

4368-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow

4459-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community

4550-490: The Harudes are first mentioned by Caesar: "But a worse thing had befallen the victorious Sequani than the vanquished Aedui, for Ariovistus, the king of the Germans, had settled in their territories, and had seized upon a third of their land, which was the best in the whole of Gaul, and was now ordering them to depart from another third part, because a few months previously 24,000 men of the Harudes had come to him, for whom room and settlements must be provided." ( Commentaries on

4641-401: The Harudes, as the latter migrated into Norway. There they are believed to be the Hǫrðar people who settled in Hordaland and gave name to the fjord Hardanger . In a second theory, the Hǫrðar are identical to the Arochi dwelling in the Scandza mentioned in the Getica of Jordanes , which dates to the 6th century, but might refer to any time prior to then. The ch in that case would be

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4732-578: The Roman Republic itself. At the Rhône , the Cimbri clashed with the Roman armies. Discord between the Roman commanders, the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and the consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus , hindered Roman coordination and so the Cimbri succeeded in first defeating the legate Marcus Aurelius Scaurus and later inflicted a devastating defeat on Caepio and Maximus at the Battle of Arausio . The Romans lost as many as 80,000 men, according to Livy ; Mommsen (in his History of Rome ) thought that excluded auxiliary cavalry and non-combatants who brought

4823-407: The Teuton king Teutobod prisoner. The Cimbri had penetrated through the Alps into northern Italy. The consul Quintus Lutatius Catulus had not dared to fortify the passes, but instead he had retreated behind the river Po , and so the land was open to the invaders. The Cimbri did not hurry, and the victors of Aquae Sextiae had the time to arrive with reinforcements. At the Battle of Vercellae , at

4914-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

5005-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of

5096-432: The city of Atuatuca in the land of the Belgic Eburones , whom they dominated. Thus Ambiorix king of the Eburones paid tribute and gave his son and nephew as hostages to the Atuatuci ( Gall. 6.27). In the first century AD, the Eburones were replaced or absorbed by the Germanic Tungri , and the city was known as Atuatuca Tungrorum, i.e. the modern city of Tongeren . The population of modern-day Himmerland claims to be

5187-424: The confluence of the river Sesia with the Po , in 101 BC, the long voyage of the Cimbri also came to an end. It was a devastating defeat. Two chieftains, Lugius and Boiorix , died on the field, while the other chieftains Caesorix and Claodicus were captured. The women killed both themselves and their children in order to avoid slavery. The Cimbri were annihilated, although some may have survived to return to

5278-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of

5369-448: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute

5460-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in

5551-458: The generalship of Tiberius and is also attested by Velleius Paterculus . During the later age of Germanic migrations, the Harudes do not seem to appear in Jutland. Instead, the Angles and Jutes are there, who migrate to Britain. In Tacitus the Angles are further south. Perhaps not all the Harudes left Jutland, and the Harudes could have been a constituent of the Jutes. The Angles were probably occupying territory abandoned at least in part by

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5642-402: The heirs of the ancient Cimbri. The adventures of the Cimbri are described by the Danish Nobel Prize–winning author Johannes V. Jensen , himself born in Himmerland, in the novel Cimbrernes Tog (1922), included in the epic cycle Den lange Rejse (English The Long Journey , 1923). The so-called Cimbrian bull (" Cimbrertyren "), a sculpture by Anders Bundgaard , was erected on 14 April 1937 in

5733-437: The homeland where a population with this name was residing in northern Jutland in the 1st century AD, according to the sources quoted above. Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebelling gladiators in the Third Servile War . Justin 's epitome of Trogus has Mithridates the Great send emissaries to the Cimbri to request military aid during the Social War (91-88 BCE). Justin also states that

5824-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn

5915-470: The lands of one of Rome's allies, the Taurisci . On the request of the Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo , sent to defend the Taurisci, they retreated, only to find themselves deceived and attacked at the Battle of Noreia , where they defeated the Romans. Only a storm, which separated the combatants, saved the Roman forces from complete annihilation. Now the road to Italy was open, but they turned west towards Gaul . They came into frequent conflict with

6006-525: The language of the Cimbri: referring to the Northern Ocean (the Baltic or the North Sea ), Pliny the Elder states: "Philemon says that it is called Morimarusa, i.e. the Dead Sea, by the Cimbri, until the promontory of Rubea, and after that Cronium." The contemporary Gaulish terms for "sea" and "dead" appear to have been mori and *maruo- ; compare their well-attested modern Insular Celtic cognates muir and marbh ( Irish ), môr and marw ( Welsh ), and mor and marv ( Breton ). The same word for "sea"

6097-414: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

6188-494: The map of Ptolemy , the "Kimbroi" are placed on the northernmost part of the peninsula of Jutland, i.e., in the modern landscape of Himmerland south of Limfjorden (since Vendsyssel-Thy north of the fjord was at that time a group of islands). Some time before 100 BC many of the Cimbri, as well as the Teutons and Ambrones , migrated south-east. After several unsuccessful battles with the Boii and other Celtic tribes , they appeared c. 113 BC in Noricum , where they invaded

6279-458: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

6370-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

6461-416: The more modern names today. These indicate a different origin (e.g., Asiago is known also by its original Cimbro name of Sleghe ). The Cimbrian origin myth was popularized by humanists in the 14th century. Despite these connections to southern Germany, belief in a Himmerland origin persisted well into modern times. On one occasion in 1709, for instance, Frederick IV of Denmark paid the region's inhabitants

6552-452: The mouth of the Rhine eastward as far as the lands of the Cimbri to which, up to that time, no Roman had ever penetrated either by land or by sea, and the Cimbri and Charydes and Semnones and other peoples of the Germans of that same region (Cimbrian peninsula) through their envoys sought my friendship and that of the Roman people". The naval expedition in question took place in 5 AD under

6643-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks

6734-600: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It

6825-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

6916-549: The period when they lived in Gaul. Boiorix, who may have had a Celtic if not a Celticized Germanic name, was king of the Cimbri after they moved away from their ancestral home of northern Jutland. Boiorix and his tribe lived around Celtic peoples during his era as J. B. Rives points out in his introduction to Tacitus' Germania ; furthermore, the name "Boiorix" can be seen as having either Proto-Germanic or Celtic roots. The science fiction story " Delenda Est " by Poul Anderson depicts an alternate history in which Hannibal won

7007-511: The prisoners of war and sprinkled their blood, the nature of which allowed them to see what was to come. Strabo gives this vivid description of the Cimbric folklore: Their wives, who would accompany them on their expeditions, were attended by priestesses who were seers; these were grey-haired, clad in white, with flaxen cloaks fastened on with clasps, girt with girdles of bronze, and bare-footed; now sword in hand these priestesses would meet with

7098-399: The prisoners of war throughout the camp, and having first crowned them with wreaths would lead them to a brazen vessel of about twenty amphorae; and they had a raised platform which the priestess would mount, and then, bending over the kettle, would cut the throat of each prisoner after he had been lifted up; and from the blood that poured forth into the vessel some of the priestesses would draw

7189-493: The region that is reinforced by Gaulish toponyms such as those ending with the suffix -ago < Celtic -*ako(n) (e.g. Asiago is clearly the same place name as the numerous variants – Azay , Aisy , Azé , Ezy – in France, all of which derive from *Asiacum < Gaulish *Asiāko(n) ). On the other hand, the original place names in the region, from the specifically localized language known as 'Cimbro' are still in use alongside

7280-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

7371-527: The time), perhaps due to Celtic-speaking interpreters (a Celtic intermediary could also explain why one proposed etymology for the Teutons, Germanic *Þeuðanōz , became Latin Teutones ). Because of the similarity of the names, the Cimbri have been at times associated with Cymry , the Welsh name for themselves. However, Cymry is derived from Brittonic *Kombrogi (cf. Allobroges ), meaning "compatriots", and

7462-431: The total loss closer to 112,000. Other estimates are much smaller, but by any account a large Roman army was routed. Rome was in panic, and the terror cimbricus became proverbial. Everyone expected to soon see the new Gauls outside of the gates of Rome. Desperate measures were taken: contrary to the Roman constitution, Gaius Marius , who had defeated Jugurtha , was elected consul and supreme commander for five years in

7553-578: The western passes, while the Cimbri and the Tigurines were to take the northern route across the Rhine and later across the Central Eastern Alps . At the estuary of the Isère , the Teutons and the Ambrones met Marius, whose well-defended camp they did not manage to overrun. Instead, they pursued their route, and Marius followed them. At Aquae Sextiae , the Romans won two battles and took

7644-646: Was a Germanic language, while others argue that it was Celtic . Together with the Teutones and the Ambrones , they fought the Roman Republic between 113 and 101 BC during the Cimbrian War . The Cimbri were initially successful, particularly at the Battle of Arausio , in which a large Roman army was routed. They then raided large areas in Gaul and Hispania . In 101 BC, during an attempted invasion of

7735-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

7826-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

7917-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

8008-477: Was an argument in favour of his push to set the Rhine as a new Roman border. Yet, one cannot always trust Caesar and Tacitus when they ascribe individuals and tribes to one or the other category, although Caesar made clear distinctions between the two cultures. Some ancient sources categorize the Cimbri as a Germanic tribe, but some ancient authors include the Cimbri among the Celts. There are few direct testimonies to

8099-431: Was granted they set sail for home; and it is ridiculous to suppose that they departed from their homes because they were incensed on account of a phenomenon that is natural and eternal, occurring twice every day. And the assertion that an excessive flood-tide once occurred looks like a fabrication, for when the ocean is affected in this way it is subject to increases and diminutions, but these are regulated and periodical. On

8190-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

8281-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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