Europe had many languages in its evolution. The spread of some of the prominent languages in Europe was a result of religion, trade, migration and the growth of empires, like the Roman Empire. Conquests, technological advancements and the entertainment industry have also greatly affected the spread of the language. Latin, a language associated with the Roman Empire, also influenced the spread of languages a great deal. This paper purposes to discuss the origin and the spread of Greek language, in relation to the influence Latin had on the spread of languages in Western Europe.

The origin associated with the Greek language can be traced to the thirteenth century (Roberts, 1997). In this period, it is associated with the Mycenaean civilization. The development of Greek language in this period is evidenced by written texts referred to as linear B. Consonants and vowels into the language were introduced as early as the eight and the ninth century. Three periods are associated with the development of the language. The Hellenic period was the period of classical Greek. It is characterized by Homer and the famous Greek philosophers, Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. During the period, a major contribution to the spread of the language was the works of arts by the philosophers (Spielvogel 2000).

The other period is the Hellenistic period. It is the period immediately after the Alexander the great. This period was characterized by a rapid spread of Christianity. Spielvogel (2000) asserts that Europeans were concerned even with the spread of western civilization as they spread Christianity. They “Europeanized” the people that they taught about Christianity. Byzantine is the period that was characterized by rapid economic and religious spread. Several factors characterize this period, as they affected the spread of the Greek language. Trade was at the heart of Constantinople. Levack et al. (2007) notes that; this period had great advancements in technology such as windmills, which contributed to the expansion of trade, leading to rapid development in language.

The high middle age period which was characterized by the expansion of agriculture and trade was another very significant period in the development and spread of language in Western Europe. Spielvogel (2000) observes that renaissance that came after the black plague had a great impact in the spread of European languages. As people escaped their lands due to the plague, they moved to new lands where they facilitated to the spread of Latin and Greek languages. Further, the renaissance came with the birth of modern civilization, which again contributed greatly to the spread of western civilization. As the Europeans civilized new peoples, they taught them their language. During this time, the church was not separated from the state. Latin was made the common language to enable people to communicate. This had a great impact in the development of Language in Europe. Sayre (2010) attributes the spread of the language to greek arts and other forms of human compositions through humanism. According to Kagan et al. (2001), the back death contributed to an increase of students in the Universities to study medicine. This necessitated the translation of the texts more native languages, apart from Latin and Greek. This further contributed to the spread of these languages.

In conclusion, the spread of European languages was steered by several factors. Among them were, the Black Death, the renaissance, trade, the spread of Christianity, technological advancement, entertainment and the arts. The expansion of Roman empire also had great influences on the spread of language.

References

Highet, G. (1947). The classical tradition: Greek and Roman influences on Western literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Levack, B., Maas, M., Muir, E., & Veldman, M. (2007). The West: Encounters and transformations. New York, NY: Longman-Pearson.

Kagan, D., Turner, M.F., & Ozment, S. (2001). The Western heritage (7^th ed). New York, NY: Prentice Hall-Pearson.

Roberts, M.J. (1997). A history of Europe. New York, NY: Penguin.

Sayre, M.H. (2010). Discovering humanities. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Spielvogel, J.J. (2000). Western civilization. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.