A book on the history of the Greek language and Greeks

[Xiotis]

In some of the books I have been reading regarding Greek history a certain source is reapeatedly cited: Geoffrey Horrocks' "Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers". From reading the cited excerpts and from reading reviews on the book I can infer that Horrocks goes into great detail describing the continuity and evolution of the Greek language from ancient times until today. In describing this continuity he describes the history of the Greek people related to the phases of the linguistic evolution. Surely such a scholarly work puts a pitchfork in the absurd theories espoused by our FYROMian friends who assert that our language and culture are artificial constructs imposed on us only during the past 150 years. I find it interesting that the FYROMian propagandists spend more time and resources trying to negate the authenticity of our language and culture than trying to substantiate their own absurd theories regarding their history that no unbiased scholar outside of FYROM supports. They tell me that my language is artificial, my predecessors were either turks or albanians and the whole of Greek history is built on 'egg-shells' validated only by England's and Germany's romanticism of ancient Greece. As if this somehow validates their disney land theories and as if this erases the fact that their own national heroes proclaimed their Bulgarian identity early last century! There are many works out there that describe the cultural/linguistic continuity of the Greek people from ancient times to the present and I suspect (i say this because I have not had a chance to read the book) that this book is one of them:

Amazon.com: Greek: A History of the Language and Its Speakers (Longman Linguistics Library): Geoffrey C. Horrocks: Books

I have been out of university for a few years now so I dont have immediate access to a good library. Do any of you guys have access to a good library that can check this book out for us? Or...has anyone had a chance to read this book?

[akritas]

Just add in your post xiotis the Professor Horrocks was in Athens to present the Greek edition of his work Ελληνικά: Η ιστορία της γλώσσας και των ομιλητών της (http://www.hestia.gr/estia_books.asp?titlos=1-14-067) by Hestia Publishers (http://www.hestia.gr/).

http://www.britishcouncil.org/greece-arts-and-culture-geoffrey-horrocks.htm

[Amyntas]

I dont know if it exist in any other language than german but the book "Griechenland ohne Säulen" is a pretty nice summary of the greek history (it starts at Alexander the Great and stops in 1950)

Written by Johannes Gaitanides, a german with greek ancestors who was born in 1909 in Germany.

[Slayer]

In some of the books I have been reading regarding Greek history a certain source is reapeatedly cited: Geoffrey Horrocks' "Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers". From reading the cited excerpts and from reading reviews on the book I can infer that Horrocks goes into great detail describing the continuity and evolution of the Greek language from ancient times until today. In describing this continuity he describes the history of the Greek people related to the phases of the linguistic evolution. Surely such a scholarly work puts a pitchfork in the absurd theories espoused by our FYROMian friends who assert that our language and culture are artificial constructs imposed on us only during the past 150 years. I find it interesting that the FYROMian propagandists spend more time and resources trying to negate the authenticity of our language and culture than trying to substantiate their own absurd theories regarding their history that no unbiased scholar outside of FYROM supports. They tell me that my language is artificial, my predecessors were either turks or albanians and the whole of Greek history is built on 'egg-shells' validated only by England's and Germany's romanticism of ancient Greece. As if this somehow validates their disney land theories and as if this erases the fact that their own national heroes proclaimed their Bulgarian identity early last century! There are many works out there that describe the cultural/linguistic continuity of the Greek people from ancient times to the present and I suspect (i say this because I have not had a chance to read the book) that this book is one of them:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0582307090/thegreeklanguageA/

I have been out of university for a few years now so I dont have immediate access to a good library. Do any of you guys have access to a good library that can check this book out for us? Or...has anyone had a chance to read this book?

Just adding to what you said, the claim that very few people were speaking Greek at the time of our independence is easily negated by the fact that ther are still 350,000 Greek speakers in the Pontian areas of Turkey. Meaning not only would they have been speaking Greek since our independance, but are speaking one of the most ancient Greek dialects today in TURKEY!

How does Risto explain that in his big Greek lies?

How does Risto explain numerous Ottoman sources distinguishing areas of population in their empire as being inhabited by Turks, Greeks, and this is seperate to the Millyet concept.

[preston]

Xiotis, this is one of my points of argument. Let's recognize them with their full desired name of MAKEDONTSI, let's bring them among the modern civilized Nation and then lets seat them under the internationals spotlight and ask them to show the world the merit of their abnormal theories. You know what's going to happen? The UN it self will take off their name and re-name them by force in to BANANISTAN !!!!
They are the most unique case of mass psychosis!!