Romance Languages, But What About Greek?

[Favonius Cornelius]

Can anyone explain to me why Greek did not in some way form the languages of the east from the edge of India to Aegyptrus to Asia Minor? At least in the area of the Roman Empire, Greek existed just as long as Latin, yet it seems that the language did not leave it's stamp on the local tongue.

[Q Valerius Scerio]

This is actually more complex than you present it. Latin took off in barbaric, uncivilized places, while Greek left its impact in places where empires had already shone and cities already existed. Greek did leave an impact in some places, such as Egypt, where Coptic was not only written with mostly Greek letters, but contained many Greek words (but very little, if any at all, Latin). Furthermore, the Arabic conquests of the area wiped out much of the Greek, that even in modern Egyptian no trace of the Greek can be found, while Europe remained Latin speaking peoples.

[Caius Maxentius]

Does it have something to do with the way the Romans "Romanized" Western Europe vs. how the Greeks Hellenized the Near East? Is there a fundamental difference? Did the Greeks jealously guard admittance to Greek language, culture and politics? It seems that the Romans were much more open to granting citizenship to outsiders (if only gradually), which may explain how Latin entered the vernacular of places like France and Spain.

 

But I remain fascinated (as per my previous thread on England and Romania) how some areas, subject to relatively brief rule, are permanently transformed linguistically, while other places ruled for longer lose their Latin and Greek almost completely.

 

It's particularly interesting in places like Western Asia Minor, where Greek cities existed from almost a millenium before Christ, and remained in the Greek linguistic sphere of influence as Byzantine cities up until the 13th century. Turkish has taken over completely in these areas. Why didn't Greek remain, or at least get more equally hybridized with the language of the newcomers?

[Pantagathus]

I imagine it had to do with the strong Roman bureaucracy coupled with the rise of Arabic as the others have pointed out.

[Lucius Calpurnius Capitolinus]

Let us not forget our Horace:

 

GRAECIA CAPTA FERUM VICTOREM CEPIT

 

This is as true for the language as it is the culture.

 

Furthermore, in regards to the Greek relationship with Asia Minor etc., the Byzantine Empire ruled much of the area you are asking about and had a tremendous influence up until the Middle Ages when the rise of Islam began to convert the area. The current state of the region has less to do with the impotence of Greece than it does with the thoroughness of Islam. In many ways, a language requires an association with a successful religion to ensure longevity more than anything else.