WHAT IS A LINGUA FRANCA? A lingua franca is a language spoken in countries other than the country of origin. This is usually achieved through conquest, commerce and conversion WHAT IS AN EXTINCT LANGUAGE? Extinct language simply means that a language is no longer natively spoken, not whether it can be understood by speakers of a related language or a daughter language. The term Ancient, or Archaic, Greece refers to the time three centuries before the classical age, between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C.—a relatively sophisticated period in world history. Archaic Greece saw advances in art, poetry and technology, but most of all it was the age in which the polis, or city-state, was invented. The polis became the defining feature of Greek political life for hundreds of years. Places : Athens , Sparta , Korinthos , Thebes and the islands of Aegean. People who wanted to trade with the Greeks had to learn alternate methods of communication . At its peak : under the command of Alexander the Great the whole world spoke Ancient Greek . Through the conquests of the great Alexander: Alexander’s father, Philip II, wanted to fight the Persians and eliminate them so that they wouldn’t have any more wars with them like they did in the past. After his death, Alexander was the heir to the kingdom so he took over this conquest as well. But Alexander surpassed his father’s vision, he wanted to unite Greece with Asia due to his belief that everyone should be equal to each other. Some years after the conquest, Alexander wished to fully unite all the peoples that he had taken over but he couldn’t do it unless they all spoke the same language. This process by which the Koine became the high language of the conquered kingdoms became known as HELLENIZATION. Although there is no actual evidence that any of the Asian Languages were thoroughly alleviated, they language and the culture of the conquered land were highly influenced. They could now comprehend philosophy and mathematics and they even modelled their Bhuda statues after the Greek Kouroi. The influence that this conquest had is mainly positive because Great Alexander managed to unite the most part of the then known world without a high death toll and they found a common language which led to the evolution of literature, trade and sciences. Arts like poetry historiography and astronomy flowed during these ages due to the fact that people didn’t feel conquered but they had the notion that they were equals which gave them the freedom to develop in other fields. Worth noting is the fact that Alexander gave the people the freedom to believe in whichever god they wanted and generally believed that all people are free and most of all equals Of course, the rise of this language and, generally, of the empire’ has affected the global community. Discoveries from back then still exist until today and they are considered to be the bases of many fields today. In addition architecture knowledge like the churches during the Byzantine Empire are still used today in the building of churches and other buildings. The bases of church music were created during the Byzantine Empire and they are used nowadays as well. In Ancient Greece education was a privilege for a handful of people. Therefore when the Romans conquered Greece this language was lost Many people feared that Greece’s tradition and culture would be lost because the language ceased to be spoken. However , this notion turned out to be wrong because the Greek culture was carried on by the civilization of Byzantium. For example, Democracy, as we know it today, was developed in Greece. In the year 507 B.C., the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia(democracy) , or “rule by the people.” This system was comprised of three separate institutions: the ekklesia, a sovereign governing body that wrote laws and dictated foreign policy; the boule, a council of representatives from the ten Athenian tribes; and the dikasteria(courts) , the popular courts in which citizens argued cases before a group of lottery-selected jurors. -Greek literature extends from the Homer ages and ends with the fall of ancient Greek. is the known composer of Iliad and Odysseus. The importance of these compositions is recognized up until today -There were 3 great philosophers during those ages, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Plato was a student of Socrates and Aristotle was a student of Plato. Socrates inspired Plato to write his work with the title philosophic dialogues which is know until today. Finally Aristotle was the last great philosopher of those ages whose thought is know to be greater than those from the western peoples and also greater than the people of the 17 century Homer - The known writers of this age were the historians Xenophon and Thucydides who recorded the whole Peloponnesian war. Xenophon took control of the composing after Thucydides death which prevented him to finish his work himself. They were and they are until today known for their objectivity and their descriptiveness . Their works were so great that many people consider them two of the greatest historians in history. Nowadays , very few texts have been rescued that were written in ancient Greek(approximately 15%) . These texts are being used as an educational method in order to teach youngsters ancient Greek. However , its spoken form has been a bone of contention for many generations because no one will ever know the exact pronunciation. Thus , Greeks read it in their own way as if they were speaking modern Greek and other people read it using the method of a well known linguist. He is known by the name Erasmus. Although Ancient Greek has been extinct for many years its influence is massive in the fields of medicine, politics , science and economics . Diseases’ names that stem from Ancient Greek : syphilis , malaria , leprosy , diabetes etc. To illustrate this point , we would like to refer to Professor Xenofon Zolotas. In 1957 and 1959, the Greek economist Professor Xenofon Zolotas, Governor of the bank of Greece and Governor of the Funds for Greece, delivered two speeches in English using Greek words only. Kyrie, I eulogize the archons of the Panethnic Numismatic Thesaurus and the Ecumenical Trapeza for the orthodoxy of their axioms, methods and policies, although there is an episode of cacophony of the Trapeza with Hellas. With enthusiasm we dialogue and synagonize at the synods of our didymous Organizations in which polymorphous economic ideas and dogmas are analyzed and synthesized. Our critical problems such as the numismatic plethora generate some agony and melancholy. This phenomenon is characteristic of our epoch. But, to my thesis, we have the dynamism to program therapeutic practices as a prophylaxis from chaos and catastrophe. In parallel, a panethnic unhypocritical economic synergy and harmonization in a democratic climate is basic. I apologize for my eccentric monologue. I emphasize my eucharistia to you Kyrie, to the eugenic and generous American Ethnos and to the organizers and protagonists of this Amphictyony and the gastronomic symposia.'' Prof. Xenofon Zolotas www.history.com History books of 8th grade and discussions with my history teachers. Wikipedia.com ( information about Erasmus)