The Executive Board of UNESCO has proposed that 9 February each year be established as World Greek Language Day, following an initiative by Greece’s Permanent Delegation to the Organisation and its Permanent Representative, Georgios Koumoutsakos.
Mr Koumoutsakos worked closely with a team of academics led by Mr Georgios Babiniotis and Christos Klairis. This academic working group, which lobbied and promoted the idea extensively—securing letters of support from local governments, ministers, the Anglican Church, intellectuals and authors around the world—was formed on the initiative of Professor Ioannis Korinthios, who then invited Professors Georgios Babiniotis, Christos Klairis, Philippos Trevezas, Anastasios Tamis and Stella Priovolou to join.
In Australia, from early 2024, the coordination was undertaken by the Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies (AIMS) and the Australian Institute for Hellenic Research, which sent dozens of letters to the governments of Australia and New Zealand, leaders of Christian churches, university officials, intellectuals and major newspaper publishers. Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong, acknowledged the significance and value of the Greek language, but in her response to Mr Tamis’ request, she declined to support the proposal from Greece.
“Australia’s abstention or refusal to support the just recognition of the Greek language as an International Day of Recognition simply insults all Australian citizens of Greek descent,” Mr Tamis said.
In contrast, Federal member for Adelaide, Steve Georganas, showed eagerness and an unwavering determination to convince the Australian Foreign Minister to support Greece’s proposal for the Greek language. A special campaign in Australia was also led by the Archbishop of the Anglican Church, His Eminence Philip Freier, who, following a written appeal from AIMS, sent a heartfelt letter to the Australian Foreign Minister and political leaders urging them to support Greece’s fair request. Leaders of the other Christian Churches in Australia did not respond to the coordination team’s appeal.
Greece’s Permanent Representative, Mr Koumoutsakos, and all those who collaborated with him on this monumental cultural achievement rightly feel proud.
“It is an international recognition of the timelessness, universality and contribution of our language to the cultural heritage of humanity. It is a day of joy and pride,” Mr Koumoutsakos told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.
In its decision, UNESCO’s Executive Board notes that “language is a vehicle of culture, an ark of values, concepts, identity, a tool of expression and creation, and a bridge of communication, understanding and cooperation.” It also highlights that among the thousands of languages of the world, the Greek language combines four particularly important features:
- Unbroken continuity of 40 centuries of oral tradition and 35 centuries of written tradition, if Linear B script is considered, or at least 28 centuries of written tradition using alphabetic script, making Greek the longest continuously spoken and written language in Europe. The Board recalls the words of poet George Seferis during his 1963 Nobel Prize speech: “The Greek language has never ceased to be spoken. It underwent the changes all living organisms experience, but there was never a break.”
- Unique cultivation as a language (vocabulary, grammar, and syntax), owing to its use by unparalleled historical figures in literature, poetry, theatre, philosophy, politics, and science—such as Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Aeschylus, Thucydides, Hippocrates, Archimedes, and the Church Fathers.
- Widespread influence on many languages, with Greek being one of the most impactful languages on all other European languages and, through them, on the broader world of languages. Its significance is also affirmed by the fact that it is taught internationally in its ancient form at classical studies departments, as well as in its Byzantine and modern forms in departments of Medieval and Modern Greek worldwide.
- An inexhaustible source of international scientific terminology, especially in medicine, mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, astronomy, quantum mechanics, and the social and human sciences. This feature of Greek is internationally recognised and substantiated by empirical and historical data.
The official Memorandum of the Permanent Executive Committee was prepared by the distinguished linguistics professors of the University of Athens and the Sorbonne, Mr Babiniotis and Mr Klairis.
The Executive Board of UNESCO notes that, as the linguistic cradle of fundamental concepts in culture, science and philosophy, the Greek language holds, by historical and objective standards, a unique place among the world’s languages.
It further underlines that “the understanding of Greek phonological structure led Greeks of the 8th century BC to innovatively adapt the Phoenician consonantal alphabet, inventing the vowel-based alphabet and thus creating a new phonetic writing system in which each sound or phoneme is represented by a letter.”
Additionally, it remarks that in the post-classical Hellenistic period, Greek served for six centuries as the world’s first international language (lingua franca), a language of transactions for many peoples and simultaneously a cultural language (Kultursprache).
“Greek flourished during the reign of Alexander the Great, was embraced by Roman civilisation which adopted Greek script through the Latin alphabet, was given global scope through the language of the Gospels, was rediscovered and highlighted by the Renaissance, and was fully utilised during the Enlightenment,” the Board explains.
The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG), a digital archive that includes Greek texts from Homer to 15th-century historians, comprises 12,000 texts by 4,000 authors, totalling 105 million word forms.
The Executive Board of UNESCO also stresses that historically, the Greek language holds a central position in intellectual discourse and the formulation of fundamental concepts and terms of European and broader thought, which are expressed or derived from Greek word-concepts.
Based on the above, UNESCO’s Executive Board decided to propose 9 February as “World Greek Language Day,” also noting that on this date in 1857, Greece’s national poet Dionysios Solomos passed away.
Haiti, the first country to recognise the Greek Revolution
It is noted that UNESCO has already recognised several elements associated with the Greek language. Two tangible cultural heritage items—the Lead Oracular Tablets of the Dodona Oracle and the Derveni Papyrus: The Oldest Book of Europe—have been inscribed in the Memory of the World International Register in 2023 and 2015, respectively.
Additionally, two intangible cultural heritage items have been recognised: the Polyphonic Caravan, which studies, preserves and promotes the polyphonic song of Epirus (included in the 2020 Register of Good Safeguarding Practices), and Byzantine Chant, inscribed in 2019 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
It is worth noting that the first country to speak in favour of establishing World Greek Language Day at the UNESCO session was Haiti, historically the first country in the world to recognise the Greek Revolution and Greece as an independent state.
Finally, the decision text was drafted in cooperation between Greece’s Permanent Delegation to UNESCO and Professors Georgios Babiniotis, Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and former Rector of the University of Athens, and Christos Klairis, Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics at the University of the Sorbonne.
On the occasion of today’s decision, Greece’s Permanent Representative to UNESCO, Mr Koumoutsakos, stated: “With the support of the Prime Minister and the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we began this effort around six months ago, believing that, despite the many difficulties, we could succeed. Ultimately, with a lot of systematic and persistent work, we submitted the proposal on 10 March with the unprecedented for the Organisation written support of 20 member states.”
“The establishment of a global celebration has great significance. Not only because it highlights the Greek language as a value of global cultural importance. Through well-organised events, Greeks around the world—as well as many foreigners with a Greek education or others—will be able to initiate or renew their contact and relationship with the Greek language in its diachronicity. To reassess its connection with the cultivation of spirit, thought, and civilisation,” Mr Koumoutsakos added.
