The UNESCO Executive Board, on the initiative of the permanent delegation of Greece to the Organization, proposed today Monday, April 14, with its unanimous decision to declare February 9 of each year as World Day of Greek.

“It is an international recognition of the timelessness, the universality and the contribution of our language to the cultural heritage of mankind. It is a day of joy and pride, “Greece’s permanent representative at UNESCO, George Koumoutsakos, told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

The text of the decision was filed after collaborating with the permanent delegation of Greece at UNESCO with professors George Babiniotis, a peer professor of linguistics and former Rector of the University of Athens and Christos Clairis, Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics.

The rationale of the decision

In particular, in its relevant decision, the Executive Board notes that “the language is a carrier of culture, ark of values, concepts, identity, instrument of expression and creation and bridge of communication, understanding and understanding”, stressing, at the same time, that among the thousands of worldwide language

A. Unfinished continuity of 40 centuries of oral tradition and 35 centuries of written tradition If we take into account Linear B ‘or at least 28 centuries of written tradition if we are confined to alphabetical writing, which makes Greek the longest, incessant spoken and written language in Europe. The Executive Council recalls in this case that as the poet George Seferis said during his speech at the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1963, “the Greek language never ceased to speak. He underwent the changes that live organisms are undergoing, but there was never a vacuum. “

B. unique cultivation as a language (vocabulary, grammar and syntax), because of its use by unparalleled historical personalities of literature, poetry, theater, philosophy, politics and science, such as Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Aristotle, Aristotle

C. Wide presence in many languagesas, over time, Greek has been one of the most important languages ​​in its impact on all other European languages ​​and, through them, more widely in the world of languages. In addition, the particular importance of the Greek language is clearly confirmed by the fact that it is taught internationally both in its ancient form, in classical studies around the world, as well as in medieval (Byzantine) and its modern form, in medieval and modern Greek seats.

D. The Greek language has been and remains an endless source of international scientific terminology to this day Particularly in medicine, as well as in mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, astronomy, quantum mechanics, social and humanities. It is an internationally recognized Greek characteristic, which is clearly obtained from empirical and historical data.

Greek inscription in the Library of Celsus, in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus on the Ionia coast, Turkey

The UNESCO Executive Council points out that as a linguistic cradle of the basic concepts of culture, science and philosophy, the Greek language holds, with historical and objective criteria, a special place among the languages ​​of the world. He also stresses that “the awareness of the phonological structure of Greek led the Greeks of the 8th century BC. In the innovative utilization of the Phoenician symphonic alphabet with the invention of the alphabet, thereby achieving the creation of a new vowel alphabet through the transition from a symphonic writing system in a system in which each sound, every phrase, is represented by a letter. “

It also states that in the post -class Hellenistic period, the Greek language has been the first international language, the language of many peoples (Lingua Franca) for six whole centuries, and at the same time a cultural language (Kultursprache). “Greek shone during the reign of Alexander the Great, accepted and embraced by Roman culture, who adopted the Greek script in the form of the Latin alphabet, gave it a global dimension by the Gospel language, and was discovered by the Gospel, justifying his decision.

“The Electronic Treasure of the Greek Language (Thesaurus Linguae Graecae – TLG), which includes texts written in Greek from Homer to 15th century historians, has 12,000 Greek texts of four thousand (4,000) authors, including 105,000,000 words.” The UNESCO Executive Council stresses, in addition, that historically the Greek language has a key position in the intellect, linguistic expression and formulation of fundamental concepts and words of European and broader intellect, which are declared, recruited or deprived of Greek words.

On the basis of the above, the UNESCO Executive Council decided that February 9th is proposed as a “World Day of Greek Language”, also taking into account that this date, in 1857, passed away by the national poet of Greece, Dionysios Solomos.

From Haiti the first sentence for recognition

The country that made its first intervention at the UNESCO meeting to establish World Greek Language Day was Haiti, which was historically the first country in the world to recognize the Greek Revolution and Greece as an independent state.

It is recalled that UNESCO has already recognized various elements associated with the Greek language. Two elements of recorded cultural heritage, “The Derveni Derveni Papyrus: Europe’s oldest book”, which have been registered in the International Register of Memory of the World in 2023 and 2015, respectively.

Also, two additional elements of the intangible cultural heritage: “The Polyphonic Caravan”, which studies, rescues and promotes the polyphonic song of Epirus, included in 2020 in the Register of Good Rescue Practices and the “Byzantine Psalm”, which was recorded in 2019.

On the occasion of today’s decision, UNESCO’s permanent representative, George Koumoutsakos, said: “With the support of the Prime Minister and the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we started this effort about six months ago, with the belief that we could succeed. Finally, with a lot of, systematic and persistent work, we submitted the proposal on March 10 with the unprecedented 20 state-state support for the corresponding data of the Agency. “

“The establishment of a world celebration is of great importance. Not only for the emphasis given to the Greek language as a global cultural value. Through well -organized events, the Greeks where the land and many foreigners with Greek education or others will be able to start or renew their contact and relationship with Greek in its timelessness. To reassess its relationship with the cultivation of spirit, thought and culture, “Mr Koumoutsakos added.