(Piano music) 

Hello and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Nowadays, in order to describe something we don't understand, we make a reference to a difficult language for us. The English say 'It's all Greek to me', the Greeks say 'It's all Chinese to me' and so on. In ancient Greece-and here, I have to remind you that it was an empire with all the faults that come with one-the sound the Greeks heard from foreigners was 'VAR-VAR' (the letter v is written and pronounced b in English). And that's what they used to mock anyone not Greek, They also had a phrase 'πάς μη Ελλην, Βαρβαρος' anyone not Greek is a ΒΑΡΒΑΡΟΣ/BARBARIAN

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