"Then if you change the Greek language like this, won't the Greeks say anything?" Princess Jeanne asked curiously.
"The big question is, what is a Greek?" Guo Kang pointed out the problem.
"Those who speak Greek are Greeks, aren't they?" Princess Jeanne didn't seem to think there was anything wrong.
"It's hard to say." Guo Kang shook his head: "The concept of Greeks is very confusing. Many people, especially ordinary people, don't know what they are. They can't distinguish the relationship between Greece and Rome."
"Generally speaking, people in cities, especially educated people, have a clearer understanding of Greece. I remember it was probably during the Nicene Dynasty. In order to fight against the Crusaders who occupied the capital, the Greek Dynasty officially launched The banner of 'Greek'." Guo Kang thought about it and said: "But even at that time, the concept of 'Greek' was mainly spread among the courts of various princes and upper-class literati. They did not give up on the Romans because of this. recognition.”
"As for the people...for a long time, 'Greek' has been a bad word. They even called us Greeks."
"Ah? Why is this?" Princess Jeanne was very surprised.
"Because what they commonly call 'Greece' and 'Rome' is largely a religious distinction." Guo Kang said: "Many rural civilians like to call people who believe in monotheistic religions 'Romans', and their religion is called Rome." The religion and language are called Roman. And those ancient civilizations that left many ruins are the 'Greeks' who believe in polytheism."
"When we went south to Morea, in order to reduce unnecessary friction, we recruited some educated old nobles from cities such as Dadu and Thelonica and asked them to persuade the locals."
"As a result, some mountain village leaders discovered that these people had converted to God-worshipping religion, which was quite different from the old-fashioned Orthodox Christianity that the locals believed in. They even thought that they were polytheistic believers. There was already a gap between the two groups, and they soon started to quarrel. .The mountain people called the old nobleman a Greek..."
"So there is such a thing." Little Jeanne was also quite emotional.
"There is no way, because even in Greece, where the culture was relatively prosperous at that time, most ordinary people actually did not have much opportunity to go to school, and specialized history education was even rarer." Guo Kang explained: "Everyday people The cultural source that can be contacted is basically the church, and the church has indeed always regarded itself as the Roman orthodox faith. Over time, this strange habit has probably been formed."
"But isn't it... ineffective?" Little Jeanne asked curiously: "Those nobles don't deny that they are Greeks."
"Yes, so it's a chicken-and-duck talk from beginning to end." Guo Kang spread his hands.
"Now the term 'Greek' is actually a very broad concept, and it still has different meanings among different groups."
"For example, among the people around me - more accurately, the upper echelons of the legion, 'Greek' can sometimes refer to all people who speak Greek, but it also has an obvious derogatory connotation, and often refers specifically to those in the upper echelons. , but he is a Greek aristocrat with no bottom line."
"And this meaning spreads, and it can also refer to all people who are considered cowardly, incompetent, stupid and short-sighted, whether they are at the upper or lower levels, sometimes even regardless of whether they speak Greek. But this concept of 'Greek' has nothing to do with language. The concepts of 'Greeks' do not completely overlap and are sometimes contradictory."
"In terms of despising the old Greek aristocrats, we even have a common language with some Greek commoners. Everyone likes to call themselves Romans and call these people 'Greek'. But on the other hand, we also habitually call these commoners Greeks." People, but most of them are obviously unacceptable.”
"This is really messy." Zhu Wenkui said with emotion.
"These are just some of our internal opinions, and it is even more confusing when we include foreign countries." Guo Kang said: "From the perspective of other countries, especially Alemanni, there is no 'Rome' in the East, only 'Greece.' A long time ago, they thought that our country was just a Greek country, and there had been no Rome for a long time. In this regard, even the old nobles who identified with Greece resolutely refused to recognize this title - you see, in the face of competition Everyone who claimed to be barbarians started to call themselves Romans again."
"So what does this mean?" Monk Dao Yan was a little confused.
"I don't know." Guo Kang spread his hands directly.
"Didn't I just say that we try to avoid using terms like 'Roman' and 'Lingua' for the same reason?" He said: "Not only the Greeks, but also many surrounding residents have always believed that Roman is Greek. Some of us think that the Roman language can change with the times, so it can be used to refer to Chinese now. But some people think that this change will easily cause more confusion, and it is better not to change it randomly."
"I think it's already very confusing. I guess adding a little bit won't make any difference..." Zhu Wenkui commented.
"The impact will be greater." Guo Kang pointed out: "At least most Greeks were once under the rule of the Roman Empire, but if a new Roman language is announced, you will find that most of the 'Roman' speakers are in the East. If everyone communicates with each other Isolation, that’s easy to explain. But there will definitely be more contacts in the future. Who will be the Romans then?”
"Then who do you think you are now?" Zhu Wenkui asked.
"I don't know either." Guo Kang said bluntly: "The Alemanni and Poles think we are Mongols, the Russians and Kipchaks think we are Khitans, and the upper-class Greeks think we are Seris. Ordinary people just generally think that we are Romans from the East, and they don’t care what we are specifically.”
"Of course we want to build a solid 'Rome' crowd. That's why we chose to start from scratch and build a group that identifies with Rome from the grassroots level. Our country is indeed a country of legions, because if there is no military organization, Then Rome may have been a confusing concept similar to 'Greece' today - no one knew its exact definition and could not find its boundaries. Now, we can at least say that these people are undoubtedly Romans. "
"Is it because they have more Roman elements? Or is it recognized by others?" Zhu Wenkui asked.
"Because they have no other choice but to recognize Rome." Guo Kang replied.
"ah?"
"At the beginning, these people basically belonged to the lord. If they were Bulgarians, it meant they belonged to the territory of Bulgaria; if they were Wallachians, it meant they belonged to the territory of Wallachia." Guo Kang explained.
"For other Europeans, their groups are often named according to their territories. For example, people in Catalonia form a separate group from other Spaniards. But here, many people deliberately Avoid these titles because it is easy to imagine that you and your family were once serfs of the local lord.”
"Of course, as time goes by, their descendants gradually no longer care about these things. But the traditional territorial divisions have long been broken, and generations of education have made the words used by everyone consistent. Everyone has become accustomed to the name of the Romans. ”
"There are so many stories..." Zhu Wenkui said with emotion.
"Yes, so we ourselves are very entangled." Guo Kang said: "The backbone of our country is these Romans, and we ourselves are the founders of this organization, so talking to outsiders - such as when facing the Ming Dynasty , we are Romans."
"But on the other hand, everyone does have differences. Chinese has not replaced the local dialects, and the mother tongue of many people is actually Slavic and Greek dialects. Compared with them, those of us who really use Chinese as our mother tongue have become The Romans are Han Chinese. That’s how troublesome it is.”
"Actually, it doesn't matter. I think Europeans don't pay attention to this at all." Zhu Wenkui suggested: "You are Romans in Seris, and you are Seris in Rome. That's okay."
"..."
"I told you everything, just say a few words less." Little Jeanne tried to stop him again.
(End of chapter)
