"Then if you change the Greek language so much, won't the Greeks say anything?" Princess Jeanne asked curiously.

"The big question is, what are Greeks?" Guo Kang pointed out the problem.

"Aren't the Greek speakers Greeks?" Princess Jeanne didn't seem to see 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 could not tell the difference between Greece and Rome. ”

"In general, people in the cities, especially the educated, have a clearer understanding of Greece. I think it was probably during the Nicaean Dynasty, when the Greek Dynasty officially raised the banner of 'Greeks' in order to fight against the Crusaders who occupied most of the capital. Guo Kang thought about it for a moment and said, "But even at that time, the concept of 'Greeks' was mainly circulated among the courts of the princes and the upper literati. Nor did they abandon their Roman identity. ”

"As for the people...... For a long time, 'Greek' was a bad word. They called us Greeks. ”

"Huh? Why is that? Princess Jeanne was surprised.

"Because what they colloquially call 'Greek' and 'Roman' is largely a religious distinction." Guo Kang said: "Many rural people like to call people who believe in monotheism 'Romans', their religion is called Roman religion, and the language is called Roman. And those ancient civilizations that have left many relics 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 Selonica and asked them to persuade the locals."

As a result, some of the hill leaders found that these people had previously converted to God-worshipping religion, which was quite different from the old-fashioned Orthodox Christianity practiced by the locals, and even considered them polytheists. The two groups were already estranged and soon quarreled. The mountain people scolded the old nobles for being Greeks......"

"So there is such a thing." Jeanne Jr. 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 many opportunities to go to school, and special history education was even rarer." Guo Kang explained: "The source of culture that people can come into contact with on a daily basis is basically the church, and the church has indeed always regarded itself as the orthodox faith of Rome. Over time, this strange habit has formed. ”

"But it's not ...... Doesn't it work? Jeanne Jr. wondered: "Those nobles don't deny that they are Greeks." ”

"yes, so it's a chicken-and-duck story from beginning to end." Guo Kang spread his hands.

"Nowadays, the term 'Greek' is actually a very broad concept, and it still has different meanings in different groups."

"For example, among the people around me, more precisely, in the upper echelons of the legion, 'Greek' can sometimes refer to all those who speak Greek, but it also has a distinctly derogatory connotation, often referring specifically to the Greek aristocracy who are in the upper echelons but have no bottom line."

And this meaning can also be spread to all those who are considered cowardly, incompetent, stupid and short-sighted, whether they are high or low, and sometimes even whether they speak Greek or not. But this concept of 'Greek' does not exactly coincide with the linguistic concept of 'Greek', and sometimes contradicts each other. ”

"In terms of despising the old Greek aristocracy, we even had a common language with some Greek commoners. Everyone likes to call themselves Romans and call them 'Greeks'. But on the other hand, we also habitually refer to these civilians as Greeks, but most of them are obviously unacceptable. ”

"It's a mess." Zhu Wenkui said with emotion.

"These are just a few of our internal opinions, and it's even more chaotic if you count foreign countries." Guo Kang said: "In other countries, especially Alemanni, there is no 'Rome' in the East, only 'Greece'. Long ago, they thought that our side was only a Greek country, and that there was no Rome for a long time. And in this regard, even the old aristocracy, which had Greek identity, resolutely refused to recognize this title - you see, in the face of the barbarians who came to fight for claims, everyone began to call themselves Romans again. ”

"So what the hell is this?" Monk Daoyan was a little puzzled.

"I don't know." Guo Kang directly spread his hands.

"Didn't I just say that we try to avoid using the terms 'Roman' and 'lingua franca', and that's why." "Not only the Greeks, but many of the surrounding inhabitants have always thought that Roman is Greek," he said. Some of us think that Roman can change with the times, so we can now use it to refer to Chinese. But some people think that this change is likely to cause more confusion, and it is better not to change it randomly. ”

"I think I'm already confused, and I don't think it will make a difference...... Zhu Wenkui commented.

"The impact will be even greater." "At least most of the Greeks were once under the Roman Empire, but if a new Roman language is announced, you will find that most of the 'Roman' speakers are in the East," Guo said. If everyone is isolated from each other, that's easy to explain. But there will definitely be more contacts in the future, who will be the Romans then? ”

"And what are you now?" Zhu Wenkui asked.

"I don't know." Guo Kang said bluntly: "The Alemanni and Poles think we are Mongols, the Rus and Kipchaks think we are Khitans, the upper Greeks think we are Serisians, and most ordinary people only think that we are Romans from the East, and they don't care what it is." ”

"We ourselves certainly want to build a solid 'Roma' crowd. That's why I chose to start from scratch and build a community that identified with Rome from the grassroots. Our country is indeed a legionary state, because without the organization of armies, Rome would have been a bewildering concept similar to that of 'Greece' today—no one knows its exact definition or its borders. Now, we can say the least that these people were undoubtedly Romans. ”

"Because they have a lot of Roman elements in them? Or does someone else admit it? Zhu Wenkui asked.

"Because they have no other choice than Rome." Guo Kang replied.

"Huh?"

"In the beginning, these people basically belonged to the lords. If they are Bulgarians, they mean territories that belong to Bulgaria; It is Wallachian, which means a territory belonging to Wallachia. Guo Kang explained.

"For other Europeans, their ethnic groups are often named according to their territory. The people of Catalonia, for example, formed a separate group unlike the rest of the Spaniards. But many of us here deliberately avoid these titles, because it is easy to think that they and their families were once serfs of the local lord. ”

"Of course, over time, their descendants have gradually stopped caring about this. But the traditional territorial division has long been broken, and generations of education have led to the same script used. Everyone became accustomed to the Roman name. ”

"There are so many stories...... Zhu Wenkui sighed.

"yes, so we're all struggling with ourselves." Guo Kang said: "The backbone of our country is these Romans, and we ourselves are the founders of this organization, so we are Romans when we talk to outsiders - for example, when facing the Ming Dynasty." ”

"But on the other hand, there are differences. Chinese has not replaced the local dialect, and many people's native languages are still Slavic and Greek. Compared with them, those of us who really use Chinese as our mother tongue have become Han Chinese among the Romans. That's how troublesome things are. ”

"Actually, it doesn't matter, I don't think Europeans pay attention to these things at all." Zhu Wenkui suggested: "You are Romans in Seris, and you are Seris in Rome. Isn't that enough. ”

“……”

"I've told you everything, so let's say a few words." Jeanne Jr. tried to stop him again.

(End of chapter)