On the occasion of World Greek Language Day, celebrated each year on 9 February, ERT World presents, on 8 and 9 February, a series of special programs and documentaries highlighting our language and its literary tradition.
Through carefully selected productions, viewers are introduced to the historical evolution of the Greek language, the work of leading linguists and poets, and its role in Greek culture.
Sunday, 08 February 2026
Monogramma, ERT Archive | 10:30 (Athens time)
Episode: «Christoforos Charalambakis» (Tribute)
Professor of Linguistics at the University of Athens, Christoforos Charalambakis has devoted more than forty years to the study of the historical course and evolution of the Greek language, the oldest language in Europe. Deeply shaped by the linguistic and folk traditions of Crete, he explored the secrets of orality, studied Modern Greek dialects, and demonstrated how our most distinguished poets—foremost among them Dionysios Solomos—renewed the literary language of Modern Greek by drawing on the living speech of ordinary people in the countryside. He also examined the language of leading Modern Greek writers, among whom stand out Makriyannis, Papadiamantis, Kondylakis, Palamas, Kazantzakis, Prevelakis, Seferis, and Elytis. Professor Charalambakis lived for extended periods in Germany, England, the United States of America, and Australia, gaining the opportunity to study languages, peoples, and cultures, and to situate his research on the Greek language within a broader theoretical framework.
Direction: Iro Sgouraki
Behind the Curtain, ERT Archive | 11:00 (Athens time)
Episode: «George Seferis – Odysseas Elytis: Two Nobel Prizes in Greek Poetry»
This episode of the documentary series “Behind the Curtain” is dedicated to the work of two great Greek poets and Nobel laureates, George Seferis and Odysseas Elytis. Their oeuvre and contribution to Greek letters and literature are presented through the views and analyses of university professors and contemporary writers.
Specifically, Xenophon Kokolis (Assistant Professor of Modern Greek Philology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Michalis Pieris (poet and Professor of Modern Greek Literature at the University of Cyprus), Pantelis Boukalas (writer), Evripidis Garantoudis (philologist and Assistant Professor of Modern Greek Philology at the University of Crete), and Haris Vlavianos (poet and director of the journal Poetry) share their perspectives on the two poets, the significance of their work, as well as on the Generation of the 1930s, in relation to the difficulty faced by the younger generation in living up to their legacy.
They also discuss the Nobel Prizes awarded to the two poets, while the program features archival footage from the award ceremonies—1963 for Seferis and 1979 for Elytis—along with excerpts from speeches and interviews, as well as readings from their works.
Throughout the broadcast, photographs of the poets alternate with contemporary newspaper publications. The program also includes footage from the film “George Seferis” by Giorgos Karypidis and from the film “Writings of Light” by Ioulita Iliopoulou and Manos Efstratiadis.
Direction – Research: Takis Chatzopoulos
Historical Portraits, ERT Archive | 20:00 (Athens time)
Episode: «Giannis Psycharis»
This episode is dedicated to Giannis Psycharis, a major figure in Modern Greek letters who fought passionately for the dominance of the demotic (vernacular) language. Psycharis was born in 1854 and died in 1929. The program refers to his much-discussed book My Journey (Το ταξίδι μου), published in 1888, which became his linguistic manifesto in favor of demotic Greek. The historical context of Psycharis’s activity is presented—an era marked by the intensification of the Greek language question and the polarization between supporters of katharevousa and advocates of the demotic language. His personality is outlined, with particular emphasis on his dogmatism, which is nevertheless seen as partly justified by the circumstances of his time. Information is also provided on his cosmopolitan education and his studies in Vienna, Germany, and Paris, where he was appointed Professor of Modern Greek at the School of Living Oriental Languages. Throughout the program, the scholarly work and personality of this pioneering philologist are highlighted by academics Xenophon Kokolis, Emmanouil Kriaras, and Nikos Terzis, as well as historian Rena Patrikiou.
Written and directed by Giorgos Petritsis
Log Βooks – George Seferis
Documentary | 01:45 (Athens time, early hours of Monday)
A journey into the poetry and thought of George Seferis. The wanderings of an untiring traveler through places, texts, music, films, and people; successive layers; experiences accumulating into a rich substratum of the significant and the insignificant alike, before being transcribed into that other language—Poetry. A laborer of language. A sworn enemy of elevated rhetorical forms and emotional exploitation, a lover of craft and restraint, a obsessive artisan of writing. “By carving ourselves, this is how we write”—a phrase by Seferis that vividly captures the often long and exceptionally arduous Odyssey of creation.
Script – Direction: Stelios Charalambopoulos
Monday, 09 February 2026
The Night Fernando Pessoa Met Constantine Cavafy
Documentary | 16:00 (Athens time)
On 21 October 1929, the ocean liner Saturnia departs from Trieste on its journey to America, collecting migrants from ports across the Mediterranean. A young Greek man who boards the ship in Patras becomes the witness to an unexpected encounter: one night, aboard this vessel carrying the dreams of the New World, an encounter equally dreamlike and real takes place between two great poets of the past century—Fernando Pessoa and Constantine Cavafy.
Script – Direction: Stelios Charalambopoulos
Monogramma, ERT Archive | Monday, 17:30 (Athens time)
Episode: «Mario Vitti – Professor, Scholar of Modern Greek Studies»
Mario Vitti, a leading Italian scholar of Modern Greek studies, followed a rare intellectual path spanning more than sixty years, pursuing with consistency and a strong sense of responsibility the role he would play in both earlier and contemporary Greek literature. From the early 1950s onward, he began enriching Greek essay writing and literary criticism with ideas, stimuli, and persistent research—efforts that culminated in his landmark work History of Modern Greek Literature.
As he himself notes, Mario Vitti is “half Romios,” both because of his mother’s origins and by choice, through his Hydriot wife, and half Italian. He was born in Constantinople in 1926 and pursued an academic career as a professor at the University of Rome, as well as a visiting professor at the universities of Thessaloniki and Crete, and at French universities, including the Sorbonne, among others.
Introduction: Giorgos Sgourakis
Direction: Iro Sgouraki
The Great Tomorrow – Portraits of Tomorrow
Documentary Series | 20:00 (Athens time)
Episode: «Listening to the Language»
A reflection on how our language is passed on to the younger generation, through conversations with and observation of educator Eleni Oreithyia Koulizaki. Contributions by Konstantinos Niarchos, Margarita Verdou, Giorgos Lathyris, and others.
Script – Direction: Andreas Marianos
Perspectives, Current Affairs Program | 23:00 (Athens time)
Episode: «The Modern Individual and Language»
Giorgos Babiniotis meets Titos Patrikios to discuss the modern individual and the evolution of language in the era of new forms of communication.
Presented by: Makis Provatas
