Text 2. Population and people of modern greece

Assignment 1: Translate the text into Russian. Explain the ways of introducing xenonyms into the text.

A census is taken every 10 years in Greece. The 1991 census recorded a population of 10.264.156 - an increase of 5.4% on the 1981 figure. Women outnumber men by more than 200.000. Greece is now a largely urban society, with 68% of the population living in cities. By far the largest is Athens, with more than 3.1 million people living in the greater Athens area. Less than 15% of people live on the islands, the most populous of which are Crete (537.000), Evia (209.100) and Corfu (105.000).

Contemporary Greeks are a mixture of all of the invaders who have occupied the country since ancient times. Additionally, there are a number of distinct ethnic minorities living in the country.

The country’s small Roman Catholic population is of Genoese or Frankish origin. They live mostly in the Cyclades, especially on the island of Syros, where they make up 40% of the population. The Franks dominated the island from 1207 AD to Ottoman times.

About 300.000 ethnic Turks who were exempt from the population exchange of 1923 live in Thrace. There are also small numbers of Turks on Kos and Rhodes which, along with the rest of the Dodecanese, did not become part of Greece until 1947.

The small Jewish communities on the islands of Evia (at Halkida) and Rhodes date back to the Roman era. There are also Jewish communities in several mainland cities, including Athens, Kavala and Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki had a large Jewish community before WWII, mostly descendants of 15th century exiles from Spain and Portugal. In 1941, the Germans entered Thessaloniki and herded 46.000 Jews off to Auschwitz; most never returned. They comprised 90% of Thessaloniki’s Jews and more than half the total number in Greece. Today there are only about 5000 Jews living in Greece.

You will come across Roma (Gypsies) everywhere in Greece, but especially in Macedonia, Thrace and Thessaly. There are large communities of Roma in the Thracian towns of Alexandroupolis and Didymotiho.

The collapse of the communist regimes in Albania and Romania produced a wave of economic refugees across Greece’s poorly guarded northern borders, with an estimated 300.000 arriving from Albania alone. These refugees have been a vital source of cheap labour for the agricultural sector; fruit and vegetable prices have actually gone down as a result of their contribution. Albanians also have a reputation as fine stone masons, and their influence can be seen everywhere.

Assignment 2: Discuss the text while answering the following questions. Use reference books if necessary.

1. What is the current demographic situation in Greece?

2. What are the most populous islands?

3. What do modern Greeks represent ethnically?

4. What are ethnic minorities in Greece?

5. How are they spread around the country?

6. What are the Russian equivalents to the following toponyms: Athens, Thessaloniki, Cyclades, Thrace, Auschwitz?

7. Give the Russian equivalent to the name Ottoman times, Ottoman Empire.