Ah well thats nice to know. But in all likelyhood greek ttl still is more known in south east asia.
That wasn't something I was addressing.
But re:Greek in SE Asia...
Lingua Francas are a funny thing. Greek was likely never used as a trade language east of Egypt until the Rhoman colonies appeared in South and South East Asia after the conquest of Egypt and its subsequent Hellenization. Those which did would not have imposed Greek as a trade tongue but instead have used that which was common in the region. In the Indian Ocean that would be Arabic, Swahili, and Persian. In SE Asia that would be Malay, Cantonese, and Javan. Greek Traders would travel along routes already dominated by Arabic-speaking peoples and these early traders were based in Rhoman Egypt. Where Greek arises as a useful niche is to facilitate trade between the Indian Ocean SE Asia using their colonies, since IOTL that niche was taken by Arabic but with the spread of Islam east lessened ITTL there isn't that pre-existing network. Arabic ITTL would be good from Egypt to India, but to get from India to SE Asia Greek could be the niche. Over time, as Egypt Hellenizes, Arabic ceases to be useful as a trade tongue for the Rhomans since the people in Egypt don't speak it anymore.
By the time Greek becomes useful as a trade language that far East to communicate with locals, or locals learning the language to communicate with traders, is probably the same time other Europeans are arriving. If anything, Europeans would be more likely to have some Greek knowledge than any other eastern language. Other Europeans would thus find Greek to be very useful in the east as something they know, and would paradoxically support its development as a trade language. The sole exception to this would be the Spanish, who'd be very likely to have Arabic speakers given their proximity to Arabic-speaking peoples in Morocco and Andalusia. The Spanish wouldn't have much reason to impose their language as a trade tongue, or use Greek, because they can just use the Arabic networks that already exist. The Spanish, despite being one of the largest European trade presences in the east, are probably having the least impact linguistically.
