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Month: May 2016
How come the concept of ‘homosexuality’ was not known in Ancient Greece (if it was in the Bible itself)?
Paul refers to ἀρσενοκοίτης, “sleeping with men”, which is an expression for the concept of homosexuality. Predating the modern term homosexuality. And indeed, which might well be rendered as “homosexuality”, even though it was not the word that Ancient Greeks used. There is a contrary opinion that it refers specifically to temple prostitution in Leviticus; […]
Does Esperanto have dialects?
The most clearcut regional distinction between Esperanto speakers that I’m aware of is in the accentuation of compound numerals, such as dudekkvin “twenty-five”. In some countries they are accented as dúdek kvin; in some as dudékkvin. I read somewhere an early Esperantist saying, after a conference in Finland, “the Finns have taught us how to […]
Why is the Ancient Greek verb ὀράω so horribly irregular?
https://www.quora.com/How-irregular-is-Ancient-Greek/answer/Joachim-Pense/comment/19063952: The question comes from an exchange Joachim Pense and I had about irregular verbs. My argument to him was that, if you know something about the history of Greek phonology, and factor in suppletion, the verbs do at least start to make some sense. Warning: if you don’t already know Ancient Greek, don’t bother […]
How do modern Greek Orthodox feel about the Iconoclastic events?
Well, let me put it this way (answering the related question, “how do I feel about Iconoclasm”.) The town of Agios Nikolaos, Crete is named after an old church of St Nicholas. The church is still around, now built into the grounds of a hotel: Byzantine Temple of Agios Nikolaos – Travel Guide for Island […]
What does ‘hydra-headed evils’ mean and from where does it originate?
The reference is to the Lernaean Hydra, a legendary monster in Greek Mythology that Hercules killed. The Hydra was a snake-like monster with many heads; and if you cut off one head, two more would grow in its place. As Nikos Tsiforos‘ humorous retelling of Greek Mythology put it, Hercules’ reaction when he observed this […]
What are some weird expressions?
Ahah. Let’s not bugger flies, you say? Follow me, Quorans, into the scatological riches of Greek adages, and some rather disturbing insights into traditional Greek notions of sex, power, and bodily functions. You’ve been warned. Έκανε η μύγα κώλο, κι έχεσε τον κόσμο όλο. “The fly has produced an arse, and has shat on the […]
How do you say the word “owl” in Greek?
As Sokratis Di said, κουκουβάγια [kukuvaʝa] in Modern Greek. The proposed etymology is that it’s onomatopoeic, with kukuvau! the Modern Greek for “hoot! hoot!”, and Aristophanes’ ancient equivalent being kikkabaû! (“cry in imitation of the screech-owl’s note”). The Ancient Greek is γλαύξ, /glaúks/. The ancients guessed that it was derived from glaukos, “blue”, because of […]
Why is it possible for the Cyrillic script to be adopted in so many languages?
What made Roman script suited for adoption? The fact it was adopted a lot. Latin on its own is not particularly suited for a lot of phonemes, but it was the only game in town in Western and Central Europe, and that meant there was a long, long tradition of workarounds—both digraphs and diacritics. So […]
Is there a “White Black” prototypical character in the Balkan, Turkish, Middle Eastern, or Arabic folklore or fairy tales?
Not aware of one in Greek folklore. Lots of Arapis in Greek fairy tales, filling the same niche as ogres and giants—sometimes benevolent, sometimes malicious, but always exotic. But not aware of White Arapis. Answered 2016-05-02 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/Is-there-a-White-Black-prototypical-character-in-the-Balkan-Turkish-Middle-Eastern-or-Arabic-folklore-or-fairy-tales/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
How has it happened and Kemal Ataturk did not adopt Greek Alphabet, although in the Ottoman empire the Greek (and Cyrillic) were spoken?
There was use of Greek script to write Turkish: Karamanli Turkish. Illustrated in https://www.quora.com/How-has-it… But without some concerted linguistic work, Greek script was not much better suited to Turkish than Arabic script was. No differentiation between <ı> and <u> for example: both ου. No systematic differentiation of <c> and <ç>, just as Greek (at the […]