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Day: July 9, 2016
Why do Latin second declension neuter nouns look like singular feminine nouns in plural nominative and accusative?
I went to Sihler: New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin Indo-European fem sg: –e[math]H_2[/math]. Indo-European neuter o-stem plural: –e-[math]H_2[/math]. They are the same; as Sihler notes (p. 263) “identical in form with the nom.sg of -e[math]H_2[/math] stems (=first declension) and probably the point of departure for the creation of that stem.”— (p. 266) “a […]
What linguistic studies have been done on the words spoken when “speaking in tongues”?
Christine Kenneally (born in Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian-American journalist who writes on science, language and culture. Trained as a linguist, she has written for the New York Times, the New Yorker, Slate, New Scientist, and Australia’s Monthly, among other publications. Christine Kenneally is someone I resent the hell out of, because she went to […]
What language did the ancient Minoans of Crete speak? Was ancient Greek, or something very different?
Other respondents have answered about Linear A, of which we know only that is probably inspired Linear B, and it was very unlikely to have been Greek. We also have a few inscriptions, from Classical times, in Eteocretan language, a non-Greek language written in Greek characters. It’s reasonable to assume it’s the same language was […]
What is the Greek name of violet?
The flower violet is ἴον /íon/ in Ancient Greek. In Modern Greek, μενεξές /menekses/ < Turkish menekşe < Persian بنفشه /banafše/ and βιολέτα < Italian violetta are more common. Βιολέτα – Βικιπαίδεια EDIT: the colour: in Ancient Greek ἰάνθινος “violet-flowered” or ἰόεις. Just as well, because ἰώδης is “rust-coloured = verdigris, green” (from the similar […]
Should Persian (Farsi) officially switch to the Latin script?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingilish Choice of script is always about ideology. Always. It’s not about linguistic rationality. In fact, when the missionaries or linguists come to town and start devising orthographies for previously unwritten languages, one of the language communities’ frequent concerns is that their orthography should look different from the tribe down the road. Latin swept the […]
Should Greek write Tαβου instead of Tαμπου (for taboo) and Bιδεο instead of Bιντεο (video), as done in Cyprus?
A: no. 🙂 Transliteration reform has already happened in Greek, and it’s concentrated around simplifying vowels. No more omega for long o’s or eta for long i’s or <ai> for long e’s, as in Φλωμπέρ <Flōmper> = Flaubert, Σαίξπηρ <Saixpēr> = Shakespeare. But at least those reforms have made phonological sense. This wouldn’t. And B: […]