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Day: August 9, 2016
What do the Turkish loanwords merak and meraklı mean in your language?
http://m.nisanyansozluk.com/?k=merak In Greek, μεράκι means: yearning love-sickness pride in one’s work (in the phrase με μεράκι “with merak”) A μερακλής on the other hand is a bon vivant, a connoisseur, someone who knows how to have a good time and who appreciates the finer things in life. And the verb μερακλώνομαι is to be in […]
Some linguists say there are 91 English spelling rules and some say there are none. Who is right?
Agreed with Brian (more or less). Despite the inconsistencies and hypercorrections and weirdness, English spelling is not random. If you see a new word, you have reasonable chance of coming up with a consistent pronunciation; and if you hear a new word, you have a (somewhat less) reasonable chance of coming up with a consistent […]
Are there any Greek towns built along the Acheron river in Greece?
I don’t know the answer, but I do know how to read Greek Wikipedia: Αχέρων – Βικιπαίδεια The Acheron was considered a river of Hades in antiquity. Which makes sense, given that Epirus, where it is located, was nowheresville to the Ancient Greeks. This also exaggerated their sense of its importance: far from being the […]