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Day: September 29, 2016

What does the Greek word παράκλητος (paráklitos) mean? What was the original Aramaic/Hebrew word?

By: | Post date: 2016-09-29 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Mediaeval Greek

I’ll add to the other answers there’s a subtle nuance in paráklētos. A nuance so subtle, you’ll most often see it discussed in explanations of paráklētos, and the evidence for the distinction can be shaky. Paráklētos follows the pattern of preposition + verbal adjective; it literally means “by-called” (hence, helper or advocate, some you call […]

Can modern day Greeks understand and read ancient scriptures in ancient ruins (Like this one?)

By: | Post date: 2016-09-29 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Linguistics, Modern Greek

Variant of what the others have said. Ruins featuring Roman era Koine? There’ll be some faux amis, but the alphabet shape is recognisable, the grammar and vocabulary you can cope with if you’re educated. Ruins from 500 BC? The alphabet shapes vary from city to city; the ancient dialects can be very different from Attic. […]