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Month: October 2016
What words/phrases in your language have funny, beautiful or weird direct translations into English?
Originally Answered: What expression from your language would English speakers find really funny if translated word for word? Ah, you remind me of the Golden Treasury of Greek-English expressions: we have not seen him yet, and we have removed him John I posted an analyses of a few of these on my Greek linguistics blog […]
What languages and dialects are spoken in Corfu?
Greek. Heptanesian dialect, which is rather close to Standard Modern Greek. A hundred years ago, Judeo-Italian and Judaeo-Greek. Two hundred years ago, Italian (Venetian) among the nobility. I’ve seen no evidence of Albanian ever spoken in Corfu. Answered 2016-10-17 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-languages-and-dialects-are-spoken-in-Corfu/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
Is it correct that the Isle of Wight and Albion owe their name inGoddess of Barley?
Any Goddess of Barley in Greek would be named for the Greek for barley: alphi. That derives from proto-Indo-European *albhi- , and Albanian elp is a cognate. Albion is the Celtic name of Britain, which survives as the Gaelic for Scotland, Alba. Its cognates are Welsh elfydd < *elbid ‘world, land’ and Gaulish albio– ‘world’. […]
Is Braille Alphabet universal, or is it specific and different for each language?
Braille – Wikipedia; English Braille – Wikipedia; Unified English Braille – Wikipedia Braille is an encoding of alphabets; since the alphabetic repertoire is going to be different within Roman script, let alone other alphabets, there will be differences in the repertoire. Not all Braille alphabets will have a W, or a É, or a Ч. […]
If the scientific study of language is by its very own nature descriptive not prescriptive, why is linguistics a science?
Well, as Zeibura S. Kathau has commented, Science is by nature descriptive. And linguistics is a science. A very soft science, I’ll grant you, but no less of one than geology or astronomy. There’s a word for fields of study that say how things should be, rather than how things are. That word is not […]
Does how a language sound represent the character of the nation?
When I was lecturing historical linguistics, I addressed this notion as follows: “Just picture the 19th century German linguist, captured by cannibals and boiling away in a cauldron, saying: [German accent] ‘Hah! Zis is ein joke! You people are all pussies! You do not even haff ein alveolar affrikat!’” And beware of cause and effect […]
Do Ancient Greek verbs in the Simple Present tense ever imply grammatical modality?
Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges : §1876 on οὗτος μὲν γὰρ ὕδωρ, ἐγὼ δ᾽ οἶνον πίνω for this man drinks water, whereas I drink wine. (habitual) ἄγει δὲ πρὸς φῶς τὴν ἀλήθειαν χρόνος “time brings the truth to light” (gnomic) “προδίδοτον τὴν Ἑλλάδα” they are trying to betray Greece (conative = attempt: […]
What is the translation of Antiochos’ script in the temple of Laodice in Nahavand, Iran?
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/314706?bookid=783&amp;location=1659 Thank you very much, OP, for providing the link. This is in fact the same letter as that other one you provided, Can modern day Greeks understand and read ancient scriptures in ancient ruins (Like this one?) Since you’ve provided a clean transcription I don’t have to squint at, happy to do it: King […]
What is the translation of the inscription outside Phanar Greek Orthodox College?
Πατριαρχικὴ Μεγάλη τοῦ Γένους Σχολή. αωπ.The Patriarchal Great School of the Nation. 1880. (ου is written as the ligature ȣ.) More prosaically, it is now known in English as Phanar Greek Orthodox College, and in Turkish as Özel Fener Rum Lisesi. It was established in 1454 and was the premier institute for schooling of Greek […]
What does the name “Teah” mean?
*Looks at profile of OP Tia, hoping for a hint* … You’re Australian, and in fact live on the same train line as me (my wife used to live in Berwick). Well, shit, Teah, that doesn’t help me at all. You’re Australian, so that name could be from anywhere. 🙂 Let’s think. Names ending in […]