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Month: December 2016
In Classical Greek diphthongs, was the first or the second element accented?
I finally worked this out, by reading half of Ancient Greek accent – Wikipedia. (Reading the other half confirms it, but I’m still proud of myself.) The answer is: the second element if acute, the first if circumflex. Let’s take this slow. The explanation of the distinction between acute and circumflex in the Wikipedia article […]
Why is Albanian so different from other European languages?
To expand on Edmond Pano’s answer: Indo-European languages are not all that similar to each other. That’s why it took so long to establish the family. (It was much more obvious in Classical times, but people in Classical times weren’t paying attention.) The level at which laypeople can tell similarities is at the branch level. […]
Why does the Greek Orthodox Church have religious hegemony in Greece?
Start with Byzantium: Orthodox Christianity was the state religion, and heterodoxy was deemed treason. Jews and Muslims were tolerated in Byzantine Law as second class citizens; heretical Christians got the sword. In the Ottoman Empire, that continued with the Rum millet: Greek Orthodoxy defined the nation of Romans, which was considered to include Greeks. Catholicism […]
What is your opinion of Noam Chomsky?
Feh. Screw that guy. I wrote why on my website, something like 20 years ago (ignore the update date): Anti-Chomsky: English. I was somewhat aghast around 2000, when David Horowitz got in touch with me, asking for permission to quote me. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about him. (Chomsky, I mean. But […]
How do you translate “blockchain” and “bitcoin” to Latin?
This won’t be good, for the reasons Alberto Yagos said. The Greek for bit is: Bit – Βικιπαίδεια. Of course. There is a Hellenic coinage recommended by the Greek Standards Organisation: δυφίο dyphio[n], from dyo “two” and psēphion “digit”. The Ancient Greeks didn’t do portmanteaux, which is what this is; but if you want a […]
Among languages that presently use a non-Roman script, which are most likely to romanize in the coming decades?
As I groused at Brian Collins in his answer: it’s always political. Scripts are bound to identity, and the major vehicle of identity in our age is the nation-state. So scripts that are tied up with the nation-state as emblematic—say, Greek or Thai—aren’t going away in a hurry. Minority scripts in a country have been […]
What is your country’s fireworks day?
Greece: Easter. The tradition involves celebratory gunfire in the churchyard at Easter Midnight Mass. The modern manifestation of that is fireworks being let off in the packed churchyard at Easter Midnight Mass. Both in Greece/Cyprus, and in the diaspora. The news each year reports people being injured (or killed) as a result; my sister has […]
What does your hometown look like?
Which hometown, Launceston in Tasmania, where I was born; Sitia in Crete, where I grew up; Melbourne in Victoria where I live? Melbourne feels most like home, but there will be others to do a photo essay. So I’ll do Sitia. I’ve already posted a bit about it at Nick Nicholas’ answer to What is […]
Was Napoleon Greek?
http://www.mani.org.gr/en/history/napoleon.htm Andrew Baird’s block on me means I cannot reply to commenters to his answer, either. So, Bill Killernic: Laure Junot, Duchess of Abrantes was the person who circulated the notion that Napoleon was Greek. She claimed that Napoleon had proposed to her mother, Panoria Stephanopoli, a Corsican Greek. Her claims are often repeated by […]
Who is best English speaking people whose mother tongue is different?
The cliche I’ve heard is the Dutch. As in, the Dutch speak English better than most English people do. But the English of most Western Europeans is exquisite. Brian Collins, didn’t you just post somewhere that Norwegians speak English like Canadians with funny consonants? Ah yes: Brian Collins’ answer to Do you think Norway is […]