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Month: April 2017
trichotillomania
The Magister’s comment to Nick Nicholas’ answer to Do you find Thucydides hard to read in Greek? https://www.quora.com/Do-you-fin… I feel your pain. I am sorry to report that’s just Thucydides talkin’, too. Try reading Pericles’ famous speech if you want to develop trichotillomania. I understood the word, and now, you will too: Trichotillomania – Wikipedia: […]
Where can one find the obscure works (i.e. plays and poems) of Nikos Kazantzakis (“Julian the Apostate”, “Odysseus”, “Tertsinas”, etc.)?
In Greece, it’s not particularly difficult to find all the works of Kazantzakis in any middling bookstore; and bless you for mentioning the Terza Rimas, that I have a lot of affection for. In the Anglosphere, a university with a Modern Greek teaching program will have them. A university that used to have a Modern […]
What does this emoji mean “U0001f60b”?
There are several online dictionaries of emoji meanings. The intended meaning of [math]unicode{x1f60B}[/math] is “Face Savouring Delicious Food”, which is the Unicode name of the emoji. U0001f60b Face Savouring Delicious Food Emoji (Emojipedia) offers “Used to indicate a silly happiness; goofy; hungry.” U0001f60b (Urban Dictionary) offers “thirsty; desperate” Face Savouring Delicious Food Emoji (Emojibase) notes […]
Should καί be stressed when writing Standard Modern Greek with polytonic orthography?
Yes. It was never written unaccented, because it was never treated as a clitic. On the other hand, the unstressed variant κι was indeed never accented. Answered 2017-04-16 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/Should-καί-be-stressed-when-writing-Standard-Modern-Greek-with-polytonic-orthography/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
Do you find Thucydides hard to read in Greek?
In Nick Nicholas’ answer to Are there any dialects of Greek that Nick Nicholas can’t understand?, I just exclaimed: I can kinda understand Attic, but I will sneak peeks at the dictionary when I don’t think you’re looking, and I ain’t touching no Thucydides. So. Let’s touch some random Thucydides. 6.30. μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα θέρους […]
Do modern-day Greeks feel continuity with their ancient civilization like Indians or Chinese?
They proclaim it and they are taught it, and yes, they feel it. But they feel it at a superficial level, as either ancestor-worship, or a totem to beat up Westerners with. Nick Nicholas’ answer to If your country had a slogan what it would be?: “When we Greeks were building Parthenons, you barbarians were […]
Are there any dialects of Greek that Nick Nicholas can’t understand?
First up, my vanity is well gratified! Well, there’s the question, and then there’s the details. Can I understand someone speaking modern Tsakonian, or read ancient Arcadian and understand it, sight unseen? Mate, I struggled to understand the Cypriot of my cousin’s husband Fotis; and I have no idea what Homer is on about. Homer! […]
What are some interesting examples of Ancient Greek vernacular?
This is (a) very old and (b) profane. Hope it’s what you’re looking for, Vangeli. Whether or not it’s what you’re looking for, it’s what you’re getting from me. The Greeks got hold of the alphabet in the early 8th century BC. If you’re studying the history of the Greek alphabet, as I’ve done, you […]
On social media, I notice that people deliberately omit the word ‘I.’ What might be behind that?
None of the answers satisfy me, though Logan R. Kearsley’s is by far the closest to satisfying me. EDIT: Uri Granta’s answer satisfies me more than mine. Go read that. There is a colloquial register in English, in which the first person subject is omitted routinely. It predates social media; see, for example the Beatles’ […]
How many letters does Unicode currently include in the Latin script, no matter the language, but ignoring upper vs. lower case differences?
Latin script in Unicode – Wikipedia As of version 9.0 of the Unicode Standard, 1,350 characters in the following blocks are classified as belonging to the Latin script Let’s remove the uppercase letters; and that leaves us with your answer. From eyeballing: 26+30+128+104+14*8+12+12+67+26 = 517 That leaves 833. If I’m wrong, I’m not wrong by […]