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Category: Mediaeval Greek
Updated post on “How are Rumi’s poems in Greek?”
I have had an updated version of my old Quora post How are Rumi’s poems in Greek? published in Greek on Nikos Sarantakos’ blog, as Τα ελληνικά ποιήματα του Τζελαλεντίν Ρουμί, “The Greek poems of Jalal ad-Din Rumi”.
Updated posts on “What did your language sound like 1,000/500 years ago?”
I have consolidated my old Quora posts http://hellenisteukontos.opoudjis.net/2016-10-01-what-did-your-language-sound-like-1-000-years-ago/ and http://hellenisteukontos.opoudjis.net/2016-10-05-what-did-your-language-sound-like-500-years-ago/, and just had it published in Greek on Nikos Sarantakos’ blog: https://sarantakos.wordpress.com/2019/03/15/nikolaou-3
fufuðion
In my time at the TLG, there was many a mediaeval Greek word that was not in the main dictionaries—Lampe, Trapp (which was not yet complete at the time), and Kriaras (ditto); and I would expend pleasant and assiduous effort in trying to track those words down elsewhere. One such word was the Byzantine Greek […]
Future Imperfect
Latin and Greek both had an indicative tense called the Future Perfect. The tense described a event occurring in future time, but with perfective aspect—something complete in the future. The future perfect fits neatly into the matrix of possible tenses of Greek: it has the reduplication of Greek perfect tenses, but the -s- ending of […]
The Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität is complete
The Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität published its first fascicle in 1994 as a joint project of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Bonn, under the direction of Erich Trapp, and after a decade of preparatory work. The Lexikon started out as the Dictionary of Byzantine Greek focussing on the 9th to 12th centuries—but, in […]
Is the σου in καλή σου ἡμέρα out of place in Northern Greek
In a previous post, I mused that the use of καλή σου ἡμέρα “Good day to you” in Constantinople, in texts such as De Cerimoniis from the 10th century, was problematic—since by then the dialect split was meant to be in place, between genitive pronouns in the South (Southern Italy), and accusative pronouns in the […]
Did Tzetzes write the first attested instance of μουνί?
The first recorded instance of μουνί “cunt”, as I reported in 2010, is in the epilogue of John Tzetzes’ Theogony, written in the 1140s (based on when the patron who commissioned it was active). The next attestations are from the Entertaining Tale of Quadrupeds (1364), and the excommunication of a priest (1383). At the time, […]
Early Modern Greek site
The Early Modern Greek site is back after being inactive for a while, and its curator Notis Toufexis is making up for lost time posting new entries on editions and digitised manuscripts. There is also an associated Facebook group.
Hippolytus: Commentary on Daniel and Chronicon
Gorgias Press has just published a translation by Tom Schmidt of the Commentary on Daniel, by Hippolytus of Rome, and the world chronicle (Chronicon) also attributed to him. The latter incorporates the text of the Stadiasmus Maris Magni, a Roman guidebook to the ports of the Mediterranean. (It’s not a portolan, but it’s as close […]
We don’t speak mediaeval round here…
I recently reported on a translation of the Gettysburg Address into Ancient Greek, that I found on the Textkit forum. As a show of my new-found liberality with my time online (now that I am no longer on Quora), I have joined Textkit; and as part of my sign up, I’ve said hello to people […]