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Category: Mediaeval Greek
Which was the most southern border city of Byzantine Empire, before Arab conquest?
Since Andrew has blocked me, I have to add a correction here to Dimitris Sotiropoulos on https://www.quora.com/Which-was-… Iotabe is identified tentatively with Tiran Island, 27°57′N 34°33′E Syene is Aswan, 24°05′20″N 32°53′59″E Berenice Troglodytica is 23°54′38″N 35°28′34″E So Iotabe is not the southernmost point, unless Dimitris has evidence for an alternate identification of Iotabe as being […]
What Is a Byzantine Catholic?
A follower of one of the Eastern Catholic Churches. These churches are doctrinally Roman Catholic, but their ritual practice is a continuation of Eastern Christian practice (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and the Church of the East). Byzantine Catholic in particular refers to a follower of a church that is doctrinally Catholic, but whose ritual is […]
Why doesn’t the verb take a third person singular form in past tense?
Brian is of course right, but I think he’s explained it a bit too quickly. Armed only with Old English grammar and Middle English from Wikipedia, behold the past tenses of verbs in action. I’m only going to pay attention to weak verbs, because that’s the pattern that has prevailed. Old English: Present ic hǣl-e […]
Why does Grecani language not exist in Sicily (Magna Grecia)?
We know from Salvatore Cusa’s collection of church deeds from Sicily that Greek remained in use in official contexts until at least the 1300s—with the “correctness” of the Greek gradually degrading. We know that the use of Greek in Calabria and Salento steadily declined, with much wider areas using Greek in the 16th century. If […]
Greeks, which do you identify most with: Ancient Greece or the Byzantine Empire?
(Nice question, Aphrodisia Xanthopoulos! You and Aziz Dida should get together and plot more questions; the Greece feed has been getting boring lately.) OP’s question touches on the old dichotomy in Greek identity between Hellene and Romios (Roman); see for example Romios or Hellene? It’s a dichotomy that may be dying down now, as the […]
Can the Greek word Teknon ever be used to mean young or dependent child as opposed to strictly son or daughter of any age?
Ioannis Manomenidis has tackled Modern Greek. Let me summarise: Téknon gets used by priests to their spiritual children, their congregation. There, it means neither offspring, nor child: it’s a metaphorical extension of the “child of God” or “child that I mentor” notion. But that’s an ancient Greek expression, limited to the ecclesiastical register. Evangelos Lolos […]
What was the reason for the dramatic changes that marked the transition from Ancient Greek to Koine (Hellenistic) Greek?
I don’t have a good answer, as (surprisingly) I have not paid close attention to the genesis of Koine. But let’s separate out the various things that happened, and that other respondents have highlighted. Eleftherios V. Tserkezis correctly highlights that the koine was a dialect koine before it was anything else. And the dialect koine […]
What is a Hebrew word and a Greek word meaning “fragrance” or “perfume” GENERALLY?
I assume you are asking about Ancient Greek. IGNORE all the Greeks that are about to say ἄρωμα arōma. The ancient meaning of that word, per the Liddell–Scott dictionary, is aromatic herb or spice; not fragrance. Going through Liddell–Scott, I find, in descending order of fit to what you want: εὐοσμία euosmia, “fragrance, perfume”. Literally, […]
What are the names of different countries in your language?
Sofia Mouratidis gave names in current Greek. For jollies, I’m going to give names in Byzantine Greek, which are often quite different: the modern names are mostly from Latin, while the older names were usually from Italian. France: Frandza (now Gallia) Germany: Alamania (now Germania) Austria: Aoustria or Osterigon (now Afstria—which is a spelling pronunciation […]
What is the importance of the Hellenistic culture?
Thx4A2A, Anon. As my fellows have asked, we’ll need more detail on what you’re asking. I’m going to stab at a related question, which is the legacy of Hellenistic culture. In fact, that might be a good approach to vague questions like this, my fellow respondents: we grab a bit each of the possible answers […]