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Month: April 2016
How come that the term “Pharaoh” ends with H in English and with N in many other languages [(like: Faraon, Firaun (in different languages)]?
A most excellent question, Aziz! I don’t have the complete answer, but googling gets what seems to be most of it. The original form, per Pharaoh, ends in a vowel. Hieroglyphics pr-3, Late Egyptian par-ʕoʔ, Greek pharaō /pʰaraɔ́ː/, Hebrew פרעה (parʿōh), Latin pharaō. The Greek word pharaō is indeclinable, but it does have a variant […]
Is there a big difference between Modern Greek and Medieval Greek?
Non-zero, but not huge. Mediaeval Greek is not the normal term used, because the Greek linguistic situation doesn’t align well with the Middle Ages. Let me explain. The learnèd language of Byzantium was Attic Greek, with varying degrees of enthusiastic hypercorrection and exoticism. The officialese language of Byzantium was closer to Koine, with plenty of […]
Did Hebrew influence Ancient Greek?
Thx4A2A, Dimitra. The mainstream of Greek was not influenced substantially by Hebrew. The Hebrews were just another barbaric tribe in Classical times, as far as the Greeks were concerned, and not a terribly important one. Greek did get some words from Persian (the word for “chore”, αγγαρεία, is still used); but the Persians had an […]
Is Mykonos considered as a magical land or it is just a Greek island?
So, when I was gathering materials for my PhD in Greek dialectology, I noticed that Greeks collecting texts would transcribe them in the Greek alphabet (natch), but foreigners in the 20th century usually used a Roman-based phonetic alphabet. Not the IPA, that would be way too sensible; typically some adaptation of a God-awful French or […]
If yoghurt is a variant of yaourt, why is the g pronounced?
The <ğ> used to be pronounced, as a [ɣ]. It has dropped out in Modern Standard Turkish, though it survives in Turkish dialect, and in Greek loanwords from Turkish. So yoğurt used to be [joɣurt], which was transliterated as yoghurt. The /g/ is pronounced in that transliteration, because that’s the default thing to do in […]
Why are the current Serbo-Croatian languages still based on the same standard dialect as opposed to the local dialects they still coexist with?
Inertia. The standards are already there, and presumably will have already made massive inroads against the local dialects. It’s very difficult to change your standard language if you already have one, and build a new standard. It’s much easier to just rebadge your existing standard with some tweaks. So it’s easier to keep standard Croatian […]