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Month: June 2016

What is the translation of the word “fox” to Greek?

By: | Post date: 2016-06-05 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

Ancient Greek ἀλώπηξ /alɔ́ːpɛːks/; this ends up as Modern /aleˈpu/ via the Hellenistic variant ἀλωπά, somehow: Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής. In English, the Ancient word for fox has given us alopecia: Hair loss The origin of this usage is because this animal sheds its coat twice a year, or because in ancient Greece foxes often […]

What are some Greek terms of endearment?

By: | Post date: 2016-06-05 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

To add to others: We use the neuter to address or refer to someone cute; desexing them is infantilising them, and infantilising them is a sign of affection, even if you are otherwise sexual with them. It’s the same thinking as using baby or babe in English. So χρυσέ μου “my golden one” (masculine) or […]

Provided you speak greek, how would you respond if someone used the word “ταχυδρόμος” for someone crossing a distance fast, not for the postman?

By: | Post date: 2016-06-05 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

To explain the question: Tachy-dromos, “quick-runner”, was originally a word for a courier. Couriers deliver mail, and tachy-dromos is now the word for mailman. If someone uses tachy-dromos in its original original meaning of “fast runner”, rather than its community accepted meaning of “mailman”, how do I react? I react by telling them to stop […]

What kind of ancient Greek dialect is usually learnt?

By: | Post date: 2016-06-04 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Linguistics

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BC%80%CE%BA%CE%BF%CF%8D%CF%89#Ancient_Greek In refutation of Jose Pineda: You need Old Ionic (Epic) to understand Homer, and all of Greek literature is suffused with Homer. You need Ionic for Herodotus and Hippocrates, and the authors imitating them (more of them for Hippocrates, for Herodotus just Lucian in one work). You need Doric for the choruses of the […]

What is the origin of “Thermodon”, the river near which the mythological Amazons lived?

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Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Linguistics

Well, there was also a Thermodon river in Boeotia, mentioned by Herodotus (Thermodon – Brill Reference). So it was a real river name, both in Boeotia and in Asia Minor: Terme River. This commentary on Lysias A Commentary on Lysias, Speeches 1-11 speculates that Therm-odon was picked as the location for the Amazons because Aristotle […]

What does the Greek word “kefi” mean?

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Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

What my peers said. Being upbeat and in a good mood, having fun. To do something with kefi means you’re smiling, you’re doing it with gusto, you’re having fun. To have kefi is to be in a good mood. Kefi is one of those Greek words that is routinely listed as “untranslatable”, because it has […]

What do you know about ethnically or linguistically Greek Muslims?

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Posted in categories: Culture, History, Modern Greek

Well, I’ve already answered the related question What do you know about Greek speaking Muslims (e.g. those in Hamidiyah, Syria)? I was tempted to merge the two questions, but the focus on Al-Hamidiyah is useful, because they’ve been so prominent in Greek media. Outside of Al-Hamidiyah: I know that some Muslims in Greece that were […]

What do you know about Greek speaking Muslims (e.g. those in Hamidiyah, Syria)?

By: | Post date: 2016-06-04 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture, History, Modern Greek

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Hamidiyah Hello, Aziz, and thank you for A2A. I found out about Al-Hamidiyah a few years ago, and posted about my emotional reactions on my blog: opɯdʒɯlɯklɑr: Al-Hamidiyah. I know that the settlers of Al-Hamidiyah fled Crete after Crete gained autonomy, and Christian Cretans started reprisals against Muslim Cretans. (In fact, as I found on […]

Is the correct word “indigenousness” or “indigeneity”?

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Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

Indigineity sounds Latinate, so it is being accepted in those contexts where a Latinate word makes sense. Particularly when the emphasis is not so much on an individual attribute, but on a more abstract construct. Cf. Maleness and Masculinity. For example, if you want to talk about the factors that correlate with student performance in […]

Did the written word slow the evolution of language?

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Posted in categories: General Language, Linguistics

Yes. Not by the magic of the fact that it is in writing, but by the fact that it has helped immensely in establishing and propagating conservative versions of the language, based on written records, as the most prestigious versions, which are learned in education and emulated in formal registers. Given the time depth of […]