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Month: January 2017

Do you pronounce BMW as “bee em double-u” or as “bey em vey”?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-29 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics, Modern Greek

English: Bee Em Double You. Australian English: Beamer. Greek: well, Greek only referenced English as its default foreign language in the last generation. So it’s the German pronunciation: Beh Em Veh. (Μπε εμ βε) Cypriot Greek: from memory, Pemve (Πεμβέ) —/b/ is rendered in Cypriot Greek as /p/, since Cypriot Greek has a three way […]

Can anybody help with the Latin translation of “Showing up is the biggest step.”?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-29 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Latin, Linguistics

Apparere gradus maximus [est]. As always with these questions: no tattoo until you get a second opinion. Answered 2017-01-29 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/Can-anybody-help-with-the-Latin-translation-of-Showing-up-is-the-biggest-step/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]

Where did the pronunciation of Ancient Greek (in modern times) come from? Who determined that it should sounds this way and why?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-28 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Linguistics

The ball got rolling, as Pronunciation of Ancient Greek in teaching – Wikipedia notes, in the early Renaissance, a generation before Erasmus. Erasmus published the system that prevailed in the West since, and that was a closer approximation of the modern reconstruction than Modern Greek pronunciation was: The study of Greek in the West expanded […]

Is Australian accent a moderate between British and American ones?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-28 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

Like the others said. There is a split between American accents and Commonwealth accents, with American often more archaic; the retention of r after vowels is the biggest shibboleth (and several British and Irish accents line up with America there). The Australian accent is pretty close to London English, though apparently there was a Midlands […]

Why is “species” sometimes pronounced as “spee-shees”?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-25 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

The explanation behind this is tied up with the bizarre history of the Traditional English pronunciation of Latin. I didn’t find an explicit explanation of what happened with species, and in fact the rules in that Wikipedia page took me in a slightly different direction to where I hoped to go. But here goes. I […]

Why have the words “overmorrow” and “ereyesterday” gone? Was it easier for speakers to use “the day after tomorrow” instead of “overmorrow”?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-24 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

It’s very hard to know. Language change is a bunch of stuff that happens, and language does not always change in an optimal direction. Greek has certainly retained its equivalent words, proxtes and methavrio (and even one more day out: antiproxtes, antimethavrio), it’s not like the concept had become suddenly useless. The following is necessarily […]

Why does cnidarian have a silent “c”?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-24 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

For the same reason knight and knee (German Knecht, Knie) have a silent k (and used to have a c: Old English cnēo, cniht). English stopped allowing initial kn– in its words in the Middle Ages. Words imported into English from other languages tend to abide by the pronunciation constraints (phonotactics) of native English words. […]

What is proper name of the sound when pushing air through nose?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-24 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

As a lay term rather than a linguistic description (Vote #1 Clarissa Lohr: Clarissa Lohr’s answer to What is proper name of the sound when pushing air through nose?), I was racking my brains: I was sure English had a word, and couldn’t place it. Something to do with flared nostrils. And huffiness. Our fellow […]

Of all the Greek audio bibles out there, which one comes the closest to authentic reconstructed pronunciation?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-24 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Mediaeval Greek

http://www.letsreadgreek.co… That site has a review of 22 audio files, of which at least a couple are in reconstructed Koine. They’re what you’re after, rather than Erasmian or Modern Greek. That said, read the answers to: Is the modern pronunciation of Greek accurate for koine? What are the pros and cons of the Erasmian pronunciation? […]

Who is Michael Masiello?

By: | Post date: 2017-01-23 | Comments: 1 Comment
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Literature

Translation into English follows. Μιχαὴλ ὁ Μασιέλλος διδάκτωρ, ἀνήρ ἐστι σοφολογιώτατος ἅμα καὶ ἐναρετότατος. Ἄλλ’ ἄλλοι περὶ αὐτοῦ καλῶς ἔφησαν· τοῦτ’ ἐγῶ φαίην. Πῶς οὖν σοφολογιώτατος; Οὐ γε πυκνοὶ οἱ τῆς Κυόρας τρίβοι σοφολογιωτάτοις; Πάνυ γε. Ἀλλὰ τοιούτου εὔρους, οὕτω τε διδακτοφιλικῶς, οὐδαμῶς. Πῶς γ’ οὖν ἐναρετότατος; Οὐ δὴ ὀργίλος καὶ βωμολόχος; Πάνυ γε. Φαῦλα […]