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Day: May 30, 2017
Why do Australians prefer plain easy English over rich English?
The other answers are good, but I like to step back with questions like these, to the cultural context. In former times, expertise and professional use of language were elite activities; people who would use language professionally had an education that encompassed the literary canon and rhetoric; and the dominant literary aesthetic prioritised an extensive, […]
Why are the taxes so high in Greece?
Excellent answer from Alket Cecaj, Alket Cecaj’s answer to Why are the taxes so high in Greece? Clientelism is how it started The government must provide; there isn’t a native notion of ground roots enterprise and small government. If the government must provide, well, that costs money. So far, as Alket argued, that’s no different […]
What other races have the Greeks absorbed?
Here’s a laundry list. Some to a greater extent, some to a lesser. Some as cultural assimilation, some as more straightforward displacement. Pelasgians (or whatever the pre-Hellenic population of Greece was) Minoans (who are presumably the same as the Eteocretans) Eteocypriots Lemnians (assuming that their language, which looks related to Etruscan, is not Pelasgian) The […]
What languages accept the use of mesoclisis and/or endoclisis?
Part of the problem is going to be that the terminology can get idiosyncratic to a language. I was not familiar with the terms endoclisis and mesoclisis, though I’m sure I’ve seen somewhere a description of an Italian dialect that sounds like what you’re describing as mesoclisis. If we treat the Indo-European preverb as a […]
What is the English translation for Greek ενέλιξη?
Well, I had no idea what the answer was. But I did know that evolution in Greek is εξέλιξη, as an element-for-element calque: both mean “out-twisting”. And ενέλιξη means “in-twisting”, which should correspond to Latin(-derived) involution. And I looked up the definition of ενέλιξη, and it gave me a bunch of geometrical stuff: ενέλιξη (from […]
How can I get Esperanto taught at my school?
Kaylee Lowe’s answer to How can I get Esperanto taught at my school? Read now for the general principles at work. This answer is the added detail. Kaylee Lowe correctly points out the added constraint of standardised testing and curriculum support; you can’t just waltz in to a school with a copy of Jen Nia […]