Author: Nick Nicholas

Website:
http://www.opoudjis.net
About this author:
Data analyst, Greek linguist

Why does it need to have uppercase letters and lowercase letters in Attic Greek?

By: | Post date: 2016-08-14 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Writing Systems

The dirty not-so-secret of Attic Greek typography: it adopts the punctuation and capitalisation conventions of the European-language country it is printed in. So names or adjectives of nationalities (Hellenic/hellenic, Hellene/hellene) will be capitalised based on where it is printed. The quotation marks will follow local practice (and there’s a special place in hell for whoever […]

Is French word fiancailles translated in Hebrew as Erabon?

By: | Post date: 2016-08-14 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Other Languages

No. No no no. The Hebrew word ’erabon “pledge” (Strong 6162. עֲרָבוֹן (erabon)) shows up in Greek as arrabōn. In fact, it doesn’t quite: the word was borrowed in Classical times, so it was likely taken from Phoenecian instead. Within Greek, arrabōn ended up meaning “engagement, betrothal”, because a betrothal is a kind of pledge. […]

How many towns have or had the name Tripolis?

By: | Post date: 2016-08-14 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Linguistics

Let’s collate these responses against Tripoli (disambiguation) from Wikipedia: Tripoli, Libya Tripoli, Lebanon, the second largest city in Lebanon Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient city Tripolis ad Maeandrum, an ancient city on the borders of Lydia, Caria and Phrygia Tripolis (Pontus), an ancient city Tripoli, Iowa, a city in […]

Why did Old Armenian change -ա to -այ (-a to -aj)?

By: | Post date: 2016-08-13 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Other Languages

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D6%84%D5%A1%D5%B0%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%A1%D5%B5#Old_Armenian I know nothing about Armenian, Old or New, apart from vosp, ’cause I like lentil soup. I stared for half an hour at: A Grammatical Sketch of Classical Armenian, Damme, Dirk Van – a Short Classical Armenian Grammar Grammaire armenienne : M. Lauer and A. Carriere . I think I have the answer. Old […]

What sort of crime was punished by Scaphism?

By: | Post date: 2016-08-13 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphism You’ve linked to (and read) the English language Wikipedia article in the Question Details. From the English and German Wikipedia articles, we actually don’t know anything else about scaphism: it was described once in Plutarch, and then recapitulated in Eunapius and Zonaras, Byzantine sources. We don’t even know if it was something the Persians […]

What is a cool way to say “friends” or “group of friends” or “small circle” in other ways or languages?

By: | Post date: 2016-08-13 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

Parea παρέα in Greek. Cool because it’s the only word in Greek with an Iberian origin. It comes from either Ladino parea or Catalan parella, cognate with Spanish pareja. The Catalan derivation is probably too good to be true: it refers to the Catalan Company, mercenaries who ran bits of Greece (including Athens) in the […]

What do Greeks think of Italians and Italy?

By: | Post date: 2016-08-13 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture, Modern Greek

Half of Greece (the islands) was a colonial outpost for various Italian republics—mostly Venice and Genoa. But that was a very, very long time ago, and Greeks have forgotten that, for example, Cretan villagers welcomed the Ottomans as relief from Venetian feudalism. What was left behind was significant cultural transmission from Italy to Greece: a […]

Is Hebrew erabon,equal to αρραβωνας and Paul’s phrase,Cor.II,I,22″Give us arravon of spirit”means “give us new covenant, pledge with the holy spirit”?

By: | Post date: 2016-08-13 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Linguistics

Bauer’s Lexicon defines ἀρραβών as “payment of part of a purchase price in advance; first installment, deposit, down payment, pledge”. In time, the meaning has shifted to the kind of pledge associated with marriage: a betrothal, an engagement. (Greeks, please do not cite Ancient words with Modern inflections. It’s just confusing to those not as […]

Why do Greeks love Russia so much?

By: | Post date: 2016-08-12 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture, Modern Greek

Greeks (OK, Byzantines) gave the Russians Orthodoxy, and feel a bond with them out of that. During Ottoman rule, the Russians saw themselves as the Third Rome—the successor state to Byzantium, which the Greeks felt was their lost empire. The Greeks in turn longed to be rescued by the Russians: Ακόμη τούτην άνοιξη (ραγιάδες, ραγιάδες)τούτο […]

What is the etymology of name Mavronis (Μαυρώνης)?

By: | Post date: 2016-08-11 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

It’s an old surname: a scribe Niketas Mavronis is recorded in 1285: Σημειώματα-Κώδικες – View Simeioma The stem is pretty clearly μαύρος “black, swarthy”; the -vr- is something of a giveaway, and the name doesn’t particularly look Slavonic or Aromanian. (1285 is too early for Arvanite or Turkish.) The -ώνης could mean the surname is […]

  • Subscribe to Blog via Email

  • March 2025
    M T W T F S S
     12
    3456789
    10111213141516
    17181920212223
    24252627282930
    31