Author: Nick Nicholas

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

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

By: | Post date: 2016-06-04 | Comments: No Comments
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?

By: | Post date: 2016-06-04 | Comments: No Comments
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 […]

Ancient Greek: What pronunciation scheme do you use for 5th-4th century B.C.E. writings? Modern, reconstruction with pitch, Erasmian, etc. and why?

By: | Post date: 2016-06-04 | Comments: 1 Comment
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Linguistics

Ah, I see this is the question where all the cool people hang out! Νικόλαος Στεφάνῳ, Δημήτρᾳ, Μιχαήλ, Ἰωακείμ, Βενιαμείν, Ῥοβέρτῳ τε ἐρωτήσαντι, εὗ πράττειν. Related question, with rationales: What are the pros and cons of the Erasmian pronunciation? When I am on my own, I actually mutter Ancient Greek aloud to myself, to try […]

Why do some languages assign a gender to each noun (e.g., table is feminine in French)?

By: | Post date: 2016-05-18 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: General Language, Linguistics

Originally Answered: Why do Greek, Latin, French, German, Russian etc. have masculine and feminine gender for inanimate objects? The history of Indo-European gender, like the history of any language feature, is messy. The mainstream theory is that the feminine, in fact, was originally not animate at all, but came from the abstract and collective suffix […]

Are Middle Easterners considered to be White by Greeks?

By: | Post date: 2016-05-16 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture, Modern Greek

Everyone here has spoken well on the topic. Greeks have a keen sense of Other, and skin colour can factor into that. As Dimitra Triantafyllidou says, we have a history of dismissing Gypsies (like much of Europe); and there’s a lot of anti-Pakistani feeling in downtown Athens. But then again, there was a lot of […]

What are the names of different countries in your language?

By: | Post date: 2016-05-15 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Mediaeval Greek

Sofia Mouratidis gave names in current Greek. For jollies, I’m going to give names in Byzantine Greek, which are often quite different: the modern names are mostly from Latin, while the older names were usually from Italian. France: Frandza (now Gallia) Germany: Alamania (now Germania) Austria: Aoustria or Osterigon (now Afstria—which is a spelling pronunciation […]

Why do the spellings of ancient Roman and Greek names differ in English than in other languages?

By: | Post date: 2016-05-14 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, English, Linguistics, Writing Systems

Partly, source morphology. Partly, mediation via Latin. Partly, particularity of English. Remember first that Classical names in English came in via Latin most of the time. Hence Plato rather than Platon, and Hercules for Heracles. Second, not all final -ns are the same. So there’s no contradiction about Latin keeping the final -n in Xenophon […]

What is the weirdest song in your language?

By: | Post date: 2016-05-14 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Modern Greek, Music

Zavara Katra Nemia, Greek, 1968. The songwriter Yannis Markopoulos was routinely subject to censorship during the Greek Junta, as a left winger. So he wrote a song with nonsense lyrics and lots of 5/8 and 11/8 metre, which got past the censors. And everyone assumed it was against the dictatorship anyway. Zavara katra nemia Zavara […]

What is the meaning of the Greek word ‘atomos’?

By: | Post date: 2016-05-14 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Linguistics

Indivisible; literally, uncut. From the verb temnō, to cut; cf. tomē, a cut. Answered 2016-05-14 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-is-the-meaning-of-the-Greek-word-atomos/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]

What is the importance of the Hellenistic culture?

By: | Post date: 2016-05-14 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture, History, Mediaeval Greek

Thx4A2A, Anon. As my fellows have asked, we’ll need more detail on what you’re asking. I’m going to stab at a related question, which is the legacy of Hellenistic culture. In fact, that might be a good approach to vague questions like this, my fellow respondents: we grab a bit each of the possible answers […]

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