First up, my vanity is well gratified! Well, there’s the question, and then there’s the details. Can I understand someone speaking modern Tsakonian, or read ancient Arcadian and understand it, sight unseen? Mate, I struggled to understand the Cypriot of my cousin’s husband Fotis; and I have no idea what Homer is on about. Homer! […]
This is (a) very old and (b) profane. Hope it’s what you’re looking for, Vangeli. Whether or not it’s what you’re looking for, it’s what you’re getting from me. The Greeks got hold of the alphabet in the early 8th century BC. If you’re studying the history of the Greek alphabet, as I’ve done, you […]
None of the answers satisfy me, though Logan R. Kearsley’s is by far the closest to satisfying me. EDIT: Uri Granta’s answer satisfies me more than mine. Go read that. There is a colloquial register in English, in which the first person subject is omitted routinely. It predates social media; see, for example the Beatles’ […]
Latin script in Unicode – Wikipedia As of version 9.0 of the Unicode Standard, 1,350 characters in the following blocks are classified as belonging to the Latin script Let’s remove the uppercase letters; and that leaves us with your answer. From eyeballing: 26+30+128+104+14*8+12+12+67+26 = 517 That leaves 833. If I’m wrong, I’m not wrong by […]
Yiannis Papadopoulos has done the right homework, OP, of finding Greek Wedding 1879 Melbourne, mentioning your ancestor. For those confused by that: A Constance Ocass of Cerigo (= Cythera) got married in Melbourne in 1879. Tahlia O’Cass (the OP) is his descendant, and posted in that thread. The surname is clearly mangled from something Hellenic, […]
Michael Masiello’s answer to Was God a person? No, but it is refreshing to see someone flirt with euhemerism on Quora. Euhemerism – Wikipedia Euhemerism is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that historical accounts become myths […]
I’m going to give the linguistic meaning of meaning; certain (old school) philosophers would accept it as an answer, and Gottlob Frege, who came up with the crucial distinction, is considered a philosopher and not a linguist. (Back in the 1890s, linguists weren’t really doing semantics.) Language is a code. A code is a system […]
Michael Masiello’s answer to Why is it so hard for many to believe that the Earth and mankind were designed? If you can still believe in naive teleology after you read this essay by Stephen Jay Gould , try reading it again. And the panda’s thumb, I’m afraid, is the tip of a vertiginous iceberg. […]
Is it veridical to state that esoteric verbosity culminates in communicative ennui? has triggered this from me: Nick Nicholas’ answer to Is it veridical to state that esoteric verbosity culminates in communicative ennui? Esoteric does not just mean “obscure”, it means understood only by very few select people, who are initiated into knowledge. The Greek […]
The true and honest and equitable answer is the Magister’s: Michael Masiello’s answer to Is it veridical to state that esoteric verbosity culminates in communicative ennui? Vote #1 Michael Masiello. Vote early and vote often. The petty and cavilling answer is mine. Others have gone part of the way there, but I’ll finish the task. […]