Author: Nick Nicholas

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

Why are most poems written with rhymes?

By: | Post date: 2016-12-12 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: General Language, Linguistics

As Jakobson once said, though artlessly,poetry claims th’ axis of combination. The repertoire of sounds, in crafty array,are how the Muse stakes her signification.Without form woven in sonority,poetry loses its essential claim:ends up as prose with gilded metaphor,but does not merit the enchanter’s name. The Homeoteleuton as a devicewas known to Greeks as such a […]

What did Greeks contribute to the world in the last thousand years?

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

As Pieter van der Wilt said in comments: Well nothing really very outstanding. The great achievements of mankind during the last 200 years come mainly from highly industrialized nations (UK, France, Germany, USA, etc…). Greece is a small country with a fairly high level of creativity. All nations are great, because humanity is great. The […]

What is the best way to say “innovative agile support” in Latin?

By: | Post date: 2016-12-11 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Latin, Linguistics

Remixing the others’: Ut succurramus innovantes agiliter: To support by agilely innovating. Answered 2016-12-11 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-is-the-best-way-to-say-innovative-agile-support-in-Latin/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]

Should “Türkiye” become the official name for country of “Turkey” in English language?

By: | Post date: 2016-12-11 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

Yok, Mehrdad dostum. İstemiyorum. Assimilating country names into a target language is something I have a lot of affection for. I don’t regard it as disrespectful, but as familiarising; I regard the alternative as exoticisation. I get greatly annoyed when I hear Greeks speak of themselves in English as Hellenes, or refer to Hellas. We […]

How different are the dialects of your mother tongue within your country?

By: | Post date: 2016-12-11 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

How does one measure it? I’ve already responded to something similar: Nick Nicholas’ answer to Does the Greek language have a variety of regional dialects? and Nick Nicholas’ answer to Which of the Greek dialects sound harsh to a standard Greek speaker? The most deviant “dialect” of Greek, Tsakonian, is not mutually intelligible with Greek, […]

Could someone into Greek Orthodox Christianity define “καθωσπρεπισμός”?

By: | Post date: 2016-12-11 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

Like Dylan Sakic, I’d need a lot more context, but here’s a stab. Καθώς πρέπει is a calque of French comme il faut, “as it should be done”. It refers to social propriety, observing social etiquette, but it has an intense connotation of hypocrisy and stuffiness; it’s the kind of thing that “bourgeois” gets inevitably […]

What is your favorite proverb from your culture or country? What country is it from?

By: | Post date: 2016-12-09 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture, Modern Greek

I did a rich assortment of off-colour Greek proverbs over at Nick Nicholas’ answer to What are some weird expressions? A tuthree more off-colour sayings. Which I’ve actually tried to use in English, with decidedly mixed results. Τα μεταξωτά βρακιά θέλουν και επιδέξιους κώλους. Silk undies require agile arses. One must be equipped to handle […]

Is pronunciation speed a meaningful feature when discussing languages?

By: | Post date: 2016-12-09 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: General Language, Linguistics

I don’t know that this has really attracted the interest of typologists, though I’m happy to be corrected. The phonologist I used to work for as a research assistant was considering writing an article, comparing the speed of newcasts, but I don’t think he went ahead with it. I think the impression we have that […]

How did the surname “Featherstonhaugh” get its completely unintuitive pronunciation?

By: | Post date: 2016-12-09 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: English, Linguistics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Featherstonhaugh Not getting an answer online, or in Patrick Hanks’ The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland . I do get this from Wells, J. C. (2000), Longman Pronunciation Dictionary: Odd pronunciations of proper names – examples: there are four recorded pronunciations of Featherstonhaugh: /ˈfɛð ərst ən hɔː/ (Featherstonhaw) /ˈfiːst ən heɪ/ […]

What are some human-made things you dislike or like that are present in South (and West) Cyprus?

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

This actually isn’t my own dislike, but it’s a dislike that really struck me. My father left Cyprus in 1966. He was in tears the day that Archbishop Makarios III died. I’ve only been back to Cyprus twice, in 1979 and 1989, and briefly and superficially at that. So I don’t have a clear notion […]

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