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Category: Ancient Greek
Which language is closest to Greek?
Following up on Joachim Pense’s answer: Modern Hellenic languages If we include modern Hellenic languages, a (purely subjectively) ranking of the “outlier” dialects by closeness to Standard Modern Greek is: Salento Griko Calabria Griko Mariupolitan Pontic Silliot (spoken in Sille, near Konya) Cappadocian Tsakonian The dividing point for mutual intelligibility is probably Pontic, definitely by […]
Where did the word Nemesis originate?
Online Etymology Dictionary Nemesis, “Greek goddess of vengeance, personification of divine wrath,” from Greek nemesis “just indignation, righteous anger,” literally “distribution” (of what is due), related to nemein “distribute, allot, apportion one’s due”. Goes on to note that the word is cognate to German nehmen “take”. Conceptually, Nemesis is the same notion as one’s “lot” […]
Why is it that most of the brilliant philosophers are Germans if the history tells us that philosophy came from Greece?
Why are the best tomato-based pasta sauces Italian, if history tells us that tomatoes came from the Americas? 2500 years is a long time; and in at least some ways, what the Germans were doing with philosophy in the 18th and 19th century was far from what the Greeks did in the 5th century BC […]
Since the Greeks and the Romans seemed relatively cultured people (at least by the standards of their time), how were they deceived by Christianity?
Hm, question with assumptions much? Note that: The Roman Empire was not a Gene Rodenberry Humanist utopia. It was fertile ground for all manner of (as the Roman sceptics would have put it) strange cults from the East, and it certainly had not turned away from religion in any meaningful sense. Lucian derided many of […]
History: During Alexander’s invasions, would his soldiers have found Old Persian or Indic to be somewhat familiar sounding given their closeness to Greek?
Good insight, Sabeshan. Probably. And they probably wouldn’t have cared. 300 BC was a good time to be doing historical linguistics. The Indo-European languages were a lot closer to each other back then than they are now. In fact, the only reason Indo-European was discovered and reconstructed when it was, was that we had 2000 […]
Why do we learn Ancient Greek and Latin using the modern alphabet and not the ancient ones used at the time?
It’s an interesting question, with a boring answer. Because there’s no point. Let’s break that down though. 1. Right up until the 19th century, the main language being written in Greek script was Ancient Greek; and right up until the 17th, the main language being written in Roman script was Latin. The script hands and […]
Is there anywhere on the Internet a scheme of the Greek names and of the elements of which they are formed?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_name Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, University of Oxford , the online dictionary of all attested Ancient Greek names (which are overwhelmingly from inscriptions) has some materials on their publications list and announcements list, but nothing as methodical as what you have in the Wikipedia page you gave. The most awesome Dr. W. PAPE’s Wörterbuch […]
What is the etymology of “archetypal”?
As the Googles will tell you, from Greek arkhetypon (ἀρχέτυπον): arkhē, meaning start, beginning, and typos, stamp, impression (originally: a blow). Literally: an initial stamp, an initial impression. And the meaning the word had was pretty close to “archetype” from the beginning: LSJ Adjective: “first-moulded as a pattern or model, archetypal”, used by Philo to […]
Who are the hardest Greek and Latin authors to read?
Second hand answer, based more on what I’ve heard than what I’ve read. Agreed with Dimitra Triantafyllidou in general, but it’d be good to hear from more classicists. Homer is extremely far away from Attic in time and (to some extent) dialect. So in terms of vocabulary and grammar, it might as well be Phrygian […]
What are the pros and cons of the Erasmian pronunciation?
For this answer, bear in mind that there are three current pronunciations of Ancient Greek: Erasmus’ reconstruction of Ancient Greek phonology, as modified in practice for teaching Greek in Western schools: Pronunciation of Ancient Greek in teaching The scholarly reconstruction of Ancient Greek phonology: Ancient Greek phonology Modern Greek pronunciation applied to Ancient Greek (“Reuchlinian” […]