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Category: Linguistics
Why is the “-ic” suffix used much less compared to “-an”,“-ese”,“-ish” suffixes?
For starters, in the West, Greek affixes were used in scholarship, where it was felt they were more nuanced than what Latin had to offer. Suffixes to express ethnicity were felt to be a less rarefied domain, and English and Latin between them had it covered. For seconds, Greek differentiated between suffixes denoting ethnicity, and […]
Is the word “pray(er)” different between Christians and Muslims in your language(s)?
I’m guessing rather than certain here, but Muslim Greek and Jewish Greek, as spoken by longstanding religious communities, did have distinct vocabulary about religious practices, and I’d have no reason to think prayer is an exception. The two Turkish terms given in Murat Öz’s answer are namaz and ibadet. As noted in Τι είναι το […]
Why are so many people today using the word “fuck,” like it’s a common everyday word, and not sparingly, like the vulgar, profane word that it is?
Quite apart from the changing nature what is considered taboo in the English-speaking world, fuck has undergone weakening though overuse, and has lost its potency. It is simply not as profane as it used to be. This inflation of profanity is a linguistic commonplace: 150 years ago, the profanity to avoid in polite company was […]
Where do the distinctive Greek names for chemical elements come from?
http://www.ptable.com/?lang=el My thanks to Konstantinos Konstantinides, Joseph Boyle, and Jorvon M. Carter, who have answered most of this; this answer is based on their work. My agenda, more cynically, was “which country did Greek copy, and where did it decide to do its own thing.” Languages did decide to do their own thing occasionally; the […]
Which is correct, “Describe who you are” or “Describe whom you are”?
I am going to refine Justin Franco‘s reasoning, while agreeing with his answer. Justin says that it’s “describe who you are”, because We wouldn’t answer “Who are you?” with “You are him.” We’d answer it with “You are he.” Oh really? the ruppes: Jesus, You are Him You are him by Margo You are him, […]
Why do people think I’m a snob because I always speak in standard English?
This is Tony Mulqueen’s answer. I’m just being a little more abstract. There is a popular misconception that the primary purpose of language is to communicate. Language is a social phenomenon, practiced by social beings. And one of its primary functions is to demonstrate allegiance to the groups the speaker belongs to. If you speak […]
Are there any books that are written in Ancient Greek?
If the question means, are there any contemporary books in Ancient Greek: not a lot, but a few: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Ancient Greek Edition): J.K. Rowling: 9781582348261: Amazon.com: Books Bruno Coitinho’s answer to What modern books have been translated to ancient languages?: Don Camillo, Sherlock Holmes Eleftherios V. Tserkezis’ answer to What […]
Which languages use a bare dental click for a plain no? Did this originate from a single language and spread to others?
Dental clicks – Wikipedia Dental clicks may also be used para-linguistically. For example, English speakers use a plain dental click, usually written tsk or tut (and often reduplicated tsk-tsk or tut-tut; these spellings often lead to spelling pronunciations /tɪsk/ or /tʌt/), as an interjection to express commiseration, disapproval, irritation, or to call a small animal. […]
Why do English-speaking people not prefer to say natrium, silisium, kalium, and use other Latin names of elements instead?
EDIT: QUESTION HAS BEEN MANGLED BY QCR: It is about Natrium, Kalium, Silicium vs Sodium, Potassium, Silicon. Faulty premiss. Sodium – Wikipedia, Potassium – Wikipedia. Sodium and Potassium are not more or less Latin than Natrium and Kalium. (If anything, that K in Kalium is not particularly Latinate.) They are just alternate names proposed for […]
How is Keneh Bosem translated in different versions of the Greek old testament?
So the passage in question is Exodus 30:23. The place to look up the other Ancient Greek translations of the Hebrew Scriptures (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion) is the Hexapla, a collation by the Christian theologian Origen. A modern edition has been coming for over a decade, so the edition to consult is still Origen Hexapla : […]