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Category: Linguistics
What is a cool way to say “friends” or “group of friends” or “small circle” in other ways or languages?
Parea παρέα in Greek. Cool because it’s the only word in Greek with an Iberian origin. It comes from either Ladino parea or Catalan parella, cognate with Spanish pareja. The Catalan derivation is probably too good to be true: it refers to the Catalan Company, mercenaries who ran bits of Greece (including Athens) in the […]
Why did Old Armenian change -ա to -այ (-a to -aj)?
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D6%84%D5%A1%D5%B0%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%A1%D5%B5#Old_Armenian I know nothing about Armenian, Old or New, apart from vosp, ’cause I like lentil soup. I stared for half an hour at: A Grammatical Sketch of Classical Armenian, Damme, Dirk Van – a Short Classical Armenian Grammar Grammaire armenienne : M. Lauer and A. Carriere . I think I have the answer. Old […]
Is “κάπου και που” in Greek about time or about place?
I’ll start by saying that the expression (lit. “somewhere and where”) is unfamiliar to me. Which makes me curious when it became common. The related question, αραιά και που “sparsely and [some]where” refers to time: “occasionally, now and again”, rather than “in scattered locations, here and there”. The metaphorical use of spatial for temporal expressions […]
What is the etymology of name Mavronis (Μαυρώνης)?
It’s an old surname: a scribe Niketas Mavronis is recorded in 1285: Σημειώματα-Κώδικες – View Simeioma The stem is pretty clearly μαύρος “black, swarthy”; the -vr- is something of a giveaway, and the name doesn’t particularly look Slavonic or Aromanian. (1285 is too early for Arvanite or Turkish.) The -ώνης could mean the surname is […]
Can you follow root words and follow the immigration routes?
Famously, yes in the case of Romani: http://am.uis.no/getfile.php/Ark… Through the common vocabulary of all the Romani dialects, we can trace their migration from India, through Iran, Georgia and Armenia, to Greece/Anatolia, to Romania. After Romania there is a dispersal throughout Europe: there is no further common vocabulary between Romani dialects. (from: Romani people, though this […]
What do the Turkish loanwords merak and meraklı mean in your language?
http://m.nisanyansozluk.com/?k=merak In Greek, μεράκι means: yearning love-sickness pride in one’s work (in the phrase με μεράκι “with merak”) A μερακλής on the other hand is a bon vivant, a connoisseur, someone who knows how to have a good time and who appreciates the finer things in life. And the verb μερακλώνομαι is to be in […]
Some linguists say there are 91 English spelling rules and some say there are none. Who is right?
Agreed with Brian (more or less). Despite the inconsistencies and hypercorrections and weirdness, English spelling is not random. If you see a new word, you have reasonable chance of coming up with a consistent pronunciation; and if you hear a new word, you have a (somewhat less) reasonable chance of coming up with a consistent […]
What is the opposite of a girl?
Not satisfied completely with any of the answers, though C.S. Friedman and Michael Alvis are closer to my thinking, and Mack Moore and Kalo Miles are further. Celia is closest in her initial formulation (which Michael does not contradict): Opposites are paired items *in the same conceptual category*, with perfectly opposing (non-overlapping) qualities. To be […]
Which of the Greek dialects sound harsh to a standard Greek speaker?
A most commendable question; and you’d think a Greek dialectologist would be ideally placed to answer this. You would be wrong. Precisely because I’m used to dialects, it’s hard for me to make aesthetic judgements on them. But let me attempt to at least posit why certain dialects might be considered harsh. 1. Cappadocian It’s […]
Whats the difference between λες and πεις?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jDSR1nBgpg I had to correct your spelling there: πεις, not πες. In the context you’ve given, both are subjunctives, following μη “don’t”. Λες is the present subjunctive, meaning it’s imperfective (continuous); πεις is the aorist subjunctive (perfective). So “don’t keep telling me” vs “don’t tell me” (once-off). Why would the lyricist switch aspect in the […]