by greagach » Mon Sep 15, 2003 12:19 pm
Hallo, mingshey. <br /><br />it's true that we cannot help using "present-day" Greek words in a modern or at least more technical context, but I'm not sure if they have to be coming directly from modern Greek itself, especially when there are (classical) Greek equivalents available. <br /><br /> In fact, there is a uniquely Greek word for "beer", and that is [face=SPIonic] zu=qoj [/face]. (And the pub, the Bierstub, is the Greek [face=SPIonic] zuqopwlei=on [/face], easy to guess why)<br /><br /> And the word for cat, not just feline, is actually [face=SPIonic] galh= [/face] ( [face=SPIonic] katoiki/dioj [/face] ).<br /><br /> The other side of the story is that if some learner wants to use the words [face=SPIonic] mpu/rra [/face] or [face=SPIonic] ga/toj [/face], (both of them clearly of mediaeval northern Italian origin), no problem at all, but these would sound definitely "barbarian" to the classical Greek ear, where -let's not forget- almost every word respects the roots and sound system of the language, originally one with few if any foreign loans. <br /><br /> The same would be for bringing new words and foreign names into Greek, or coining new vocabulary. I've noticed so far that they HAVE TO be changed, in order to suit the grammatical rules (declension and endings, especially) and harmony of Greek. Or else, they do sound cacophonous or too inflexible.<br /><br /> So, I suppose it's OK to use modern Greek words in the agora, provided we knew modern Greek (too!) and had such dictionaries, and of course knew quite a bit about the rules and language structure of Greek...<br /><br /> If you really want to use modern vocabulary with the classical Greek language, I suggest you got hold of a good dictionary of KATHAREVOUSA, until recently the formal version of Greek in that country. It will contain most of the modern vocabulary in all fields, with the advantage that you can be certain that it's completely Greek and "safe to use".<br /><br /> [face=SPIonic] e)pi/ th=i eu)kairi/a, pi/nw me/n zu=qon e)ni/ote, a)lla/ bdelu/ttomai ta/j pa/shj fu/sewj gala=j [/face] ! ! <br /><br />
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