You might be studying Greek too much...

Here you can discuss all things Ancient Greek. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Greek, and more.
Post Reply
User avatar
anglicus
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed May 14, 2003 6:50 pm
Location: Arizona
Contact:

You might be studying Greek too much...

Post by anglicus »

...if you're using an English dictionary and you keep expecting to find X between N and O.

spiphany
Textkit Enthusiast
Posts: 425
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2005 3:15 am
Location: Munich
Contact:

Re: You might be studying Greek too much...

Post by spiphany »

LOL. I used to get that problem with Russian. Kept looking for C down by R (or P) instead of at the beginning.
γ trips me up, too.
IPHIGENIE: Kann uns zum Vaterland die Fremde werden?
ARKAS: Und dir ist fremd das Vaterland geworden.
IPHIGENIE: Das ist's, warum mein blutend Herz nicht heilt.
(Goethe, Iphigenie auf Tauris)

User avatar
thesaurus
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 1012
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:44 pm

Re: You might be studying Greek too much...

Post by thesaurus »

Not Greek, but still an embarrassing language blunder...

The other month I was waiting for my appointment at the optometrist, and I was studying Hebrew in the waiting-room. When it came time, I was ushered in to do the test where you cover one eye and read the rows of letters from a distance. It seemed like I was having trouble getting the letters right, so the optometrist kept having me read progressively larger lines. Finally, I was reading the largest letters which you would have to be totally blind not to get right... at that point it was asked whether I was reading the lines right to left instead of left to right? I had been doing it backwards the whole time because my mind was in Hebrew mode while the optometrist feared that I was blind as a bat.
Horae quidem cedunt et dies et menses et anni, nec praeteritum tempus umquam revertitur nec quid sequatur sciri potest. Quod cuique temporis ad vivendum datur, eo debet esse contentus. --Cicero, De Senectute

Bert
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 1889
Joined: Sat May 31, 2003 2:28 am
Location: Arthur Ontario Canada

Re: You might be studying Greek too much...

Post by Bert »

thesaurus wrote:Not Greek, but still an embarrassing language blunder...

The other month I was waiting for my appointment at the optometrist, and I was studying Hebrew in the waiting-room. When it came time, I was ushered in to do the test where you cover one eye and read the rows of letters from a distance. It seemed like I was having trouble getting the letters right, so the optometrist kept having me read progressively larger lines. Finally, I was reading the largest letters which you would have to be totally blind not to get right... at that point it was asked whether I was reading the lines right to left instead of left to right? I had been doing it backwards the whole time because my mind was in Hebrew mode while the optometrist feared that I was blind as a bat.
That is very funny.
I have never had anything as persistent as that happen to me but something similar has happened; I was trying to read an English word I was not familiar with. The word ended in a W but I pronounced the last letter as an Ω. I didn't bother trying to explain why this happened.

User avatar
anglicus
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed May 14, 2003 6:50 pm
Location: Arizona
Contact:

Re: You might be studying Greek too much...

Post by anglicus »

Glad to see other people have similar experiences :) Yeah, last night I was trying to look up a word that started with "ex-" and I just stared for a while at the last word that started with "en-" in total confusion. Eventually it dawned on me what I was doing wrong...

Another problem I've had is when I'm trying to write a Greek name or directly borrowed word in English, I have to concentrate really hard to actually use the right alphabet.

Nooj
Textkit Member
Posts: 145
Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2008 12:53 pm

Re: You might be studying Greek too much...

Post by Nooj »

When I write in English, I write my 'a' and 'e' as cursive alphas and epsilons now. Sort of annoying.
Dolor poetas creat.

User avatar
benissimus
Global Moderator
Posts: 2733
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 4:32 am
Location: Berkeley, California
Contact:

Re: You might be studying Greek too much...

Post by benissimus »

The chemistry that I'm learning uses a lot of mixed Roman and Greek characters. When I write the formulas, for some reason I have a tendency to convert the Greek letters into their Roman equivalents. This can cause a lot of confusion when the Roman equivalents already stand for a completely different thing...
flebile nescio quid queritur lyra, flebile lingua murmurat exanimis, respondent flebile ripae

Jordan St. Francis
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 17
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:34 pm

Re: You might be studying Greek too much...

Post by Jordan St. Francis »

I have a tendency now to see an english "v" and "p" as a rho and a nu- especially, for some reason, when reading license plates.

Post Reply