I’ve become interested lately in the ancient Greek word γ?ῦ and I understand that it still survives in the modern language. I would be grateful for any information about its usage, eg., how commonly it is used, and specifically any expressions or idioms with which it is associated.
I gather from the Oxford modern Grk dictionary that it can mean “not a word” by itself, with no negation. Is that true? In the ancient sources it is almost always found in an expression with a negation.
Where did the interest come from, if I may ask? What rabbit trail led you to studying it? It is an interesting word, I must admit. There are even LXX cognates of it γ?υζω=to mutter or complain. It only occurs twice in the LXX though, Ex 11:7 and Josh 10:21 (well it is in Judith 11:19 too, but that’s non-canonical). It also occurs in the Martyrdom of Polycarp 2:2. Philo also uses it a couple of times (Somn 2:267, Contempl 75). It appears as if the word does have good ancient diachronic attestation. I would be interested to know if it is common at all in the modern vernacular.
γ?υ (no accent mark in one syllable words in modern Greek in general) is indeclinable and means “not a thing”. I’ve never heard it in an expression without a negation. A few expressions that come to mind are
“Δεν καταλαβαίνω γ?υ” (I don’t understand a thing)
“Δεν μιλάει γ?υ Κινέζικα” (He doesn’t speak a word of Chinese)
“Δεν ακο?ει γ?υ” (He doesn’t listen anything)
“Δεν ξέ?ει γ?υ”(He doesn’t know anything)
“Δεν έβγαλε γ?υ” (verbatim “he didn’t put out anything” meaning "He didn’t utter a word)
“he” of course is put there for convenience’s sake (he/she/it takes too long to type )
As for what the dictictionary says, well, it may probably reply to the elliptical answer to questions of the following kind
Α: Ξέ?εις Γε?μανικά; (Do you know German?)
B: Γ?υ (not a word) / O?τε γ?υ (more common, same meaning)
I’m keen to look at the LXX examples you provided. For one thing, if I’m not mistaken, it was written in Egypt, which is where the relevant educational papyri are found (see below), albeit at a different time. Plus, it might be interesting to see what word of the Hebrew it is used to translate.
Rafaella Cribiore gave an interesting lecture about educational papyri in late antiquity, and she mentioned in passing an expression used by teachers to describe bad penmanship: “I couldn’t even read a syllable”. I thought it was interesting that they would specify not being able to read a syllable, since it is an alphabetic script. I’ve since learned that it was common practice for students to write out syllables over and over again when learning to read and write, eg., ba be bi bo bu, ca ce ci co cu, etc.
I noticed in Woodhouse that GRU is translated as “syllable”, as well as in the LSJ, and some other translators as well. I’m interested, in the first place, about whether we are justified in thinking of GRU as “syllable” rather than merely “grunt” or the like, and, more fundamentally, what the difference is between a grunt and a syllable. I’m also interested in whether the common prohibitions in which GRU appears (such as “don’t speak a GRU”, “don’t mutter a sound”, etc) are comparable to not being able to “read” a syllable. And perhaps finally in what that could tell us about ancient thoughts on language and scripts and reading.
Well, I should thank you for overlooking my stupid mistakes in English (a propos I should thank you all for the same reason) It’s amazing how this language suffers when I type on? the Internet!
Anyway, “γ?υ” doesn’t mean “syllable” really in modern Greek. It is understood as “nothing” meaning “not a single thing”. In that sense you can say that its meaning is close to that of “syllable” but then it’s not quite that is it? I don’t have my dictionaries around I’m afraid so I can’t tell you much about how “gry” was used but I am confident that it never meant “grunt” when used this way. I mean it’s not as if one cannot understand a grunt eh? I’m not making much sense so I should better stop typing!
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