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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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i've a general question for you guys: i don't get the whole "big picture" as far as latin and greek go. it seems so many of our words' etymologies suggest something along the lines of "from Latin xxxx from Greek yyyy"... so which came first? did they coexist? did one derive from the other? or did they each bother from the other? how different is the Greek language today from that of ancient times? someone enlighten me, pretty please =) 
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
i've a general question for you guys:Not to be taken as assuming that our ladies couldn't trouble their pretty little heads thereover?
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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In the beginning (more or less) was Proto Indo European, which divided up into the Indo European family of languages. Some of the branches of the family are the Germanic languages (English, German, Scandinavian languages, Dutch etc.), Slavonic languages (Russian, Polish, etc.), Italic languages (including Latin and some other languages spoken in would you believe Italy), Hellenic (Greek) languages, Hittite, Tocharian, Sanskrit and its descendants in India, Iranian languages, and some Afghan languages.
The earliest written form of Greek we have dates from the 2nd millennium BC, and was written in the Linear B syllabary. The earliest works we have using more or less the same alphabet as is used for modern Greek probably date back to about the eighth century BC (a lot of controversy about when Homer actually lived but 8th century is probably a good estimate for when his works were first written down). The alphabet they used was derived from those used for Semitic languges such as Hebrew and Phoenician, which ultimately derived from Egyptian hieroglyphics. Somewhat arbitrarily, the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) is taken as the dividing point between Classical Greek and Koine (common)Greek (the language of amongst others, the New Testament). Further developments were Byzantine Greek (say 4th century AD onwards) and then modern Greek (say 1453 onwards). In the Koine period all educated people would have been familiar with Classical authors and would have probably found them as easy or difficult as we do Shakespeare or the Authorised Version. One scene in the book of Captain Correlli's Mandolin which was left out of the film was where an English pilot parachuted down on the island and tried to speak to the locals in Classical Greek, which they could with some difficulty understand. I'm told that this was based on an actual incident.
Latin is an Italic language. There are inscriptions in Latin from the 6th century BC, and literature from the 3rd century BC onwards. From the 2nd century BC onwards educated Romans would also have known Greek. Many people were bilingual in Greek and Latin, and so the two languages were continually rubbing up against each other. Latin speakers often borrowed words from Greek, especially in the fields of philosophy and science. Don't forget that the Romans granted citizenship more and more freely after the time of Julius Caesar (first half of the first century BC), and so many Greeks were Romans as well.
Even after the fall of the Western Roman empire Latin was still widely used by the educated in Western Europe and with the rediscovery of Greek culture from the fourteenth century on they also borrowed from Greek. It's often uncertain whether a Greek word was borrowed directly into English or whether it came through Latin (and maybe French) first.
Bingley
Bingley
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bingley, will you allow me to fall (not pregnant) at your feet, and feed you peeled grapes? SIGH...
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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I don't think I've ever had peeled grapes. I've often wondered, how do you peel a grape?
It is the manggis (mangosteen) season at the moment, so could I put in for peeled manggis instead? The insides are delicious, but the peel contains a very strong purple dye, so to keep my clothes unpurpled ...
Bingley
Bingley
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
so to keep my clothes unpurpled ...
...you wear purple clothes?????????
Maybe that's not what he meant? [puzzled look-e]
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
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...you wear purple clothes?????????Sure...it's the color of royalty, what'd you expect?
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
There is a poem written about a woman that says when she gets old, she will wear the color purple. She also says she will run a stick along the fence for the joy of the noise it will make. Does anyone know this poem? Could you post it?
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
My Dear, I don't know what a mangosteen is, but for YOU I will peel anything, and serve it up as prettily as I know how. No purple on your clothes, manis.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
I know it, I have the tee-shirt, and here's a link I found: http://members.tripod.com/~Labyrinth_3/page59.htmlWhen I am an old woman, I shall wear purple
with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves,
and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
and run my stick along the public railings
and make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
and pick the flowers in other people's gardens
and learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
and eat three pounds of sausages at a go
or only bread and pickles for a week
and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
and pay our rent and not swear in the street
and set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple post-edit: I've been told that the way I formatted this is throwing off screen widths for some. How can I fix it?
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