Questions tagged [greek]

A Hellenic language principally spoken in Greece.

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What is the origin of alpha in the mediopassive indicative?

In greek, the indicative mediopassive in the 3rd person singular and plural are -εται and -ονται, however in PIE, the alpha was originally an o. Additionally, in the imperfect, the endings also have o ...
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Source of Greek long alpha

I'm reading about the Greek first declension on wikipedia, which mentions that the origin of the first declension originally had long alpha, which then shifted to eta, except when after rho, iota, and ...
Blubber's user avatar
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Why isn't there a letter for /b/ sound in Greek alphabet while they have the sound?

In Greek the letter B sounds /v/; for example we have Vanadium which is Βανάδιο in Greek which in turn is transliterated as Vanάdio in English. But what about when we have a /b/ sound? For example, we ...
Snack Exchange's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
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Why did the consonant clusters /ks/ and /ps/ merit their own designated letters in Ancient Greek?

Ancient Greek had many consonant clusters, like /pn/ in pneuma, /bd/ in bdellion, and /pt/ in pteron. But for some reason, /ks/ (ξ) and /ps/ (ψ) received special real estate in the 24-letter Greek ...
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Do the "gibberish lines" in the Charition farce reflect a Dravidian language?

The Charition farce (P.Oxy. III, 413) is a Greek theatre play which tells the story of a girl, Χαριτίων Charitíōn, who is held captive in a coastal kingdom of India. The only manuscript of this ...
Tochtli's user avatar
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3 answers
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Is it reasonable to connect the Old Persian/Avestan word for "garden" with the Greek word?

The Old Persian/Avestan word for "garden/orchard" is bustan/bostan. On the surface, this word looks very similar to the Greek term botane, which means the same thing (and is clearly the ...
Reb Chaim HaQoton's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
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Why does πεντάμορφη mean "beautiful"? [closed]

How does "five-formed / five-shaped", πεντάμορφη, mean "beautiful"? Such that it's used as in translation of "Beauty and the Beast" movie titles, and accepted by Google ...
Malady's user avatar
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Is < eu > an element in Greek?

I am pondering the morphological structure of < therapeutic > and < pharmaceutical >. When looking at the Greek roots I can analyze the spelling with the exception of < eu >. I see ...
Shawna Pope-Jefferson's user avatar
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Does this way of organizing Greek consonants make sense?

I heard from a Greek learner who shared their way of organizing the Greek consonants in the following: unvoiced less unvoiced voiced less voiced kappa chi ...
Tim's user avatar
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How to understand the differences and similarities between the orders in Greek and Latin alphabets, for memorizing?

Letters in Greek alphabet are ordered similarly to those in Latin, but not exactly the same. Is there any reason for the differences? I ask the question for finding a way to understand and therefore ...
Tim's user avatar
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Is eta in Ancient Greek transliterated as long e or h?

Is eta in Ancient Greek transliterated as long e (e.g. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/greeklatinroots2/chapter/%c2%a798-the-greek-alphabet/), or h (e.g. https://www.dictionary.com/e/greek-alphabet-...
Tim's user avatar
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Why are there so few Hellenic languages when there are so many Romance languages? [duplicate]

Both Greece and Rome had huge empires and Greek was even used to administer the Eastern Roman Empire. Christian scriptures are even primarily written in Greek. So why are there so many Romance ...
King-Ink's user avatar
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Greek root in Latin: Greek ekleiptikos became Latin eclīpticus

How come it's lip and not leip? The English word eclipsis is derived from the Latin eclīpticus, of an eclipse, which is in turn from Greek ekleiptikos, from ekleipein, to fail to appear; Ancient Greek ...
Quora Feans's user avatar
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Is there any evidence for PIE *deikW- ‘feast’ to Greek deîp-?

The interpretation of Linear B de-qo-no as ‘main dinner’ and po-ro-de-qo-no as ‘pre-dinner’ would only work if PIE *deikW- ‘feast’ > deîpnon. However, it is cognate with words with -p-: *deip- >...
Sean Whalen's user avatar
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Are there any common Hebrew or Koine Greek markers for when a sentence is a summary of a previous thought?

Question pertains to the Hebrew Scriptures, and the Septuagint, so it may be more appropriate in a different SE. But, in case this is an acceptable place to ask: Are there any ancient Hebrew or Koine ...
Sam Thornton's user avatar
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How did Shiloah (שילוח) become Siloam and Silwan?

What sorts of changes led the Biblical Hebrew name Shiloah (שילוח) to become Siloam (in Greek) and Silwan (in Arabic)? Has this been discussed anywhere? EDITED I removed the word morphological from my ...
Reb Chaim HaQoton's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
188 views

Credible sources for Rho-Rotation?

A teacher of mine recently mentioned a phenomenon in linguistics called "rho-rotation". Across eons and languages if a r/rho sound was next to a vowel it tended to switch postitions and &...
SoccerFan's user avatar
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Can I find an Ancient Greek parsing program that dissects words into their constituent phonemes from reconstructed Proto-Greek?

For example, suppose I enter "πράσσουσα" and it outputs πραάͳοντσα or even, πρααͳ-ο-ντ-σα (root, ablaut, participle marker, feminine). Or I put in πᾶς and it outputs πάαντ-ς (root, 3rdNS)...
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Could lat. circus 'circle' (< gr. κίρκος) and κύκλος 'cycle' be related?

It is well established that the Latin word circus 'circle' is a loanword from Greek κίρκος kírkos 'circle, ring'. But it seems that κίρκος is of uncertain origin. One possibility is that κίρκος would ...
Davius's user avatar
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Origin of بطريق

I read here that the Arabic word بطريق (penguin) ultimately derives from Latin patricius (patrician), through Greek and Aramaic, but I couldn't find any explanation of how and why the shift in meaning ...
UndefinedBehavior's user avatar
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Why do Proto-germanic "-as" nouns have e-grade?

Why do Proto-germanic "-as" nouns have e-grade (don't have an ablaut like Ancient Greek τρέπ-ω τρόπ-ος, πέκ-ω πόκ-ος, λέχ-ομαι λόχ-ος, φέβ-ομαι φόβ-ος)?
Кузнецов Анатолий's user avatar
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Ioticism in Greek

Are there any good theories about what motivated the pervasive ioticism that developed between ancient Greek and modern Greek? Are there any other languages that went through analogous changes? The ...
Vegawatcher's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
409 views

Phonological Development from PIE to Greek

I found the following phonological development (from PIE to Greek) patterns very interesting. *kw>t / __ {e, i} (e.g., *penkwe- > πέντε) *gw>d / __ e (*gwelbhu- > δελψύς) *gwh>th / ...
Chickly's user avatar
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Why do Ancient Greek words have "εί" from PIE "e"?

Why do Ancient Greek words have "εί" from PIE "e"? Ancient Greek κείρω <- PIE *(s)ker-.
Кузнецов Анатолий's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
722 views

Where did the Greek consonant cluster "ps" come from

Where did the Greek consonant cluster "ps" come from? I tried finding resources to track down this fun-sounding consonant cluster but came with no information. I was thinking about a voicing ...
Jasperrolla's user avatar
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1 answer
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Beta vs eszett character difference

How to write the Greek letter beta and the German letter eszett so that they look different enough? I've seen variants of beta with the final arc ending on the vertical line and ones which have a ...
ByteEater's user avatar
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Does modern greek really nasalise intervowel γγ?

During my previous studies I was introduced to ancient Greek and, among other things, I learned that we believe double gamma γγ was pronounced like a prenasalised gamma, something like "ng", ...
Albert's user avatar
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Linear A morphology

Linear A's lexicon is undeciphered, but I assume we know some things about it's morphology and phonology. I've only found this theory that the language of Linear A had a lot of prefixes. Where can I ...
Roses's user avatar
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13 votes
2 answers
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How did Greek loanwords with 'ae' come to be pronounced [i] in modern English?

There are a bunch of Greek loanwords in English that orthographically include the vowel sequence 'ae'. Examples include: aegis aether aeon The 'ae' vowel here is pronounced [i] in English, but at ...
A_S00's user avatar
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Does the root word mus- in Latin mean "thief"'? Mouse=thief, Moses=Extractor etc

I first got the idea of Latin mus- = mouse = thief from this list My primary question here is whether someone can confirm this, because I have not found any direct words in Latin that indicates that ...
Mr. Mouse's user avatar
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1 answer
270 views

What is the difference in usage of the word "root" in PIE and its daughter languages?

Now I understand that the conceptions of "root" in PIE and its descendant languages don't fully overlap. However what is the exact difference between them? What confuses me is the ...
Коля's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
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What is the name of Germanic n > m near f / Greek ν > μ near π transformation?

What is the name of Germanic n > m near f / Greek ν > μ near π transformation?
fedor's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
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Pronunciation of P in Latin, versus Ph in Greek

In Latin, it seems some sounds that are pronounced like an "F" in Greek, are pronounced like a "P", why is this? For example, we have the Greek word Phoenicians, and this word ...
Tyler Durden's user avatar
-4 votes
1 answer
144 views

Is the Greek ζ related to the Chinese 子?

I wonder whether there is any connections between the two letters. After all, they are both similar to the Phoenician Sade letter, and the Phoenicians were the dominant culture of the Mediterranean ...
AlgebraicsAnonymous's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
161 views

Can Greek form other compound words like "Hyperborea"?

In Greek mythology, the Hyperboreans were a race of giants that lived in a sort of paradise, where the sun shone constantly and everyone was perfectly happy. The land was supposedly located so far to ...
Curious's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
268 views

(Ancient Greek) Dogs and Emptiness, κύων and κενόω, related?

I've been curious about the concepts of emptiness and dogs. I have independently been exploring these and there seem to be some theological/philosophical convergence between Joshua and Caleb from the ...
Gus L.'s user avatar
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1 answer
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Did the Greek term 'κεραία' derive from the Ivri term 'Kera' ( כְרָעַ֨ )? [closed]

Did the Greek term 'κεραία' (keraia) derive from the Ivri term 'Kera' ( כְרָעַ֨ )?
חִידָה's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
4k views

Did Eureka lose its H?

Archimedes famously proclaimed Eureka, I have found it, but should the word itself proclaim I have lost my H? According to wiktionary and wikipedia, Eureka simply comes from the greek εὕρηκα, perfect ...
Matifou's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
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Why did Χ and Ψ have such different sounds in early Eastern and Western Greek?

Why did Χ and Ψ have such different sounds in early Eastern and Western Greek? Which sounds are older? If the Western, why were both Ξ and Χ created to denote [ks] (note that they both appear in the ...
user17584's user avatar
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2 answers
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What is the position of the subject in a Greek sentence, whose word order is VSO?

The following is a Greek sentence Σε ποιόν φίλο νομίζεις ότι μιλάει ο άντρας; To which friend think.2SG that speak.3SG the man Its counterpart in ...
V.Lydia's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
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Some idea of PIE in the ancient world? [duplicate]

Did the ancient Greeks and Romans have the idea (at least partly) similar to the concept the Proto-Indoeuropean language? Many among the elite spoke Greek fluently or at least learnt it intensively. ...
Max Li's user avatar
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-1 votes
2 answers
262 views

Are the Paris's names "City of Light" and "Lutetia" connected?

Paris is called City of Light. I wonder whether this name could come from ancient name of the city Λευκοτεκία (Ptolemy). Λευκος in Greek means light or white. And τεκ- root means "stone" (cognates ...
Anixx's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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Resemblance Between Turkish Ablative and Locative, Ancient Greek Ablative, Allative

I was studying some Ancient Greek, and found out that the declination of some irregular nouns are very similar. I started wondering if there is actually a language that is mother of Altaic languages ...
oguzalb's user avatar
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10 votes
3 answers
5k views

Why do Spanish and Greek have such a similar phonology?

Is it just a matter of coincidence or did the two language influence each other in some way?
Infinite's user avatar
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4 votes
3 answers
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*h₁éḱwos > ἵππος, (Aeolian) ἴκκος

(in short) What's the epigraphical support to the Aeolian word ἴκκος ? I can't find it in the (very limited) data I can consult. (full story) The history of the Greek word ἵππος ("horse") can be ...
suizokukan's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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Derivation of Greek οὐρά (backside) from PIE *h₁ers (flow)

I'm trying to understand how the Greek word for backside/rear could be derived from the PIE word for 'to flow'. There is a Sanskrit word arsati which means 'to pierce', so the meaning of the PIE root ...
ahron's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
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What Languages have historically had Purification Movements? [closed]

Greek has been notorious for trying to purify the language. People tried to conserve the Attic Dialect which evolved to what is today called Katharevousa, which even means purified. Historically, ...
George Ntoulos's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
469 views

Etymology of "Talo" (Finnish for "house"). Can it be a cognate of Thalamus?

The word Talo in Finnish means house. According to the wiktionary, it might be etymologically related to talas (boat-shelter). I was wondering if the word might have a common etymology with Greek ...
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1 answer
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Pre-Greek θάλασσα "thalassa" and Turkish talaz

Talaz is a word that means "wave, tornado" in Turkish dialects. dalga means "wave" in Turkish. You can use the following two links to look up the word's attestations throughout history: https://www....
Sami Bülbül's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
257 views

Is it accurate to say that the Spanish language has no connection whatsoever with the Greek language?

Is it accurate to say that the Spanish language has no connection whatsoever with the Greek language? If not, and if possible, about how much can we safely say there is?
E. Cardona's user avatar