The Elitist Chat Thread

[Legio]

I frequently have rows with my modern Greek friends over Attic pronunciations.

[Hobbes]

Do they teach you how to pronouce the words based on the diacritics (grave accent, breathings etc) and the vowel types (long, short)?

[Legio]

What other way is there to teach it?

[Hobbes]

Here we pronouce it like modern Greek, ignoring the meanings of the breathings and other diacritics (as well as the vowel types' significance).

[Legio]

So της for you guys is like 'tiss', right?

[Hobbes]

Exactly. The correct pronunciation should be "tes" with a long "eh" sound (right?). It's really wrong, just because the alphabet is the same it doesn't mean the the letters used to sound as they do now. I am not saying that we should switch to capital letters only, but let's at least respect the way those people used to talk like.

[Nyxos]

well I don't want to seem obnoxious but you all know how they ended up.

[Hobbes]

Who, Greeks?

[Nyxos]

ancient Greeks to be precise.

[Hobbes]

Ancient Greeks ended up being conquered by Romans.

[Nyxos]

I was thinking about that they ended up dead, but yeah, that works too. My point is that speaking that language will either get you dead or conquered by Romans.

[Hobbes]

Well yeah, of course they ended up dead, they were ancient, how long did you expect them to live?
Same applies to medieval Greeks, ancient Romans, Gauls and Indians.

My point is that speaking that language will either get you dead or conquered by Romans.

If you speak the modern version you end up with a huge debt.

[Legio]

We've learned it as 'teis' with eta as a long vowel.

[Ishan]

@Hoobes
Indians are still here along with their pagan religion and other ancient culture.

[Nyxos]

If you speak the modern version you end up with a huge debt.

point.

I guess learning Greek really is a bad idea then

[Hobbes]

We've learned it as 'teis' with eta as a long vowel.

Sihler says that it's this sound: /ɛː/. A long vowel that sounds something like "eh" I guess. But your professors now best. I would love to be able to speak that wonderfu language properly.

Edit: This, but longer.

@Hoobes
Indians are still here along with their pagan religion and other ancient culture.

True, but some things must have changed there as well. Besides Europe had to face Christianity, Islam and many invasions, not to mention that Christianity became the norm because of the Roman Empire. If it wasn't for that conversion I am pretty sure I would be sacrificing to Zeus (Ζευς) every month or something

Besides,the Greek language stills survives, along with ancient war dances, food, expressions and customs (many Orthodox customs in Greece are actually ancient ones given a new meaning).

Now I will go listen to some sitar music because you mentioned India. Ravi Shankar ftw

[Legio]

Don't you hate how Ζευς declines to Διος?!?!

[Hobbes]

No because the nominative of Ζευς is Δίας in modern Greek
Fun fact: Ζευς is related to the words deus (latin) and day.

[Legio]

και ψρυσος και αργυρος υπο των πολιτων παρα τους της νησου επεμφθησαν ως αθανατοις θεοις εν τη της νησου αγορα τη μικρ θυσειαν. ο γαρ πολεμος ο φοβερος ταις θεοις επεπαυτο.

[Hobbes]

you have a typo there: χρυσός not ψρυσός
I don't seem to understand this one but I will try: Gold and silver were sent by the citizens of the island to the immortal gods, in the island's agora for the small offering. In order for war the mightiest of gods to stop (?)

I suppose that I got the last sentence completely wrong, I love ancient Greek but I have forgotten most of it (blame the educational system for that )