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[Kyriakos]

Μολών Λαβέ!

(come and get them!)

I am aware that there was one such thread- or at least similar in name- before, but it failed pretty fast, and it was focused on ancient Greek. This one might also fail, but at least it is centered on medieval/modern Greek, and also i know at least one other speaker- although i am not sure of his level- apart from me and (in theory) Christos: Gangleri.
I know he is secretly learning it so as to visit mt Athos and there have some of the monks guess his Catalan origin and result in a manhunt to drive him to the sea

Anyway, in this thread you can ask about Greek. I guess in an effort to somewhat enhance the thread, maybe you can also ask about words which are not totally Greek, but have obvious Greek roots (eg Democracy, being an anglification of Demokratia).

You can also ask about grammar, but be warned:

-I do not think i know all the jargon of grammar in english

-i ended up speaking and writing Greek (and English) intuitively, and not having the grammatical laws stored in the front of my consciousness.

You can also ask about Greek terms which appeared in foreign newspapers' front-pages, due to the current state of the Greek masterplan to become again the most important country globally

PS: If you are Squonk, do not ask for translations of long passages

Ok, we may begin (hopefully)

And for the first Greek text:

Φυσικά ο Ιωάννης Γ’ Δούκας Βατατζής δεν είναι μια προσωπικότητα της ιστορίας που συγκαταλέγεται στις πιο γνωστές στα άτομα της ηλικίας μου. Χρειάστηκε να εξετάσω αρκετούς τόμους των χρονικών του Βυζαντίου ώστε να σχηματίσω μια γνώμη για αυτόν τον αξιόλογο Αυτοκράτορα της Νίκαιας. Έτσι τώρα γνωρίζω πως γεννήθηκε στο Διδυμότειχο, πέθανε στο Νυμφαίο, αποδήμησε στους ουρανούς ελάχιστα χρόνια πριν να πραγματοποιηθεί η ανάκτηση της Κωνσταντινούπολης (κάτι που τελικά έγινε το 1261), ενώ είχε ο ίδιος οπωσδήποτε θέσει τις βάσεις για αυτή την επιτυχία, νικώντας σε σημαντικές μάχες τόσο τη λατινική δύναμη όσο και το ανταγωνιστικό δουκάτο της Ηπείρου και της Θεσσαλονίκης, αφού το τελευταίο είχε εξασθενήσει σημαντικά μετά την καταστροφική του ήττα απο τους Βουλγάρους.

It has a Byzantine flavor Lets see if anyone can read it, or parts of it... I will translate it in a following post.

 

[Arakhor]

Hardly anyone learns the grammar rules of their native language these days!

I can pick out that it's about Ioannes Doukas and his being Autokrator of Nikaias. There's also a passage about Konstantinoupolis and the year 1261, which is when the Palaiologoi returned to reclaim the City of Man's Desire. Thessaloniki gets a mention in the last line.

 

[Kyriakos]

Good work

Actually it is the first paragraph of my Byzantine-themed story

Here is a translation of it:

"Naturally Ioannes III Doucas Vatatzes is not among history's personalities which are most known to the people of my age. I needed to examine enough volumes of the chronicles of Byzantium in order to form an opinnion of that important emperor of Nicaea. Thus i know now that he was born in Didymoteichon, died in Nymphaion, emigrated to the heavens only a few years before the re-acquisition of Constantinople materialised (something which happened in the year 1261), while definitely he had laid the foundations for that success by winning important battles against the latin power, and also the antagonistic Duchy of Epirus and Thessaloniki, after the latter had considerably lost its power following a catastrophic loss to the Bulgarians"

 

[Graceheart the Leopard]

Ἄφοβον ὁ θεός,
ἀνύποπτον ὁ θάνατος
καὶ τἀγαθὸν μὲν εὔκτητον,
τὸ δὲ δεινὸν εὐκαρτέρητον

 

[Kyriakos]

Very nice quote. I started translating it but i did not know it meant that god is something not to be feared; originally was of the view it translated to "god is fearless" (which it can too it seems)

The tetrapharmacos (four-part remedy by Epicurus)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrapharmakos

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

"ὁ δὲ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ"

The unexamined life is not livable for man. --Socrates

Probably this is the best advice, since it perfectly encapsulates the difference between people who blindly believe everything they hear, and those who question everything they hear.

 

[Kyriakos]

«το δε την Πόλιν σοι δούναι, ουκ εμόν εστίν ούτ΄ άλλου των κατοικούντων εν ταύτη. Κοινή γαρ γνώμη, πάντες αυτοπροαιρέτως αποθανούμεν και ου φεισόμεθα της ζωής ημών».

"To give you the City is not of ours, nor of anyone else residing in it. We are all of the view that gladly we shall die and won't spare our lives"

Constantine Palaiologos Dragases, last Byzantine Emperor, answering to the request that Constantinople is given up.

 

[Graceheart the Leopard]

Can anyone point to me an English-Greek dictionary with polytonal orthography?

 

[Kyriakos]

Αναζητάς αρχαίες λέξεις;

(do you seek ancient terms?)

I tried to find a polytonal greek-english dictionary, but the search in γούγλ did not yield any result im afraid...

 

[Squonk]

oh c-mon, these passages weren't that long

 

[Kyriakos]

You could ask other people with knowledge of Greek. Those texts you have tend to use heavily jargon of the era and i am not sure if i can really help a lot anyway. You can post the passage here and others may provide at least a partial translation

 

[Squonk]

I'm sure Constantine the Porphyrogenete used nice language

 

[Arakhor]

Swearwords tend to be very obvious in most languages.