Ancient Languages blog carnival

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ancient languages, blogs, classical Greek, classical languages, Greek, Homer, languages

My post on Monday was part of a blog carnival about ancient languages.  The full list of other participants is here!

There are so many interesting insights into what we can learn from ancient texts in their original languages.  My personal favorite is this one, discussing sound patterns in the first few lines of The Odyssey.  But there are many more great blog posts (especially if you love Greek like I do!)

Check them out and have a happy Friday!

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Greek roots for linguistics

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ancient languages, classical Greek, classical languages, etymology, Greek, languages, linguistics

I was recently asked to participate in an Ancient Languages blog carnival being organized by the blog Linguae Antiquitatum.  I love any opportunity to talk about ancient languages!

I’m especially happy to talk about my beloved Classical Greek.  I believe that studying this language has made me a smarter, richer person, and a better linguist.  And there’s historical precedent for that statement!  When the thinkers of continental Europe were developing theories and models that we have come to recognize as modern linguistic science, they drew upon their classical education for their initial ideas of how languages worked.  They also drew upon their knowledge of Greek and Latin words to coin new terms for the new concepts they were developing (exactly like I did when I named this blog!)

One of my favorite things about learning Greek is that it helps me understand my own language so much better.  I sometimes describe it as “word math;” you often have these wonderful “a-HA” moments when you realize how two words have been added together to give us a modern English word. So today I thought I’d introduce you to some terms from linguistics that are made up of Greek roots.  First I’ll give you some important Greek words – a lot of these show up in a lot of different words, not just scientific terms.  Then I’ll give you some vocabulary from linguistics, and hopefully you will be able to say a-HA!

ἄλλος (allos) – “other; another.” This is probably most familiar to us via the Latin variant alias, though some linguistics terms have prefixes from the original Greek.
γράφω (graphō)– originally used to mean “to scratch” or “to graze,” this verb comes to mean “to inscribe” and finally “to write.” A graph is a system of marks used to convey information; graphite is a mineral used in pencils.
λέξις (lexis)– “speech; word or phrase.” A cousin of logos, below, but with a more precise definition. Dyslexia is difficulty reading or understanding words (that lovely curvy character in the middle of the Greek word is a /ks/ sound and gets written in Latin script as x).
λόγος (logos)– volumes have been written about this one little Greek word. It is one of the most frequent words in the corpus of Greek texts, and is especially important to theologians, who have spent centuries debating its precise conceptual definition (one important example comes from the Gospel of John 1:1, which says “In the beginning was the logos, and the logos was with God, and the logos was God.”) The noun is derived from the verb λέγω, meaning “to speak” or “to say,” and the word can mean anything from “speech” or “account” to “statement of theory” or “thesis.” For our purposes right now, logos has come to be used as a suffix denoting terms of study or science – for example, the word theology, which combines the word for God (θεός) and study (λόγος).
μορφάω (morphaō)– “to shape, fashion, or mold.” In English we can use just this bare verb, to say things like “the car morphed into a robot.”
ὁμός (homos)– “one and the same; common; joint.” The little backwards apostrophe in Greek script means there is an aspiration (i.e. an /h/ sound) before the vowel. Homo- is a very productive suffix, both inside and outside linguistics.
ὄνομα (onoma)– “name.” Though onoma is the most common attested form of this word, and is the way it would have been pronounced in classical Attic Greek, a different dialect of Greek had the word as ὄνυμα, which gives us a suffix we use in English as –onym. A pseudonym is a false name.
σύν (sun)– “with.” The Greek letter upsilon (υ) gets transliterated, via Latin, into a y in Roman script, so in English we get words that start with syn- or sync- that have to do with the idea of putting together, doing something together, etc. (i.e. synchronize – to do something at the same time).
φωνή (phōnē)– “sound; tone.” Greek has two sounds which are written in Roman script as o – the omicron (ο) which was a short vowel, and the omega (ω), which was long. Because the vowel here is long, the English form phone sounds a lot like the original Greek.

Now that you know some important Greek roots, let’s take a look at some major terms from the science of linguistics:

• Allophone – An alternate pronunciation of a certain sound in a certain environment. For example, in American English speakers often say a lone /p/ with a little bit of aspiration – “pin” sounds like [pʰin], but a /p/ after another consonant is unaspirated – “spin” sounds like [spin]. In this example, [pʰ] is another way to make the /p/ sound.
• Homonym – identical expressions with different meaning (i.e. “report to your editor to file your report”).
• Lexicography – the compiling and editing of dictionaries – i.e. the writing of all of the words of a language.
• Morphology – the study of how words are formed in a particular language.
• Phonology – the study of the speech sounds of a language.
• Synonyms – words which have the same or very similar meanings.
• Syntax – The structure of sentences and the study of sentence structure – i.e. how sentences are put together.

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Can you think of other words built on these Greek roots?

Thanks, JD, for inviting me to write this post!  I’m looking forward to seeing what other bloggers have written!

Copyright Allison Taylor-Adams.  See About for details.

 

Pop Quiz! Languages of ancient civilizations

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Akkadian, ancient languages, archaeology, classical languages, Egyptian, languages, writing

Over the years, I’ve been attempting to read all seven volumes of Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.  At first this started merely as an exercise, a way of proving something to myself.  I thought it would be edifying.  And it’s actually turned out to be more than that – from time to time it’s downright entertaining.  It’s a slog, but my goodness what an interesting slog it can be.

As I read accounts of the many civilizations whose histories overlap with Roman history, I find myself wanting to know much more about the languages of the people involved.  A language is such an important part of a people’s story, and I spend time digging around learning about the Scythian and the Parthian languages, or realizing I had never before considered just what tongue Attila was speaking when he ransacked Europe.  (The answer, rather simply, is “Hunnic.”)

How much do you know about the languages spoken by ancient civilizations?  Take today’s quiz to find out!

QUESTIONS: What is the name of the language spoken in the place or by the people listed below?

1. the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires
2. Rome
3. the pre-Roman civilization located in what is now Tuscany, and parts of western Umbria
4. the civilization whose capital was the city of Susa, located in parts of modern-day Iran and Iraq
5. the cities of Thebes, Pergamum, and Ephesus
6. the cities of Thebes, Memphis, and Amarna
7. the civilization known for their seafaring merchants, whose capital was the city of Byblos (later Tyre)
8. Hattusa, an ancient city on the Anatolian peninsula of Turkey, and its surrounding empire
9. the late Iron Age confederation of tribes in eastern and northern Scotland
10. the ancient Mesopotamian civilization recognized as the first to invent writing

BONUS: Which of the languages in these answers was written in cuneiform?

ANSWERS

1. Akkadian
2. Latin
3. Etruscan
4. Elamite
5. Greek
6. Egyptian
7. Phoenician
8. Hittite
9. Pictish
10. Sumerian

BONUS: Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite, and Sumerian

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If you love ancient languages, be sure to check out some of my other posts on the topic!

 

Copyright Allison Taylor-Adams.  See About for details.

New Year, New Challenge

Tags

ancient languages, applied linguistics, classical languages, Greek, language learning, languages

If all goes according to plan, at the end of this coming semester I will hold in my hands a bright, shiny new Master’s degree with my name on it!  My last requirement is a practicum, and the Fates must be smiling on me, because I’ve worked out a way to fulfill that requirement while also…studying ancient Greek!  Somehow timing and patience and a few lovely professors have given me a two-for-one deal.

This is exciting, and also, I must admit, just a little harrowing.  I took three semesters of Greek two years ago, so I’ll basically be picking up right where I left off, except for that unfortunate, you know, complete lapse in studying.  I’ve dabbled here and there but it has certainly taken a back seat, especially when I became a full-time graduate student.  And since I’m supposed to be assisting with the course, not merely attending, I don’t think a fake-it-til-you-make-it approach is going to suffice.  Classes start in 11 days, so I have joined the ranks of probably countless generations of budding scholars – I’m cramming for Greek.

This reviewing/learning process presents some unique challenges, and unique opportunities.  As part of my “assignment,” my Greek professor has asked me to keep a detailed journal of my process, something I was interested in doing anyway.  She says that there’s a hypothesis, purely anecdotal, that she and most of her Classics colleagues have: if you stop studying a language, you can pick it back up pretty easily after a year; it starts getting harder after that; and after two years, you’re toast.  Square one.  Considering I am right at the two year mark, almost to the day, it should be, as she put it, “interesting.”  🙂  I’m the subject of my own applied linguistics research!  (Do I get extra credit?)

I’ll be posting occasional updates over the next few months as to how things are going.  In the mean time, wish me luck!  And Happy New Year!

 

So you want to learn Akkadian?

Tags

Akkadian, ancient languages, Egyptian, language learning, languages, writing

After my recent trip to the British Museum I’ve been a little fixated on ancient languages and philology.  Or I guess I should say, even more fixated than usual.

And thanks to the wonders of the internet and what one author I read called “digital search literacy,” I have recently stumbled across a cache of other bloggers with a similar fixation, most of whom are far more expert and more erudite than I.  It was through one such blogger that I was introduced to a new website/treasure trove called Lexicity.

Lexicity is run by a magical internet angel.  That is the only way I can describe someone who has compiled language learning resources for 16 different ancient languages, from Latin and Greek to Akkadian and Ugaritic and everything between and around.  The resources include dictionaries and grammars, target language manuscripts available electronically, and helpful links for further research.  I am actually surprised at just how much material is available electronically for these languages, even the more “obscure” ones like Gothic or Aramaic.

The main value of the website, of course, is pedagogical potential.  These languages do tend to belong to the realm of elite European universities and ambitious geeks (I say that lovingly!) who are willing to go to great lengths.  With over a dozen practice grammars in Egyptian* alone, this website makes these languages accessible in a very streamlined, one-stop-shopping kind of way.  Like I said, internet angel.  But there is another value to Lexicity, and that is its sheer geekery potential.  Much like the beloved Omniglot, this site has the potential to consume hours of the lives of people like me who want to explore, and since its forum just opened this week, that potential has grown even further.

To sum up, I would like to present you with a quote from the Lexicity twitter account:
“Yay for interacting with other language nerds!”
🙂

(*The author of Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization declares, “Surely, Egyptian hieroglyphic writing was the most lovely ever devised.”  Like I needed more reasons to obsess.)