It changed significantly in the 4th century BC from Classic to Koine and then that’s it, it’s been almost the same for at least 2000 years. I never said that the Greek language remained unchanged, I was specifically talking about its PHONOLOGY that you previously mocked. Regards.Īnd I think you’re verifying the Greek quote “Imperfect education is worse than ignorance”. So before you so childishly ask criticism on people like Seferis, make sure your accusations are not the result of your own ignorance.
Gallen, Plutarch, Julius Caesar, Scipio Africanus etc.), spoke it with the “modern” phonology that you arrogantly criticised. Famous Greeks and Romans of the post-classic periods who spoke Koine (e.g. Hellenistic Koine (from 323 BC) adapts a pronunciation that is significantly different from Ancient and yet survives intact until the 21st century. The Attic phonology is by no means the default pronunciation of the Greek language like most amateur classicists think. There are only ‘Ancient’ and ‘Hellenistic’ pronunciations. There is no such thing as “Modern” Greek pronunciation.
”I once thought only uneducated people believed this, but then I read an essay by Seferis, one of the most cultured men of the twentieth century, in which he furiously attacked foreigners who pretended that the ancient Greeks used some sort of strange pronunciation, made up out of whole cloth, rather than the authentic speech of the Greeks! I sadly reflected on the ineluctable pigheadedness and vanity of human nature and closed the book with a superior snap.” In an arrogant criticism that you once made against Greek dramatists and scholars you mentioned: This is irrelevant to this topic but I’m posting it here in order to make sure that you read it. One blurb for the book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 says that in the year 2012 “a new age is expected, one in which humanity will mutate spiritually into a new relationship with space-time and the material universe.” Whether Apocalypto relates to these fanciful theories is perhaps known only by Mr. There is a whole body of mystical New Age literature on this subject, as a Web search on 2012 quickly reveals. One popular theory, as mentioned on the apocalyptic page linked above, is that a great cataclysmic event will occur on December 21, 2012, when the Mayan calendrical cycle is said to end. Gibson’s “new beginning” interpretation seems to resonate with certain New Age readings of the Popol Vuh and other Mayan sacred texts. But it’s not a big doomsday picture or anything like that.” In order for something to begin, something has to end.
The film’s title, “Apocalypto,” a Greek word for an unveiling or new beginning, “just expresses so well that I want to convey,” Gibson said. [ Language Hat says the translation of Greek apocalypto (ἀποκαλύπτω) as ‘new beginning’ is “ridiculous,” since it is a verb meaning ‘uncover disclose, reveal.’ That was the gloss given in the Los Angeles Times article, while the AP article provides some more context:
Apocalypto almost update#
I just added this update to the Language Log post… As you can see from the Liddell-Scott link, it’s a verb meaning ‘uncover disclose, reveal’ the last book of the New Testament is called Αποκάλυψις Ιωάννου ‘John’s revelation,’ and the over-the-top nature of the things he revealed about the future (beasts with ten horns and seven heads, blood to the height of the horses’ girdles, etc.) gave rise to the modern meaning of apocalyptic, which I expect will be fully exemplified in the sanguinary Mr. I’m just going to point out that Gibson’s “translation” of the Greek word ἀποκαλύπτω as “new beginning” (I assume it’s Gibson’s) is ridiculous. Go to Ben’s post for a good analysis of the linguistic situation go here for some interesting speculation on the possible apocalyptic content of the film. As you may have heard, it will be filmed in “a Mayan dialect” now Ben Zimmer reveals that the language in question is Yucatec Maya ( Wikipedia article, brief introduction: “My favorite Spanish loan word is chinga’an, which means broken and came about from the Spanish overlords saying ‘chinga’ when something broke”). OK, there’s not actually an exclamation mark after the name of Mel Gibson’s new movie, but it sounds so apocalyptic! that way.