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Learning Greek vocabulary Topic is solved

Cifi

Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Cifi »

Compared to Romance languages, Greek is said to have less cognates. Nevertheless I try to find a relation with something I know where possible, e.g.

  • το βιβλίο -> die Bibliothek in German, la biblioteca in Spanish (the English translation library wouldn't work in this case, but there is the bible as well)
  • γράφω -> calligraphy which works better for me than relating it to graphics, because I would associate drawing with the latter rather than writing
  • το παιδί -> pediatrician
  • κίτρινο -> in German it is easy: Zitrone is similar and represents the color well. In English and Spanish, there is at least the adjective citric and cítrico, as in citric acid and ácido cítrico
  • η γυναίκα -> gynecology (I found this one right now)
  • το έντομο -> entomology

This works more often than I would have thought, but there still remain lots of words I can't relate to anything.

A different strategy would be to relate words to each other, e.g. κοτόπουλο, Κότα and πουλί (not quite in the way I thought, but at least there is a relation). I still don't know if η εφιμέριδα has something to do with η μέρα, but I think there must be a link between η νύχτα and η νυχτερίδα. Another similar sound is in ανοιχτόχρωμο, but it has οι instead of υ, so I'm not sure about this. And το παγωτό is so close to ο πάγος that I must be related, maybe the same way as "el helado" (ice cream) and "el hielo" (ice) do in Spanish.

For the rest, I sometimes relate things that in reality don't have common roots, but just happen to sound similar, like maybe το αγόρι and το αγγούρι, imagining a boy eating a cucumber. Or I learn with images where possible, that makes the words stick quick well in my experience.

What are your strategies?

Last edited by Cifi on Wed Aug 17, 2022 2:53 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Native: :de: Intermediate: :uk: Lower intermediate: :es: Beginner: :fr: Absolute beginner: 🇬🇷
(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

Phil682961

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Phil682961 »

Cifi wrote: Wed Aug 10, 2022 5:36 pm

I still don't know if η εφιμέριδα has something to do with η μέρα

It does! εφημερίδα is from επί and (η)μέρα, so something like "on the day": it's where you get your up-to-the-minute news. Actually, do you have a similar connection in German with "Tageblatt"?

It looks like before the newspaper age, ἐφημερίς was a kind of military timetable.

https://el.wiktionary.org/wiki/εφημερίδα

We do have a fairly rare word "ephemeral" in English, which comes from the same Greek roots and has a somewhat related meaning: it's something that's here today and gone tomorrow.

Generally I don't know if I have any particular strategies you haven't already thought of. Some words have helpful cognates, and others you just have to learn. The good thing is the more you learn, the easier it get: the more you build your vocabulary, the more likely it is that each new word is related to something you already know. And you get a feel for how words are built up with common prefixes and suffixes (for example -τητα often turns an adjective into a noun, like English "-ness" or German "-heit").

Cifi

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Cifi »

Phil682961 wrote: Wed Aug 10, 2022 6:00 pm

It does! εφημερίδα is from επί and (η)μέρα, so something like "on the day": it's where you get your up-to-the-minute news. Actually, do you have a similar connection in German with "Tageblatt"?

Thanks, Phil. I'd normally rather say Tageszeitung, but Tageblatt may be preserved in newspaper names, like e.g. "Solinger Tageblatt".

Phil682961 wrote: Wed Aug 10, 2022 6:00 pm

We do have a fairly rare word "ephemeral" in English, which comes from the same Greek roots and has a somewhat related meaning: it's something that's here today and gone tomorrow.

To me, this temporary aspect is not so strong in Tageblatt, this could be just as well daily/reoccurring. But a perfect representation of "here today, gone tomorrow" would be "Eintagsfliege" (lit. One-day-fly, maybe ~ mayfly?), whose scientific name is (badadadam) Ephemeroptera according to German Wikipedia.

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Cifi

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Cifi »

Oh, I think I misspelled εφημερίδα, or does this one allow alternative spelling?

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(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

Phil682961

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Phil682961 »

Cifi wrote: Thu Aug 11, 2022 5:42 pm

Oh, I think I misspelled εφημερίδα, or does this one allow alternative spelling?

It should be εφημερίδα indeed :)

I never knew the mayflies were called Ephemeroptera, but it makes sense! Thanks for that!

Cifi

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Cifi »

It seems that ανοιχτόχρωμο does not have to do with νύχτα. My idea was that it would be something like not-night-coloured = light coloured, with the α meaning a negation as in σύγχρονος vs ασύγχρονος.

Obviously this was the wrong track, because later in the course we learn that ανοιχτό means open, and light only when used with colours.

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(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

O.Zoe
Greece

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by O.Zoe »

Cifi wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 10:47 am

It seems that ανοιχτόχρωμο does not have to do with νύχτα. [...] ανοιχτό means open, and light only when used with colours.

That's right. ;)

ανοιχτός = light, fair
ανοιχτόχρωμος = light-coloured
σκούρος = dark
σκουρόχρωμος = dark-coloured

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Cifi

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Cifi »

Another one that made sense to me with the words I learned before:

το καλοκαίρι

Good weather = summer?

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(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

Phil682961

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Phil682961 »

Cifi wrote: Sun Aug 28, 2022 7:56 pm

Another one that made sense to me with the words I learned before:

το καλοκαίρι

Good weather = summer?

That's exactly right!

Cifi

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Cifi »

One that wasn't so easy: το τραπέζι

I knew the word trapezoid from geometry, but tables as I know them are usually rectangular. I have to imagine a painting with a table in perspective projection to make it match.

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(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

Cifi

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Cifi »

So we learned most (or all?) loanwords are neuter gender and invariable.

But then there are words that are so strikingly similar to their equivalent in Romance languages, especially Spanish, like μπανιέρα which is bañera, or πισίνα and piscina. Both are feminine and follow normal rules for case and number as far as I can see.

Did Spanish borrow these from Greek, or Greek from Spanish in +/- recent times? Or do they have Latin roots and happened to end up with a similar pronunciation in both languages? Or maybe the other way round, came to Latin from ancient Greek?

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(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

DmGabin

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by DmGabin »

Cifi wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 10:36 am

Did Spanish borrow these from Greek, or Greek from Spanish in +/- recent times?

From Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό:

πισίνα
(η) ουσ. τεχνητή δεξαμενή για κολύμβηση
Ετυμολογία:
[<βενετ. pissina < ιταλ. piscina (= ιχθυοτροφείο) < λατιν. piscis (= ψάρι)]

μπανιέρα
(η) ουσ. λουτήρας
καμπίνα σε χώρο θαλάσσιων λουτρών
Ετυμολογία:
[<μπάνιο]

μπάνιο
(το) ουσ. το λουτρό
ο λουτήρας
Ετυμολογία:
[<ιταλ. bagno < λατιν. balneum < αρχ. ελλ. βαλανεὶον]

P. S. Consulting a dictionary never hurts.

Cifi

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Cifi »

Well, thanks for answering.

a) I don't have Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό and being a beginner who is getting her feet wet with Greek for no particular reason or purpose, I am not likely to buy it any time soon.

b) It does not seem to have an online version, or I did not find it (searching in Greek is not exactly easy for beginners either). Links to alternative resources are definitely welcome.

c) While monolingual dictionaries are a great thing and often exactly those that might give additional information e.g. on etymology, they can be quite overwelming for beginners, too.

Native: :de: Intermediate: :uk: Lower intermediate: :es: Beginner: :fr: Absolute beginner: 🇬🇷
(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

O.Zoe
Greece

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by O.Zoe »

Wiktionary is pretty good for the etymology of a word.

In Modern Greek, we have many loanwords from Italian (and mostly Venetian). So any similarity between Greek and Spanish is usually via Latin. "Μπάνιο", for example, is a re-borrowing case.

When words are borrowed from another language, there are two possibilities. One is that the foreign word ends in a syllable that could sound Greek. In this case, it gets "hellenized" and is declinable (e.g. η πισίνα, το μπάνιο, το καπέλο, η πόρτα). The other possibility is that the foreign word ends in a syllable that doesn't sound Greek, so it stays indeclinable (e.g. το κομπιούτερ, το ασανσέρ, το πορτατίφ).

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jonl
Greece

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by jonl »

In general as you learn more vocabulary, you do start to see connections between words and it gets easier. But then you encounter, for example, another word beginning with προσ and you raise your hands in despair again.

One strategy I find useful is learning song lyrics. I think remembering lyrics with a melody can be useful in memorising vocabulary or even Aorist verb forms in some cases

Btw regarding the discussion on εφημερίδα, you have the connection to 'day' also in French journal and this indirectly in English

Phil682961

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Phil682961 »

jonl wrote: Sat Dec 10, 2022 5:40 pm

Btw regarding the discussion on εφημερίδα, you have the connection to 'day' also in French journal and this indirectly in English

Slightly related, it's cool that French has 'hebdomadaire' (from Greek εβδομάδα) for weekly publications!

Cifi

Re: Learning Greek vocabulary

Post by Cifi »

I became aware of the French word "hebdo" / "hebdomadaire" on a sad occasion, dating back to 2015.

"Je suis Charlie"...

Native: :de: Intermediate: :uk: Lower intermediate: :es: Beginner: :fr: Absolute beginner: 🇬🇷
(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

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