greek name: Ludia (not lydia)

How can I learn to express my ideas in clear and intelligible Greek?
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jcha224
Posts: 1
Joined: June 27th, 2017, 9:01 pm

greek name: Ludia (not lydia)

Post by jcha224 »

Hi I was always curious how to write my wife's name in its original form. I tried to google "ludia in greek" and got: Λυδία but I wasn't sure if that was correct. Also, if i wanted to call myself "ludia lover" what would it be in greek? Again, I googled it and got: Εραστής Λυδία. Is this correct?

Thanks!!
John
Barry Hofstetter
Posts: 2159
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:48 pm

Re: greek name: Ludia (not lydia)

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

John, I approved your post this time, but in the meantime always include your full first and last name as part of the post. Doing so in the signature file is fine, and a moderator can help you with this.

Lydia is actually fine. The Greek is is in fact Λυδία. In transliterating Greek, the older convention was to change an upsilon between two consonants to a "y" in English.

Never, ever, use Google translate. First of all, it defaults to modern Greek. Secondly, it usually makes hash of ancient inflected languages like Latin or ancient Greek. If I were to render such a phrase into ancient Greek, I would use something like:

ὁ ἀγαπῶν Λυδίαν, lit. "the one who loves Lydia." Now, it further depends on what exactly you want to say by "love" but using ἀγαπᾶν is probably the safest bet for all contexts.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
RandallButh
Posts: 1105
Joined: May 13th, 2011, 4:01 am

Re: greek name: Ludia (not lydia)

Post by RandallButh »

As your wife, you may prefer ὁ Λυδίαν φιλῶν or ὁ φιλῶν Λυδίαν. It includes kissing.
Lydia is actually fine. The Greek is is in fact Λυδία. In transliterating Greek, the older convention was to change an upsilon between two consonants to a "y" in English.
By the fourth century BCE the Greek υ was pronounced like 'i'-with-rounded-lips (German [ue, ü]). So a Latin 'u' became inappropriate for the sound, hence 'y'. And Greek υ later shifted to ι in Greek over a millenium ago anyway.

On a different but parallel track, English speakers would do well to spell חומוס houmous. It always sounds funny when tourists ask for [hammas].
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