Basic Phrases

How can I learn to express my ideas in clear and intelligible Greek?
cwconrad
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Re: Basic Phrases

Post by cwconrad »

Jason Hare wrote:
Mark Lightman wrote:Hi, Jason,
Λουκᾶς: εὖγε, φέριστε!
Ἰάσων: εὐχαριστῶ σοι.
Λουκᾶς: καλῶς.
Why φέριστε? What's the implication of that form?
This is a poetic form, found in Homer, in tragic verse, and in Theocritus. See LSJ s.v. φέρτατος. There's one conversational instance of it listed in Plato's Phaedrus, something like, "my very good man."

I should guess that for colloquial Koine one ought really to read carefully through Epictetus and draw out expressions of address, interrogation, response and evaluative comments. It might be worth doing a comparative study of expressions in Platonic dialogue and the dialogues of Epictetus as set down by Arrian.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
darrynkeene
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Re: Basic Phrases

Post by darrynkeene »

How accurate is Google Translate (http://translate.google.com)? I have used this for translating English to Greek for a few websites I have built.
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Jonathan Robie
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Re: Basic Phrases

Post by Jonathan Robie »

darrynkeene wrote:How accurate is Google Translate (http://translate.google.com)? I have used this for translating English to Greek for a few websites I have built.
Not very. Try translating foreign texts into English to get a feel, and remember that Google Translate probably does this task better than any other.

Here's the first part of James in Koine Greek:
Ἰάκωβος θεοῦ καὶ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δοῦλος ταῖς δώδεκα φυλαῖς ταῖς ἐν τῇ διασπορᾷ χαίρειν. Πᾶσαν χαρὰν ἡγήσασθε, ἀδελφοί μου, ὅταν πειρασμοῖς περιπέσητε ποικίλοις, γινώσκοντες ὅτι τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως κατεργάζεται ὑπομονήν· ἡ δὲ ὑπομονὴ ἔργον τέλειον ἐχέτω, ἵνα ἦτε τέλειοι καὶ ὁλόκληροι, ἐν μηδενὶ λειπόμενοι.
Let's run it through Google Translate:
Iάkovos the Lord God and Jesus Christ thy servant in thy dώdeka fylais tῇ diasporᾷ chaίrein. Pasang igήsasthe joy, my brethren, when peirasmois peripέsite poikίlois, ginώskontes THAT YOU dokίmion of pίsteos katergάzetai ypomonήn when your patience; Ergon tέleion echέto, fiber and whole tέleioi ite, in leipomenoi zero.
I prefer the ESV:
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
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