Re: hezbollah's etymo


Nigel Greenwood wrote:
mb wrote:
How did you get the damn thing to put dieresis and accent together in
καϊκι? Would appreciate a tip.

A tip? Here's a nickel for your pains, my good man!

Godbless, m'lord!

Upsilon with both accent & dialytika must be pretty rare. Perhaps in
inflected forms such as του αΰπνου παιδιόυ ? Some
writers seem to write the accusative plural as αΰπνους, though
the prevailing form appears to be άυπνους (Katharevousa vs
Demotic?).

Today it's shifted to Kathomiloumene vs. Demotic. The stress backing of
gen. sing/plur and accus. plur. does not apply to adjectives in modern
school grammar: του άυπνου παιδιού / τους
άυπνους ανθρώπους. But when "οι άυπνοι" is in
substantive function, i.e. "the sleepless ones", Kathomiloumene (see
schoolmarms and TV anchors) does slide the stress, so "τους
αΰπνους". Versus, of course, "τους άυπνους" of pure
Demotic.

I'd love to get a nickel every time someone calls "English" an
unassimilated loanword or loan-spelling that's used as is, just because
it happens to be in an English text.

I've already paid you a nickel.

I assure you I'll dearly cherish its memory.

What's more, "caïque" _is_ English:
it's in the dictionary, and has been used countless times in English
writing (admittedly with reference to Greece & the Levant).

Which does not change its character of totally *unassimilated*
loan-spelling from the French. Which maintains its special 19th C
levantine connotation thanks to the unassimilated spelling. I know that
I have no chances of collecting my royalties even if I insist, but I'll
insist.

In this
respect it's different from other Greek or Turkish words such as
"thelo" and "yedi", which aren't used in English. Another assimilated
example would be "klepht" -- not a thief, but specifically a Greek
freedom-fighter.

Which is not a fancy Pierre-Lotiesque transit import like "caïque".

.