Gerunds and Gerundives in the Wild

Aside from the state motto of New Mexico, crescit eundo, there is the motto of Millfield School in Somerset: molire molendo '(Loosely translated as "to succeed by grinding")'. 'Loosely', of course, because since molior is a deponent verb, molire is a second-person singular indicative or, better for this context, an imperative. The infinitive, as implied by the loose translation, is moliri.

As for the gerundive, and real Latin, there is the formula found in Pompeian electoral dipinti:

aed(ilem/iles) [or duovirum] v(iis) a(edibus) sacr(is) p(ublicis) procurandis oro vos faciatis.
See, for examples, I 1. nos. 11 and 18 in R. Wallace's An Introduction to Wall Inscriptions from Pompeii and Herculaneum (Wauconda, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2005).

Herodotus and Muhammad Ali Jinnah on the ingredients of (an) ethnic identity

Herodotus, famously, says (that the Athenians said...):

Πολλά τε γὰρ καὶ μεγάλα ἐστὶ τὰ διακωλύοντα ταῦτα μὴ ποιέειν μηδ’ ἢν ἐθέλωμεν· πρῶτα μὲν καὶ μέγιστα τῶν θεῶν τὰ ἀγάλματα καὶ τὰ οἰκήματα ἐμπεπρησμένα τε
καὶ συγκεχωσμένα, τοῖσι ἡμέας ἀναγκαίως ἔχει τιμωρέειν ἐς τὰ μέγιστα μᾶλλον ἤ περ ὁμολογέειν τῷ ταῦτα ἐργασαμένῳ· αὖτις δὲ τὸ Ἑλληνικόν, ἐὸν ὅμαιμόν τε καὶ ὁμόγλωσσον, καὶ θεῶν ἱδρύματά τε κοινὰ καὶ θυσίαι ἤθεά τε ὁμότροπα, τῶν προδότας γενέσθαι Ἀθηναίους οὐκ ἂν εὖ ἔχοι.

8.144.2

Muhammad Ali Jinnah's reply (17 September 1944) to Gandhi’s contention (15 September 1944); “I find no parallel in history for a body of converts and their descendants claiming to be a nation apart from the parent stock":

"We maintain and hold that Muslims and Hindus are two major nations by any definition or test of a nation. We are a nation of a hundred million people, and, what is more, we are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of value and proportion, legal laws and moral codes, customs and calendar, history and traditions, aptitudes and ambitions – in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of international law we are a nation."

Architecture gets another mention in this speech of December 1946.

Notes on dialect inscriptions: Elean and Euboean together

Schwyzer 795 [= IvO 271, cf. LSAG 221.19], a statue base found at Olympia, consists of a hexameter in Elean (the sculptor's signature) and another prose sentence in 'Euboean' (Jeffery's 'Rhegine'). The object consists of two adjoining fragments (left and right, each containing parts in both dialects).

The context for this inscription is given by Pausanias V.27.8. Some edd. give the start of the hexameter as [Ἑρμεί]α̣ι. The Elean form Ϝ]αλεῖο̣ρ̣ apparently shows the characteristic word-final rhotacism of Elean as well as preservation of word-initial digamma.

Note that the 'Euboean' sentence contains [Γλ]αυκίης ὁ Λυκκίδεοˉ with Ionic <η> and εο for εω (Schwyzer did not employ a macron on either vowel).

Number plates

For some time, on my way to work, I used to see a (non-personalised) number plate that happened to end 'LXX'. I assume that this was not the owner's choice.

This one caught my attention two days ago. One wonders whether there is a companion vehicle with the plate 'agris'. A landrover, maybe.

The Jerusalem Temple and μεσότοιχον

Warning signs informed gentiles to proceed no further. Josephus comments,

"Proceeding across this [the open court] towards the second court of the temple, one found it surrounded by a stone balustrade, three cubits high and of exquisite workmanship; in this at regular intervals stood slabs giving warning, some in Greek, others in Latin characters, of the law of purification, to wit that no foreigner was permitted to enter the holy place, for so the second enclosure of the temple was called."

Jewish War 5, v, 2 (cf. Jewish War 6, ii, 4; Jewish Antiq. 15. xi, 5; Philo Leg. 212)

Two inscriptions bearing this warning have been found, the fullest of which is OGI II 598 (not yet online at PHI: photo and translation). The more fragmentary inscription is restored on the basis of the more complete text.

A full discussion may be found in Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae: A multi-lingual corpus of the inscriptions from Alexander to Muhammad I, 1 (edd. H.M. Cotton, et al.), no. 2 (pp. 42-45).

We may assume that it was not thought necessary to have Hebrew or Aramaic warning signs. Today's equivalent sign is in Hebrew, then English, then French (but not in Arabic).

σύνοδος synhodus

Aside from its comment 'of synods of the church, Cod.Just.1.1.7.12', LSJ' s σύνοδος (B) is of interest for its discussion (ad fin.) of transcriptions/transliterations of the Greek word into Latin, including synhod- in a bilingual inscription (2nd c. AD, Nîmes) and sunhod- in earlier Latin epigraphy (some from that of the city of Rome). See OLD s.v. (1896 ii).

Ethnolinguistic vitality

Irish, Welsh, etc. and Yiddish and Hebrew in The Economist.

Some Greek compounds

γλυκύ-πικρος (Sapph.130)
γύν-ανδρος (S.fr.+) and ἀνδρό-γυνος (Hdt. Pl.+) and γυναικ-άνηρ (Epicharmos)

προβατοκτηνο-τρόφος 'keeping sheep and cattle' (LSJ, s.v.: OGI 655, papyri)  implies *προβατό-κτηνος 'with or of sheep and cattle'.

ἱππό-ταυρος horse-bull LSJ, Heliodoros, Aithiopika X 29:
καὶ τὸν Θεαγένην λαμπρῶς ἐκθειάζειν ξένην τινὰ ταύτην ἱπποταύρου ξυνωρίδα
ζευξάμενον.

κλαυσί-γελως smiles mingled with tears LSJ, X.Hell. VII 2.9:
πάντας δὲ τοὺς παρόντας τότε γε τῷ ὄντι κλαυσίγελως εἶχεν.
(?) cf. Sall.Cat.61.9: ita varie per omnem exercitum laetitia, maeror, luctus atque gaudia agitabantur.

ἀμιτρο-χίτωνες in LSJ '... , οἱ, wearing no μίτρη (q.v.) with the χιτών, epith. of Lycian warriors, Il.16.419 ...'.

λευκο-έρυθρος (Arist.)
-μέλᾱς grey (LSJ): a combination or mixture of white and black rather than of animals like pandas (though, cf. Ailuropoda melano-leuca black and white cat-footed one) and of things like chess boards that are white and black.

χλωρο- (Galen) [also μελάγ- and μελανό- χλωρος], ὠχρό- (Dioscorides Ped.)

Cf. Sanskrit nīla-lohitá dark blue and red = dark red (A.A. MacDonell, A Vedic Grammar for Students, § 186 B 1 'The adjectives that designate colours, their combination expressing a mixture of the two').

Language choice: Plutarch's Life of Brutus on Romans' use of Greek

Plutarch comments on Brutus' letters in Latin and those in Greek and notes the following instances of the use of Greek by Brutus and his circle.

2.4-8:
Empylus also, who is often mentioned by Brutus himself in his letters, and ls by his friends, as a housemate of his, was a rhetorician, and has left a brief but excellent account of the assassination of Caesar, entitled "Brutus."

In Latin, now, Brutus was sufficiently trained for narrative or pleading; but in Greek he affected the brevity of the apophthegm and the Spartan, of which he sometimes gives a striking example in his letters. For instance, when he had already embarked upon the war, he wrote to the Pergamenians: "I hear that ye have given money to Dolabella; if ye gave it willingly confess that ye have wronged me; if unwillingly, prove it by giving willingly to me." Again, to the Samians: "Your counsels are paltry, your subsidies slow; what, think ye, will be the end of this?" And in another letter: "The Xanthians ignored my benefactions, and have made their country a grave for their madness; but the Patareans entrusted themselves to me, and now enjoy their freedom in all its fulness. It is in your power also to choose the decision of the Patareans or the fate of the Xanthians." Such, then, is the style of his remarkable letters.

17.5-6:

Caesar caught the handle of the dagger and cried out loudly in Latin: "Impious Casca, what doest thou?" Then Casca, addressing his brother in Greek, bade him come to his aid. And now Caesar had received many blows and was looking about and seeking to force his way through his assailants, when he saw Brutus setting upon him with drawn dagger.

40.2-4:

When supper was over, [Cassius] grasped Messala's hand warmly, and, speaking in Greek, as was his custom when he would show affection, said: "I call thee to witness, Messala, that I am in the same plight as Pompey the Great, in that I am forced to hazard the fate of my country on the issue of a single battle. With good courage, however, let us fix our waiting eyes on fortune, of whom, even though our counsels be infirm, it is not right that we should be distrustful." With these last words to him, Messala says, Cassius embraced him; and he had already invited him to supper on the following day, which was his birthday.

52.1-2:

And when Cleitus wept and made no answer, Brutus next drew Dardanus his shield-bearer and had some private conversation with him. Finally, he spoke to Volumnius himself in Greek, reminding him of their student life, and begged him to grasp his sword with him and help him drive home the blow.

Linguistic Landscaping to the detriment of the people

The emperor Gaius Caligula published his laws so as to be illegible. For whom (for whose benefit) was this 'sign' written ?

eius modi vectigalibus indictis neque propositis, cum per ignorantiam scripturae multa commissa fierent, tandem flagitante populo proposuit quidem legem, sed et minutissimis litteris et angustissimo loco, uti ne cui describere liceret.

When taxes of this kind had been proclaimed, but not published in writing, inasmuch as many offences were committed through ignorance of the letter of the law, he at last, on the urgent demand of the people, had the law posted up, but in a very narrow place and in excessively small letters, to prevent the making of a copy.

Hieroglyphics and their Decipherment

Wikimedia Commons illustrates the representation of the name Ἀλέξανδρος in hieroglyphics in a cartouche (in accordance with the rebus principle on an acrophonic basis):

The Greek text of the Rosetta Stone is OGI 90 (an English translation thereof).
The Greek text of the Philae Obelisk is OGI 137, 138, 139.

The latest know hieroglyphic inscription (394 CE) is discussed here.

Graffito from Gazi

Costas Canakis discussed a number of graffiti from the Athenian district of Gazi at Language and the City in Berlin in August 2012. One item of note read:

ΤΟ GAY LIFESTYLE ΒΡΩΜΑΕΙ ΟΜΟΦΟΒΙΑ (which, when translated, is 'Gay lifestyle stinks of homophobia').

At the very least, a shift from Greek to Roman script is involved: 'Gay Lifestyle' has not been transliterated or transcribed. What kind of code-switch is this, if that is what it is?

The impression of Greek script

German Wings' in-flight magazine for September 2014 presents the name of a city in northern Greece as ΤΗΣSSΔLΟΝIKI.

This spelling is part transcription (Th- for Θ and -ki for -κη) and part transliteration (based somewhat on a purely graphic resemblance: Σ for <Ε> and Δ  for <Α>).

Distinctively (but unfamiliar) Greek characters have been avoided (Θ and Λ), but also (mis)employed (Σ and Δ), at the cost of an opportunity to employ them correctly (ΣΣ for SS).

Avoidance of the pan-European and hence unmarked <Ε> and may have been a factor.

The result is a word which is legible to the eye (provided that the delta is treated as an ), but marked as foreign, if not as Greek specifically.

The film posts for My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2001) similarly used <Σ> for <Ε>.

Quintilian on masters of multiple languages and of several varieties of Greek

Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria XI.2.50-51:

Ceterum quantum natura studioque valeat memoria vel Themistocles testis, quem unum intra annum optime locutum esse Persice constat, vel Mithridates, cui duas et viginti linguas, quot nationibus imperabat, traditur notas fuisse, vel Crassus ille dives, qui cum Asiae praeesset quinque Graeci sermonis differentias sic tenuit ut qua quisque apud eum lingua postulasset eadem ius sibi redditum ferret, vel Cyrus, quem omnium militum tenuisse creditum est nomina: quin semel auditos quamlibet multos versus protinus dicitur reddidisse Theodectes. Dicebantur etiam nunc esse qui facerent, sed mihi numquam ut ipse interessem contigit: habenda tamen fides est vel in hoc, ut qui crediderit et speret.

For the rest there are many historical examples of the power to which memory may be developed by natural aptitude and application. Themistocles is said to have spoken excellently in Persian after a year's study; Mithridates is recorded to have known twenty-two languages, that being the number of the different nations included in his empire [cf. Pliny the Elder, Natural History VII 24]; Crassus, surnamed the Rich [cos. 131 BC, was the commander in the war against Aristonicus of Pergamum, was defeated and was killed], when commanding in Asia had such a complete mastery of five different Greek dialects, that he would give judgement in the dialect employed by the plaintiff in putting forward his suit; Cyrus is believed to have known the name of every soldier in his army, [51] while Theodectes is actually said to have been able to repeat any number of verses after only a single hearing. I remember that it used to be alleged that there were persons still living who could do the same, though I never had the good fortune to be present at such a performance. Still, we shall do well to have faith in such miracles, if only that he who believes may also hope to achieve the like. (Loeb: H.E. Butler, 1922)

For Mithridates VI of Pontus as a polyglot, see: Aulus Gellius 17.17, Pliny the Elder 7.24.88-90 and 25.3.6-7, Valerius Maximus 8.7, and, for a claim to knowledge of fifty languages, Aurelius Victor '(AD 360)'. These references are from Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King:The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy (Princeton University Press: 2009) 254 and 408n. 36.

The reference to Aurelius Victor is probably de viribus illustribus 76.1 ('incerti auctoris'): Mithridates rex Ponti oriundus a septem Persis, magna ui animi et corporis, ut sexiuges equos regeret quinquaginta gentium ore loqueretur.

Xenophon Cyrus 5 is cited for Cyrus the Great's knowledge of the names of his officers and satraps. This must be Cyropedia 5.3.47.

OLD s.v. differentia -ae f. 2 b a different kind, quotes only this passage and explains '-as (i.e. dialects)'. Quintilian, Inst.IX.4.18 uses dialectos -i f. (OLD s.v. also cites Suet.Tib.56 and Maur.649 but no other instances): "As regards Herodotus, while his flow, in my opinion, is always gentle, his dialect has such a sweetness of its own that it even seems to contain a certain rhythmical power hidden within itself."

Terentianus Maurus (GL vi) line 649 reads: Aeolica dialectos autem mixta ferme est Italae. The context is a discussion of the digammon and ensuing Greek and Latin cognates.

φωνή in Heracl(e)ides Criticus 294-220 BC (369A New Jacoby)

The translations are by Jeremy McInerney.

Fragment 1, section 20 (Boeotian women):
Εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ ταῖς ὁμιλίαις οὐ λίαν Βοιώτιαι, μᾶλλον δὲ Σικυώνιαι. Καὶ ἡ φωνὴ δ’ αὐτῶν ἐστὶν ἐπίχαρις· τῶν δ’ ἀνθρώπων ἀτερπὴς καὶ βαρεῖα.
In their social behaviour the women are scarcely Boiotian, but rather Sikyonian. Their speech is delightful, while their men’s is harsh and overbearing.

 

1.30 (Chalcis):

Ἡ δὲ χώρα πᾶσα αὐτῶν ἐλαιόφυτος, ἀγαθὴ δὲ καὶ ἡ θάλαττα. Οἱ δ’ ἐνοικοῦντες Ἕλληνες οὐ τῷ γένει μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῇ φωνῇ· τῶν μαθημάτων ἐντός· φιλαπόδημοι· γραμματικοί· τὰ προσπίπτοντα ἐκ τῆς πατρίδος δυσχερῆ γενναίως φέροντες· δουλεύοντες γὰρ πολὺν ἤδη χρόνον, τοῖς δὲ τρόποις ὄντες ἐλεύθεροι, μεγάλην εἰλήφασιν ἕξιν τοῦ φέρειν ῥᾳθύμως τὰ προσπίπτοντα.

Their entire territory is planted with olives, and the sea is good to them as well. The inhabitants are Greek not only by descent but also in speech. In their lessons, they are well travelled and well read. The misfortunes they have suffered, such as banishment and other disasters, they bear nobly. For though they have long been enslaved, by maintaining the manners of free men, they have acquired the habit of bearing misfortune lightly.

 

3.2:

Ἕλληνες μὲν γάρ εἰσι τῷ γένει, καὶ ταῖς φωναῖς ἑλληνίζουσιν οἱ ἀφ’ Ἕλληνος· Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ οἱ τὴν Ἀττικὴν κατοικοῦντες Ἀττικοὶ μέν εἰσι τῷ γένει, ταῖς δὲ διαλέκτοις ἀττικίζουσιν, ὥσπερ Δωριεῖς μὲν οἱ ἀπὸ Δώρου τῇ φωνῇ δωρίζουσιν· αἰολίζουσι δὲ οἱ ἀπὸ Αἰόλου, ἰάζουσι δὲ οἱ ἀπὸ Ἴωνος τοῦ Ξούθου φύντες.

So Hellenes are those who are descended from Hellen and speak the Hellenic language inherited from Hellen. So too, Athenians, who dwell in Attica, are Attic by birth, and speak Attic with respect to their dialect, just as Dorians are those who speak Doric Greek inherited from Doros, while those descended from Aiolos speak Aiolic, and those who spring from Ion, son of Xouthos, speak Ionic Greek.

 

3.5:

 Ἡ δὲ καλουμένη νῦν Ἑλλὰς λέγεται μὲν, οὐ μέντοι ἐστί· τὸ γὰρ ἑλληνίζειν ἐγὼ εἶναί φημι οὐκ ἐν τῷ διαλέγεσθαι ὀρθῶς, ἀλλ’ ἐν τῷ γένει τῆς φωνῆς· αὕτη δ’ ἐστὶν ἀφ’ Ἕλληνος· ἡ δὲ Ἑλλὰς ἐν Θετταλίᾳ κεῖται. Ἐκείνους οὖν ἐροῦμεν τὴν Ἑλλάδα κατοικεῖν καὶ ταῖς φωναῖς ἑλληνίζειν.

What is presently called Greece is a word, but not a reality, for I maintain that ‘to hellenize’ or ‘speak Greek’ is not a matter of correct pronunciation but concerns the language’s descent. This speech is from Hellen. Hellas lies in Thessaly. Accordingly we say that those men inhabit Hellas, and, with respect to their speech, they ‘hellenize’ or ‘speak Greek’.

3.7:

Ὅτι δὲ πᾶσα ἣν κατηριθμήμεθα Ἑλλάς ἐστι, μαρτυρεῖ ἡμῖν ὁ τῶν κωμῳδιῶν ποιητὴς Ποσείδιππος, μεμφόμενος Ἀθηναίοις, ὅτι τὴν αὑτῶν φωνὴν καὶ τὴν πόλιν φασὶ τῆς Ἑλλάδος εἶναι, λέγων οὕτως·

  Ἑλλὰς μέν ἐστι μία, πόλεις δὲ πλείονες.

  Σὺ μὲν ἀττικίζεις, ἡνίκ’ ἂν φωνὴν λέγῃς

  αὑτοῦ τιν’· οἱ δ’ Ἕλληνες ἑλληνίζομεν.

  Τί προσδιατρίβων συλλαβαῖς καὶ γράμμασιν

  τὴν εὐτραπελίαν εἰς ἀηδίαν ἄγεις; 

That everything which we have included in our account constitutes Hellas finds confirmation in the work of the comic poet Poseidippos, when he reproaches the Athenians for claiming that theirs is the language and the city of Hellas, saying as follows:One Hellas there is, though cities there are many.
You speak Attic, and your utterances take the prize
They’re so distinctive. But we Hellenes hellenize.
Why must you transform the euphonious,
With your obsession with syllables and letters,
Into verses malodious?
 

 

The author's name might involve the ethnic Κρητικός Cretan, not Κριτικός.

A Greek inscription on the statue of a Roman statesman in the Forum

Plutarch, The Life of Titus Flaminius 1.1-2:

...ἰδέαν μὲν ὁποῖος ἦν πάρεστι θεάσασθαι τοῖς βουλομένοις ἀπὸ τῆς ἐν Ῥώμῃ χαλκῆς εἰκόνος, ἣ κεῖται παρὰ τὸν μέγαν Ἀπόλλωνα τὸν ἐκ Καρχηδόνος ἀντικρὺ τοῦ ἱπποδρόμου, γράμμασιν Ἑλληνικοῖς ἐπιγεγραμμένη· τὸ δ’ ἦθος ὀξὺς λέγεται γενέσθαι καὶ πρὸς ὀργὴν καὶ πρὸς χάριν, οὐ μὴν ὁμοίως, ἀλλ’ ἐλαφρὸς μὲν ἐν τῷ κολάζειν καὶ οὐκ ἐπίμονος, πρὸς δὲ τὰς χάριτας τελεσιουργός, καὶ τοῖς εὐεργετηθεῖσι διὰ παντὸς ὥσπερ εὐεργέταις εὔνους, καὶ πρόθυμος ὡς κάλλιστα τῶν κτημάτων τοὺς εὖ πεπονθότας ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ περιέπειν ἀεὶ καὶ σῴζειν.


What the outward appearance of Titus Quintius Flamininus was may be seen by those who wish it from the bronze statue of him at Rome. It stands by the side of the great Apollo from Carthage, opposite the Circus, and has upon it an inscription in Greek characters. As to his disposition, he is said to have been quick to show anger as well as to confer favours, though not in like extent. For he was gentle in his punishments and not persistent, whereas in his favours he was unremitting, always well disposed towards his beneficiaries as though they were his benefactors, and eager to protect at all times and preserve those who had ever met with kindness at his hands, as though they were his choicest possessions. (B. Perrin, Loeb, adapted).

[ From 5.7: φωνήν τε καὶ διάλεκτον Ἕλληνι '(with a man) who was Greek both in voice and in language'.]

Cemetery Sue and epigraphy on the North-West Frontier

From The Economist.

She began it in 1980, when Ms Farrington happened upon the gently decaying British graveyard in Peshawar, capital of north-west Pakistan. “And there I saw the whole history of the frontier written on gravestones,” she recalls. “There was the master of the Peshawar Vale Hunt and the nurse from the army hospital.” She took up a pen, began to record them, and has not stopped. Over the past three decades she has recorded over 20,000 colonial graves in Pakistan and over 60,000 in all: in India, Sri Lanka, Bermuda, the Maldives, St Helena and elsewhere.

Her travels reveal much about the people who live among these long-forgotten “ghora kabrestan”, or “white men’s graveyards”. Most were dilapidated and overgrown; few had been defaced or built upon, even on the frontier, where the Taliban roam. Some were even revered; in Jacobabad, a town in Sindh founded in 1847 by an administrator famed for his rectitude, General John Jacob, locals still meet at his tomb to shake on a deal.

Yet her research says more about the interred. Not least because the more remote the burial place, the more fulsome were their epitaphs. That is partly because British colonials often died colourfully—armed dacoits, hungry tigers and clumsy-footed elephants are among the thousands of causes of death in Ms Farrington’s files. It is also, their incongruous, valiant memorials suggest, because of a frail determination to leave a mark in a hostile world—for the bereaved as well as the deceased. “She had no fault,” reads a gravestone placed by a British officer for his wife, in the Murree Hills above Rawalpindi, “Save that she left me.”

Linguistic Landscaping

"In closing, it should be emphasised (sic) that a sound methodology is highly important if the study of the linguistic landscape is to become a serious sociolinguistic research tool. Walking the streets and taking photos of anything that might strike one | as particularly curious, illustrative, or, worse still, 'representative' is unlikely to yield any scientifically relevant results. While this has been common sense in sociolinguistic research on spoken languages for decades, much remains to be done when it comes to empirical research into written language."

Peter Backhaus Linguistic Landscapes: A Comparative Study of Urban Multilingualism in Tokyo. Multilingual Matters 136. Clevedon, Buffalo, Toronto. 2007: 63-63.