Canis Latinicus: Difference between revisions

* In the history of the Modern Greek language, there was a period called Katharevousa, which sought to purify the language of non-Greek influences and to adequately hellenize foreign place names. However, this was done in a rather haphazard manner, sometimes in ignorance of the actual Greek names that places already had. One of simplest ways to adapt place names was to calque Latin script spellings to Greek letters (actual letter pronunciation differences be damned), and add the feminine suffix -η (-i), or to change a feminine-looking -a to -η. Barcelona, Spain was rehellenized as Βαρκελώνη (Varkeloni), in ignorance that the classical language already had a name for this—Βαρκινών (Barkinōn). It could get rather silly with place names of much more recent origin; Boston became Βοστώνη (Vostoni), Frankfurt became Φραγκφούρτη (Fragkfourti), etc. Katharevousa Greek ceased being an official language anywhere by 1982, and now the more usual practice is to adapt foreign names phonetically in pronunciation and spelling, such as Tόκυο for Tokyo. Meanwhile, many naturally-evolved Greek words for (now-)foreign place names are kept, such as Ἀγκυρα (Agkyra) for Ankara, Turkey, which was Ankūra in classical times.

* And then there is the old, old joke perpetrated on generations of Latin students by their teachers:

The spelling may vary from version to version, but almost never the "true" meaning.</ref>}}