Apologies for the lack of posting…I’m not funny right now. I haven’t been funny for a while, and some days I wonder if I ever will be again. But history repeats itself in terrible fashion trends ($20 for a hair scrunchie I hated in the 90’s? Fuck. No.) and in depressive cycles, so eventually things will be better. I’m too tired to consider anything else.
So since I’m home alone with a dog, cat, and velociraptor (as an aside, spell check refuses to accept velociraptor as correct, and keeps trying to change it to “velocipede” which is FUCKING TERRIFYING after my last house centipede incident), it seemed worth mentioning that in addition to handling work and appointments and dog pee I ALSO have my first college class in…old enough to drink years. Because I’m either a genius filling up her time or an idiot hell bent on driving myself actually insane this semester.
And really, why would I take a modern language, useful when I finally make it to Greece and meet some ridiculously good looking tycoon a-la Onassis style? No, I’m taking Attic Greek, otherwise known as Ancient Greek (similar to Old English, it is not the same language anymore. I mean, most people can’t read Old English and it’s only about a thousand years old…Greek is more like 5,000…presumably it’s changed a bit).
Since Greek has a different alphabet (you chemists or sorority/fraternity folk would definitely recognize some) but not ENTIRELY different, it’s confusing as hell to remember. Therefore, I’m essentially learning at the same level as my 6 year old niece, Evil, who is in 1st grade. Let me explain.
This is the Greek alphabet in upper case: ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩ
(Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lamda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, Omega). Holy shit I did that from memory. I AM learning.
And the Greek alphabet in lower case: αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρστυφχψω
If you translated the symbols to letters in English: a,b,g,d,e (short), z, e (long), th, i, k, l, m, n, xi, o, p, r, s, t, u, ph, ch/kh, ps, o (long).
So…the word “klepto” which means “I steal” (insert the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding here) is written: κλέπτω. And that’s your useless bit of information (unless you’re also taking Greek) for today.
Here’s the weird: this is the single thing in my life right now that I find FASCINATING. It’s this weird combination of memorization and puzzles and I wish I’d taken more foreign languages earlier, ancient and current. Yes Rosetta Stone, I AM interested in that lifetime subscription. But one at a time, please.
(Oh, for those who wonder, Attic Greek and Latin are both required for the PhD I’m considering getting, and 2 semesters of one of them is a pre-requisite to even applying for school. Since my interest is in older near-east cultures, Greek seemed like the better option to start…and since Covid is making the U offer this one online I can FINALLY take it (working out a mid-day class, 5 days per week is difficult when you work full time). We’ll see how this semester goes before I think about any more. I’m in a “just get through the next 10 minutes” mode most days right now, anyway.)
No Pithy Phrase 