Post by artisans on Nov 6, 2008 9:38:38 GMT 2
A repeat of something from the old Forum:
'In 1999, on our first visit to Corfu, we stayed in some typical bungalows in a small olive grove on the border of Moraĩtika and Messonghi. I think it was Andreas’s Studios. We were in the end apartment, trying to cook moussaka on a single electric ring, in a large circular pan (tapsi) and without an oven. It’s not easy, I can tell you! Anyhow – I digress.
Right outside of our balcony, nailed to a tree, was a hand-painted sign which confused us. Now we’ve no problem with hand-painting – Julie makes some wonderful cards and gifts by hand – but the sign seemed to reserve the parking space by our apartment for those of a lower intelligence. ‘How can this be?’ we thought, and had a bit of a giggle about it.
Being our first visit together to Greece, our knowledge of the language was almost non-existent but ‘IDIOTIKI PARKINGK’ seemed to be fairly clear – only stupid people were allowed to park there. Nine years later, with a little more Greek under our belts, we now understand a bit more. In our opinion, Greek is a very logical language in that when you know the stem of a word, lots of derivatives fall into place. IDIOTIKOS means ‘private’ and we now see it everywhere in all sorts of contexts but why, in English, do we have a completely different meaning?
The answer goes something like this. When democracy was born some three thousand years ago, a number of leaders were vying for control of Athens. The underdog, whose name we forget, needed to come up with a cunning plan if he was to stand any chance at all. He decided that, if he was elected, everybody in the city would help to run the state. As we understand it, every single person would play some part in running things with just one exception – those who would today be in mental institutions. In this way, everyone except the ‘idiotiki’ were ‘public’ servants – the insane were considered to be ‘private’ people. Somewhere along the way, the English language picked up the word idiot but ignored the privacy element.
Now we are not history students, so forgive any inaccuracies, but Andreas’s sign will never be forgotten as part of our learning process of the wonderful language upon which so many of today’s English words are based. And anyway, we parked our hire car there and ignored the implications!'
It is interesting that today, most people in Greece still play a part in the day-to-day running of their community, and hence their country. This is one of the reasons for all of those passionate 'discussions' that you witness in the bars and streets - people really care - but you didn't me to tell you that! ;D
'In 1999, on our first visit to Corfu, we stayed in some typical bungalows in a small olive grove on the border of Moraĩtika and Messonghi. I think it was Andreas’s Studios. We were in the end apartment, trying to cook moussaka on a single electric ring, in a large circular pan (tapsi) and without an oven. It’s not easy, I can tell you! Anyhow – I digress.
Right outside of our balcony, nailed to a tree, was a hand-painted sign which confused us. Now we’ve no problem with hand-painting – Julie makes some wonderful cards and gifts by hand – but the sign seemed to reserve the parking space by our apartment for those of a lower intelligence. ‘How can this be?’ we thought, and had a bit of a giggle about it.
Being our first visit together to Greece, our knowledge of the language was almost non-existent but ‘IDIOTIKI PARKINGK’ seemed to be fairly clear – only stupid people were allowed to park there. Nine years later, with a little more Greek under our belts, we now understand a bit more. In our opinion, Greek is a very logical language in that when you know the stem of a word, lots of derivatives fall into place. IDIOTIKOS means ‘private’ and we now see it everywhere in all sorts of contexts but why, in English, do we have a completely different meaning?
The answer goes something like this. When democracy was born some three thousand years ago, a number of leaders were vying for control of Athens. The underdog, whose name we forget, needed to come up with a cunning plan if he was to stand any chance at all. He decided that, if he was elected, everybody in the city would help to run the state. As we understand it, every single person would play some part in running things with just one exception – those who would today be in mental institutions. In this way, everyone except the ‘idiotiki’ were ‘public’ servants – the insane were considered to be ‘private’ people. Somewhere along the way, the English language picked up the word idiot but ignored the privacy element.
Now we are not history students, so forgive any inaccuracies, but Andreas’s sign will never be forgotten as part of our learning process of the wonderful language upon which so many of today’s English words are based. And anyway, we parked our hire car there and ignored the implications!'
It is interesting that today, most people in Greece still play a part in the day-to-day running of their community, and hence their country. This is one of the reasons for all of those passionate 'discussions' that you witness in the bars and streets - people really care - but you didn't me to tell you that! ;D