Greek Notes – Ελληνικές Σημειώσεις
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Χαίρετε, εξαιρετικοί ιεραπόστολοι της Αθηναϊκής Ελληνικής Ιεραποστολής! Σκέφτηκα να εκδώσω τις Ελληνικές Σημειώσεις κάθε τόσο, που να περιέχουν σύντομες παρατηρήσεις στη γραμματική και το λεξιλόγιο της ελληνικής γλώσσας. Παρακαλώ, πέστε μου τι νομίζετε, και επίσης εάν σκεφθείτε θέματα που θέλετε να θιχτούν σε ερχόμενες εκδόσεις των Ελληνικών Σημειώσεων.
Greetings, excellent missionaries of the Greece Athens Mission! I thought it would be nice to publish Greek Notes, containing short notes on grammar or vocabulary, every now and then. This is the first edition of Greek Notes. Let me know what you think of it. Also let me know of any topics you think should be included in Greek Notes.
This edition's topics are: | Τα θέματα της παρούσας έκδοσης: |
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Η δραχμή — το χιλιάρικο | Η δραχμή — το χιλιάρικο |
Female surnames | Θηλυκά οικογενειακά ονόματα |
Useless word of the issue | ΄Αχρηστη λέξη της έκδοσης |
However, many Greeks, when naming prices, don't count drachmas, but count coins or banknotes. So here are some common names for money: πενηντάρικο = a 50 dr coin, κατοστάρικο = a 100 dr coin or banknote, πεντακοσάρικο = a 500 dr banknote, χιλιάρικο = a 1000 dr banknote, πεντοχίλιαρο = a 5000 dr banknote. Κατοστάρικο and χιλιάρικο especially are used for naming amounts of money. So, instead of τριακόσιες δραχμές, you may hear τρία κατοστάρικα, and instead of τέσσερις χιλιάδες, τέσσαρα χιλιάρικα. Note that the names of coins and banknotes are neuter, not feminine, so they take the neuter forms of numerals!
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2. Female surnames
As you may or may not know, women's surnames are in the genitive case. It is as if
one were to say, "She's Eleni, daughter of Mr. Papadopoulos" (Ελένη Παπαδοπούλου),
or "She's Maria, wife of Mr. Perakis" (Μαρία Περάκη). So, you have to be aware of how
these names are formed and used. The following table gives common male name endings
and the corresponding female name ending:
Male | Female |
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-ος | -ου |
-ας | -α |
-ης | -η in general, but usually: |
-ίδης | -ίδου |
-άδης | -άδου |
Note also that a male name ending in -ος and accented on the third syllable from the end becomes a female name in -ου accented on the second syllable from the end; so, Παπαδόπουλος becomes Παπαδοπούλου. This has historical reasons and does not tie in with how the genitive would be formed today; "Mr. Papadopoulos's car" would usually be "Το αυτοκίνητο του κ. Παπαδόπουλου", with accent on the third syllable from the end. Names ending in -ας or -ης hardly ever have the accent on the third syllable from the end, and when they do, the accent stays the same, e.g. Μπούκουρης becomes Μπούκουρη.
Something that may be confusing is that the the female name endings -α and -η look like female endings, and you may be tempted to decline them. However, they are masculine endings in the genitive case and do not change.
So, if you have a car belonging to Maria Peraki, then it is "the car belonging to Maria, (wife) of Perakis" — το αυτοκίνητο της Μαρίας Περάκη; not της Μαρίας Περάκης! Her first name, Maria, has a feminine ending and forms the genitive regularly by adding -ς; her family name, though, is a genitive and cannot form another genitive, so it stays the way it is. Similarly, it's το αυτοκίνητο της Ελένης Παπαδοπούλου.
Male names that do not end in one of the usual endings stay the same in all cases, and the female equivalent is then identical. This is particularly the case where the male name ends in -όγλου or is a genitive form such as Σταύρου, Παπαθανασίου, Χατζηιωάννου.
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3. Useless word of this issue is:
ο βρυκόλακας — the vampire.
Greek Notes is brought to you by: | Οι Ελληνικές Σημειώσεις είναι μία προσφορά του: |
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Philip Newton Pommernstr.32 25436 Tornesch Germany |
Φίλιππου Νεύτωνος Οδός Πομερανίας 32 254 36 Τορνές Γερμανία |
(Note that this address has changed since I published Issue 1; my address is now: Philip Newton, Reeseberg 48, 21079 Hamburg, Germany)
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