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Polish stereotypes of other nationalities!?


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NatasaThreads: 7
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 Jul 8, 11, 09:15    #481
Reliability of sources correlates positively and significantly with Slavism, and with closeness to me (not only geographically):

1. Southern (In we trust)
2. Des Esseintes
3. Alexw68


It has to be like that, Greek with love for Slavs, American Slav and then comes somebody who is just Slavicized. (no offense Alex)
Cruel world ;)

stop the earth i want to get off

alexw68 Edited by: alexw68  Jul 8, 11, 12:00    #482
Natasa:
(no offense Alex)

None taken.







blub

;)
southernThreads: 116
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Edited by: southern  Jul 8, 11, 12:02    #483
Des Essientes:
this saying confuses the geese sacred to Juno Monetas with ducks. Her temple was where the gold was kept, hence the word "money", and her geese squawked during a clandestine raid by Celts, not Etruscans, and thus alerted the Romans who then repelled the Celts.


Anyway we have this expression.
Other expressions in new Greek from ancient times:
1.Eureka eureka.When you find sth after a lot of thought.It is also used ironically when you search a lot and at the end you find what you searched for.First told by Archimedes when he found the laws of hydrostatic pressure in his bath.
2.Thalatta thalatta!(sea sea).When you get to the desired result place.First used by the 10000 mercenary Greeks who had fought near Babylonia when they reached Black Sea one year later having gone through numerous dangers and difficulties.
3.What is up to me I think...This means I have to repeat again that I find this significant.Told by the Roman Katon at the end of each one of his speeches to Roman senators ''What is up to me I think that Carthagena has to be destroyed''.

4.Everyone but Lacedaimonians.This means only you are out of this.First used when Spartans decided not to participate in Alexander the Great's campaign despite all the Greeks participated.So in each victory temple it was written ''here fought all Greeks except Lacedaimonians''.
5.Do not disturb my cycles.This means let me in peace,do not disturb me.First used according to legend by Archimedes when a Roman soldier after entering Syraccuses lifted his sword to cut off his head.Archimedes was so much absorbed by the geometrical circles he designed on the ground that he told him ''please do not disturb my circles because the shadow of the sword covered the circles.The Roman soldier did not understand thought Archimedes swore on him and cut off Archimedes head.
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 Jul 8, 11, 12:23    #484
Actually in Belarus I lived the process of slavicization and it was quite frightening.Among slavic women and men drinking near the river I felt gradually losing my greek substance and dematerialize to air it was like being absorbed by slavic overflow.Vodka,river and slavic bodies and then greek substance goes puff and retreats.How not to get absorbed when there are no mountains?
alexw68 Edited by: alexw68  Jul 8, 11, 13:36    #485
southern:
2.Thalatta thalatta!(sea sea).When you get to the desired result place.First used by the 10000 mercenary Greeks who had fought near Babylonia when they reached Black Sea one year later having gone through numerous dangers and difficulties.

Ah, Xenophon. Just about the only Greek historian it was a joy to read in the original. Thucydides, Herodotus - incredible pyrotechnics of language, brilliant narrative and insight, but I had to reach for the translation more often than not :(

Anyway - @southern, some (upper-middle-class) brits used to say, it's rare now, hoi polloi about their more numerous supposed social inferiors. Do Greeks use the phrase like that?
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Edited by: southern  Jul 8, 11, 14:55    #486
alexw68:
Ah, Xenophon. Just about the only Greek historian it was a joy to read in the original.


He is easy to read because he was marshall and as such he wrote in simple language.But Thucydides is far more interesting though lot more difficult.I can understand Ksenophon without dictionary because most of the words he uses exist in new Greek.Thucydides and Herodotus the terror of greek examinees in national exams when they asked to translate one of their passages the failure rate was too high.

alexw68:
hoi polloi


Yes,we use the same.Oi polloi means in new Greek also the many.

Other expressions:
1.Either this or on this.(I tan i epi tas).This means either you do the job,succeed etc or you get fired,it is like dead end.It was said by the women of Sparta when their husbands went to war.They told them either you bring this(the shield) or you get back on this(the shield) that is do not think for a moment to surrender(they called this drop the shield when you dropped the shield you were considered that you stop fighting).
2.Tomorrow the important(es avrion ta spoudaia).This means leave it for tomorrow if you think it is too important it is used ironically.First said by the marshall of the spartan guard occupying Akropolis of Theba when sb asked to talk to him claiming to have important information.The Spartans had a symposium(like a party eating and drinking) at the moment and their leader told the messenger ''tomorrow you say the important news''.Spartans spoke in laconic style without many words so his answer was ''tomorrow the important.''It became classic because the news regarded the movement of 1000 armed Thebans under Pelopidas and Epameinondas who attacked the Spartans the same night during the symposium killed all of them and liberated Theba from spartan occupation.
3.Never say sb is happy before the end.(midena pro tou telous makarize).We use this in several occasions and meanings.It mainly means wait to see what happens because maybe things will change.We use it also ironically.First used by the King of Lydia Kroisos when the King of Persia Kyros had captured him and was ready to sacrifice him to the Gods.Kroisos then(the richest man of his age) screamed Solon,Solon and Kyros asked what was this.Kroisos told him that one wise man Solon from Athens had visited him while he was in his most glorious times having vast quantities of gold and told him ''never call sb happy before the end''.He had laughed then at Solon because he considered himself invulnerable but now he sees how right Solon was.
Then Kyros thought about it and decided to liberate Kroisos and let him live because he was afraid that maybe some day the same end would happen to him.

4.You go and come not in the war die.(ikseis afikseis ouk en to polemo thnikseis).We tell this when sb does not present one opinion but says two opposite things at the same time.For example when he has no idea or when he does not want to be accused of being mistaken.Told by Pythia in Delphi when kings,marshalls or soldiers asked for advice whether they would win or die in the war Pythia answered ''you come and go not in the war die'',so many thought it meant ''you come and go,not in the war die'' and went to war.When they actually died and their families accused Delphi of being wrong and cheating Delphi told them.Pythia said ''you come and go not,in the war die'' so she warned you about the outcome.
alexw68  Jul 8, 11, 15:05    #487
southern:
Thucydides and Herodotus the terror of greek examinees in national exams when they asked to translate one of their passages the failure rate was too high.

Suddenly I feel slightly less burdened by my hopeless failure to get my head round Pericles's epitapheion in those far-off undergraduate days. Thanks for the relief :)
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 Jul 8, 11, 15:08    #488
I read Herodotus in Serbian, it was completely ok ;)

stop the earth i want to get off
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 Jul 8, 11, 15:08    #489
this is all greek to me. and straying from the topic.
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Edited by: Natasa  Jul 8, 11, 15:09    #490
southern:
Actually in Belarus I lived the process of slavicization and it was quite frightening.


I need that kind of Slavicization. As soon as possible. Batteries are leer.

stop the earth i want to get off


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