Learn about word formation in Greek, specifically how words form from families
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hello everyone and welcome back to GreekPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate, Season 1, Lesson 4, The Greek Boss is Always Right! I’m Becky. |
| Stefania: And I’m Stefania. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll be learning about word formation in Greek, and specifically how words form families. |
| Stefania: The conversation takes place at the office of the daily Greek newspaper. It’s between Antonia and her editor Dionysis’ Ioakimidis. |
| Becky: The characters know each other well, but the conversation is formal on Antonia’s part and informal on Dionysis’ part because of the difference in status within the company. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Αντωνία:Κύριε Ιωακειμίδη, μπορώ να σας απασχολήσω για λίγο; |
| Διονύσης:Βεβαίως! Κοίταζα τις δημοσκοπήσεις για τις δημοτικές εκλογές. Μετά τα τελευταία δημοσιεύματα, η δημοτικότητα του δημάρχου ανέβηκε κατακόρυφα! Για πες μου λοιπόν. |
| Αντωνία:Πρόκειται για τις επιμέλειες στα κομμάτια μου. |
| Διονύσης:Αντωνία, στο είπα και άλλοτε: για να είναι δημοσιεύσιμο ένα κομμάτι, δεν αρκεί μόνο να είναι καλογραμμένο. Γράφεις καλά, στο λέω συνέχεια. Αλλά το δημοσιογραφικό γράψιμο χρειάζεται και άλλα πράγματα. |
| Αντωνία:Δηλαδή δεν ήταν εντάξει; |
| Διονύσης:Όχι ακόμα! Δεν λέω ότι ήταν του δημοτικού, έτσι; Αλλά δεν ήταν και για δημοσίευση. Χρειαζόταν αλλαγές. Κοίτα, πρέπει να πάω στο δημαρχείο. Αν θέλεις, έλα κατά τις δύο να το ξαναδούμε μαζί και να σου πω τι προβλήματα είχε. |
| Αντωνία:Σας ευχαριστώ. Αλλά, τουλάχιστον, θα μπορούσατε στο μέλλον να με ειδοποιείτε πριν γίνουν αλλαγές; |
| Διονύσης:Βρε Αντωνία, πρέπει να το ξαναπώ; Η δημοσιογραφία δεν λειτουργεί έτσι! Ό,τι γίνεται, γίνεται εκείνη τη στιγμή! Δεν είμαστε δημόσιοι υπάλληλοι! |
| Antonia: Mr. Ioakimidis, can I have a moment with you, please? |
| Dionysis: Certainly! I was going through the municipal election polls. After the recent publications, the mayor's popularity rose dramatically. So, tell me. |
| Antonia: It's about the editing of my copies. |
| Dionysis: Antonia, I told you before. In order for a piece to be fit for publication, good writing itself is not good enough. You write well. I've been telling you this all the time. But it takes more for journalistic writing. |
| Antonia: So, it wasn't OK? |
| Dionysis: Not yet! I'm not saying it was elementary school level, OK? But it wasn't good for publication either. It needed some changes. Look, I must go to the city hall. If you want, come back around two to go through it together and I'll tell you what was wrong with it. |
| Antonia: Thank you. In the future, could you at least let me know before any changes are made? |
| Dionysis: Oh Antonia, must I say it again? Journalism doesn't work this way! Whatever happens, happens in that particular moment. We are not public servants! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Hey, what’s that comment about public servants in the end of our dialogue? |
| Stefania: Well, in Greece people use the public servants as an example of how things shouldn’t be done in a workplace! |
| Becky: Is this true? |
| Stefania: Well, to be honest, like most Greeks, I too believe that they could be much more effective. |
| Becky: Is the public sector big in Greece? |
| Stefania: I’m afraid it is quite big, yes. |
| Becky: And I see there is a reference in our dialogue about some municipal elections. |
| Stefania: Yes. Although this is not a very big deal in Greece… |
| Becky: What isn’t? Local politics? |
| Stefania: Well, in small places, people are interested. But in general, the main interest is in national politics. |
| Becky: Ah, like elections for the national government and so on... |
| Stefania: Exactly. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Stefania: δημοσκόπηση [natural native speed] |
| Becky: poll |
| Stefania: δημοσκόπηση [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: δημοσκόπηση [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: δημοτικός [natural native speed] |
| Becky: municipal |
| Stefania: δημοτικός [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: δημοτικός [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: εκλογές [natural native speed] |
| Becky: elections |
| Stefania: εκλογές [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: εκλογές [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: δημοτικότητα [natural native speed] |
| Becky: popularity |
| Stefania: δημοτικότητα [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: δημοτικότητα [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: δημοτικό [natural native speed] |
| Becky: elementary school |
| Stefania: δημοτικό [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: δημοτικό [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: απασχολώ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to employ, to keep busy, to care |
| Stefania: απασχολώ [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: απασχολώ [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: βεβαίως [natural native speed] |
| Becky: certainly |
| Stefania: βεβαίως [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: βεβαίως [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: δημοσίευμα [natural native speed] |
| Becky: publication |
| Stefania: δημοσίευμα [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: δημοσίευμα [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: κατακόρυφα [natural native speed] |
| Becky: vertically, dramatically |
| Stefania: κατακόρυφα [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: κατακόρυφα [natural native speed] |
| Stefania: επιμέλεια [natural native speed] |
| Becky: diligence, custody, copy-editing |
| Stefania: επιμέλεια [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Stefania: επιμέλεια [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Stefania: First up is the verb “απασχολώ” which can mean many things. |
| Becky: In our dialogue, it literally means “to keep busy“, but it’s translated as “have a moment with” because in this way it makes more sense in English. So what Antonia is asking her boss is: “Can I keep you busy for a little while? |
| Stefania: Exactly! And because of this meaning, “απασχολώ” also means “to employ”. |
| Becky: Oh, I see how it works! It’s because work keeps us busy right? |
| Stefania: That’s right! Finally “απασχολώ” also means “to care”. For example “δεν με απασχολεί” means “I don’t care”. |
| Becky: Great! What’s after that? |
| Stefania: The adverb “κατακόρυφα”. This is a compound formed by the preposition “κατά” which means “against” or “very” and “κορυφή” which means “peak” or “top” as in “η κορυφή του βουνού” meaning “mountain top”. So “κατακόρυφα” literally means “straight to the top” or “vertically”. |
| Becky: In our dialogue, however, it has been translated as “dramatically” in order to make sense in English.What’s last? |
| Stefania: We have the word “δημοτικό”. As an adjective, it means “municipal”. For example “δημοτικό κτίριο”, means “municipal building”, but here we see it as a noun. So the meaning is basically “elementary school”. The full expression for “elementary school” would be “δημοτικό σχολείο”, with “δημοτικό” keeping its property as an adjective. However, just saying “δημοτικό” is very common. |
| Becky: I see. So when we say in Greek “dimotikó” it means “elementary school”? |
| Stefania: Yes! But be careful! The English adjective “elementary” by itself does not translate as “δημοτικό” in Greek. There is a different Greek word for “elementary”, but we won’t cover that now. |
| Becky: OK, let’s move onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about word families. |
| Stefania: Yes. Remember in our previous lessons that we saw how words are created? |
| Becky: Yes, through derivation and composition. |
| Stefania: Right. So, since there are such connections between words, it’s only natural that words that are formed similarly, form a group… |
| Becky: Like a family? |
| Stefania: Exactly! Actually, that’s what we call them in Greek–“word families”! |
| Becky: And these are all words that are created from the same root. |
| Stefania: That’s right. In our dialogue, perhaps you noticed many words that have as their root the word “δήμος” meaning “the sum of people living in an area”. |
| Becky: And that’s why it also means “municipality”! |
| Stefania: Right! We can say “Δήμος Αθηναίων”, “Municipality of Athenians”. |
| Becky: What other words belong in this family? |
| Stefania: In our dialogue we had twelve: “δημοσκόπηση”, “δημοτικός”, “δημοσίευμα”, “δημοτικότητα”, “δήμαρχος”, “δημοσιεύσιμος”, “δημοσιογραφία”, “δημοσιογραφικός”, “δημοτικό”, “δημοσίευση”, “δημαρχείο” and “δημόσιος”. |
| Becky: Wow! They are many! |
| Stefania: Yes, but you can find all the details about each one on the lesson notes. |
| Becky: What is important to remember is that they all come from the same word. And if we know what that word means, we can understand the meaning of all the words in its family... or at least make a very well informed guess. In the case of “dímos”, the essence of its meaning is roughly “public”, right? |
| Stefania: Exactly. So all these words we just mentioned, have some meaning related to that! |
| Becky: I see. For example, “dimósios”? |
| Stefania: “δημόσιος” is the exact translation for “public” actually. For example “δημόσιος υπάλληλος” means “public servant” |
| Becky: What’s another example? |
| Stefania: “δημοσιογραφία”, meaning “journalism”. To write publicly about something. Next, let’s see the master of “δήμος”! The mayor: “δήμαρχος”. And from “δήμαρχος” also derives the word “δημαρχείο”. |
| Becky: Yes. The city hall! The place where you can find the mayor. It’s easy! |
| Stefania: Yes, it is. But it’s important to know the root word… |
| Becky: …which in our case is “dímos”… |
| Stefania: Exactly! And then to know various suffixes. |
| Becky: But we will deal with suffixes later in our series. |
| Stefania: We will. Some suffixes mean “the ability to do something”, others mean “place” or “a person who does something”, and so on. |
| Becky: Is this always the case? |
| Stefania: Yes. So by combining these with various root words, we can create a big part of the Greek vocabulary! |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Stefania: Listeners, have you ever dreamed of starring in one of our lessons? |
| Becky: If your answer is yes, use the voice-recording-tool on the lessons page! |
| Stefania: Record your voice with a click of a button, |
| Becky: ...and then play it back just as easily. |
| Stefania: Then, compare it to the native speakers in the lesson... |
| Becky: ...and adjust your pronunciation! |
| Stefania: After a few tries, you’ll be speaking better Greek than Becky here! |
| Becky: Hey! |
| Stefania: Go to GreekPod101.com, and rapidly improve your Greek pronunciation! |
Outro |
|---|
| Becky: That’s all for this lesson, everyone! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Stefania: Γεια χαρά! |
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