Learn historical and ancient Greek expressions that are still used today in modern Greek using an informal conversation between friends as an example
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to GreekPod101.com. This is Upper Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 23 - What Will the Weather Be Like in Greece Tomorrow? Eric Here. |
| Chrissi: Γεια σας. I'm Chrissi. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn about historical and ancient Greek expressions still used in modern Greek. The conversation takes place in the office of a cruise ship. |
| Chrissi: It's between Katerina and Nikos. |
| Eric: The speakers are colleagues and friends so they’ll be using informal Greek. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Νίκος: Ωραίο αεράκι έχει βγάλει σήμερα. Δροσίζει από τη ζέστη. |
| Κατερίνα: Από αύριο όμως θα δυναμώσει. Να, τώρα διάβαζα το δελτίου καιρού. |
| Νίκος: Τι καιρό λέει ότι θα κάνει αύριο; |
| Κατερίνα: Λοιπόν λέει: «Σχεδόν αίθριος θα είναι ο καιρός σε Κυκλάδες και Κρήτη με λίγες μόνο νεφώσεις κατά περιόδους. |
| : Οι άνεμοι θα πνέουν από βόρειες διευθύνσεις εντάσεως 6-7 μποφόρ, όσο για τη θερμοκρασία, δεν θα ανέβει πάνω από τους 31 βαθμούς Κελσίου.». |
| Νίκος: Δυνατό μελτέμι δηλαδή. |
| Κατερίνα: Διάβασα επίσης και κάτι άλλο σήμερα για πρώτη φορά. Το ήξερες ότι η λέξη «μελτέμι» προέρχεται από τα τούρκικα; |
| : Οι αρχαίοι ημών πρόγονοι δεν το λέγανε έτσι. Ονομάζανε τους βόρειους αυτούς ανέμους «Ετησίαι» γιατί εμφανίζονταν, και εμφανίζονται, σταθερά κάθε χρόνο. |
| Νίκος: Ναι ε; Είδες τι μαθαίνει κανείς όταν διαβάζει; Λοιπόν, επειδή προβλέπω να υπάρχει αρκετό κούνημα, καλό θα ήταν να μην αφήσουμε στα ράφια αντικείμενα που μπορεί να πέσουν. |
| Κατερίνα: Βασικά πρέπει να συγυρίσουμε το γραφείο γενικώς! Έχει μαζευτεί πολλή σαβούρα. |
| Νίκος: Ωραία. Μιας και έχουμε λίγο ελεύθερο χρόνο τώρα, ας πάρουμε μια σακούλα και ό,τι είναι άχρηστο... πέταμα! |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Nikos: There's a nice breeze blowing today. It cools us down from the heat. |
| Katerina: It will grow stronger from tomorrow, though. I was just reading the weather forecast. |
| Nikos: What does it say about the weather tomorrow? |
| Katerina: So, it says - The weather will be almost clear in the Cyclades and Crete with only a few clouds periodically. |
| : The winds will blow from a northerly direction with a Beaufort force of 6-7, as for the temperature, it will not go over 31 degrees Celsius. |
| Nikos: A strong meltemi actually. |
| Katerina: I also read something else today for the first time. Did you know that the word "meltemi" comes from Turkish? |
| : Our ancient ancestors were not calling it that. They used to call these northern winds "Etesiae" because they used to appear, and still do, every year steadily. |
| Nikos: Is that so? See what you learn when you read? So, since I can tell there's going to be a lot of rocking, it would be good not to leave any objects that might fall off the shelves. |
| Katerina: Basically we need to tidy up the office in general. A lot of junk has accumulated. |
| Nikos: Good. Since we have a little bit of free time now, let's get a bag and whatever is useless... dump it! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Katerina was talking about the weather forecast. What’s the weather like in Greece? |
| Chrissi: The climate is Mediterranean and it’s mostly sunny all year round. |
| Eric: Are there still four seasons? |
| Chrissi: There are, but spring and autumn are becoming shorter. The hot and dry summers and the mild and rainy winters are getting longer. |
| Eric: That’s climate change for you! How about weather forecasts in Greece? What can you tell us about them? |
| Chrissi: Weather forecasts are provided by the Hellenic National Meteorological service, Εθνική Μετεωρολογική Υπηρεσία, or EMY for short. |
| Eric: Presumably the weather forecasts are in Greek... |
| Chrissi: Of course they are! If the Greek is too difficult for you though, the EMY website has an English option. If you’re going on a sailing trip around the Greek islands it’s important to check the weather first. |
| Eric: Great idea. |
| Chrissi: Another service that provides weather forecasts is the National Observatory of Athens, Εθνικό Αστεροσκοπείο Αθηνών |
| Eric: How are the forecasts there different? |
| Chrissi: You can find extra information such as specific information about ski centres and UV information. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Chrissi: αίθριος [natural native speed] |
| Eric: clear weather, cloudless, calm, serene (figuratively) |
| Chrissi: αίθριος[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chrissi: αίθριος [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Chrissi: νέφωση [natural native speed] |
| Eric: partial sky coverage with clouds, cloudiness |
| Chrissi: νέφωση[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chrissi: νέφωση [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Chrissi: πνέω [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to blow (wind), to prevail (figuratively) |
| Chrissi: πνέω[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chrissi: πνέω [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Chrissi: ένταση [natural native speed] |
| Eric: tension, volume, intensity |
| Chrissi: ένταση[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chrissi: ένταση [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Chrissi: βαθμός [natural native speed] |
| Eric: degree, grade, mark, level, rate, rank |
| Chrissi: βαθμός[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chrissi: βαθμός [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Chrissi: πρόγονος [natural native speed] |
| Eric: ancestor, forefather |
| Chrissi: πρόγονος[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chrissi: πρόγονος [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Chrissi: προβλέπω [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to foresee, to predict, to expect, to provide (stipulate), to call for (forecast) |
| Chrissi: προβλέπω[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chrissi: προβλέπω [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Chrissi: κούνημα [natural native speed] |
| Eric: rocking, swing, shake, movement |
| Chrissi: κούνημα[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chrissi: κούνημα [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Chrissi: σαβούρα [natural native speed] |
| Eric: junk, trash, schlock, junk food (figuratively), very ugly woman (as an insult) |
| Chrissi: σαβούρα[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chrissi: σαβούρα [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Chrissi: πέταμα [natural native speed] |
| Eric: disposal, dumping, throw |
| Chrissi: πέταμα[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chrissi: πέταμα [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Chrissi: οι αρχαίοι ημών πρόγονοι |
| Eric: meaning "our ancient ancestors." |
| Eric: What can you tell us about this? |
| Chrissi: This is a standard expression that people use when they want to refer to the ancient Greeks in general. |
| Eric: It sounds quite formal and proud. |
| Chrissi: It is. You’ll mainly hear older people using it, and it should be avoided in casual conversations as it does sound quite formal. |
| Eric: But it was used in the dialogue... |
| Chrissi: Yes, Katerina used it to tell her colleague a fact about Ancient Greece, so in that case she wanted to sound a little scholarly and it was okay to use it. |
| Eric: Got it. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Chrissi: Sure. For example, you can say.. Οι αρχαίοι ημών πρόγονοι ακολουθούσαν μια πολύ λιτή διατροφή. |
| Eric: ..which means "Our ancient ancestors followed a very simple diet." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Chrissi: βαθμός Κελσίου |
| Eric: meaning "degree Celsius." |
| Eric: What can you tell us about this? |
| Chrissi: βαθμός is a masculine noun and Κελσίου is the genitive case form of the masculine name Κέλσιος, the equivalent of Celsius in Greek. |
| Eric: Is this singular or plural? |
| Chrissi: Ah, good point! If we say one degree, either plus or minus we should use the singular βαθμός Κελσίου. For other degrees or zero, use the plural βαθμοί Κελσίου |
| Eric: Do Greeks ever use Fahrenheit? |
| Chrissi: No, they don’t! In fact you can even drop Κελσίου and people will still understand because we only ever talk in Celsius. |
| Eric: What’s an example using this word? |
| Chrissi: You can say.. Σήμερα είχαμε έναν βαθμό Κελσίου και αύριο η θερμοκρασία θα βρίσκεται στους μηδέν βαθμούς. |
| Eric: .. which means "Today was one degree Celsius and tomorrow the temperature will be zero degrees." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson you’ll learn historical and ancient Greek expressions that are still used today in modern Greek. We came across an example of this when we spoke about this lesson’s key phrases. |
| Chrissi: That’s right. There’ve been a few examples scattered throughout this series. |
| Eric: Are you likely to hear phrases like these in native Greek speech? |
| Chrissi: Yes, you are. You might notice that the conjugation and declension of some of the words aren’t the same as modern Greek, which is to be expected of old and scholarly phrases. |
| Eric: Yes. Try not to worry too much about the grammar as we aren’t studying that. |
| Chrissi: No, we’re trying to level up your Greek by using these common phrases and introducing you to them. |
| Eric: So, let’s get started! |
| Chrissi: We’ll start with a monolectic expression, such as αυτολεξεί |
| Eric: Which means “word for word.” Let’s hear it in the sentence “The students repeated the teacher’s instructions word for word.” |
| Chrissi: Οι μαθητές επανέλαβαν τις οδηγίες της δασκάλας αυτολεξεί |
| Eric: There are also some phrases. These need to be used in sentences as their meaning isn’t clear on their own. |
| Chrissi: I’ll give you a very famous one - αχίλλειος πτέρνα |
| Eric: Ah, “Achilles heel.” This well-known phrase means a weak point. Let’s hear it in a sentence. |
| Chrissi: Η αχίλλειος πτέρνα της ομάδας είναι η έλλειψη οργάνωσης. |
| Eric: “The weak point of the team is the lack of organisation.” How about one more phrase? |
| Chrissi: Here’s another famous one – κουτί της Πανδώρας |
| Eric: “Pandora’s Box” - an action that has far-reaching consequences that are usually very bad. |
| Chrissi: Yes. In mythology, Pandora opened a large box that contained all of the evils of the world. |
| Eric: Let’s hear it in an example. “It seems that Pandora’s box is wide open in the Middle East.” |
| Chrissi: Φαίνεται ότι το κουτί της Πανδώρας έχει ανοίξει για τα καλά στη Μέση Ανατολή. |
| Eric: And finally, a couple of standalone expressions. |
| Chrissi: Η ισχύς εν τη ενώσει. |
| Eric: Which means “strength in unity.” |
| Chrissi: Νους υγιής εν σώματι υγιεί. |
| Eric: A phrase I like to live by - “a healthy mind in a healthy body.” |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Chrissi: Γεια χαρά! |
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