What do Greek speakers call dinosaurs?

November 28, 2006 9:10 AM

What do Greek speakers call dinosaurs? Do they use the same Greek-derived words that English speakers do ("dinosaur", "tyrannosaurus", "stegosaurus", etc)? Do these names sound as silly to them as calling those extinct animals "terrible lizards", "tyrant lizards", and "roof lizards" would to us?
posted by Plutor to writing & language (20 comments total)

We call them the same way you do. Pterodactylus (ok, slight change to pterodactylos to conform to greek phonetics rather than latin), tyrannosauros etc. The names do not sound silly, at least I have not heard anyone say that, however they sound very descriptive to us: you do not have to explain what an acrocanthosaurus is, the word explains itself.
posted by carmina at 9:36 AM on November 28, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Do they use the same Greek-derived words that English speakers do ("dinosaur", "tyrannosaurus", "stegosaurus", etc)?

Wikipedia thinks so: Δεινόσαυρος, Στεγόσαυρος. Look at the English-language article and the list of versions in other languages down the side for this sort of thing in the future. Weirdly, no Greek T. Rex article.

Do these names sound as silly to them as calling those extinct animals "terrible lizards", "tyrant lizards", and "roof lizards" would to us?

Nah, Greek doesn’t outsource its educated vocabulary to the same extent English does, so people get used to everyday words being component parts of relatively academic vocabulary.
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 9:38 AM on November 28, 2006

Obviously, it can get tricky too, for example, stegosaurus, a greek person might that's the lizard that walks on roofs.
posted by carmina at 9:39 AM on November 28, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

might think, sorry.
posted by carmina at 9:40 AM on November 28, 2006

Greek doesn’t outsource its educated vocabulary to the same extent English does, so people get used to everyday words being component parts of relatively academic vocabulary.

German's the same way: "ego" and "id" in German are just the normal words for 'I' and 'it.'
posted by languagehat at 9:54 AM on November 28, 2006

what does that mean, "outsource"?
posted by sweetkid at 10:00 AM on November 28, 2006

Weirdly, no Greek T. Rex article.

"Rex" is Latin, so perhaps the Greek for Tyrannosaurus Rex uses a Greek equivalent. Combining Greek and Latin to form T. Rex sounds like something us ignorant Westerners would do, as opposed to bona fide Ἕλληνες [see what I did there...].
posted by matthewr at 10:12 AM on November 28, 2006

German's the same way: "ego" and "id" in German are just the normal words for 'I' and 'it.'

It distressed me terribly to learn of the word „der Egoismus“ in German a few weeks ago, mainly because of that. I mean, a pseudo-Latin German word derived from a bad English translation of a piece of basic German vocabulary—who on earth thought that was a good idea?!

what does that mean, "outsource"?

: to procure […] under contract with an outside supplier. In this context, it’s a way of saying English tends to derive its academic vocabulary directly or indirectly from Greek or Latin.
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 10:14 AM on November 28, 2006

languagehat: In German, "I" is "ich" and "it" is "er/sie/es," depending on the gender of the word.

According to Wikipedia:

The word ego is taken directly from Latin where it is the nominative of the first person singular personal pronoun and is translated as "I myself" to express emphasis. Ego is the English translation for Freud's German term "Ich."

posted by kdar at 10:15 AM on November 28, 2006

what does that mean, "outsource"?

English has a lot of words composed of words or parts of words with origins in other languages. Dinosaur names (and the word "dinosaur" itself), for example, have Greek etymological roots. Saying English outsources its educated vocabulary is saying complex terminology in English tends to be composed of non-English words.

Another example (also of Greek origin, actually): Pathogen. According to Wikipedia, "pathogen" is derived from a Greek word meaning "birth of pain" rather than simpler English words.
posted by DyRE at 10:19 AM on November 28, 2006

Oh, bugger, languagehat, I think I may have misunderstood your point. I thought you meant that "ego" and "id" were the words for "I" and "it" in German, rather than that "das Ich" and "das Es" are the corresponding words for "ego" and "id" in German.
posted by kdar at 10:21 AM on November 28, 2006

It's no more weird than English speakers saying things like "Lesser Spotted Marmot", which is in fact, a small marmot with spots.
posted by blue_beetle at 11:18 AM on November 28, 2006

So what is the yellow-bellied sapsucker?
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:48 AM on November 28, 2006

Mind you, the modern Greek spellings of these words might seem familiar, but the pronunciations probably won't. Many letters in the Greek alphabet have changed their pronunciation over the past 2,000 years. And while English speakers — especially Americans — try to use the Classical pronunciations in borrowing from Greek, the Greeks themselves tend to use the modern ones.

Δεινόσαυρος and Στεγόσαυρος would sound roughly like "thee-NO-sav-ros" and "stay-GHO-sav-ros" (IPA /ði'nosaβros/ and /ste'ɣosaβros/).
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:53 AM on November 28, 2006

(Er, maybe that should be /ði'nosavros/ and /ste'ɣosavros/. Spanish and Greek phonology are mud-wrestling in my brain.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:56 AM on November 28, 2006

I don't see why it would sound any weirder than English speakers saying "anteater" or "woodpecker".
posted by spicynuts at 12:34 PM on November 28, 2006

kdar: never challenge languagehat on language. Habberdashery he's not as good at.
posted by Deathalicious at 12:51 PM on November 28, 2006

I'd also point out that "sounds funny" in this case would more accurately be "sounds unfamiliar".

Regardless of what a Greek might call something, it's what they've always called it. "Terrible Lizard" sounds funny to us because we're used to "dinosaur", not necessarily because the words are "terrible" and "lizard".
posted by jalexei at 1:10 PM on November 28, 2006

Many letters in the Greek alphabet have changed their pronunciation over the past 2,000 years.

But the Greeks won't admit it. It's amazing, but even well-educated Greeks insist that Socrates and Pericles pronounced the language exactly the way Greeks do today. Why they would have written the sound /i/ half a dozen different ways is, of course, hard to explain.

Haberdashery he's not as good at.

I have a haberdasher for that, my good man.
posted by languagehat at 2:13 PM on November 28, 2006

But the Greeks won't admit it.

Well, I personally admit it and a lot of others I know do too. Not only about the e's but also the o's and the mu's and the nu's. But I see your point. Language continuity has been a very sensitive and patriotism-loaded issue in Greek history: how else are we going to prove we are actually descendants of our famed ancestors? Religion will not do, neither will racial characteristics. I am sure you are aware of the torture the modern language endured during the 19th and 20th centuries with katharevousa (the "imposed" pure Greek language) which was indeed put to rest only in the 1970s! No wonder many many Greeks are misinformed. Hopefully that will change for the younger generations.
posted by carmina at 4:31 PM on November 28, 2006