31 August 2004
Get your Greek on
Adam Howitt (of Cold Fusion fame and fortune) originally pointed me to this BBC site for basic language study. Here's the section for studying Greek. A group of us will be in Athens and Santorini for a little over a week starting the 22nd.
I'll be updating this entry with my notes on conversational Greek. To display Greek characters, I'll use the Greek code charts from this site providing a draft standard for Unicode Greek characters on the Web. It's a little tedious, but it's more readable than the beta code I had used when studying ancient Greek.
This'll just be simple stuff to help me remember the basics.
Basics
- hello/goodbye (formal) - γεια σας (yiassas)
- hello/goodbye (informal) - γεια σου (yiassoo)
- good morning - καλημέρα (kalee-maira)
- good evening - καλησπέρα (kalee-spaira)
- excuse me ... - συγνώμη (seegh-no-mee)
- yes, thank you [very much] - ναι, ευχαριστώ [πολύ] (nai, ef-ha-ree-sto [polee])
- no, thank you - όχι, ευχαριστώ (ochi, ef-ha-ree-sto)
Restaurant (Drinks)
Ordering:
- I want ... please - θέλω ... πα ρακαλώ (thello ... parakalo)
- I would like ... please - θα ήθελα ... παρακαλώ (tha ee-thella ... parakalo)
Drinks to order:
- a beer - μία μπύρα (mee-a beera)
- two beers - δύο μπύρα (theeo beera)
- a white wine - έννα άσπρο κρασί (enna aspro krassee)
- a red wine - έννα κόκκινο κρασί (enna ko-keeno krassee)
- a Greek coffee ... - έννα ελλήνικω καφέ ... (enna elleeneeko kaffeh)
- ... with sugar/half sugar/none - μη γλυκό/μέτριο/σκέτο (me gliko/metrio/sketo)
- a bottle of water - έννα μπουκάλι νερό (enna boo-kali nair-o)
Comments:
- a (masculine, neuter) - έννα
- a (feminine) - μία
Restaurant (Food)
- Have you got a menu? - έχετε κατάλογο; (eheteh kata-lo-gho)
- Here you are - ορίστε (oreesteh)
- the bill - το λογαριασμό (toh lo-ghar-ee-az-mo)
- I like it - μ'αρέσει (maressee)
- I don't like it - δεν μ'αρέσει (dhen maressee)
- chicken - κοτόπουλο
- pork - χοιρινο
- lamb - αρνί
Notes
Beta code - a/ ά, e/ έ, n/ ή, i/ ί, o/ ό, w/ ώ, u/ ύ
Ancient Greek uses three accents (acute, grave, and cicumflex), modern Greek only uses the acute.
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