Written on 22nd of January, 2014
Nearly every night, the man I love has a small talk on the phone with his father. It can be a quite ordinary exchange of information, but sometimes the topic evolves and changes into an interesting discussion. No matter what it is, I love to listen to it, because it is in Greek. I love to hear lexis –λέξεις, words in Greek. It gives me a feeling of harmony and perfection enclosed in the sound of the language I love.
Plato -Πλάτων had elaborately explained that the words – λέξεις - lexis and the paintings are of the same, as they convey the same ideas in a different way. Lexis – λέξεις, words, give a mental image, while paintings materialize the image in a picture. Aristole - Ἀριστοτέλης had distinguished a special type of a lexi- λέξις; graphike lexi - γραφική λέξη - was the one which described the image….and what is interesting, the word painting in Greek - zographia - ζωγραφιά, includes the meaning of writing.
My husband, a son of a Greek philologos - φιλόλογος – a Greek language teacher, speaks impeccable Greek, has a rich vocabulary, and is able to express himself in a very beautiful manner. Greek is a mother tongue for both us, but I speak it with a French accent, and ...and sometimes, I am jealous of his phonetic perfection in the language we both love....
Plato -Πλάτων had elaborately explained that the words – λέξεις - lexis and the paintings are of the same, as they convey the same ideas in a different way. Lexis – λέξεις, words, give a mental image, while paintings materialize the image in a picture. Aristole - Ἀριστοτέλης had distinguished a special type of a lexi- λέξις; graphike lexi - γραφική λέξη - was the one which described the image….and what is interesting, the word painting in Greek - zographia - ζωγραφιά, includes the meaning of writing.
My husband, a son of a Greek philologos - φιλόλογος – a Greek language teacher, speaks impeccable Greek, has a rich vocabulary, and is able to express himself in a very beautiful manner. Greek is a mother tongue for both us, but I speak it with a French accent, and ...and sometimes, I am jealous of his phonetic perfection in the language we both love....
From the time I fell in love with my husband, Greek was for us a language of intimacy, a language of love, we both like to hear it, play with it, enjoy it together. It was our love code; it became recently a home language…The language our son listens to every day… his mother’s tongue.
There are two lexis – λέξεις, words, I especially love; small, not important words –lexis - λέξεις we repeat often without even thinking about them….an adverb…
Malista -μάλιστα, which means - that’s right, of course, definitely yes, very much so…
and
Oriste - ορίστε, which means - I beg your pardon? Yes? How can I help you?
This two lexis – λέξεις, words are as old as the Greek language is. They sound the same for over 6000 years…. They stay in the Greek language unaffected for thousands of years because they were too insignificant to be changed….so they stay the same….They were repeated by our forefathers, our fathers and soon our son will say it again…. Two small Greek lexis – λέξεις, words...
