Greek is my favorite language, so far. At least, it has been my favorite foreign language to study (which the exception of ridiculous midterms...). The thing I've liked, particularly, is seeing something of the origins of our own words.

Sometimes, it's sort of revealing. For instance, poie9w -- pronounced "poi-ai-oe" -- means I create, do, or make, and that's also the word that we get "poetry" from. That's pretty interesting for a literature nut like myself. It says something, I think, about the way we conceptualize the world if we get "poetry" from the word for "creation." You know, in the beginning was the word...

Another one is o3pou - prounounced "hoe-poo"- which means "where" and o3pwv - "hoe-pos" - which means "in order that." Of course, these two words are pretty closely related to the English word "hope." That both words provide some roots for the concept of hope seems meaningful. It suggests that "hope" is not just a vision of some sort of ideal - the where. It's also related to the action to get there - the "in order that."

The one that was interesting this week, though, was kwmh9 -- "ko-may." That's the word for a village or small town. Also, it's pretty closely related to the contemporary word "coma." Having grown up in Menard, I think I can see how those are related.