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I was recently asked to help someone with their Greek School homework. The excersise involved thinking of various masculine nouns. As we know masculine nouns in greek end with -ας, -ες, -ος, -ης, -της και -ους. It is the last one that has caused my brain to enter "meltdown" mode. The only 2 I could think of were... ο παπούς (the grandfather) ο νους (the mind) Are these the only ones??? There are a few examples in the ancient greek - but these cannot be included in the excersise. Only modern greek and in the singular genitive case. Can anyone think of any other masculine nouns ending with -ους ?? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Cheerio George |
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ο απόπλους (the sailing away) Regards, Greg Brush |
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ο πους του ποδός |
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Thanks for replying Artemis. I had offered ο πους, ο βους but the teacher only wanted modern greek (not katharevousa). These are declined differently in the modern greek.... ie ο πους, του ποδός instead of το πόδι, του ποδιού The homework excersise involved first determining the masculine nouns based on their suffix, then further grouping them by which syllable received the accent mark (οξύτονα, παροξύτονα, προπαροξύτονα) then declining these groups to ascertain if any patterns emerged. (Quite a good little excersise actually!) I'm beginning to think ... ο παπούς ο νους ο αππόπλους ... are the only examples of masculine nouns with the -ους suffix in the modern greek??? (Hardly enough to determine pattern through decclension) Cheerio George |
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assuming (according to your teacher) that ο πους του ποδός is not modern Greek then what modern Greek word would you use for "FootBall"? Ποδιουμπάλλα? το πόδι του ποδιού sounds as ridiculous as Ποδιουμπάλλα! Your teacher has to realise there is only one Greek language! Βους, Πους etc are normal Greek words used today. ...Ποδόσφαιρο ...Βούτυρο |
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Hi Artemis, you raise some very interesting points which I will bring up with my nephews teacher. My nephew asked for help with the homework exercise - and I am always more than happy to assist the children as much as I can. You won't get an argument from me on the issues you raise, as I am in total agreement with you! Unfortunately I won't be able to see the teacher for 3 weeks as they have just reached a 2 week semester break here in Australia. (but stay tuned) I grew up in Australia and all of my Greek & English education was completed here. Times seem to have changed dramatically though since my (long lost) youth. Today we have only one τόνο, although when I went to school there were many! Here is another interesting English word derived from the Greek words οκτό + πους ..."octopus" The word octopus = 8 feet, yet in Greek we say "χταπόδι" (The English keep the πους yet we Greeks say πόδι – go figure!?) I have just thought of another masculine noun with –ους !!!! (Just came to me) (Only declined in the singular as there is only one!) Again not useful for pattern matching through declension as there is no plural. My list is slowly growing!Cheerio George |
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I think what your nephew's teacher meant was that s/he didn't want masculine nouns in -ους which decline according to the ancient/katharevousa model, but rather inflect according to the Modern Greek model. Therefore, a contracted consonant-stem like ο πους (genitive ποδός, stem ποδ-) does not qualify, even though the word itself certainly continues from ancient into Modern Greek. On the other hand παππούς, νους, and απόπλους all inflect according to a standard Modern model: genitive παππού, νου, απόπλου. By the way, I'm not sure whether or not Ιησούς would count according to the teacher's criteria: Ιησούς is a proper noun (a name) which is not Greek in origin -- it's essentially a transliteration from the Hebrew. On the other hand, it does decline according to the standard model: gen. Ιησού. Regards, Greg Brush |
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Greg, I do believe you've hit the nail on the head! However, I won't be able to confirm the teachers intent until after the semester break. The point is (& perhaps this is also part of the teachers plan), that there are not really that many masculine nouns that fit into this category. This aside, the exersise itself was quite interesting.  I'll keep trying to think of more... ο πλους ο ρους could possibly be used?? Thank you again for your help. Cheerio George |
