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Old 06-03-2010, 07:56 AM   #17
omk3
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Europe
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Being Greek, I have seen loads of words I already know being used in other languages. Sometimes they are misused, sometimes they have the ancient greek meaning whereas the meaning in modern greek has changed to something different, sometimes they are plain wrong in my greek eyes. Almost always they are written differently and pronounced differently.

I've learned to regard them as any other foreign word, one that I have to learn more or less from scratch, but that I understand its etymology.

Greek being such an old language, even some greek words spoken by Greeks are very open to debate, and people use them wrong all the time. Sometimes it frustrates me, but languages are evolving, living things in my mind. They will break their own rules and move on. They will 'borrow' words from other languages and make them their own. They will give words back to other languages, and lose all control of them. It is fascinating to watch this process.
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