Easily Amused

OK. I admit it. Few will probably appreciate this as much as I did. I'm currently reading Greek Grammar by HW Smyth. This is the standard grammar in use for classical Greek. Now some may be wondering why in the world anyone other than a student enrolled in classical Greek would be reading a grammar. My answer: For fun. I just enjoy it for some odd reason. And tonight I found a tangible example to share. I read the preface and then scanned the table of contents before coming to the first page proper. It was the alphabet. Now, after 5 semesters of koine, it was tempting to give this a cursory glance at best, but instead I decided to look carefully and see if there is any difference between koine and classical on this point. And here is what I learned (only those with at least an introductory knowledge of Greek will understand and appreciate this). You know those letters: epsilon, upsilon, omicron, and omega? Well, the letter names are actually descriptive! And having read this, I feel like a fool for not seeing it before! "Psilon" can be translated "simple" so the first two letters listed above are "simple e" and "simple u" (in contrast to the dipthongs that bear similar sounds). The next two should be obvious even to those that aren't students of Greek. Omicron is "small o" and Omega is "great o" or "strong o". Get it? Micron and Mega? If they taught us this in seminary, I missed it. And reading it tonight actually elicited a "wow!".

Well. That's it. Perhaps the one other person in the universe that might appreciate this will be providentially guided to this site. It's a good thing I'm already married. Posts like this could severely diminish my chances of finding a mate otherwise.