{"id":13960,"date":"2009-02-28T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-28T07:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=13960"},"modified":"2009-02-28T00:01:07","modified_gmt":"2009-02-28T07:01:07","slug":"its-greek-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/02\/28\/its-greek-to-me.html","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s Greek to Me!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At least that&#8217;s what English-speakers say. But while Greek is a popular language for folks to colloquially attribute incomprehensibility, what do the Greeks say in the same situation? And are there languages that are more (or, perhaps, less) popular than Greek in these situations?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/strangemaps.wordpress.com\/2009\/02\/26\/362-greek-to-me-mapping-mutual-incomprehension\/?nucrss=1\" target=\"_blank\">Yes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote dir=\"ltr\" style=\"MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px\">\n<p>When a <strong>Hellenophone<\/strong> has trouble understanding something, his or her preferred languages of reference, as far as incomprehension is concerned, are Arabic and Chinese. And while for Arabs the proverbial unintelligible language is Hindi, for Chinese it\u2019s\u2026 the language of Heaven.<\/p>\n<p>For Romanians, the ultimate in incomprehensibility is Turkish, for the Turks its French and the French consider <strong>Javanese<\/strong> the acme in <em>huh?<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"> <em>Cool.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least that&#8217;s what English-speakers say. But while Greek is a popular language for folks to colloquially attribute incomprehensibility, what do the Greeks say in the same situation? And are there languages that are more (or, perhaps, less) popular than Greek in these situations? Yes. When a Hellenophone has trouble understanding something, his or her &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/02\/28\/its-greek-to-me.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;It&#8217;s Greek to Me!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-and-language"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":136826,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/23\/letters-and-alphabets.html","url_meta":{"origin":13960,"position":0},"title":"Letters and Alphabets","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 23-Jun-18 4:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We take writing and language for granted, but there's remarkable history and variability in how it's all constructed across time and space with humanity, and even large variation today -- not just in language, but in how we convey it in writing. Originally shared by +Yonatan Zunger: This is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/DgM74CBV4AE3cXb.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/DgM74CBV4AE3cXb.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/DgM74CBV4AE3cXb.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8441,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/11\/15\/snap_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":13960,"position":1},"title":"Snap!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Nov-05 11:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"Spaghetti doesn't snap in half when stressed from the ends -- it breaks into three or more pieces. Scientist are studying this, because -- well -- they don't understand very...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Science &amp; Nature&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Science &amp; Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/spaghettisnap.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":41985,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/15\/maybe-kay-should-learn-german.html","url_meta":{"origin":13960,"position":2},"title":"Maybe Kay should learn German","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-May-14 5:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"My daughter plans on taking Mandarin Chinese in high school next year, but looking at this map, German might be a better alternative if she plans on sticking around in Colorado.Reshared post from +Yonatan ZungerThis is a great little dive into US Census data: What's the most commonly spoken language\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31628,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/05\/tweets-from-2012-12-05.html","url_meta":{"origin":13960,"position":3},"title":"Tweets from 2012-12-05","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Dec-12 9:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Crikey. Had forgotten how continuity-intense \"Time of Angels\"\/\"Flesh and Stone\" were, to the point of near-incomprehensibility. #DoctorWho # \"I have no idea how this stack of boxes that I was playing inside of earlier ended up tumbling to the ground with a crash.\" --The Cat # Man, I hate it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~Tweets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31629,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/05\/tweets-from-2012-12-05-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":13960,"position":4},"title":"Tweets from 2012-12-05","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Dec-12 9:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Crikey. Had forgotten how continuity-intense \"Time of Angels\"\/\"Flesh and Stone\" were, to the point of near-incomprehensibility. #DoctorWho # \"I have no idea how this stack of boxes that I was playing inside of earlier ended up tumbling to the ground with a crash.\" --The Cat # Man, I hate it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~Tweets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31630,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/05\/tweets-from-2012-12-05-3.html","url_meta":{"origin":13960,"position":5},"title":"Tweets from 2012-12-05","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Dec-12 9:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Crikey. Had forgotten how continuity-intense \"Time of Angels\"\/\"Flesh and Stone\" were, to the point of near-incomprehensibility. #DoctorWho # \"I have no idea how this stack of boxes that I was playing inside of earlier ended up tumbling to the ground with a crash.\" --The Cat # Man, I hate it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~Tweets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}