Live data from Hacker News

New Modern Greek

redas.dev

1–10 of 35 posts

Re: New Modern Greek

#3

Why ν -> n?

Because I'm using the latin v for the αυ, ευ = aV / aF. So I felt like keeping the greek ν alongside the "new" v would make them hard to distinguish.

But you're right, this adds confusion. Especially for a native Greek speaker, and I'm not very satisfied with this solution.

Any suggestions?

PS. Updated site with some more info about the conversions.

Re: New Modern Greek

#6
I support the creation of new letter shapes for one reason only: historical linguists on TikTok constantly have Greek speakers incorrectly correcting their ancient Greek pronunciation to sound modern. New/reinvigorated letter shapes and ligatures could mitigate this.

Re: New Modern Greek

#8
This would sever the connection to the ancient language, which is central to Greek identity. We would have a better chance of an English spelling reform—arguably more essential given its lingua franca status and absurd spelling. But we know that’s not going to happen.

Regardless, a fun exercise. I’ve thought a lot about the sound drift, case merging, loss of the infinitive and such. Good to see someone else’s ideas on the topic.

Re: New Modern Greek

#9
Actually, last time the greek alphabet changed, it was not a revision, but more like political statement, after a turbulant period by a military junta. The conflict goes back a couple of centuries, after the Greek revolution and the need for a "pure" and united, at least linguistically, nation. In a nutcell it was Purists vs common people. If anyone is interensted, this debate is called the "Greek language question". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language_question

Re: New Modern Greek

#10
Modern Greek has so much continuity with ancient that, if you know ancient, you can read plenty of signs and pick your way through pamphlets at museums and archaeological sites. Every Greek I have known has valued that continuity and history. The proposed change -- rendering any text printed prior to the revision obsolete and eventually unreadable -- amounts to cultural suicide.
Post reply on HN