0.5 Reading Signs and Street Names — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read the eighteen words that carry almost every sign you will meet on a first afternoon. Read a word written in capitals, where the accent mark is not printed, and put the stress on the right syllable anyway. Turn a place name written in Greek capitals back into the English name you already know. Read eight sentences containing the same words in their ordinary, small-letter form. Prerequisites : 0.4 — the accent mark. Read 0.4 Script first if you have not, because this lesson is largely about what happens when the mark is not there. Everything so far has been the inside of a book. This lesson takes the alphabet outdoors, where Greek is written in capitals. Capitals matter for a practical reason: a word in capitals carries no accent mark . The rule from the last lesson still applies — the word still has a stressed syllable — but the sign does not tell you which one, so the only way to say the word correctly is to know it. That is why this is a vocabulary lesson as much as a reading one. How the letters work Eighteen words. The first column is what the sign says; the second is the same word as it appears in a sentence, with its mark; the third is what it means. On the sign In a sentence Meaning ΕΙΣΟΔΟΣ είσοδος entrance, way in ΕΞΟΔΟΣ έξοδος exit, way out ΑΝΟΙΧΤΟ ανοιχτό open ΚΛΕΙΣΤΟ κλειστό closed ΞΕΝΟΔΟΧΕΙΟ ξενοδοχείο hotel ΦΑΡΜΑΚΕΙΟ φαρμακείο pharmacy ΝΟΣΟΚΟΜΕΙΟ νοσοκομείο hospital ΑΣΤΥΝΟΜΙΑ αστυνομία police ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ τράπεζα bank ΣΤΑΘΜΟΣ σταθμός station ΑΕΡΟΔΡΟΜΙΟ αεροδρόμιο airport ΠΛΑΤΕΙΑ πλατεία square ΟΔΟΣ οδός street ΛΕΩΦΟΡΟΣ λεωφόρος avenue ΤΑΞΙ ταξί taxi ΜΕΤΡΟ μετρό metro, underground ΤΟΥΑΛΕΤΑ τουαλέτα toilet ΑΠΑΓΟΡΕΥΕΤΑΙ απαγορεύεται it is forbidden Three of those are worth a second look. The word for a hotel is built from the word for a stranger — the same xeno- as in xenophobia — and the pharmacy from the word for a drug, the pharmaco- of pharmacology . The hospital is built the same way, on the word for illness, which English took as noso- in a handful of medical terms. Once you see that the endings are shared, the three words stop being three words and become one pattern: a place where something is done. The last word on the list is the one that saves you trouble. It means it is forbidden , and it opens most of the prohibitions you will read: no entry, no parking, no smoking. If a sign starts with it, do not do the thing that follows. There is one shape on the street that the alphabet lessons have not covered, and it is worth naming so that it does not stop you: on older signs and on carved inscriptions the letters are spaced out and sometimes cut with serifs that make sigma look like a roman C and omega like a roman W. Both are the same letters you learned in 0.1, drawn in an older hand. If a sign will not read, try substituting the letter the shape resembles and see whether a word appears. A second thing to expect: bilingual signs. Since the 2004 Olympics most road signs in Greece carry the Greek name and a roman transliteration, one above the other. That is a gift while you are learning — you can check your reading against the roman line — but the transliterations are not consistent from sign to sign, and the roman line is often a different system from the one this course uses in the next volume. Trust the Greek line and treat the roman one as a hint. Place names Names are the easiest reading practice there is, because you already know the answer — you simply have to let the letters tell you. On the sign In English ΑΘΗΝΑ Athens ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗ Thessaloniki ΠΕΙΡΑΙΑΣ Piraeus ΣΥΝΤΑΓΜΑ Syntagma — the constitution, and the square named after it ΑΚΡΟΠΟΛΗ Acropolis — the high city ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ Omonia — concord ΚΡΗΤΗ Crete ΡΟΔΟΣ Rhodes Two habits make this quick. Read the letters one at a time, out loud, and do not try to recognise the shape of the whole word: the word is often longer in Greek than in English, and a reader who guesses from the outline guesses wrong. And expect the English form to have lost something — a Greek ending, usually — because English took the names through Latin, which trimmed them. Write it Copy the eighteen sign words twice, once in capitals and once in small letters with the mark. Writing both forms is the point of the exercise: the capital is what you will see, the small form is what you will say, and the two are stored separately in the memory until you deliberately connect them. Then write out the four place names nearest to you on a map of Greece, in capitals, and read them back the next day. If you can read a name you wrote yesterday without hesitating, the alphabet has gone in. Read it aloud Eight sentences from the corpus, using the sign words in their ordinary form. Greek English What to notice Πού είναι η έξοδος; [1] Where is the exit? the word on the green sign over every door Απαγορεύεται η είσοδος! [2] Keep out. and its opposite, in the sentence you will see on a gate Έμεινε στο ξενοδοχείο. [3] He stayed at the hotel. the hotel word: xeno- plus the root of doctor ’s receiving Πηγαίνει το μετρό στο αεροδρόμιο; [4] Does the subway go to the airport? two international words in one question Αυτός είναι ο σιδηροδρομικός σταθμός; [5] Is that the railroad station? the station word, with the adjective for railway in front of it Η πλατεία είναι γεμάτη ποδήλατα. [6] The square is full of bicycles. the square: the second word of half the addresses in Athens Τηλεφωνήστε την αστυνομία! [7] Call the police! the police, spelled with the same root as astronomy ’s city cousin Έχει τουαλέτα; [8] Is there a toilet? the one question worth knowing before any other New words Six of the sign words, with their articles, because the article is part of what you learn. Word (with article) Meaning Notes το ξενοδοχείο el to xenodochío hotel Part of speech / class noun, neuter How it differs from English literally a place for strangers: the xeno- of xenophobia Έμεινε στο ξενοδοχείο. He stayed at the hotel. το φαρμακείο el to farmakío pharmacy Part of s