User talk:Cantrix

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Welcome!

Hello, Cantrix, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question and then place {{helpme}} before the question on your talk page. Again, welcome!  Mak (talk) 02:13, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Protagoras

"When you learn Greek better, you will not be tempted to confuse the usage in this passage with the colloquial usages given as I.5-7 in the LSJ article." I realize this could sound harsher than I meant it. From your user page and remarks about using the baby lexicon, I take it you are a beginning or intermediate student of Greek. I have nothing but the warmest feelings towards anyone who has set out to learn Greek—a good part of my life is dedicated to teaching Greek and encouraging students to choose to learn it!—so what I meant was more along the lines of, "It's great you're thinking about all this, and when you've read more Plato, Aristophanes, and Herodotus, as I dearly hope you will, you will be familiar with the various usages of this word & find them easier to discern." But if it didn't come across like that, I'm truly sorry. Of course, a big part of learning a language like Greek or Latin is getting from regarding the lexicon as providing a "menu" of equally choosable options to seeing it (in its big version, at least) as a presentation of evidence that allows the user to recapitulate the process of its creation—namely, using a familiarity with the vastness of Greek literature to detect different senses & tell them apart. (A great book about this process is John Chadwick's Lexicographica Graeca, though I would not recommend it until you are unbothered by plenty of untranslated quotations in Greek.) Anyway, I hope you will regard me, not as the antagonist who shot down your suggestion about ἄνθρωπος, but as one Ancient Greek reading & loving editor who would always be glad to do something in support of the language I love & the people who keep it alive. Sincerely yours, Wareh 13:33, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

I'm not so harsh that I would think of you as an antagonist for arguing a sound point of view, and I really appreciate the comment on my user page (though I'm not sure if I'm supposed to reply here or on your page... figured here was safer). You're absolutely right that I'm still a beginner - I've almost finished the 100-level course, now... exams in 4 weeks... I'll keep a look out for that book, too, so that I can read it in a couple of years - it sounds as though it would be helpful for Latin, too. Thanks for the kind words, Cantrix 14:15, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
Good luck on your exams, and this is a good place to respond. (I and many other editors like to keep conversations in one place, but some editors never put their responses on their own talk pages; a good idea is to add a talk page you comment on to your watchlist until you see where the response comes.) Best wishes, Wareh 14:50, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Transliteration

Re Scamandrios, this is a hybrid transliteration, neither Greek nor Latin, which would be the two consistent options, as you recognize when you write "the river Scamander (or Skamandros)." In my opinion, then, the article should be moved (just use the tab at the top of the article) to "Scamandrius" or "Skamandrios." (For what it's worth—not much—Google confirms that these spellings are 4x as frequent as the hybrid.) I could do this, but I'd rather defer to you as the article's creator & leave the decision to you. (I noticed your article on Κεστρῖνος uses the Latin option, and in fact this is even a sort of guideline on Wikipedia, but there is not perfect conformity, so I don't see any harm in putting the article where you like.) Wareh 13:21, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Aha, you're right, thanks. I considered using "Scamandrius" but found the link on Helenus's page to "Scamandrios", and decided that that was closer to the Greek without seriously considering that I should have changed the 'c' as well! However, if the convention is latinised spelling, that's probably best. :) I'll move it now, and let you know if I get stuck... Cantrix 11:52, 29 September 2007 (UTC)