Re: Hell(en)ish oddities

On Wed, 22 Nov 2000 23:38:25 +0000, Keith Alasdair Mylchreest
<kam@...> wrote:

>I think we say Hellenic, but don't the modern Greeks call themselves
>"Romans" i.e. the heirs of the eastern empire?
Hellenic is correct, I know, I just like the -ish ending better because
its "native" English. It was a joke.

What you're saying about the Greeks calling themselves Romans is very
interesting. I hadn't thought they'd ever have done that, considering their
strong Greek identity. So how did they call themselves "Romans"? "POMANOI"?

>P.S. Your name looked vaguely familiar, then I realised that I'd once
>gone to a school called Guthlaxton (after an old territorial division).
>I think the Guthlac in question was an obscure Danish-Saxon saint.
Hehe. My "family name" (it's a patronym, you probably knew that) has
intrigued many foreigners. I tell them my father's name is "Gudlaugur".
That name, however, is exclusively Icelandic, being one among a series of
very common Icelandic names starting with "Gud-", meaning 'God'. The name
is kind of obscure, but I guess it kind of means "Bathed by God". The most
common is "Gudmundur", "Weapon of God". Those names were probably invented
by the same boring medieval zealots that abolished the old heathen weekdays
and invented horrible new names: (after Monday) Third Day, Midweek's Day,
Fifth Day, Fasting Day. The only Germanic-speaking country to drop its
heathen weekdays...