Freitag, 24. April 2009

Tauron = Greek?

So...we watched the Caprica prequel on DVD last night & it looks like the series will be interesting. I'm still a little bit doubtful about setting everything so few generations before the events of Battlestar Galactica, but the story is good and promises to have the same thoughtful characterization and exploration of philosophical problems as the earlier series, so I'm willing to give it a chance.

What interested me the most, though, were some linguistic tidbits: a number of tantalizingly brief segments in the Tauron language, which meant I got to spend time trying to identify the words instead of paying attention to the plot. From what I could hear, I'm fairly certain that it was Greek -- or something remarkably close to it. "therapōn" = minister, "aner" = man, "dikē" = justice. Now, the fact that they would use Greek in particular is not terribly surprising, since the religion and a lot of the names come from classical mythology. But the question is: ancient or modern Greek? Or neither?

My ear isn't fast enough to catch it. I wish I had thought to ask Matt to see if the DVD had close-captioning before he returned it -- maybe I would have been able to get a transcription, at least. None of the fan sites seem to have touched on this important issue (yet).

Edit: Never mind. Apparently it would have helped if I spelled the language correctly when searching -- it's "Tauron" not "Tauran." The BattlestarWiki confirms my intuition that the language is ancient Greek, although (frustratingly) they don't give any further details or sources.

3 Kommentare:

Unknown hat gesagt…

I only speak modern Greek, but after listening to what that hitman was saying (it's hard to hear), I think I managed to understand some of the words.
I can't speak ancient Greek but maybe somebody who cans can fill the gaps?

I think I nailed this one:
Αἷμα ἀντί αἱμάτος, ἡ δίκη τῶν Ταυρονίων!
Haema anti haematos, he dike ton Tauronion!
Blood for blood, the justice of the Tauronians!

I could only hear the last words on this one:
... δίκη ἀδελφέ μοῦ!
... dike adelfe mou!
... justice my brother!

I'm sure about this one:
Χαῖρε Θεραπόν!
Chaire Therapon!
Hello minister

This one is likely full of errors:
... ὀσφῦ εἷς πιστον ... ἀνέρος, ὄντι εἶναι φίλον ὀνομάσθης
... osfy eis piston ... aneros, onti einai filon onomasthes
... back to the faithfull ... man, the one you called a friend

Brenda hat gesagt…

Hmm, yes, the last one doesn't make a great deal of sense (ὀσφῦ??), but that's a good starting point, thanks. One of these days maybe I'll get a chance to rewatch it and take notes.

Natalia Zimniewicz hat gesagt…

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