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What’s with this “Wren” thing?
The oldest extant version of the fable
we
are presenting here appeared in 1913 in the first volume of a two-volume anthology
of Low
Saxon folktales (Plattdeutsche
Volksmärchen “Low German Folktales”)
collected by Wilhelm Wisser (1843–1935). Read
more ...
Elliniká (Hellêniká)
Greek
Greatly
revered for centuries, Classical
Greek thinking, art, architecture and
language have strongly influenced
all of Western civilization.
Language information:
Greek is the official language of Greece and one of the official languages
of Cyprus. There are Greek-speaking communities in neighboring countries, throughout
Europe and outside Eurasia, particularly large ones in Canada and Australia.
The
history of Greek can be traced back about 3,500 years. These days, the main periods
of the languages are accepted being as follows:
· Mycenaean
(16th–11th centuries B.C.E.)
· Classical
(Ancient) (9th–6th centuries B.C.E.)
· Hellenistic
(Koine) (300 B.C.E. – 300 C.E.)
· Medieval
(Byzantine) (330–1453 C.E.)
· Modern
(1453–present C.E.)
New
Testament
Greek
represents one of the lates stages of Hellenistic Greek. Modern Greek has
numerous dialects. Traditionally, the colloquial Demotic varieties have been
competing with the partly artificial “elevated” Katharevousa variety. However, today’s Modern Standard Greek is based primarily on Demotic varieties.
Pre-Hellenistic
varieties were tonal, the tones being indicated by means of diacritic marks.
This “polytonic” orthographic
system continued long after these tones had been lost. It was finally
officially abandoned in 1982. Many Greeks still oppose this orthographic simplification and advocate official reinstatement of polytonic
spelling.
This translation
is in Modern Standard Greek.
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