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Greek words for love

(From Wikipedia)

There are a number of different Greek words for love, as the Greek language distinguishes several different senses in which the word "love" is used. For example, Ancient Greek used the words philia, eros, agape, storge, and xenia to refer to different aspects of love. However, as with many other languages, it has been historically difficult to separate the meanings of these words totally. For example, the Greek of the Christian New Testament has examples of the verb "agapo" being used with the same meaning as "phileo".^{[citation needed]} Nonetheless, the senses in which these words were generally used are given below. The first four words have also been discussed from a Christian perspective in the The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis.

Agapē (ἀγάπη agápē) means "love" in modern day Greek. The term s'agapo means "I love you" in Greek. The word "agapo" is the verb "I love". In Ancient Greek it generally refers to a "pure", ideal type of love rather than the physical attraction suggested by "eros". For example, in the New Testament this is the verb used to describe God's love for humanity. However, there are also some examples of "agape" used to mean the same as "eros". It has also been translated as "love of the soul".

Eros (ἔρως érōs) is passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. The Modern Greek word "erotas" means "(romantic) love". Plato refined his own definition. Although eros is initially felt for a person, with contemplation it becomes an appreciation of the beauty within that person, or even becomes appreciation of beauty itself. Eros helps the soul recall knowledge of beauty, and contributes to an understanding of spiritual truth. Lovers and philosophers are all inspired to seek truth by eros. Some translations list it as "love of the body".

Philia (φιλία philía), means friendship in modern Greek, a dispassionate virtuous love, was a concept developed by Aristotle. It includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality and familiarity.

Storge (στοργή storgē) means affection in modern Greek; it is natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring.

Xenia (ξενία xenía), means hospitality in modern Greek and was an extremely important practice in ancient Greece. It was an almost ritualized friendship formed between a host and their guest, who could previously be strangers. The host fed and provided quarters for the guest, who was only expected to repay with gratitude. The importance of this can be seen throughout Greek mythology, in particular Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_words_for_love

From the Guardian: .

"When it comes to learning Japanese, the highest achievers could be dyslexic children. Research at a school in Somerset shows dyslexics find the language easier to learn than French, Spanish or German.

After a series of papers that showed how well children could do at Japanese, Millfield school added the language to its curriculum. Bill Penty, head of modern languages, said: ‘Japanese is written syllabically, so that what you read is what you hear. Grammatically it is exceedingly straightforward up to a certain point. It is also elliptical, which means that if it doesn’t need to say something it won’t say it.’ He said that at a basic level all the verbs except one ended in the same sound. Dyslexic children performed particularly well in exams, he added."

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1707967,00.html

Scientists find ability for grammar hard-wired into humans

Hmm, I didn't realise this was new...!

Rising water threatens great temples of Egypt

Engineers are struggling to stop the damage caused by crop irrigation

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday February 5, 2006
The Observer

15,000 wrecks lie buried on Irish seabed
(Times)

"...A new study has discovered that the seas surrounding Ireland are littered with evidence of thousands of other maritime tragedies, with as many as 15,000 wrecks resting on the seabed.

Following one of the most extensive research programmes ever carried out by underwater archaeologists, the number of wrecks discovered has soared from an initial examination six years ago of just 7,000 vessels."

I just found this:

Gentium — a typeface for the nations

Victor Gaultney, 2004-01-09; 162342 reads

‘Purpose: to build a free multilingual font to bring better typography to thousands of languages around the globe. I can think of no higher calling.’

‘...an interesting blend of economical use of space, a serious tone of voice and a modern informal dress code.’

Gentium is a typeface family designed to enable the diverse ethnic groups around the world who use the Latin script to produce readable, high-quality publications. It supports a wide range of Latin-based alphabets and includes glyphs that correspond to all the Latin ranges of Unicode.

The design is intended to be highly readable, reasonably compact, and visually attractive. The additional ‘extended’ Latin letters are designed to naturally harmonize with the traditional 26 ones. Diacritics are treated with careful thought and attention to their use. Gentium also supports both ancient and modern Greek, including a number of alternate forms. These fonts were originally the product of two years of research and study by the designer at the University of Reading, England, as part of an MA program in Typeface Design.

SIL International has now embraced the Gentium project, and plans to continue development. Expansion of the glyph set to include more extended Latin glyphs, archaic Greek symbols, and full Cyrillic script support is the next step. Work on this has already begun, but the results will not be available for a few months. Addition of bold and bold italic faces will follow.

Gentium is freely available and may be used by anyone at no cost. It is not public domain, and cannot be altered, but can be given to anyone who might need it. Our hope is that it will stimulate literature production and elevate extended Latin alphabets to greater parity with the basic Latin alphabet. We also hope it will encourage other type designers to appreciate and support those fascinating and beautiful extra letters.

Follow the links above to find out more about Gentium, download a detailed type specimen and get the latest release.