# By the way



## Dminor

I see. 

Eh, just a side question (too small a question for a new topic): how would you translate "by the way," in Greek?


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## skatoulitsa

Παρεπιπτόντως


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## Dminor

Ευχαριστώ και πάλι!


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## ireney

Or, if you feel in a scholarly mood and you want practically no one to understand you, ειρήσθω εν παρόδω


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## Dminor

Hehe, I might have my moments that I'm feeling that way (I study ancient Greek )


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## ics

> you want practically no one to understand you


 
neither I can understand!... What does it mean? ? ?

By the way, "παρε*μπ*ιπτόντως" is pronounced "παρεπιπτόντως" but according to my dictionary is "παρε*μπ*ιπτόντως"...


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## skatoulitsa

hmm, in.gr agrees with you, so it looks like you are right. I never realized this. So does everyone say it "παρεπιπτόντως", or should we really read it the way it's spelled? 
(which I guess we should, because greek is supposed to be read the way it's spelled)

I guess it must be one of the things that people always hear wrong and repeat them wrong...

EDIT: google returns 34400 hits with "παρεπιπτόντως" and 62700 with "παρεμπιπτόντως" 

so i guess the wrong version is pretty well established already


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## ireney

Skatoulitsa unless you mean that we should get rid of the multiple Is the double Os etc Greek is not a language in which you read what you write for millenia 

Anyway, there's always the matter of what Παρεμπιπτόντως means eh?

Ics it means "let it be said in a byway"


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## skatoulitsa

ireney said:
			
		

> Skatoulitsa unless you mean that we should get rid of the multiple Is the double Os etc Greek is not a language in which you read what you write for millenia
> 
> Anyway, there's always the matter of what Παρεμπιπτόντως means eh?
> 
> Ics it means "let it be said in a byway"


Well, of course the dipthong "ει" is pronounced like "ι" and not "ε-ι", unless it is written "εϊ", or if there is a stress on the "ε" ("έι"), but there are very well specified rules for reading everything.
So, yes not every "ε" in a sentence is pronounced "εεεε", but still you "read what you write", and if you write "ει" you read "ι", because there is a rule for that.

In any case, we don't have "silent" letters. So I guess what I meant is that if you had never heard of the word and you saw it somewhere you would read it *with* the "μ". Isn't that so?


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## ics

> Anyway, there's always the matter of what Παρεμπιπτόντως means eh?
> Ics it means "let it be said in a byway"


Sorry if I was’n clear enough!… besides my english sucks!! 
The question was about the <ειρήσθω εν παρόδω> 
I’m greek but I do not understand its meaning!… where does it come from??

ps. please correct any mistake !!


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## anthodocheio

Το "εν παρόδω" πάντως ταιριάζει με το by the way.
You know... πάροδος, ...οδός????

By the way, Έλληνες και συνεννοούμαστε στα Αγγλικά μεταξύ μας;


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## Zanos

None of my friends says "Παρεμπιπτόντως" and neither do I.As for the "Ειρήσθω εν παρόδω" I don´t think it can be used like "BTW" in English.And of course not at all in common language!I would say that "BTW" translates to "Αααα!!!" which with the right intonation is used to start a frase about something that has just crossed your mind or to change the subject of the conversation and talk about something irrelevant.Sometimes words or expressions of one language can be equivalent to interjections in another


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## ireney

Antodocheio this thread is started by Dminor who is not Greek and may interest others who are not fluent in Greek too so let's stick with English for the mo.

I wasn't getting technical with εν παρόδω. It's more like πάροδος in ancient tragedies (Όποιος θυμάται την Αντιγόνη και την εισαγωγή της να σηκώσει το χέρι).

Anyway, I don't want to start a filologos rant here 'cause that will probably scare people away but the fact that people don't use a word because they don't know enough Greek (ποιός τα χρειάζεται τα Νέα Ελληνικά κυρία; Πιό χρήσιμη μου είναι η τριγωνομετρία στην καθημερινή ζωή και πώς θα πιώ τον καφέ μου αν δεν ξέρω τους τύπους για το μαγνητικό πεδίο σε αγωγό doesn't mean that it's not better than "αααα! τώρα που το θυμήθηκα!" or what I use in it's place "άσχετο:" (see? it's not as if I'm going around trying to sound like Aristotle of Kavafis, but that doesn't mean we should be proud we use less and less of the words the Greek voc has. Especially if we then go on about what a wonderful and rich language we have)

Ok so I did go on a rant. Επαγγελματική διαστροφή παιδιά που χειροτέρεψε σήμερα γιατί ένας πανηλίθιος αποφάσισε να μεταφράσει το Trojan Horse ως Τρωικός Ίππος!! Από πότε γμτ μου?

There's also the metaphysical "μια που το 'φερε η κουβέντα" which leaves have the group trying to find the hidden relation.


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## Zanos

ireney said:
			
		

> Anyway, I don't want to start a filologos rant here 'cause that will probably scare people away but the fact that people don't use a word because they don't know enough Greek  doesn't mean that it's not* better* than "αααα! τώρα που το θυμήθηκα!" or what I use in it's place "άσχετο:" (see? it's not as if I'm going around trying to sound like Aristotle of Kavafis, but that doesn't mean we should be proud we use less and less of the words the Greek voc has. Especially if we then go on about what a wonderful and rich language we have)



What do you mean by "better"?I think that what we are looking for is what a native(greek) would use in order to express the same idea that another native(english) would express with "by the way" under similar circumstances.So,if most of the greek people would say "Αααα!" or "Ασχετο:"(which I also find perfect) then that can be considered "better" than the other suggestions.Don't you think?


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## skatoulitsa

Zanos said:
			
		

> What do you mean by "better"?I think that what we are looking for is what a native(greek) would use in order to express the same idea that another native(english) would express with "by the way" under similar circumstances.So,if most of the greek people would say "Αααα!" or "Ασχετο:"(which I also find perfect) then that can be considered "better" than the other suggestions.Don't you think?



Well, I am native greek and I do use "παρεπιπτόντως" (without the "μ" ) in everyday speech. Also, "by the way" is closer to "μια και το 'φερε η κουβέντα" than "άσχετο" (=irrelevant) which is actually the exact opposite.


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## ics

> None of my friends says "Παρεμπιπτόντως" and neither do I


Well, some friends of mine say it, me also! Without "μπ" as skatoylitsa said! Ιt’s always sounds “parepiptontws” but you could never find it in a dictionary spelled this way.

In fact we use all the expressions mentioned above by all of you, more or less they have the meaning or the function of _by the way_, unless (in my opinion) "Ειρήσθω εν παρόδω" which I hear for the first time and still don’t know what it means and where does it come from


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## ireney

Zanos "Αααα!" is not an expression. It's an informal interjection (επιφώνημα) and I'm sure that a word will be considered better than an interjection when what we translate is a word or a phrase and not an interjection.

I mean most of us say something like "Άου" when in pain but this is definitely a worse translation for "That hurt" than "αυτό πόνεσε".

"Άσχετο" is also not a good translation. Remember the original question?


> how would you translate "by the way," in Greek?


 

Ics
Ειρήσθω εν παρόδω comes from ancient Greek and katharevousa. You want a word for word explanation?


Και μια ερώτηση: Ζάνο, έχεις κάνει δημογραφική έρευνα και ξέρεις ότι οι περισσότεροι Έλληνες λένε είτε "άσχετο" είτε "Ααααα!" (και μάλιστα "ααα!" χωρίς κάτι να το συνοδεύει όπως "τώρα που το θυμήθηκα" ή κάτι τέτοιο)?


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## ics

> Ics
> Ειρήσθω εν παρόδω comes from ancient Greek and katharevousa. You want a word for word explanation?


Yes, please!! Thank you!


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## Perfectcube

Ειρήσθω εν παρόδω  
Aς λεχθεί παρενθετικά


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## ics

Perfectcube said:
			
		

> Ειρήσθω εν παρόδω
> Aς λεχθεί παρενθετικά


 
oohhh thank you!! Could you please remind me the ancient greek verb?


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## Perfectcube

Το ρήμα είναι το _λέγω_. Ο παθητικός παρακείμενος το _είρημαι _που μεταφράζεται ως έχω λεχθεί και η προστακτική _ειρήσθω_ που σημαίνει να λεχθεί, ας λεχθεί.


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## ics

Just perfect, cube!! Thank you very much!!


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