# Ἀργυρῷ Ἀλὶ



## soplamocos

Hello everyone.
I have composed the following phrase. It will be in a present to one teacher who is retiring. Is it correct? (Would be shameful otherwise!)
I have invented a couple of words (proper nouns): Μάρκε = Marcos, Ἀργυρῷ Ἀλὶ =  Silver Sea or Sea of Silver.

Ὦ ξεῖνε Μάρκε, χαῖρε. Ἀεί σε ἀναμιμνῄσκομεν ἐκείνοι ὅτι ἐν Ἀργυρῷ Ἀλὶ σᾶς διδασκαλίας ακολουθοῦμεν.

Of course, you could suggest any change to the phrase


----------



## sotos

Should be αργυρά (with υπογεγραμμένη και περισπωμένη)  αλί. Better τας σας διδαχάς ακολουθούμεν. I didn' quite understand the σε ἀναμιμνῄσκομεν ἐκείνοι ὅτι ἐν ...   Maybe Αεί σου αναμιμνησκόμεθα εν αργυρά αλί τας σας διδασκαλίας ακολουθούντες.


----------



## soplamocos

¡Muchas gracias!


----------



## ioanell

soplamocos said:


> Ὦ ξεῖνε Μάρκε, χαῖρε. Ἀεί σε ἀναμιμνῄσκομεν ἐκείνοι ὅτι ἐν Ἀργυρῷ Ἀλὶ σᾶς διδασκαλίας ακολουθοῦμεν.



Given the mistakes in your phrase, I think you could be better helped if you cited your phrase in English (or in Modern Greek).


----------



## soplamocos

sotos said:


> Should be αργυρά






sotos said:


> I didn' quite understand the σε




Ὦ ξεῖνε Μάρκε, χαῖρε. Ἀεί σου ἀναμιμνῄσκομεν [ἡμεῖς, ἐκείνοι ὅτι ἐν Ἀργυρᾷ Ἀλὶ σᾶς διδασκαλίας ακολουθοῦμεν].

Oh, friend-guest Mark, be happy. [We, those who in Silver Sea yours teachings follow], always remember you.

(In Greek the subject is at the end. I dont think that the same structure in English is grammatical: To you always remember we, those who...) I have put some colors and brackets to mark the relations.


----------



## ioanell

soplamocos said:


> Ὦ ξεῖνε Μάρκε, χαῖρε. Ἀεί σου ἀναμιμνῄσκομεν [ἡμεῖς, ἐκείνοι ὅτι ἐν Ἀργυρᾷ Ἀλὶ σᾶς διδασκαλίας ακολουθοῦμεν].
> 
> Oh, friend-guest Mark, be happy. [We, those who in Silver Sea yours teachings follow], always remember you.



Some observations on your original text “Ὦ ξεῖνε Μάρκε, χαῖρε. Ἀεί σε ἀναμιμνῄσκομεν ἐκείνοι ὅτι ἐν Ἀργυρᾷ Ἀλὶ σᾶς διδασκαλίας ακολουθοῦμεν.”:
1. Ὦ ξεῖνε: The offered ancient Greek text is as close as possible to the Attic dialect, as your original one contains forms of other ancient dialects, e.g. ξεῖνε is from the ionic dialect, σᾶς from the doric one, Ἀλὶ from the Homeric language.  
2. Ὦ ξεῖνε Μάρκε: Ancient Greeks, when addressing someone, used the vocative case “_ὦ ξένε_” either for a stranger or for a foreigner, but also as a politeness form for somebody whose name was unknown and the address “_ὦ ξένε_” came to mean something more than “_ὦ φίλε_”; so, “_ὦ ξένε_” and a proper name can’t go together; you will have to choose between just “_ὦ ξένε_” and “_ὦ (proper name_)”, adding if you like “φίλτατε”, the superlative of the adjective φίλος, in front of the name. Be careful with the vocative case of the proper name.                          
3. Ἀεί: The form “ἐσαεὶ” was preferred to render the meaning “forever”.                                                                                                
4. ἀναμιμνῄσκομεν: This form is in the active voice and means “remind someone of something”. It was replaced by the passive voice future tense verb “ἀναμνησόμεθα” which means “we will remember”. 
5. σε: was replaced with the genitive “σου”, as the object of the verb “ἀναμνησόμεθα”, with parallel ascent of its accent on the last syllable of the verb.                                                                                           
6. ἐκείνοι ὅτι: were removed and replaced by “Ἡμεῖς, οἵτινες”.             
7. Ἀλὶ: (<ἃλς=θάλαττα) it is a poetic form found in Homer, whereas the normal Attic word would be “θαλάττῃ”. It is up to you if you insist to retain the poetic form instead of the normal Attic one.                     
8. σᾶς διδασκαλίας: were removed and replaced by “τῇ σῇ διδασκαλίᾳ” in the dative case, as the object of the verb “ἀκολουθοῦμεν”.

So, a text as close as possible to the Attic dialect would be as follows:

“Ὦ φίλτατε Μάρκε, χαῖρε. Ἀναμνησόμεθά σου ἐσαεὶ ἡμεῖς, οἵτινες ἐν ἀργυρᾷ θαλάσσῃ (ἤ Ἀργυρᾷ Ἁλὶ) τῇ σῇ διδασκαλίᾳ ἀκολουθοῦμεν.” or

“Ὦ φίλτατε Μάρκε, χαῖρε. Ἡμεῖς, οἵτινες ἐν ἀργυρᾷ θαλάττῃ (ἤ Ἀργυρᾷ Ἁλὶ) τῇ σῇ διδασκαλίᾳ ἀκολουθοῦμεν, ἀναμνησόμεθά σου ἐσαεὶ.”  translated in English as

 “Oh, dearest friend Marcos, be happy. We, who in the middle of a silver sea are following your teachings, shall always remember you.”


----------



## ioanell

soplamocos said:


> In Greek the subject is at the end.



This doesn't apply. It can be in different places.


----------



## soplamocos

ioanell said:


> This doesn't apply. It can be in different places.



Yes, I know... I was talking about my sentence. I will consider your suggestions. Thank you.


----------

