explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2168: Reading in the Original

2019-06-26T19:14:44Z

AleksanderV:

{{comic
| number = 2168
| date = June 26, 2019
| title = Reading in the Original
| image = reading_in_the_original.png
| titletext = The articles are much shorter, but I assume that's because this version predates the merger with the Hawaiian text that created the modern Hawaiian-Greek hybrid wiki-pedia.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HAWAIIAN-GREEK HYBRID. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Many academics and aficionados argue that studying old texts in the original language is more valuable than reading translations. The argument is that translations are rarely able to fully capture all of the nuances, linguistic subtleties and intent of the original author, and may even alter the meaning in some way. The drawback to this is that it requires the reader to be sufficiently fluent in whatever language the text is written in, which is frequently an archaic dialect, and so only really useful for studying old texts. Mastering an obsolete language solely to enhance your reading experience is a big commitment, and so has become something of a signifier of a truly dedicated scholar. By the same token, bragging about such signifiers is often taken as a mark of self-involved academic arrogance. Because many of the foundational texts in Western civilization, such as the New Testament of the Bible, Ancient Greek literature, e.g. the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the works of philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, were written in Ancient Greek, commenting that you only read works "in the original Greek" has long been an indicator of high-level literary scholarship.

The joke in this strip is that Cueball has apparently taken the time to learn Greek, so that he can read Wikipedia in that language. However, he is not reading the "original" version of Wikipedia articles, but their equivalent in the [https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A0%CF%8D%CE%BB%CE%B7:%CE%9A%CF%8D%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%B1 modern Greek language edition of Wikipedia]. Wikipedia has editions in nearly every existing language; each article links to equivalent articles in other languages, but they are not usually translations of each other, having been written separately by speakers of the different languages. The dedication to appearing to be a committed scholar is contrasted with the ignorance of not understanding that Greek is not the original language of every text.

The title text is an etymology joke, since "Wikipedia" was coined from two parts, "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wiki#English wiki]", from Hawaiian, and "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-pedia pedia]", from Greek. However, words having roots in different languages is common and does not signify any link between the separate languages; for example, while the word "Wikipedia" does have etymological roots in Hawaiian and Greek, there is no hybrid of the two languages which articles could be written in.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is addressing Megan. He is holding a hand with a thumb up out toward her. Megan is spreading her arms out as she replies.]
:Cueball: It's in the "Languages" box in the lower left. It took a while to learn, but I find I get so much more out of it by reading it as it was '''''intended'''''.
:Megan: That's not how that works!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:People get mad when I tell them I only read Wikipedia in the original Greek.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:2168: Reading in the Original

2019-06-26T18:45:03Z

AleksanderV:

I removed this line from the explanation: "The New Testament is often studied in the 'original' Greek, despite most of the protagonists actually speaking Aramaic." Reason: While the "protagonists" likely spoke Aramaic, the actual written text was in Koine Greek. The spoken language is a red herring in this case. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.118|162.158.126.118]] 14:34, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

There's also a [https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicipaedia:Pagina_prima Latin Wikipedia] and an [https://ang.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C4%93afodtramet Old English Wikipedia]. [[User:KangaroOS|Kangaro]][[User talk:KangaroOS|OS]] 14:53, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
:There would have been an Ancient Greek Wikipedia too if not for Yaroslav Zolotaryov and Siberian - [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Ancient_Greek_2 the proposal] was effectively accepted, and only a little bit short of fulfillment, when the Siberian debacle had Wikimedia revise their acceptance system in October 2007.<br />Alas, despite several re-proposals, there is no Ancient Greek Wikipedia to this day, and realistically there would probably only be one if someone raises a child as an Ancient Greek native speaker. (This had happened with Coptic.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.182.148|162.158.182.148]] 15:47, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

Btw there's no Greek Wikipedia page for Xkcd :) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.166|172.68.51.166]] 14:58, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
:Well, it would rather be for χκcδ [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.112|198.41.230.112]] 15:44, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
::Rather ξκcδ/ξκσδ as xi (not chi) is equivalent to 'x'. The lunate sigma is rather uncommon. Of course I think if we're talking about ancient Greek there were no lowercase letters so it'd be ΞΚΣΔ. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.175|172.68.189.175]] 16:08, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
:::Am I the only one who read ΞΚΣΔ as being startlingly close (visually) to IKEA?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.22|162.158.126.22]] 16:32, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

Hello, everyone! I have been consulting this wiki for a lot of time now, but this is the first time I edit. I edited the 'the New Testament of the Bible being the most notable' sentence because the New Testament is hardly the only notable work in Ancient Greek. In fact, while I'm not familiar with the situation in the U.S., in schools in the EU where I've studied or my mother (who went to Catholic school) has studied, texts from the New Testament were not even taught. Part of the reason for this is that the New Testament uses Koine Greek, which is a later variant of what is commonly called "Ancient Greek". I also think it's worth mentioning that Ancient Greek is quite commonly studied in many European countries even by high-school students, not only by dedicated scholars. [[User:AleksanderV|AleksanderV]] ([[User talk:AleksanderV|talk]]) 18:45, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

2168: Reading in the Original

2019-06-26T18:29:56Z

AleksanderV: Edited to reflect works in Ancient Greek other than the New Testament

{{comic
| number = 2168
| date = June 26, 2019
| title = Reading in the Original
| image = reading_in_the_original.png
| titletext = The articles are much shorter, but I assume that's because this version predates the merger with the Hawaiian text that created the modern Hawaiian-Greek hybrid wiki-pedia.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HAWAIIAN-GREEK HYBRID. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Many academics and aficionados argue that studying old texts in the original language is more valuable than reading translations. The argument is that translations are rarely able to fully capture all of the nuances, linguistic subtleties and intent of the original author, and may even alter the meaning in some way. The drawback to this is that it requires the reader to be sufficiently fluent in whatever language the text is written in, which is frequently an archaic dialect, and so only really useful for studying old texts. Mastering an obsolete language solely to enhance your reading experience is a big commitment, and so has become something of a signifier of a truly dedicated scholar. By the same token, bragging about such signifiers is often taken as a mark of self-involved academic arrogance. Because many of the foundational texts in Western civilizations (such as the New Testament of the Bible, Ancient Greek literature like the Illiad or the Odissey, and the works of philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) were written in Ancient Greek, commenting that you only read works "in the original Greek" has long been an indicator of high-level literary scholarship.

The joke in this strip is that Cueball has apparently taken the time to learn Greek, so that he can read Wikipedia in that language. However, he is not reading the "original" version of Wikipedia articles, but their equivalent in the [https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A0%CF%8D%CE%BB%CE%B7:%CE%9A%CF%8D%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%B1 modern Greek language edition of Wikipedia]. Wikipedia has editions in nearly every existing language; each article links to equivalent articles in other languages, but they are not usually translations of each other, having been written separately by speakers of the different languages. The dedication to appearing to be a committed scholar is contrasted with the ignorance of not understanding that Greek is not the original language of every text.

The title text is an etymology joke, since "Wikipedia" was coined from two parts, "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wiki#English wiki]", from Hawaiian, and "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-pedia pedia]", from Greek. However, words having roots in different languages is common and does not signify any link between the separate languages; for example, while the word "Wikipedia" does have etymological roots in Hawaiian and Greek, there is no hybrid of the two languages which articles could be written in.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is addressing Megan. He is holding a hand with a thumb up out toward her. Megan is spreading her arms out as she replies.]
:Cueball: It's in the "Languages" box in the lower left. It took a while to learn, but I find I get so much more out of it by reading it as it was '''''intended'''''.
:Megan: That's not how that works!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:People get mad when I tell them I only read Wikipedia in the original Greek.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]