Greek Naming

[Aranor]

Hello all.

I have been trying to figure out the naming conventions used when naming the Greek units in EB ( and in general) as I am try to come up with a name for a Lycian unit in Greek. I have been trolling through every Greek unit to find a pattern and I think I am close. However I am no linguist. I am trying to translate Lycian Royal Guard into Greek if possible. So far I have come up with Trm̃mis Basilikon Phylakes. Now I just need to know exactly how wrong I am!
Trm̃mis = Lycian ( this is the word the Lycians used to refer to themselves).
If any of the Ohh so talented linguists out there can help me I would greatly appreciate the help.

Cheers
Aranor

[anubis88]

well, i think that royal guard could be translated to agema. Not shure though

[Aranor]

From what I was reading I figured Basilikon was referring to royal as in the: Basilikon Agema ( Royal Guard).

[anubis88]

I'm not at home so i don't have my greek dictionary at home. If by tomorow you don't have your answer i will tell you... Hopefully someone will tell you by then

[Tellos Athenaios]

Quite wrong, if I may say so. The whole point with Greek is that adjectives are conjugated in correspondance with the nouns they are tied to:

So: Phylakes (noun, masculine, plural, nominativus). Basilikon (adjective, masculine, plural, genitivius OR: adjective, neuter, singular, nominativus/accusativus OR some other, redundant forms which won't help.)

Agema may mean the assorted elite/semi-elite rare troop types such as the Royal Guards, the Elephants, the Elite Cavalry, and assorted heavy infantry etc...
It is loosely translated with guard, but that's only part of the full Agema.
It litterally means 'square'.

It is a noun, neuter, singular and is either nominativus or accusativus.

Greeks had their own word for Lucanians: Leukanoi. It also doubles as their word for the ethnicity (which is often somewhat different from the name of the people: for instance Thraikes (Thracians, noun, plural) Thraikioi (Thracian, adjective, plural))

So among the many possibilities, this is the one which is closest to Lucanian Royal Guard: Agema Basilikon Leukanon. (You might want to abbreviate it to Agema Leukanon; or play around with word order a bit.)

[Aranor]

Quite wrong, if I may say so. The whole point with Greek is that adjectives are conjugated in correspondance with the nouns they are tied to:

So: Phylakes (noun, masculine, plural, nominativus). Basilikon (adjective, masculine, plural, genitivius OR: adjective, neuter, singular, nominativus/accusativus OR some other, redundant forms which won't help.)

Agema may mean the assorted elite/semi-elite rare troop types such as the Royal Guards, the Elephants, the Elite Cavalry, and assorted heavy infantry etc...
It is loosely translated with guard, but that's only part of the full Agema.
It litterally means 'square'.

It is a noun, neuter, singular and is either nominativus or accusativus.

Greeks had their own word for Lucanians: Leukanoi. It also doubles as their word for the ethnicity (which is often somewhat different from the name of the people: for instance Thraikes (Thracians, noun, plural) Thraikioi (Thracian, adjective, plural))

So among the many possibilities, this is the one which is closest to Lucanian Royal Guard: Agema Basilikon Leukanon. (You might want to abbreviate it to Agema Leukanon; or play around with word order a bit.)

Well I knew I was wrong. I just was unsure HOW wrong I was!

Thanks for the help Tellos! This information is perfect!

[Vorian]

Well I was about to tell you the modern Greek version which is Leukanio Basiliko Agema and totally wrong....

My grades in ancient Greek sucked at school...

TA nice one. Just wanting to ask, how many years did you study ancient Greek?

[Tellos Athenaios]

Study? Nah, I took the course at highschool - for 5 years (meaning I finished the entire course).

[O'ETAIPOS]

TA you made one mistake: He asked for Lycians (SE Asia minor people) not Lucanians (S italians)

[Tellos Athenaios]

There you are, it's all about reading it appears...

Oh well: Lukion or Lukiakon then...

[The Celt]

Study? Nah, I took the course at highschool - for 5 years (meaning I finished the entire course).

They had Greek at your High School? How long ago was this?!

[Horst Nordfink]

We had French or German.

I would've loved to have done Ancient Greek or Latin. In Britain, you only do Latin if you go to a Public School (or maybe a religious school).

[Teleklos Archelaou]

They had Greek at your High School? How long ago was this?!

Fall 2008, for the first time, for the place I'm at right now.

[Tellos Athenaios]

@The Celt: Classical Greek is a standard course for any highschool which offers the gymnasium courses - that is, ordinary VWO (don't ask me what it is, but basically that level or equivalent or higher education is required to enter Uni's) with either Classical Greek or Latin or both as part of the curriculum.