 | νυχτιά |
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Hi! Please, somebody help me with this: Wich is the difference between νυχτιά and νύχτα? Τhank you! |
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I will dare to answer your question though I am not certain that much. Surely Greg will correct where I'm wrong. 1. The plural of η νύχτα is οι νύχτες. But you may also encounter Νύχτια as an irregular plural form, usually in poetry, for the sake of rhyming. 2. Νύχτια (note the accent) is also used as an adjective, meaning that of the night, e.g. τα νύχτια πουλιά the night birds. The ending here may vary according to the gender and case of the noun it belongs to, and more regularly it should be in the form νυχτικός, νυχτική, νυχτικό. And hence τα νυχτικά πουλιά is a better way to say it, I guess. 3. Νυχτιά, I dare guess, should be a noun probably meaning nightwear or pajama, sometimes also referred to as νυχτικό. I hope I did not mess things up. HEEELP Greg! Alexander Pope was right when he said A little learning is a dangerous thing, drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring... I guess I am risking with my little knowledge of Greek. |
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Η νύχτα is the standard demotic word for "night" as opposed to "day", η μέρα, while η νυχτιά (from the older form νυκτιά) is largely used now as a literary term carrying the sense of "a period of time of one night" or "the entire night". Similarly το βράδυ with η βραδιά, and ο χρόνος with η χρονιά, as in Καλή Χρονιά!, "Happy New Year!". As Arshak notes, there is also an adjective stressed on the first syllable, but it normally retains the ancient/classical spelling νύκτια (from νύκτιος, -α, -ο) and is a literary equivalent to demotic νυχτερινός, -ή, -ό, "nightly". Regards, Greg Brush |
| Re: νυχτιά |
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Wow! Thank you so much, Greg. Your response is really amazing! And thank you, Arshak , for your nice contribution here. p.s. "ξενυχτιά" would mean then "an entire white night"? |
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You are welcome. Thank YOU for giving questions. This sort of questions serves us well to start brain-storming and we pick up many other things along without even realising it... And thanks Greg for always being there. These lessons are great! Although I make use of the FSI Greek files, Livemocha, and songs as well but here is where I get the gradual introduction/explanation in an organised step-by-step manner... Other lessons I've seen so far are presented in a rather haphazard way... Coming to the question, To my knowledge ξενυχτιά is the plural noun from the verb ξενυχτάω, which means staying awake late in the night, like sahar/yas'har in Arabic... there's no parallel verb in English to express it in a single word, as much as I know. You'll meet this verb in many songs as in this one by Stratos Dionisiou: Κάθε βράδυ ξενυχτάω... δεν μπορώ να κλείσω μάτι... I stay awake every evening... I cannot [even] close an eye... It's one of my favourite songs, it's called Γιατί δεν με προσέχεις; Have a nice day. |
| Re: νυχτιά |
| P.S. ξαγρυπνώ/ξαγρυπνάω (αγρυπνώ/αγρυπνάω) has the same meaning as ξενυχτώ/ξενυχτάω. |
| Re: νυχτός |
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Greg This is from the HAU podcast (74): Όνειρα θερινής νυχτός I'm guessing the translation is "Dreams of a summery night" so where does 'νυχτός' come from? Best wishes Mike |
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The ancient/classical word for "night" was the consonant-stem noun η νύξ, where the stem ended in the consonant cluster -κτ. νυκτός was the genitive singular form. Over the course of many centuries -κτ- phonetically mutated into -χτ-, and, as with most other consonant-stem nouns, by the medieval period the accusative singular (in this instance mutated την νύχτα) had became the basis for the modern demotic nominative, η νύχτα. As for the literary adjective θερινός, "summer", take a look at "FYI: καλοκαιρινός / θερινός" in Discussion Forum 81. Thus: Όνειρα θερινής νυχτός = Dreams of a Summer Night Regards, Greg Brush |
