What is your favourite topic to write answers on, on Quora?

That vague and interstitial domain known as Cultural Studies.

It’s an area I have very little formal training in, and have lots of opinions about. Because I have little formal training, I am forced to think hard about whether my speculations stand up to scrutiny, and I put extra effort into structuring an argument. That, I find very enjoyable.

I enjoy writing about stuff I am actually trained in, as well. But that’s not nearly as challenging.

When did the Greeks start using Arabic numerals, and what numerical system preceded it?

16th century, though they were aware of the Arabic system from the 14th century. It was preceded by Milesian numerals, which were universal by the 1st century AD; before that, they used variants of Attic numerals.

See Nick Nicholas’ answer to Did ancient Greek scholars ever adapt Roman numerals? for more detail of Arabic numeral adoption.

Does βαμπίρ have female and plural forms in modern Greek?

Being a foreign word ending in a non-Greek ending, there is no plural. In Modern Greek, if a noun ends in something other than a vowel or sigma, it can’t be declined. (Nu is archaic; rho xi psi even more so.) So το βαμπίρ, τα βαμπίρ.

I see that at least one person online has named themselves Vampirissa “vampiress”, forming a feminine of the form. But that would be considered informal usage: formal usage would just put a feminine article in front of βαμπίρ.

There is a reason unassimilated loanwords suck.

Does Quora care about paid trolls? Is there a way to report accounts suspected of being such?

As any search for “Quora” on Upwork will show, plenty of people are being paid to write answers on Quora, without being state agents. Quora has strictures against spam; it does not have strictures that I know of against propaganda.

From my outside perspective, I keep thinking Quora is one bad news story away from being in a world of hurt. But the bad news story hasn’t happened since 2014. And at least this year they’ve hired a lawyer.

Spam is not the right category for suspected professional propaganda or astroturf, but it’s close enough to serve for reporting, and it’s better than mere “factually inaccurate”. Do give an argument for your suspicion if you make a report, though.

How are the clusters “μψ” and “γξ” pronounced in Modern Greek?

Modern Greek has nasal Sandhi. That means that following a word ending in /n/, any voiceless stop is voiced. (And in the case of /ks/ and /ps/, so is the following /s/.) The /n/ in turn assimilates in place of articulation to what follows.

So:

  • patera “father”, san patera [sam batera] “like a father”
  • keo “I burn”, ðen keo [ðeŋ ɡeo] “I don’t burn”
  • psixi “soul”, stin psixi [stim bziçi] “to the soul”
  • kseno “stranger”, ton kseno [toŋ ɡzeno] “the stranger”

How did Plato address Socrates? Teacher? Master?

Originally Answered:

How does Plato call Socrates?

Of course, we don’t have transcripts by Plato of chats with Socrates, we have dialogues he made up. But Socrates is constantly addressed in Plato’s dialogues as “O Socrates” (ὦ Σώκρατες), with monotonous regularity—over 1200 times in the works of Plato. Socrates in turn addresses his trollees (er, interlocutors) as “O partner” or “o good man” (ὦ ἑταῖρε, ὠγαθέ).

Are βαμπιρ and βρικόλακας the same word in modern Greek?

As other answers have pointed out, the vrikolakas is an indigenous Greek creature rising from the grave, with its own mythology, which is only somewhat similar with that of the vampire. Andreas Karkavitsas‘ harrowing novella The Beggar (1897) depicts the associated superstitions in detail.

When I was a kid, as far as I remember, the Vampires of Eastern Europe or Hollywood were rendered as vrikolakas. They now appear to be rendered as vampir. If you are referring to the vampires of western popular culture, as opposed to blood drinking beings that people used to actually be afraid of, vampir is a safe bet.

What are your results on the new 8values political ideology test?

You know, for someone who has said publicly that they have made their peace with the market, I’m still scoring pretty socialist. For someone who despairs of the morass of modern Western democracy, I’m still scoring pretty democratic. For someone who thinks globalisation is proving a mistake, I’m still scoring pretty internationalist. And for someone who thinks there is more to tradition than the (non-American) Western consensus admits, I’m still scoring pretty progressive.

I don’t think the problem is the test (although I did put in some “neutral” answers). I think the problem is that I keep thinking I really am supposed to be Ché Guevara, and I’m a disappointment when I turn out to be a mere Fabian…