> My knowledge of CJK languages is spotty bordering on nonexistent

Mine, too. I did learn Chinese, but only in primary school, so as I'm
sure you can appreciate, I never reached a very high standard, and with
the passage of about 13 years, even what I had has mostly gone, though I
have picked up some more. It's on my to do list. Living in Australia,
probably the most common language around here after English is Chinese
(of one dialect or another, but that's another story!).

>> Though you've well and truly exhausted my language repertoire. Apart
>> from French, which you've taken, I only have biblical languages, and
>> naturally, they have no word for Christmas...
> 
> Depends if you regard Syriac / Aramean as a "Biblical" language. And of 
> course Greek is the language of the New Testament, and _it_ certainly 
> has a word for Christmas.

In this context, I regard as biblical languages those in which the Bible
is written, i.e. Hebrew, Greek and a little Aramaic, not including
descendent languages such as Modern Greek or Hebrew, nor others merely
spoken in biblical times.

By the way, the spelling of Christ is χριστος; certainly in biblical and
classical Greek, and by the look of it also in Modern Greek (a quick
glance at a Modern Greek Bible translation tells me). χρηστος is a
different word meaning (at least in Koine Greek) generally 'useful' or
'beneficial' (in a concrete, or an abstract moral sense).

Smiles,

Ben.




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