Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Slavic Elements in...Homer? - Part 3

Miltiades Elia Bolaris
SLAVIC HOMER IN SKOPJE and assorted Balkan fables

(Hocus Pocus Slavomakedoniensis: bogus scholarly witchcraft in the age of Antikvizatsiyja)
Petrus Invictus, a.k.a. Perica Sardzoski, a.k.a. Pero, a.k.a. Petro, a.k.a. John Donne is only one of a long series of Skopjan pseudo-scientists from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Makedonija and the Slavomacedonian Diaspora, who try to make a pointless connection between the Slavic speaking inhabitants of FYROM and the Hellenic-speaking ancient Macedonians. To make such an unlikely thesis credible, they have to A. De-Hellenize the ancient Macedonians and “prove” that their language was Slavonic and not related to Greek and, B. make the case that it was not the Slavic tribes that arrived into the Byzantine Balkans after the 7th century AD, but it was the other way around: that the original home of the Slavs was Northern Greece, Macedonia, and that it was instead some imaginary Slavomacedonians of the ancient past who supposedly colonized the areas now inhabited by the Slavs, world-wide. 1[i]Such an amazingly in-credible theory is not so easy for other Slavs, Russians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Ukrainians and Bulgarians, among others, to swallow, but this leaves the Skopjan ultra-nationalists indifferent. The target of their pseudo-science is not the academics; they know they have lost that battle long ago. Their target focuses on the international You-Tube generation and internally on their own Slavomacedonian youth, a youth long poisoned by decades long thought-crushing brain-washing propaganda garbage.
In his “Slavic elements in Homer”2[ii] article, Perica Sardzoski has elevated the craft of Skopjan history falsification to the level of sacrilegious art. Telling us that his article is nothing else than the beginning of the writing of a “Living Bible” of pseudo-makedonism, he has no qualms falsifying even the original Bible.
In “Slavic Elements in...Homer?” – Parts 1 and Part 2, we exposed his infantile pseudo-linguistics (“Odyssey” supposedly being derived from Slavic “Odi Si” / “Go away!” etc). Building on his original quicksand of arguments, he marches on several steps further. Putting truth feet up and head down, he tries to portray Modern Greek as being disconnected from Homeric Greek and his own Slavomacedonian in direct continuum with Homer’s language.
“We need to mention here that the word οδός (odos) is the only one that can be found in modern Greek, which obviously derived from the Homeric, however with a significantly altered meaning, due to the intervention of the Katharevousa. It turns out that οδός (odos) is synonymous to δρόμος (dromos), meaning ROAD, the streets in the town. While in modern day (Slavo-)Macedonian there are almost all the forms preserved in their original meaning: ODI (to go), ODENJE (going), ODAM (I GO), ODI SI (go away), OD (a walk)…
We have already shown how δς / hodos / odos has stayed virtually unchanged in Greek for the last three thousand years. It was δς in Homer, δς in Herodotus, δς in Plato, δς in the Bible, δς in Byzantine Greek and δς in modern Greek. We can easily find a few million instances where the Homeric Greek δς / hodos / odos  appears in Greek texts of all ages, including Modern and Homeric. The amusing challenge would be for Perica Sardzovski to find any of the the Slavonic ODI, ODENJE, ODAM, ODI SI, and OD in just one instance in Homer!
This not being enough for him, he continues:
“To show how the transformation of the term οδός (odos) happened in the Greek language we need to quote the bible here (Old Testament, Judges 18):
«Kαί είπαν προς αυτόν, Ερώτησον, παρακαλουμεν τον θεον δια να γνωρισωμεν εαν εχη να ευοδωθη η οδος ημων την οποίαν υπάγομεν.»” (our underlining)
Something did not seem right with this quote. The translation from Hebrew into Greek of the Old Testament was done in Alexandria of Egypt, during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphos (285-247 B.C.).  The first question the Skopjan clowns who believe that the Ancient Macedonians spoke proto-Slavic and wrote Slavomacedonian in Rosetta Stone’s Demotic script, is why the Macedonian Pharaohs of Hellenictic Egypt translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek, the Hellenic Coene language, and not into proto-Slavonic.3[iii] I know enough Greek to know that the Greeks of 3rd cBC would NOT have written δια να γνωρισωμεν / dia na gnorisomen, or, especially εαν εχη να ευοδωθη / ean echei na euodothei. “Dia na”, “ean” and “na” are most definitely derived from ancient Greek but they are Modern Greek expressions, NOT 3rd cBC Greek. As for the expression εαν εχη να ευοδωθη / ean echei na euodothei, besides being misspelled, it is also outright bad Greek that does not make sense regardless of dialect or era. Wondering what kind of “Bible” this pitiful pseudo-scientist is using, I looked up the original quote and this is how the text reads:
5 κα επαν ατ· περτησον δ ν τ Θε, κα γνωσμεθα ε εοδωθσεται δς μν, ν μες πορευμεθα ν ατ.
5 And they said to him, Enquire now of God, and we shall know whether our way will prosper, on which we are going. 
To see the difference, I transliterated the Greek text and the discrepancy is obvious. The first text is the original Greek of the Bible, in Latin script. The second one is the fraudulent text.
ORIGINAL: Kai eipan auto eperotison en to Theo, kai gnossometha ei euodothesetai e hodos emon, en e emeis poreuometha en aute
FRAUD: Kai eipan pros auton, Erotison, parakaloumen ton Theon dia na gnorisomen ean eche e odos emon ten opoian ypagomen
We have no idea how and why this Bible and Macedonian history falsifier came up with this Coene Greek-sounding “BIBLE” quote but for sure he is miles away from the original Greek of the Bible. Had he been living in Spain, in the wrong era, he would have been condemned to burn on the stake as a heretic. All we will do for him is to simply expose him as the fraudulent pseudo-intellectual that he is. Keeping on with his hoax, and to achieve his ultra-nationalist propaganda goals, he has no qualms falsifying even the sacred book of both Christians and Jews:
“In the Bible it is obvious that the term οδός was used with its original form, which is “long journey”. How did this transformation take place, knowing that Modern Greek is derived from that of the Bible, which on the other hand derives from that of Classical Greek and Homer?”
This is false, of course, as we will show, but, in keeping with his assertion of “a significantly altered meaning” for hodos, “due to the intervention of the Katharevousa. It turns out that οδός (odos) is synonymous to δρόμος (dromos), meaning ROAD, the streets in the town.”
Therefore, he howls sarcastically:
“You wouldn’t say that the Bible implied a rich or prosperous district of town with this passage, would you?”
No, in fact we would not. Simply because odos/οδός DOES NOT mean district of town in Greek, not now, not ever, in the same way that “Street”, “Road”, “Way” or “Highway” DOES NOT mean “district of town” in English, for that matter. Only in the crooked mind of a propagandist can these terms be equated, in order to create confusion and cover up his devious tracks using the Bible (“You wouldn’t say that the Bible implied...") as his fig leaf!
We look up at the meaning of δς / hodos, in “The New Testament Greek Lexicon”:
“ὁδς
Definition:
Properly
a.         a way, a travelled way, road
b.         a traveler’s way,  journey, travelling
Metaphorically
a.         a course of conduct, a way (i.e. manner) of thinking, feeling, deciding
Out of a hundred instances of  δς / hodos, in the Bible, we find it translated into English with the following words:
highways, 2;
journey, 7;
path, 1;
paths, 1;
road, 24;
roads, 1;
streets, 1;
way, 54;
ways, 9;”
This is in Coene Greek, the Greek of the Bible. In Homeric Greek, according to the Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect4[iv], δς / hodos meant: (1) a way, path, track, passage, road, (2) a going, journey, voyage, course, and (3) means of journeying or passage, facilities for a journey.
In Modern Greek it can mean:
 οδός:
Street, road, way, route, tract, process, thoroughfare, passage, etc.
The word δς / hodos is also used to create a dizzying multitude of such words as οδηγός/hodegos (driver), οδηγητής/odegites and Οδηγήτρια/Hodegetria (the Guiding one), περίοδος/periodos (period), μέθοδος/methodos (method), κάθοδος/kathodos (cathode), άνοδος/anodos (anode), είσοδος/eisodos (entry), έξοδος/exodos (exodus-exit), πρόσοδος/prosodos (incoming funds), οδικός/odikos (of the road,  παροδικός/parodikos(bypassing or temporary), πρόοδος/proodos (progress), σύνοδος/dynodes (synod), δίοδος/diodos (passageway), έφοδος/ephodos (attack), πάροδος/parodos (side-street)...etc etc etc. We can fill pages of these words, and many of them have actually been accepted as loanwords into several other languages, so translating Periodos, Exodos, or Methodos is hardly necessary.
Yet, according to Pero Sardzovski,
“We need to mention here that the word οδός (odos) is the only one that can be found in Modern Greek, which obviously derived from the Homeric, however with a significantly altered meaning, due to the intervention of the Katharevousa. It turns out that οδός (odos) is synonymous to δρόμος (dromos), meaning ROAD, the streets in the town. While in modern day (Slavo-)Macedonian there are almost all the forms preserved in their original meaning: ODI (to go), ODENJE (going), ODAM (I GO), ODI SI (go away), OD (a walk)…”
What else can we say...?
Now we move to what Pero calls:
“THE ETYMOLOGY OF HOMER’S “δμονδε” (DOMONDE):

Odyssey, Book 3, lines 404-446

“π
ρ δ ρ ην κα οιδς νρ, πλλ πτελλεν
τρεδης Τροηνδε κιν ρυσασθαι κοιτιν.
λλ τε δ μιν μορα θεν πδησε δαμναι,
270δ
ττε τν μν οιδν γων ς νσον ρμην
κ
λλιπεν οωνοσιν λωρ κα κρμα γενσθαι,
τ
ν δ θλων θλουσαν νγαγεν νδε δμονδε.”

In English:

“…and with her was furthermore a minstrel whom the son of Atreus straitly charged, when he set forth for the land of Troy, to guard his wife. But when at length the doom of the gods bound her that she should be overcome, then verily Aegisthus took the minstrel to a desert isle and left him to be the prey and spoil of birds; and her, willing as he was willing, he led to his own house.”

δ
μονδε – pronounced [domonde] – meaning “homeward”, shows a striking similarity to the Macedonian word DOM (home), or DOM-ON (that home over there).
ONDE in Macedonian means OVER THERE. It is an adverb of place which can be afflicted to nouns in its short form ON, NA, NO, NE, NA.

So if we have DOM+ONDE (home + over there), in modern Macedonian, and then δ
μονδε, meaning HOMEWARD, when in Greek we have: προς το σπίτι (pros to spiti). In Greek it is σπίτι (SPITI), which means HOME.”

Let us start with the last comment. Spiti/σπίτι is in fact commonly used in Modern Greek for “home”, but “spiti” is not a Greek word originally, it is a Byzantine loanword from Latin. It was originally Hospitium (see: hospital, hosting, etc), then it became Ospition, Ospiti and now Spiti. In some modern Greek dialects like in Pontian it is still Ospiti or Ospitin. The other two common words used in modern Greek for home or house are either oikia/οικία or katoikia/κατοικία, and in some cases also oikos/οίκος: “oikos eugerias”/ οίκος ευγηρίας, “old people’s home”. The word Economy is derived from Oikos, spelled also in Latin as Oecos, (Economy was spelled Oeconomia, in Latin, and the O was later dropped in other languages). Ecology, Ecosphere and other Eco- words are also derived from Oikos, home.
Now let us read carefully Sardzovski’s arguments on domonde:
“δμονδε – pronounced [domonde] – meaning “homeward”, shows a striking similarity to the Macedonian word DOM (home), or DOM-ON (that home over there).”
He is correct in translating δμονδε /domonde as “homeward” or, more precisely: “to the house”. He is also correct in noticing a similarity between the Greek δμονδε /domonde and the Slavomacedonian DOM (home), but once he goes to DOM-ON (that home over there), then he already slipped. We will explain: The Greek word Δόμος/Domos means house in ancient Greek, more specifically the “built” structure, house more than home. It is a common Indo-European word to the Latin Domus, the Slavonic Dom and the Sanskrit Dama, among others.
In Homeric Greek “dom-” related words denote structure, construction, frame, house, built item etc:
“Domos/Δόμος (demo/δέμω): house, home, denoting a dwelling as a whole; usually singular of temples, and when applied to the abodes of animals, but often plural of dwellings of men.
Demo/Δέμω, (aorist) edeimna/έδειμα...build, construct
Demos/Δέμος (demo/δέμω), frame, built of body, joined with είδος
Demnion/Δέμνιον: pl., bedstead, bed5[v]
Pero is already moving in a different direction:
“ONDE in (Slavo)Macedonian means OVER THERE. It is an adverb of place which can be afflicted to nouns in its short form ON, NA, NO, NE, NA.
So if we have DOM+ONDE (home + over there), in modern (Slavo)Macedonian, and then δ
μονδε, meaning HOMEWARD, when in Greek we have: προς το σπίτι (pros to spiti). In Greek it is σπίτι (SPITI), which means HOME.”
Onde, he tells us means “over there”, in Slavomacedonian. Therefore, he reasons, “ if we have DOM+ONDE (home + over there), in modern (Slavo)Macedonian, and then δμονδε, meaning HOMEWARD. This is good alchemy, but hardly convincing linguistics. While there is DOM (home), and even DOM-ON (that home over there), in Slavomakedonski, there is no “Domonde” word meaning “homeward”. That home “over there” means THAT HOME OVER THERE! Any way you cook it does not mean “homeward”!
Furthermore, let us follow the Greek text in Homer, and Pero’s linguistic alchemy will become even more transparent: 
We read the last line, which has what we need:
“τν δ θλων θλουσαν νγαγεν νδε δμονδε
ten d’ ethelon ethelousan anegagen onde domonde
and her, willing as he was willing, he led to his own house”
This is a good English translation, but we will translate each one of the last three by themselves:
νγαγεν/ anegagen : he led
νδε δμονδε  / onde domonde : “to his own house”. 
This is CORRECT English but NOT a literal translation. 

If we were to translate the EXACT Greek words it would be more like:
(νγαγεν/ anegagen: he led)  νδε δμονδε  / onde domonde = “to his own to the house”, since:
νδε/ onde means “to his own” and δμονδε/domonde means “to the house”.
Δμονδε/domonde, we were told by Perica Sardoski, is derived by the Slavic DOM+ONDE (home + over there).
But the Greek text has ONDE DOMONDE, and more specifically νδε δμονδε, which Petro seems to bypass whistling indifferently. So, then how would he translate it using his own Slavonic dialect?
 “Over there home over there”? 
And how, then, would he translate the complete last line?
“…and her, willing as he was willing, he led over there home over there.”?
We would hate to see Pero translate Homer in Slavomakedonski. That would be yet one more grave disservice (among many others) to the Slavomacedonian youth and the literary community in Skopje.
νδε is in fact a combination (ν-δε) of ς + -δε: to his own…or more precicely: to his6[vi]
νδε acts as the attribute of δμονδε which is also a combined word (δμον-δε) of δόμος+δε.
The doubling of “-δε” in both the attribute (νΔΕ) and the object (δμονΔΕ) is used to create emphasis. And of course it is more poetic and rhythmic, something never lost in Homer!
He uses it all the time in fact7[vii]:
“νοστσαι δυσα πολύφρονα νδε δόμονδε,
that the wise Odysseus should return to his own home,”
Homer Odyssey. 1.80
The use of -δε / -de as an emphatic suffix is not unique to Homer, to the contrary.
 
Onde / νδε is accusative singular masculine of ς + -δε. This means that onde/νδε can also appear
in nominative masculine singular as osde/σδε (the s is in fact eclipsed and it actually becomes ode/δε), 
in genitive masculine singular as oude/ούδε, in dative masculine singular as ode/ώδε and of course as onde/νδε. 
In Feminine form it can also appear as ede/ήδε, esde/ήσδε ήδε/ede as well as in neutral δε/ode, oude/ούδε 
and tode/τόδε:
on a stony plot of ground? And if there is, 535
λέκτρα/Electra, Euripides 535
τόδε/tode: emphatic “there!”
 
This is only for singular, the same holds for the plural forms. Nobody ever claimed that Greek is an easy language. 
But it is very precise and very expressive. 
Domonde/δμονδε means to the house, homeward, as we said. This is the only thing which petro told us that is correct. But as we noted above, a δμονδε is a combination of δμον + δε (δόμος-δε) and not as Petrus Invictus claims of Dom + Onde (house – over there). Domos+de not dom+onde!8[viii]

Entha/νθα means here, but enthade/νθάδε (νθα + -δε) means towards here, hither, right here! νθάδε κεται” are the most famous two words written on a Greek tombstones, similar to the RIP in English: “νθάδε κεται / here lies”, and the name of the deceased.

All adverb of place, indicating the place receive the -δε /-de in the end: domos/δόμος means house and it gives us domonde/δμονδε, but oikos/οκος means home and it give us oikade/οκαδε
οκαδε νοστήσαντα φίλην ς πατρίδα γααν.
but my husband I shall never welcome back,
returning home to his dear native land. 
Hom. Od. 19.258
οκαδε νοστήσαντα / oikade nostesanta / returning home : Oikade/οικαδε = οίκος + -δε : oikonde/οικονδε / to one’s house or home. 
Mache/Μάχη means battle, machende/μάχηνδε means to battle. 9[ix]From Ulympos/Υλυμπος we have Ulymponde/ λυμπόνδε and from Phthia/Φθα, Achilles’s homeland, we have Phthiende/Φθηνδε. Homeward. From Athens/Athena/Αθήνα we derive Athenade/ Αθήναδε were D morphs into Z and it becomes Athenaze/Αθήναζε, to Athens. Going towards Ithaca to Ithake/θάκη becomes Ithakende/θάκηνδε, to Ithaca:

ε κενόν γ θάκηνδε δοίατο νοστήσαντα,
ei keinon g’ Ithakende idoiato nostesanta,
were they to see him returned to Ithaca,
Homer, Odyssey, a.163

We mentioned earlier that νδε δμονδε has a repeating –δε (acting as emphasis on νδε, while still being a locative on δμονδε) which is adding emphasis to the whole expression : onde domonde / νδε δμονδε:
τοος, -α, -ον which means “such, of such nature, kind”, becomes emphasized by the addition of –δε as a suffix and then it becomes: τοιόσδε, τοιήδε, τοιόνδε which also means: “such, of such nature, kind”
I live in his house, at a distance from the city.
λέκτρα/Electra Euripides 251
τοσδ κείνου / toisde ekeinou - toisd’ekeinou - translated here as: in his own…δόμοις / domois – house

This becomes even more apparent when we look at a few examples of the the word tosos/τόσος, τόσσος, -η, -ον, meaning “such in number, quantity or volume” which becomes “τοσόσδε, τοσσόσδε, τοσήδε, τοσόνδε” without changing the meaning of “such in number, quantity or volume” but it is merely strengthened by the final addition of –δε as a suffix.
We start with an example from Homer:
“205α γρ μο τοσσήνδε θεο δύναμιν περιθεεν,
τίσασθαι μνηστρας περβασίης λεγεινς,
 [205] O that the gods would clothe me with such strength,
that I might take vengeance on the wooers for their grievous sin,
Homer, Odyssey, 3. 205
τοσσήνδε δύναμιν / tossende dynamin / with such strength”

Then we have an example from Sappho, in the Aeolic dialect:

“α γρ] οδήσαις π τ[ρς τόσονδε
I wish you would swell to thrice your size”
Symmachus, Sappho
τ[ρς τόσονδε / tris tosonde / thrice your size
Then we move centuries back, to a 14th- 12th c.BC example, several centuries before Homer, and we go to the earliest example of the appearance of Greek writing, the Linear B templates, where a surprising example of –δε is found, being used exactly in the same way, as an emphatic suffix. We follow J. T. Hooker in his book on Linear B: 
#122 (8) Some words are formed with the demonstrative stem to-
To-so = τόσ(σ)ος “so much”
To-so-de = τοσ(σ)όσδε (with emphatic suffix) , same meaning10[x]

As am matter of fact, three and a half thousand years later, this very expression has survived remaining almost unchanged in Greek: 
To-so = τόσ(σ)ος (tosos) it was in Linear B, toso/τόσο or tosos/τόσος is "so much" today.
To-so-de = τοσ(σ)όσδε (tososde) was the emphatic so much" in linear B, 3500 years ago, toso da / τόσο δά it is today, in Demotic, colloquial Greek.
Having seenδε being used as early as the 12th-14th c BC in the νδε type of emphatic sense, we are pleasantly surprised to find –δε being also used in the δόμονδε, locative sense, in those same Linear B templates, the earlier example of Greek script. We go to page 71 of the same book by J.T.Hooker. These are from Knossos, in Crete:

(iii) Name in –e-jo (-είον):
KN da-da-re-jo-de = Δαιδαλείόνδε 
...
(v) names in –i-jo/-i-ja (-ιος/-ια) and –u-wa  (υFα):
KN a-ka-wi-ja-de = ΑχαιFίανδε?
...
[Δαιδαλείόνδε  / Daidalionde = to Daidalion
ΑχαιFίανδε / AchaiFiande = to Achaia]
In case we have forgotten Petrus Invictus, a.k.a. Perica Sardzoski, a.k.a. Pero, a.k.a. Petro, a.k.a. John Donne’ s original argument, here is is once again, in all its inglorious nakedness:
“δμονδε – pronounced [domonde] – meaning “homeward”, shows a striking similarity to the (Slavo)Macedonian word DOM (home), or DOM-ON (that home over there).
ONDE in (Slavo)Macedonian means OVER THERE…"
We believe that it is high time for the “home over there” (home + over there) type of comical pseudo-linguistic absurdities to return and rest Σκοπίανδε / Skopiande, to Skopje. 
Attempting to make a nationalistic case of autochthony for the Slavomacedonians in Macedonia, based on some sound similarities to words found in the greatest poetic masterpiece of Greek literature, is simply too far-fetched to fly anywhere, except for the You-Tube crowd.11&12[xi] [xii]
One of the basic arguments raised by Petrus Invictus, a.k.a. Perica Sardzoski, a.k.a. Pero, a.k.a. Petro, a.k.a. John Donne, was that since the Slavomacedonians, like most other Slavs, have retained the common Indo-European word Dom/ Дом for house, while the Greek use oικος/oikos, οικία/oikia and κατοικία/ katoikia and (the Latin loanword) σπίτι/spiti, it is therefore assumed that Slavomacedonian is closer to Homer who used Δόμος/Domos. This is as valid an argument as claiming that modern Hindi is not related to the language of the Vedas just because the modern Indians do not use the Sanskrit word Dama any longer, using ghara/ House, imārata/building, gr̥ha/ Houses and bhavana/ buildings, instead. 


In the same token Italian, Spanish and French, according to that twisted logic are not derived from Latin since they use casa, casa and maison, instead of the Latin domus while Polish and Czech are closer to the Sanskrit Vedas and to Homeric Greek since they are using Dom and Dum respectively.

Although Δόμος/Domos has fallen out of use long ago from Greek as a word describing “home” or“house”, it is still very much in use for a number of home construction and other construction related terms.
Dome/δομή is the built structure, hyperdome/υπερδομή is what has been built over the foundation, doma/δώμα is the floor of a multistory building but also the flat roof, domiko/δομικό is something (usually of materials) construction-related, domesi/δόμηση is the building activity, the combination of the two Homeric words oikos/οίκος and domos/δόμος gives us oikodomos/οικοδόμος, the construction worker (literally the “house builder”), a word almost identical to the pre-Homeric toichodomos/τοιχοδόμος in plural toichodomoi-τοιχοδόμοι (to-ko-do-mo toicodόmoi building workers Etym. toicoj = wall [in Modern Greek toichos/τοίχος] + domî = build), a word that still exists in toichodomi/τοιχοδομή, meaning wall building. Naodomia/Nαοδομία is the Church building and Naodomos/Nαοδόμος is the Architect specializing in Church design and building. There is also domokataskeuastikos / δομοκατασκευαστικos, someone or something structural and construction related, apodomesi/αποδόμηση, destruction, anadomesi/αναδόμηση, rebuilding. Anadomemenos/αναδομημένος is the rebuilt one, hypodome/υποδομή is the substructure and hyperdomesi/υπερδόμηση is overbuilding. Lithodome/λιθοδομή is stone structure and plinthodome/πλινθοδομή is brick structure and  reinforced concrete is skyrodema/σκυρόδεμα.
Someone can easily claim that the word skyrodema/σκυρόδεμα is a modern word, a legacy of the katharevousa, and that is obviously correct, since there was no reinforced concrete in ancient Greece. A far better example of an unobstructed use of the domos, doma or dome in modern Greek can be found spoken in simple demotic colloquial Greek, demonstrating the uninterrupted and fruitful continuity of the Greek language much more forcefully than any modern lectical creation. Doma/δώμα , as mentioned above is the floor of a multistory building but also the flat roof. In the Greek islands, doma/Δώμα indicates the earth and seaweed flat roof typical of Greek traditional architecture and this is not a word that the locals took from the architects and structural engineers of today:

“Που τα νερά τα πολλά το δώμα μας ούλον τον σειμώναν έτρεσεν
Pou ta nera ta polla to doma mas oulon ton seimonan etresen
From so much water our doma (roof) throughout the winter was dripping”
(Cypriot expression, in the Cypriot Greek dialect)13[xiii]
Although this may sound as a surprising revelation to someone whose language (Slavomakedonski) has only recently been codified out of the west Bulgarian dialects, languages do in fact evolve. What used to be the Indo-European word for Domos, the (mostly wooden) home of the proto-Indo-Europeans, for example, has now evolved into the word for “Timber” (wood used to construct a domos) in English.
In the same token, while Δόμος/Domos has fallen out of use long ago from everyday Greek as a word describing “house”, the word originally describing the “little house”, the “diminutive house”, the “small Δόμος/Domos” is very much in use in everyday demotic, colloquial Greek:
Domatio/δωμάτιο is the Greek word for “room”, and it is a cognate word of “zimmer”, meaning “room”, in German, through which the English word “room” is also derived.


NOTES & REFERENCES:

4[iv] Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, Richard John Cunliffe, University of Oklahoma Press, 1963 (1924), page 285
5[v] A Homeric dictionary: for schools and colleges, By Georg Autenrieth
9[ix] Theoc.25.136
10[x] Linear B An Introduction, J.T.Hooker, Bristol Classical Press, London, 1980, page 60
12[xii] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCBtu-MLUVE&feature=related
13[xiii] http://www.xanthi.ilsp.gr/mnemeia/viewXeiroPages.aspx?xeironum=963&vpage=1