Philip Newton:
> Όχι, κανείς εδώ δεν ξέρει αγγλικά. "No,
> nobody (= not anyone) here
> knows English." So I think that translating
> κανείς δεν ξέρει into "nobody doesn't
> know" is misleading.
I'm afraid, you forgot the "δεν" in your translation of the greek phrase.
In the above sentence "κανεις" means "κανενας", which in turn means "nobody".
The exact translation of "κανεις εδω δεν ξερει αγγλικα" is:
κανεις: nobody
εδω: here
δεν: doesn't
ξερει: know
αγγλικα: english
So, the exact translation of the greek phrase goes "nobody here doesn't know english".
If we said to an american "nobody here doesn't know english" he would understand "everybody here knows english".
On the other hand, if we said the greek phrase to a greek he would understand "noone here knows english".
So, exactly the same phrase, has the opposite meaning in these two different languages, with the problem being, how each one translates the co-existense of "nobody" with "doesn't".
Now, if you used the "κανεις" in a question as:
"Υπαρχει κανεις εδω που δεν ξερει αγγλικα ?"
Then "κανεις" wouldn't mean "nobody", and it would mean "someone". So, the meaning would be "Is here someone who doesn't know english ?"
I realize that this must be confusing, and perhaps because of this reason people say "it all seems greek to me".
The question would be of course, if a klingon heard {naDev, DI'vI' Hol jatlhbe' pagh} what he would understand.
If you think in english you would understand "everyone here speaks english", and if you thought in greek you would understand "noone here speaks english".
But, since there are no real klingons, and the language always uses english for its translations, we will choose to follow the english way, so we will all be happy.
~ nI'ghma