[FormerLib]

For example, anthropoi is the plural of anthropos in Greek. Anthropos is Greek for the word, "man." In a sentence such as "pay attention all you MEN," it is clear that the neutral plural is what is intended; i.e., "pay attention all you people."

Huh? I thought that the plural for 'man' was 'men.' Where is it made clear that the neutral is required?

[xzins]

Where is it made clear that the neutral is required?

The context. If you're talking to a football team and you say, "I want all you ANTHROPOI (Men) to gather together for the team photo," then you know you're talking to MALES. You know from context that only males are members of the team.

If, however, you look at the stands which includes womena and children and men and say, "I want all you ANTHROPOI to stand for the national anthem," then it's important to know that in Greek "anthropoi" can also be neutral plural. At that point you have to decide: "Should I just use the literal translation of "men" or should I realize that women and children are also supposed to show respect at the playing of the national anthem?" In this case, the context would dictate the use of the neutral plural "People" instead of the masculine plural, "men."

[Helix]

It's been a looong time since my Ancient Greek course, but if I remember correctly they didn't use a word similar to "people" when referring to a group of men and women. They almost always used the masculine plural. In a way, it's similar to the way we use "mankind".

[be131]

There are at least two words for "man" in Greek. "Anthropos" means "man" in the sense, "human". "Aner" means man, as opposed to woman. A translation which translates both as "man" loses the nuance of the original Greek. It makes a lot of sense to translate "anthropos" as "person" or "human". In fact, it is arguably a more accurate translation of the original Greek.