Gennady writes this about my musing on the phrase “I don’t blame you”:

I love pragmatics. If I get a phd, i may consider doing in pragmatics. How would that conversation have gone in greek? What would a greek person say in response?Would they understand or be confused or insulted?

I would probably say one of two different things in Greek to someone who was taking a well-deserved break: “kala kanis” (basically “good for you” or “good thing you’re doing”). Or you could say “me to skeftese” or, literally, “Don’t think about it”, which I guess is the closest thing but doesn’t carry an implication of blame to it the way “I don’t blame you” does in English. In either case, the meaning is understood.

Good, important question. Also, I hate phonetically spelling Greek words in English. It just looks wrong.