[B-Greek] Memorizing Declensions -

Norbert Rennert norbert.rennert at sil.org
Tue Oct 17 14:43:52 EDT 2006


I have developed something like this for Koine Greek 
<http://call.canil.ca/koine/index.html>. It uses simple stories as a 
frame which the user can manipulate to change the story in a multitude 
of ways. The semantics of the story stays the same so the learner always 
knows the meaning of each word (once he has learned the words in the 
story in its basic form). This site is not complete; it only has a few 
stories, but it can be expanded. What I need is some competent Greek 
writers to compose very simple stories for me. These will be tagged and 
then offered up for others to read and manipulate. I think that this 
method of learning another language is preferable to memorizing 
paradigms. Of course, something like this could also be developed for 
ancient Greek. This could be a great supplementary reading resource for 
biblical greek students. Any Greek experts out there willing to write 
some simple stories?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

NORBERT RENNERT
Information Technician
Canada Institute of Linguistics
7600 Glover Road, Langley, BC V2Y 1Y1
t: 604.513.2129 ext. 3955
f: 604.513.2128



Terry and Gail Cook wrote:
> "nothing like this exists for ancient Greek"
> Perhaps, Dr Buth, you are called to produce such a work?
> Terry Cook
> sDg
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Randall Buth" <randallbuth at gmail.com>
> To: "B-Greek at Lists. Org" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 1:34 PM
> Subject: [B-Greek] Memorizing Declensions -
>
>
>   
>> Mitch you are on the right track to learn to use real words.
>>
>> SLA (Second Language Acquisition) theory is strongly on the side of
>> use and presentation of real forms in simple context (understandable
>> content as presented!) Unfortunately, nothing like this exists for
>> ancient Greek.
>>
>> the above does NOT mean that paradigms are bad. But relying on them
>> for initial learning has a strong tendency to develop the analytical
>> side of a language at the expense of fluency. Use of language within
>> understandable context is the crucial factor. This is also a scalar
>> category with shades of adaptability as well as extremes. By their
>> fruit you will know them: consider 2 German lit majors having a
>> conversation over lunch in German. Consider two classics majors having
>> a conversation over lunch in English.
>>
>> Randall Buth
>>
>>     
>>> From: Mitch Larramore <mitchlarramore at yahoo.com>
>>> I am unable to reproduce the chart on page 81 of
>>> Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek (2nd Edition). But I
>>> was wondering if this method is how others have
>>> memorized declensions.
>>>
>>> Under 1st/2nd declensions, he has 3 columns of masc
>>> fem neut. They look something like:
>>>
>>> nom sg  S / - / -
>>> gen sg  U / S / U
>>> dat sg  i / i / i
>>> acc sg  N / N / N
>>>
>>> To the right of this chart, he gives the 3rd
>>> declensions under columns masc/fem and neut, thus...
>>>
>>> nom sg   S / -
>>> gen sg  OS / OS
>>> dat sg   i / i
>>> acc sg  A,N / -
>>>
>>> My question is whether or not others find such charts
>>> helpful? I have had a tendency to memorize a few
>>> prototypical nouns from each declension, rather than
>>> learning 'endings.' Is there a benefit for learning
>>> endings in this manner?
>>>
>>> Mitch Larramore
>>> Sugar Land, Texas
>>>       
>
> ---
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