[B-Greek] Geetings
Jason Hare
jaihare at gmail.com
Thu Oct 26 02:15:12 EDT 2006
On 10/25/06, Jeffrey T. Requadt <jeffreyrequadt_list at hotmail.com> wrote:
> I would Google search the B-Greek archives for something like "Greek
> keyboard" or "typing Greek". The program I use is called Keyman, which you
> can find at
> http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=Keyman. SIL
> also has several fonts that include a full set of Greek characters
> (including some Unicode fonts), which you can find at
> http://www.sil.org/computing/catalog/show_software_catalog.asp?by=cat&name=F
> ont.
> Personally, I'm not sure what you mean by "Romanization" vs. Greek glyphs.
> Do you mean that the Greek is transliterated into Roman characters, like
> gamma = "g", tau = "t", etc.? If that's the case, I wouldn't personally
> recommend that. The idea is to read Greek and become familiar with what the
> characters look like. I can understand using a transliteration scheme when
> you're first learning how the letters are pronounced, but you'd better be
> careful, because there's a lot of debate (especially on this list) about how
> Greek vowels should be pronounced when reading Koine. I don't actually know
> a lot about that, but there are several people on this list who do.
> Regardless of what pronunciation you use (and pronunciation really does
> matter to some extent), I would steer clear of trying to think what English
> letter would be the Greek letter equivalent, just like you don't want to
> always read and try to think what the English equivalent of a Greek word
> would be. I think that that would cripple your reading and thinking.
> Of course, you may be referring to something totally different by
> "Romanization." Could you be a little more specific?
>
> Jeffrey T. Requadt
> Teacher
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Dietz Elementary School
> 7575 E. Palma St.
> Tucson, AZ 85710
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> (520) 731-4000
> fax (520) 731-4001
>
I understood his term "Romanization" the same as you, Jeffrey, and I
would agree with you that it is a bad idea. The Greek alphabet is
similar enough to the English/Roman one that only a few letters need
be "memorized" in any rote fashion.
The similarities are so abundant that it would be a waste of time
*not* to go right into the Greek alphabet. If necessary, perhaps the
original poster could spend a couple of days just reading words from
the New Testament, without worrying anything about form or meaning to
get comfortable with the sounds. When I first took Koine in college,
we used Mounce's Workbook, and it includes a reading exercise from 1
John 1:5 to 2:5 to get the student used to the letters.
If you can do it at all, Zach, you must get into the Greek alphabet.
It really is quite easy. You will advance to NOWHERE without it, and I
think you will be hardpressed to locate a Greek instruction book that
does not use the Greek alphabet (not to mention the impossibility of
progressing into a language without the natural ability to memorize
forms and vocabulary... this is gonna be REALLY tough for you).
Yours,
Jason
--
Jason A. Hare
jaihare at gmail.com
Joplin, Missouri
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