[B-Greek] Attic Modern Phrase Book

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Mon Aug 24 10:10:50 EDT 2009


I don't find this particularly surprising.  In my work on Revelation I obtained a copy of Wilhelm Bousset's commentary from which I became separated.  It was in Fraktur and dated 1906.  He had previously published it 10 yrs earlier in a Latinate font which is the edition I now have.  In the 2nd edition he praises the use of the Fraktur.  I think it probably had something to do with nationalism.  I'm not sure whether they used Fraktur during the Nazi era or not since it seems that they were more occupied burning books than in publishing them.  Be alert, _Fahrenheit 451_ may soon be coming to a library near you.
 george
gfsomsel 


… search for truth, hear truth, 
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
defend the truth till death.


- Jan Hus
_________ 




________________________________
From: Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
To: Louis Sorenson <llsorenson at hotmail.com>
Cc: B-Greek List mail to all <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, August 24, 2009 4:51:22 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Attic Modern Phrase Book


On Aug 24, 2009, at 1:55 AM, Louis Sorenson wrote:

>
> I just ran across Sprechen Sie Attisch? Moderne Konversation in  
> altgriechischer Umgangsprache by  E. Johannides.  (pseud of Eduard  
> Johnson. biographical note here), 1901. It is available on Google  
> Books.  Has anyone seen this? Looks interesting for those trying to  
> use ancient Greek in conversation. It is Attic-based, not Koine.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=21oQAAAAYAAJ

Ach du lieber Herr Gott! This really IS what the ravenous Poe terms "a  
quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore." Printed in the primeval  
Fraktur that renders so many ancient German literary editions such a  
challenge to the novice -- but fascinating. And this goes all the way  
back to the early years of the twentieth century, and it demonstrates  
that these ancient pedagogues who learned and taught their ancient  
Greek in the Gymnasia of Bismarck's Germany must have internalized  
their Greek. Did they actually speak it conversationally in the  
classroom? These dialogues seem to indicate that they could have,  
whether or not they did. They remind me of the work of Phrynicus who  
advised his students not to imitate the corrupt Umgangsgriechisch of  
his own day but to write and speak the pure Attic of centuries gone by.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)



---
B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
B-Greek mailing list
B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek



      


More information about the B-Greek mailing list