[B-Greek] Reading Greek and what, if anything, can be done about it
Scott Kennedy
dustiescott222755 at hotmail.com
Sun Jan 4 10:32:57 EST 2009
Thanks for the correction of my big errors! Modern Greek creeped in to XEIMWNAS instead of XEIMWN, and the other hUPOLEIPONTA is just a hAMARTHMA.
Scott Kennedy> Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 11:58:55 +0200> From: randallbuth at gmail.com> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org; dustiescott222755 at hotmail.com; jfs at jfsanders.com; john.franklin.sanders at gmail.com> Subject: Reading Greek and what, if anything, can be done about it> > Kennedy egrapse> > Ephysiaca by Xenophon of Ephesus ...> > Love Tales about Kalliroe by Chariton ...> > Daphnis and Chloe by Longus ...> > Aesop's Fables ...> >For a more humorous, but literary read, Lucian's True Tales (ALHQWN DIHGHMATWN)> ...> > My favorite of those listed above is Xenophon's Ephesiaka.> >The plot's repetitive, but it's a good story of around 20,000 words that I read> >in about 4 or 5 hours. The repetition is exactly what you need.> > This is about the length of Luke, also Matthew and Acts.> Sometimes there is nothing like a long Greek afternoon.> > >That's what the man in John's example did, he repeated and repeated those tapes.> >Word order, I think is one of the biggest stumbling blocks and that how this helps you> > to piece together the sentence and enjoy the story without too contrived of construction.> > Perhaps Dr. Conrad or someone else can tell me why we don't do simple novels> > like these in second year Greek or reading courses, just out of curiousity?> > Programs are interested in the classical culture. And the teachers do> not think along the> lines of Berlitz and Rosetta Stone, BLAINE RAY or JAMES ASHER. I guess> the teachers> don't know how beautiful KALLIROH was. See below.> > > ...> > ERCHOMENOS DE MENOS ANQRWPWN ESBHSE hYPOLEIPONTA XEIMWNAS> > ... So "The coming winter (or 'storm') extinguished the strength of the men that remained.> > Something has happened to the Greek here.> ERXOMENOS could go with a XEIMWN but not XEIMWNAS.> ερχομενος ... χειμων.> If YPOLEIPONTA was supposed to refer to the strength of the men,> then it would have been YPOLEIPOMENON or possibly> YPOLEIPON (intransitively)> As it stands it doesn't make much sense:> The coming [one] snuffed the strength of men. ... [Circumstances]> allowing the winters to remain ....> > I think a different example would have helped.> > PS: I like the propsed reading texts TA PROKEIMENA KEIMENA.> > I think that all of these novels are excellent reads after 12-16> credits of Greek.> However, they are typically beyond RAPID reading levels for beginning> students (1-2 year)> because of vocabulary. They can be read in the first-second years but> at a relatively slow> pace. I would recommend other stuff even easier, first. Aesop is> great, because the stories> so short, and doing 20-50 Aesop's fables slowly builds vocabulary.> Apollodoros' the Library> is also an easy read if Greek names don't distract you, but it is as> long as the novels above.> The Library certainly beats Hesiod and Homeric Hymns for an easy> introduction to> Greek mythology.> > In any case, a solid foundation needs to be laid in a person's head> like in the Japanese> example that John Sanders mentioned. That is the rationale behind LIVING KOINE> GREEK, Parts 1, 2a and 2b. Those are equivalent to approximately 6-8> credits of material> and we have 2c and 2d in rough draft, undecided how to finally name and package> everything. But 'intermediate' 2c and 2d won't be ready for> distribution this summer.> (Incidentally, we have had students do the Hebrew materials Living> Biblical Hebrew and> test into our intermediate Hebrew immersion courses.)> > This winter EN TOYTW TW XEIMWNI we keep learning and> have had an excellent first week immersion, taking them into parables> and stories.> They will start to read this week and we think that we can pack a> usable beginning> attainment level into a four week total. We'll see. And some of the> core pieces of the> language will have automatized.> It was fun to see students start to distinguish participles PARATIKH> vs AORISTOS> by meaning and matching with appropriate contexts before they have even heard a> meta-word for any of this> (they haven't heard "METOXH or participle or PARATATIKH or present-continuative> or AORISTOS"!).> The trick was using super common verbs that are super irregular. Like TREXWN> vs DRAMWN, TREXOYSA vs DRAMOYSA. Kind'a like little kids, huh? Teaches them> to focus on meaning and communication while the little endings slowly> get stored> away by the subconscious.> > ERRWSO> IWANHS> --> Randall Buth, PhD> www.biblicalulpan.org> randallbuth at gmail.com> Biblical Language Center> Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life
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