[B-Greek] the ur-Mistake in reading Greek and what to do about it
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sun Jan 4 12:59:07 EST 2009
I won't repeat Mark's original messsage, which was a fairly long one.
A couple points: one is that switching between reading NT Koine and
reading Homer will necessarily require quite an adjustment, at least
as much as the adjustment one who's been reading 20th and 21st century
English must make when switching to reading Chaucer. It's obviously
the same language, but there are significant morphological and
lexicographical differences. I think that shifting from reading what's
familiar to reading any major new author will necessarily involve an
adjustment and a period of familiarization with the stylistic
idiosyncrasies of the new author.
Another point: there is no substitute for instantaneous recognition of
verbal and nominal inflections; of course one must parse in the
earliest stages unless one is learning by an oral/aural method
involving conversation, but instantaneous recognition of the
inflection is absolutely necessary and comes more readily with
saturation reading of interesting and enjoyable texts such as the
Hellenistic romances suggested by Scott Kennedy -- I've recommended
Pseudo-Lucian's LOUKIOS H ONOS along the same lines; it's got lots of
adventure, sex, perils, etc. The authentic Lucian's ALHQEIA hISTORIA
has been mentioned, and I think it is indeed great fun -- a sort of
ancient equivalent of Gulliver's Travels and just as much a "true
story" as Jonathan Swit's work.
I would also second John Sanders' note about the oral/aural dimension.
I am an ardent proponent of Randall's Koine pronunciation, but one
does need to have some sort of consistent pronunciation scheme because
I really think that even rapid reading of ancient Greek (or texts in
any language) depends to a considerable extent on what might be called
"silent mental vocalization" -- a mental listening to the sound of the
text as if one is hearing it being read -- in the course of moving at
a regular pace through a sequential length of Greek text. The words,
after all, are not just mathematical symbols but speech originally
intended to be heard by the ears of an audience; even silent reading
must somehow reproduce that experience. If you can do it out loud
without disturbing others, so much the better.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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