[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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