[B-Greek] You Are Smarter Than a Lexicon (?) The beat goes on ...

Fortigurn dixit-dominus at thechristadelphians.org
Sat Jun 5 01:54:29 EDT 2010



Thanks Mark, that's an enlightening observation. As a language trainer, 
my focus is on people actually communicating effectively with other 
people, and language as a tool for that purpose. If the tool is 
inefficient, we either adapt the tool or we use a better tool. I 
understand that classical Greek is a useful tool for 'communicating' 
with the ancient texts in which it was written. Other than that, it's a 
linguistic relic. I don't see anyone rushing to revive it as a better 
language for communication than modern Greek.

Jonathan Burke.

Mark Lightman wrote:
> Jonathan wrote:
>
> <There are many good reasons
> for learning Greek. But efficient communication with others is not one
> of them. No one is saying 'Hey, this language is really great, much
> better than what we use today, let's get back to it!', because it isn't.
> It's a really clumsy language filled with accumulated grammatical junk
> and massive redundancy. >
>
> Hi, Jonathan,
>
> I like your style.
>
> When I try to use Koine to communicate with real people,  I find that 
> what you
> wrote above is sort of true.  One has to change and simplify the 
> language for
> it to be more clear.  Most of of the conjunctions and particles can be 
> discarded,
> You have to say stuff like  "I like the letter PARA SOU"instead of 
> just "SOU. " Your Ancient
> Greek has to become more like Modern Greek or English to be an 
> effective vehicle
> of communication.  The dirty little secret of using Koine is that the 
> more like "real
> Greek" one tries to make it, the less useful it becomes as a "real 
> language."
>
>
>  
> Mark L



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