[B-Greek] Should someone learning ancient Greek do Rosetta StoneModern?

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Sep 20 05:40:44 EDT 2010


On Sep 19, 2010, at 10:27 PM, Barry H. wrote:

> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Louis Sorenson" <llsorenson at hotmail.com>
> To: "B-Greek List mail to all" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2010 9:04 PM
> Subject: [B-Greek] Should someone learning ancient Greek do Rosetta StoneModern?
> 
> 
>> 
>> Hello all,
>> 
>> Someone in my class today asked me a question. "Should I go through Rosetta Stone's modern Greek program at the same time I am learning Koine Greek?"  I've read that about 60% of NT words occur in modern Greek. So would doing Rosetta Stone concurrently hurt/help. Would it confuse?
>> 
>> I've read statements that say there was more change from Homeric Greek to Attic than there is from Koine to Modern Demotic. Do we tell people learn either Attic | Koine | Homeric then learn the other dialects? (That seems to me the best approach. I know of no book that teaches different dialects side-by-side for the beginner - but it also seems to me that there is a lot in Modern Greek which can be used by the Koine student. There is no Koine version of Rosetta Stone. So what should I say / have said?
> 
> Greetings, Louis, not sure about the change from Homeric to Attic, etc.  I have little problem reading any ancient Greek.  With a little work, I can get Katharevousa pretty well, but Demotike gives me fits and starts.  If your students are learning a synchronic dialect (i.e., Koine) let them concentrate on that.  My experience with modern Greek speakers who try to read ancient Greek is that they often have problems.  They may have a head start when they study the language, but they still have to learn at least as another dialect (much as you would have a learning curve with Old and Middle English), and semantic shift is murder.  So I think it would be less than helpful to your students, at least at the beginning level.
> 
> I'll be interested to hear Randall's take on it, and Carl's, though.

I have mixed feelings on this. I am inclined to doubt that immersion in Modern Greek will be of extraordinary benefit if one has not been grounded in ancient Greek of more varieties than NT Koine. I don't think it will do any harm either, but I think it will be much more helpful to one who has acquired some familiarity with both pre-Koine and Koine Greek. I think that a diachronic grasp of the historical stages of Greek helps one better understand each of the stages. In particular, it helps one see NT Koine Greek as a language in flux, a language simultaneously finding expression in older and newer constructions and lexicography and morphological elaboration.

On the other hand, I've come to an ever firmer conviction in my latter years that analytsis and translation ability have very little direct bearing on ability to use the language effectively, that is, to speak and hear, write and read with good comprehension.

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






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