[B-Greek] Graded Greek Readers (List)
Mark Lightman
lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Tue Mar 1 07:36:23 EST 2011
James S. wrote:
<... but it isn't really a graded reader...>
The term "reader" or "graded reader" seems to have been used in a number of
different ways on this thread. In the most general sense, a reader is an
edition where something is added to or done to the Greek text in order to make
it easier to read. Not everyone needs a reader, let me say that right at the
outset. The only people who need readers are mortals who do not hold broad
heaven.
There are three things you can add to or do to a text to make it into a reader.
1. You can add vocab and/or grammatical helps, at the bottom of the page or
across from the text or in the back of the book. In my opinion, WHERE the helps
are is as important as WHAT they are. The helps are always there, in other
books. All a reader does is to condense them and put them where you can see
them quickly and get back to reading Greek as soon as possible. Since a facing
translation is certainly a help, a diglot is technically a reader too.
2. You can choose selections from real Greek that are particularly easy. This
is tough to do, because there is very little real Greek that is easy. Mounce did
this in his reader because, by the grace of God, the Greek NT is easier than
just about any other Greek. Decker and Whitacre have found some easy stuff from
the LXX and the Fathers. I once saw something on Google Books called "Easy
Selections from Plato." I remember thinking, if this is easy, I'd hate to see
the hard stuff. I also once read through a reader which was just a bunch of
random, easy sentences from Xenophon. Now, reading Xenophon is boring enough,
but reading isolated sentences from Xenophon is intolerable, though helpful, as
far as it goes. The most successful application of this principle is in the
JACT Reading Greek Text, where they somehow found a short passage from Plato's
Protagoras which actually is easy to read.
3. You can make up easy Greek or you can adapt real Greek to make it easier.
Again, JACT Reading Greek is first rate here, as is another classic reader that
I'm not sure I saw mentioned, Rouse's Greek Boy at Home. He adapts stuff like
the Symposium and Daphnis and Chloe into passages that are easier than the
originals. There is a great new Anne Mahoney reprint with a nice large font,
and our own Seumas Macdonald has produced some fine audio of the first few
readings.
http://jeltzz.com/lingualatinaetgraeca.html
What is AXIOLOGOS about Rouse, of course, is that his glossary is mostly Greek
to Greek.
What makes any reader a graded reader is either when the helps are faded and/or
when the selections/adaptations become progressively harder. This makes sense
if you work through your reader over several years during which your Greek is
getting better, but this is not, I think, the way most self-learners use
readers.
So, Nimis/Hayes' new Lucian text, which is what started this thread, is a
reader only in the first sense of the term. (Although they have done a great job
of finding an easy text: GRONT score: 24) It really follows the format started
by Clyde Pharr in his Anead. Two other fine examples of this genre are Helm's
Apology and Byrne/Cueva's Longus:
http://www.amazon.com/Plato-Apology-Greek/dp/0865163480
http://www.amazon.com/Longus-Daphnis-Chloe-Greek-English/dp/0865165939/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1298034058&sr=1-4
A Greek Reader on steroids is this edition, also from Balchazy-Carducci:
http://books.google.com/books?id=anRb2JDkoEsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Homer:+A+Transitional+Reader&hl=en&ei=euBoTYWrGpOosAOQ2NimBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-preview-link&resnum=1&ved=0CD4QuwUwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
This book is a reader in all three senses of the term. It finds easy passages
of Homer, then it adapts them, and then it provides plenty of helps, both
before and after you read the text. It's graded in that it ends each section
with the unadapted text. It's a good way to read Homer, but then, there is no
way bad way to read Homer.
The ratio of Greek Readers to Greek readers now stands at 10 to 10.
What is the single best single best New Testament Greek Reader? It hasn't been
produced yet, but in few years, when you can order books printed on demand
anyway you want, one could put it together cafeteria style. It would be the
Greek New Testament simplified and unadapted on facing pages. Underneath you
would have the glosses from Zondervan's Reader's New Testament and underneath
that you would have Zerwick's grammatical commentary and underneath that you
would have the NET translation and underneath that you would have the NET
notes. After that, you are on your own.
Not all your Greek should be read in readers, let me just say that in closing.
I think it is George S. who says that at least some of your Greek should be
from an unadapted text where you don't even look up any words, just struggle
from context to figure out generally what is being said. And if you have not
read Greek by looking up words in the the big LSJ and checking out more detailed
commentaries, and parsing the words yourself, of course you need to spend some
time doing that. I'm more than capable of reading Greek without a reader. The
only advantage I see in readers is that they save me time. And time is the only
resource, Greek or otherwise, that cannot be replenished.
Mark L
Φωσφορος
FWSFOROS MARKOS
________________________________
From: James Spinti <JSpinti at Eisenbrauns.com>
To: B-Greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thu, February 17, 2011 12:20:06 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Graded Greek Readers (List)
Rick,
I thought about Wikgren, but it isn't really a graded reader; it is more
a selection of Hellenistic texts with a vocabulary list in the back.
And, as you noted, there are not notes--which to me is what makes a
reader helpful (of course, it could also make it a crutch...).
My $0.02,
James
________________________________
James Spinti
Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 35 years
Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
Fax: 574-269-6788
-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Rick Brannan
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2011 2:15 PM
To: spencerj76 at aol.com
Cc: B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Graded Greek Readers (List)
Hi Folks.
I don't believe I saw either of these on lists to date. Note that both
of these have short glossaries in the back, but no notes/glosses on
the foot of the page.
Edgar J. Goodspeed and Ernest Cadman Colwell, "A Greek Papyrus Reader:
With Vocabulary" (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935). 108pp.
Allen Wikgren, with Ernest Cadman Colwell and Ralph Marcus,
"Hellenistic Greek Texts" (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1947). 277pp.
Rick Brannan
http://www.supakoo.com/rick/ricoblog
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