/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.19013551]

What's the smartest way to learn Ancient Greek? Should I start by memorising all the articles or by translating simple sentences and slowly getting a grasp of the grammar that way?

[Anonymous No.19013800]

>>19013551
Start with the Greeks.

[Anonymous No.19013913]

>>19013551
Start with the Greeks.

[Anonymous No.19013930]

>>19013551
Probably some textbook, a forum of Ancient Greek learners and Anki.

Disclaimer: I’ve never done this

[Anonymous No.19014113]

>>19013551
If you ant to learn to read it fluently and not just translate it like a little girl, the best way is to learn modern greek first, then ancient greek (thery are extremly close languages),then it all boil down to the quantity of compreshensible input you consume (read a lot get better) .Here is a step by step methode
step1: learn ancient greek (if you have french, use assimil le grec moderne sans peine, language acquisition is a wonderful podcast, then read the routledge modern greek reader, then learn the first 5000 most frequent words on mermrise while you read stuff (i read harry potter but you can read anything, just try to read more than 3000 pages), greek movies, speak to greek people on the internet.
Step 2: if you have italian read the athenaze (only the italian version is good, it's basically llpsi but for greek) read Zuntz A Course in Classical and Post-Classical Greek (it's great, if you can i recommend using both for more comprehensible input), then find greek readers (to get more easy styuff).
Then move to loebs (bilingual texts, you keep reading until you can read the whole thing without looking the english text).Eventually you'll be reading ancient greek like only a handful of people can, that's the only viable method don't thank me, good luck.
a video of a guy saying the same stuff, but with ressource i might have forgotten (he doesn't give much advice for greek, and i really recommend Zuntz it's wonderful).
Also all the ressources can be found on libgen.

[Anonymous No.19014127]

>>19014113
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=learn+ancient+greek
the video

[Anonymous No.19014133]

>>19013551
Start with the Greeks.

[Anonymous No.19014186]

Hansen and Quinn is the classic "hard but good" one. Joint Association of Classical Teachers (2nd edition, don't get the old one) is also okay, it's more like Wheelock or Cambridge in method. Recently Learning to Read Greek by Keller/Russell has gotten good reviews.

>>19014113
The comprehensible input method is a meme mostly propagated by people who don't know any languages well, or if they do, it's modern languages in which immersion actually works. LLPSI is not a "pure" comprehensible input method, it has grammatical summaries with graded texts like any other textbook. But advocating the comprehensible input method for Greek is even more disastrous, and recommending learning modern Greek first is ludicrous. In my Greek classes the very first thing every teacher said was: "if you know modern Greek, suspend your knowledge of it now, because the students who fail hardest are almost always modern Greeks who keep unconsciously thinking in modern Greek when it just doesn't apply." Despite what patriotic Greeks who learn a bit of ancient Greek in high school say, this is the truth.

Byzantine and medieval Greek are also very different from Attic, but they are at least more similar to modern Greek. It's not even recommended to learn Koine before Attic if you're going to learn Attic anyway, and Koine is basically simplified Attic.

[Anonymous No.19014274]

>>19013551
memorize the tables (declensions, articles and verb conjugations) with anki --> memorize vocabulary --> practice grammar --> reading with help (like in the Athenaze book)

[Anonymous No.19014416]

>>19014186
Not the immerson anon, out of curiosity, can you fluently (like faster than 200 wpm)?

[Anonymous No.19014425]

Athenasde textbook. I still remember the stories about the boy and his wolf Argos

[Anonymous No.19015133]

Textbooks are fucking boring, OP. Why would you want to follow any kind of 'dedicated' program for anything? It's like going to the gym to get strong instead of doing real things. Never follow any kind of program, or take any kind of 'class' when you don't have to; what are you, a robot? Programs and classes are for suckers.

>b-but i will use it one day
Meanwhile, there you are, wasting counting hours of your life reading dedicated, agonizing, 'textbooks'. Why do you think they call them 'textbooks', anon? Because they are neither texts nor books, but some kind of unnameable abomination that never should have existed for any subject.

>but how will I learn
Just memorize texts in a language you know and then read them in the other language; e.g., memorize the New Testament and read it in Greek and Latin and any other language you want; make sure you are familiarizing yourself with etymology; I still do this daily for English words. At least read fucking interesting things like St. Isidore's Etymologies, or an interlinear translation of the Iliad or something, instead of slogging through a boring textbook. How could anyone do that to themselves. Everyone hates textbooks.

[Anonymous No.19015211]

>>19015133
good textbooks are invaluable faggot

[Anonymous No.19015241]

>>19013551
Travelling back in time and becoming Socrates.

[Anonymous No.19015673]

bump

[Anonymous No.19016944]

>>19015133
>Absolute retard who has never learned another language

[Anonymous No.19018276]

>>19016944
this

[Anonymous No.19019771]

bump

[Anonymous No.19019779]

>>19013551
If you memorize all the units in "Greek: an intensive course" (I suggest one a week) and practice reading with Athenaze, in less than 6 months you will have a basic knowledge of Greek and will be able to translate stuff.

The sad thing is that, like for every language, there is an enormous gap between this kind of basic knowledge and actually being able to read for pleasure without having to look up stuff. For the most part, it has to do with the truckload of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions one must master. With Greek this will be further complicated by the fact that the interesting literature is spread in time and space, therefore style, grammar and vocabulary will change a lot for every author you tackle.

[Anonymous No.19019946]

>>19013551
Start with the Greeks.

[Anonymous No.19019994]

ScorpioMartianus has a great channel for Latin and ancient Greek. Sells cheap ass courses as well. I'd suggest him.

[Anonymous No.19020048]

Watch Ancient Greek TV shows with Ancient Greek Subtitles and do Anki. Everything else is retarded and a waste of money.

[Anonymous No.19020074]

>>19020048
>you just know

[Anonymous No.19020577]

Is it easier if you've studied Modern Greek?

[Anonymous No.19020890]

>>19013551
Ancient Greek is intolerably annoying to learn. There are so many irregular nouns and verbs and weird rules and exceptions to the rules and exceptions to the exceptions to the rules that I think you'd have to be insane to actually learn this shit. Good luck though

[Anonymous No.19020925]

>>19014186
But the "learn modern Greek first" method doesn't entail jumping right into ancient Greek. It advocates reverse chronological reading: first read modern Greek, then medieval Greek, then Koiné Greek, then Attic

[Anonymous No.19020983]

>>19013551
Start with Melesigenes the Homer.
Pharr - Homeric Greek
Owen & Goodspeed - Homeric Vocabularies

[Anonymous No.19021842]

>>19020577
Some say that its a good idea to study modern Greek first because they are fairly similar but my professor suggested against it because it might confuse you and fuck up the pronunciation.
I'd say that if you want to learn modern Greek then learn it. If you're only interested in ancient Greek stick with that instead.

[Anonymous No.19021906]

I'm starting with more classical and Homeric Greek now but I started with koine. I actually think that's the better way to go if you're a solo student because there's so many free resources and online lectures that can sort you out. Even little things like the "New Testament Reader" app are such a massive time saver because all you have to do is touch a word while reading and it gives you a gloss, and then it puts the word in a word bank to later help you work on your vocabulary. I don't think there's comparable resources for the other languages or dialects because of the religious motivation behind the creators of these things.

[Anonymous No.19022345]

These books are pretty good, although it might be a little challenging if you're just getting your start. You have to work through both of them at the same time and it's a good mix between textbook grammar and exposure through reading exercises. There's a third book for solo students and I assume that will give you an easier start but I haven't had a look at it.

[Anonymous No.19023198]

>>19020577
Yes but it would be a very inefficient way to learn.