Need a Book for Beginner Greek

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primitive
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Need a Book for Beginner Greek

Post by primitive »

I know some Latin and find it interesting. But I really would like to learn Greek. I hear it is similar. Could you recommend a book for beginners on Greek? Thank you!

chad
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Post by chad »

hi :) greek is like latin when it comes to textbooks: there are some latin books which prepare you to read caesar, then there's ones like 'latin through ovid' and others.... the book you go for has partly to do with the author who most appeals to you at the start (so that u stick with it :) ).

greek is the same, there are lots of books which prepare you to read attic prose, which is basically the athenians in their prime. then there are books which focus on homer, a few hundred years earlier and in the epic dialect and poetic meter. to start here, there are books introducing you to greek through odyssey book 5, or iliad book 1 (pharr), &c.

lots of us would recommend that you start with pharr. starting with this makes learning the later stuff, like attic prose, easier; the intro explains this. and lots of people here are working through it as we speak so you'll get answers to qns quickly. good luck :)

annis
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Post by annis »

I'll second what Chad said, but ask one question. What do you plan to read in Greek most? That'll suggest where you should start.
William S. Annis — http://www.aoidoi.org/http://www.scholiastae.org/
τίς πατέρ' αἰνήσει εἰ μὴ κακοδαίμονες υἱοί;

primitive
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Post by primitive »

For me, its not so much reading material, but learning the grammar and structure of the language. Thanks for your suggestions.

Emma_85
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Post by Emma_85 »

If you're just interested in Greek as a linguist then I'd suggest a book that teaches you the attic forms but also includes older un-contracted forms. Then you can see how the language changed a bit while learning the grammar. Mine does that, but it's in German :wink: .

primitive
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Post by primitive »

German must be fun though.

Fredericus
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Post by Fredericus »

Mine does that, but it's in German.

Und welches Buch wäre das, wenn ich fragen dürfte?

Mark
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Post by Mark »

I'm a beginner at Ancient Greek as well, and I'm currently using Athenaze, by Maurice Balme and Gilbert Lawall.

I haven't had much experience with other textbooks, but this one is working well for me. The book teaches using stories written in Ancient Greek. There are 16 chapters in the book, each chapter having 2 stories -- meaning that there are 32 stories in total.

Each story has vocabulary words introduced, with the necessary forms given. The stories mainly revolve around the life of a Greek farmer and his family, with some historical stories mixed in as well, such as the story of Odysseus and the Cyclops.

Between each chapter are exercises to help you understand new concepts that were introduced, such as new forms, voices, tenses, etc. These exercises include sentence translations, modifying verbs, and other things. As new forms are introduced, any necessary endings are given. Irregulars are constantly shown, such as the word "to be". You can also find essays about ancient Greek history between each chapter, which may be worthwhile to read if you are interested.

The back of the book has charts of noun declensions, verb forms, and irregular verbs. There is also a glossary from Greek -> English and from English -> Greek. The words in the glossary are mostly the ones that are found in the stories. After that, there is an index that lists where history-related things are mentioned in the book.

I hope this has helped, and good luck on your studies of Ancient Greek.

Clemens
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Post by Clemens »

Fredericus wrote:Mine does that, but it's in German.

Und welches Buch wäre das, wenn ich fragen dürfte?
@Emma

This would be interesting, though...;-)

Fair Terentia
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Post by Fair Terentia »

The book I used to learn Greek is L. A. Wilding's Greek for beginners. I thought it was very clear with explanations of constructions, however you need a grammar book to go with it- we used North and Hillard's Primer of Greek Grammar. It deals with grammar and constructions with the introduction of sentence excercises Greek-English and English-Greek and stories edited from Herodotus, Xenophon, Plato and others. It is Attic Greek.

I've heard that Athenazde is very good as well.

You should be able to get the books in a good Classical bookshop, or buy them on line here- http://www.hellenicbookservice.com/clas ... ammars.htm

Scroll about half way down for Greek for beginners.

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klewlis
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Post by klewlis »

Fair Terentia wrote: You should be able to get the books in a good Classical bookshop, or buy them on line here- http://www.hellenicbookservice.com/clas ... ammars.htm

Scroll about half way down for Greek for beginners.
Better yet, you can buy through Amazon.com and use the textkit link here, and support the site! The page I have linked lists only a few books, but if you enter the amazon site through that page you can search through any of their books and textkit still benefits! :)
First say to yourself what you would be; then do what you need to do. ~Epictetus

Stephen
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Post by Stephen »

I am also using Athenaze. I'm working completely on my own, and was uncertain about my translations, so I picked up a copy of the Teacher's Handbook after about a month. I find that by writing out the translation as best I can, and then checking theirs, I can correct myself and reassure myself at the same time.

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