Which book?

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Dingbats
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Which book?

Post by Dingbats »

I want to learn Attic Greek, and I'm trying to find a book. I have no teacher. I've found Teach Yourself Ancient Greek, but I don't even know if that book teaches you Attic. It looks good though, except that it uses "c" for sigma and uses a strange order of noun/adjective cases.
Is this a good book, or what would you recommend?

Eureka
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Re: Which book?

Post by Eureka »

Dingbats wrote:I want to learn Attic Greek, and I'm trying to find a book. I have no teacher. I've found Teach Yourself Ancient Greek, but I don't even know if that book teaches you Attic. It looks good though, except that it uses "c" for sigma and uses a strange order of noun/adjective cases.
Is this a good book, or what would you recommend?
It's Attic (as a general rule, if it doesn't specify a dialect, or say "New Testament", then it is Attic).

I haven't seen it, personally.

EDIT: "not" added :oops:
Last edited by Eureka on Tue Jan 11, 2005 9:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

GlottalGreekGeek
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Post by GlottalGreekGeek »

What order of noun/adjective cases does it use? The traditional order is nominative, genitive, dative and accusative, with vocative stuck at the bottom. I know of at least one book which instead uses nominative, accusative, genitive and dative (which IMHO makes more sense). About the bizarrest order I could think of is ... dative, vocative, genitive, accusative, nominative?

Currently I'm using the Pharr textbook downloaded from this website, which is Homeric Greek, even though what I do want to learn is Attic. I'm starting with Homer to get the background of the Greek language and culture, and Homer is already wonderful as himself as well as a stepping stone. Not that I have anything against Xenophon, but Homer is much more interesting.

Dingbats
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Post by Dingbats »

It's Attic (as a general rule, if it doesn't specify a dialect, or say "New Testament", then it is Attic).
Thanks!

It uses nom./acc./gen./dat./voc. order. Well, I'd get used to it I guess. But well, is it a good book?

Dingbats
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Post by Dingbats »

Oh, and another thing. I'll need a dictionary too. Which dictionary should I use? I'd prefer one that's both Greek-English and English-Greek (since that probably would be cheaper :P).

chrisb
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Post by chrisb »

The Pocket Oxford Classical Greek Dictionary does both English/Greek and Greek/English, and is suitable for a beginner. But, if you are going to be serious, you will eventually need something like the Abridged Liddell and Scott.

chrisb

mingshey
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Post by mingshey »

plus Woodhouse English-Greek Dictionary.

William(annis)'s Aoidoi homepage has a link to this Dictionary, under the title "For Fun".

Or rather, Perseus word search tools might help better.

Dingbats
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Post by Dingbats »

Thanks! :)
I think the Abridged Liddell and Scott is what I'll use, quite cheap too. Woodhouse doesn't look very good, but maybe it's enough. OMG, I just found out that it's very expensive! Are you sure there isn't a cheaper English-Greek dictionary out there?
Oh, and the Abridged Liddell and Scott is Attic, right? That one is cheap.
And I think I still didn't get an answer if Teach Yourself Attic Greek is good.

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Post by annis »

Dingbats wrote:Are you sure there isn't a cheaper English-Greek dictionary out there?
Nope. The only use for them was in schools where Greek was taught. :)
Oh, and the Abridged Liddell and Scott is Attic, right?
The default entries are Attic, but all good Greek dictionaries will have dialect forms, especially Homeric and New Ionic (for Herodotus). These will be identified as such.
And I think I still didn't get an answer if Teach Yourself Attic Greek is good.
I have it (I forget why). I don't much care for it. A motivated student can learn from anything, but I found this one too compressed. Having the answers is a big help, though.
William S. Annis — http://www.aoidoi.org/http://www.scholiastae.org/
τίς πατέρ' αἰνήσει εἰ μὴ κακοδαίμονες υἱοί;

Dingbats
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Post by Dingbats »

Are you sure there isn't a cheaper English-Greek dictionary out there?
Nope. The only use for them was in schools where Greek was taught. :)
Oh no... Well, I'll try to find it as cheap as possible somewhere.

Is Introduction to Attic Greek a good book? I don't really understand what kind of book it is, if you need a teacher or something?

What about Greek: An Intensive Course?

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Post by bschuth »

I learned initially from Greek: An Intensive Course, in a very intense classroom setting (12 hours of instruction a week). I have found it very difficult to go back to now that I am re-learning on my own. I think it is simply too many verb tenses coming too fast for me. The Introducton to Attic Greek book by Mastronarde is what I am using now. I enjoy it more; just the tone of the book is more inviting. There's a couple comments in these forums about the fact that you aren't introduced to all six principal parts of the verbs at first. In fact, he starts just by showing you one, then introduces three about halfway through. For me, I find this much easier to absorb, but I can see how it seems unorthodox to others. The fact that I already know the basic rules for forming all six forms already also makes it easier to ignore them now; I know I'll re-pick them up reasonably well later...

Good luck!

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Post by GlottalGreekGeek »

For me, I find this much easier to absorb, but I can see how it seems unorthodox to others.
I say to hell with orthodoxy. Granted, it is a proven method to teach Greek, but if someone can find a better way, I say go with it, regardless that nobody has done it in 500 years. That is why I prefer a N. (V.) A. G. D. case order - frequently the NVA cases have a lot more in common with each other (if they are not identical) than they do with the GD cases. I understand that the N and G cases are the ones used in dictionaries, but I don't believe that's how it should be done on a paradigm chart (I myself use NAGD order on paradigms which I copy out). Also, Clyde Pharr in his day was countering orthodoxy himself, in writing a beginner's book not in the Xenophon mold.

However, no matter what the approach, a motivated student can learn from anything.[/quote]

Dingbats
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Post by Dingbats »

Thanks for your answers! :)
What kind of book is Introduction to Attic Greek? Is it a normal book like Wheelock or something? Because that's what I need. Also, how much does it teach you? I at least want the optative and stuff like that.

bschuth
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Post by bschuth »

"Introduction to Attic Greek" is indeed a "normal" book. It covers all the major topics. Don't let the "Introduction" fool you, it just means it starts from the very beginning.

Dingbats
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Post by Dingbats »

So it's basically like Teach Yourself Ancient Greek but better and not too compressed?

bschuth
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Post by bschuth »

I don't know "Teach Yourself Ancient Greek"; the only thing I can compare it to is Hansen & Quinn, and it covers almost all the same material, but does so differently -- H&Q throw a lot of verb stuff at you right away, so that you're digesting a lot of conjugation right off the bat. Mastronarde alternates verb forms and noun declensions in the earlier chapters, and puts off some of the more complex issues (optatives, the knottier areas of aspect, conditionals) farther along. It's a real textbook. Like all texts, once you get past the first part, you suddenly hit some hard slogging, as you reach the real complexity of Attic. But that's the game we're playing...

You might get some more insight if you search for the book on amazon.com and read the reviews there; I don't agree with some, but you'll get a better flavor for the book than I can offer... bjs

bschuth
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Post by bschuth »

Another benefit to the Mastronarde is that you can order the answers to the exercises from UCPress directly; I think you can at least, I just did. It wasn't cheap ($19.70 incl. shipping in the US), but I know I make mistakes I don't catch and I can't think of any other way to catch them, lacking a teacher...

Dingbats
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Post by Dingbats »

Thanks!
You can check your answers here in the forums...
I have read the reviews on amazon.com. It seems that this is the book for me, though it's twice as expensive as Teach Yourself Ancient Greek. :/ Well, I hope it's worth it.

bschuth
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Post by bschuth »

You can check your answers here in the forums...
I can certainly ask for help on the ones I'm stumped on; it's catching the errors where I think I'm right that I'm worried about...

Good luck!

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