Pronounciation help

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Maver
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Pronounciation help

Post by Maver »

Hi all! I've recently been reading some ebooks on Latin, and I noticed that I was finding it difficult to learn the language, without having to learn a new script. Which made me think of Greek. Long story short, I've downloaded My First Greek Book so I can see if I can at least understand the sounds of the alphabet.

I've just started to look over the alphabet now, and am trying to memorize some of the letters. It's quite hard, just Pi and Rho seem confusing to me. :P

Anyway, from this little exercise into Greek, I've got two questions I'd like to ask: I've read in a few places it's almost necessary to have an understanding of Latin, before you move onto Greek. Is this true?

Also, Have I go the sounding of these words correct
η-με-?α, e-me-ra, day
Θυ-?α, thura, door
αυ-Θ?ω-ποΣ, au-thrt-pos, man
(supposed to be an S fo the last character, but couldn't find it)

I'm pretty sure I did swap each Greek letter for the correct sound. But, that last one sounds pretty hard to pronounce to me :P

P.S. Would really like your opinions on whether Greek is possible to Learn without knowing Latin. I would really love to learn both, but I think Greek would better to start with, as I'd love to read Odyssey and the likes. Still, Latin has a lot of war writings, which interest me aswell.

Thanks very much for reading =]

spiphany
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Post by spiphany »

1) it is possible to learn Greek without knowing Latin. There are advantages to knowing Latin - many Greek textbooks assume the student already has some knowledge of it - and experience with another inflected language is a big help for a native English speaker, where such concepts are pretty foreign.

2) ἡμε?α has a rough breathing mark over the eta -- thus, pronounced with an 'h' sound at the beginning.
the second letter in ἀνΘ?ωπος is a nu (ν), not an upsilon (υ). ω is pronounced like a long 'o'. Thus: anthropos (as in anthropology)

If you're having trouble with the alphabet, the best suggestion I can make is to find a text or a site which provides practice using Greek words which should be familiar - names of gods, places, or word roots which are used in English words. If you can learn to recognize these roots, it will help you immensely with Greek -- not just with pronunciation, but learning vocabulary as well.
You might want to check out this site for links to alphabet practice, particularly the one for Mastronarde's tutorials: http://perswww.kuleuven.be/~u0013314/gr ... phabet.htm

3) There are debates about how classical Greek was actually pronounced. You can read plenty more about this problem in the forums if you're curious -- but I suspect that would only confuse you at the moment.
IPHIGENIE: Kann uns zum Vaterland die Fremde werden?
ARKAS: Und dir ist fremd das Vaterland geworden.
IPHIGENIE: Das ist's, warum mein blutend Herz nicht heilt.
(Goethe, Iphigenie auf Tauris)

Bert
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Post by Bert »

spiphany wrote:...... There are advantages to knowing Latin ...... experience with another inflected language is a big help for a native English speaker, where such concepts are pretty foreign.
This argument of course works the other way as well. Being familiar with the inflections of Greek will be a help in learning Latin. :wink:

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calvinist
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Post by calvinist »

Bert wrote:
spiphany wrote:...... There are advantages to knowing Latin ...... experience with another inflected language is a big help for a native English speaker, where such concepts are pretty foreign.
This argument of course works the other way as well. Being familiar with the inflections of Greek will be a help in learning Latin. :wink:
True, but Latin is easier to take up first to a native English speaker because it uses the same alphabet and the vocabulary is much more familiar because of the many English derivatives... I would say if you plan on learning both Greek and Latin, start with Latin then go to Greek. Otherwise, Greek is not any more difficult, just more unfamiliar to the native of English.

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Maver
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Post by Maver »

Thanks very much for the links, I came across Berkely in the first, and than later on in the page it was recommended =].

It seems like it'd be harder to learn greek. At the moment, I'm not going to say I'm learning it. Merely looking into the script and the possibilities of learning it.

Even if it is a little harder to learn at first, I think I'd probably find it easier to stay motivated, simple for the reading material that I could access.

Also, seems like most of the Greek books work towards being able to read Odyssey or another book which seems ideal for me.

Anyway, for now I'd just like to have a look and play around with the letters. It's interesting to learning about it.

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