basics: dictionary, grammar

Greek Learning Greek
1

Hi everybody,
can somebody give me a tip, or what come nearest to it, about how to read ancient Greek text today. That is, about how you do it?
I am looking in first line for a
-Dictionary, digital: online or offline, is not there a “mouse over feature”?
-Grammar, digital: in German or English, should be type look up compendium, with main table or issues included.
-other tools, you might use.

Up to now
-for dictionary I mark, copy a word (with the finger) on my android smart phone, switch the browser window and paste it, being online it to lexiconkatabibloncom,
-for grammar I use https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altgriechische_Flexion, which is really other than complete,

  • even that: on my android some the letters are not shown complete, accents missing, etc.

I hope, you do better than mine.

Any contribution will be appreciated, as well complaints still pure coverage of open and free tools.

Thanks in advance

2

We have a Resources Suggestions thread

3

All the tools in the world are no substitute for actually learning the language.

4

I am not sure about the “basics” definition, but if you use Firefox or Chrome/Chromium you might find the Alpheios Reading Tools add-on useful.

5

I am occasionally tempted to build my own tools but always regret time wasted on such efforts. Last two days I attempted to construct a table in OpenOffice Writer with the numbered paragraphs from an ancient Greek text in the left hand column and a modern translation in the right column. This turned out to be somewhat difficult. I could purchase the equivalent as a module for software I already own. But I’m phasing out that software after 25 years of use.

Perseus will let you do this for free if the text is in their library.

If you have unlimited financial resources you can purchase almost anything. Some of the software packages now offer bundles that cost no more than a Lexus.

6

I understand this is a demanded feature. Thanks for that hint.

I could not say I found not everything thanks to everybody, but - just for sake of completeness of the anything- wonder, what were exactly the non free features not covered by free software suppliers and thus offered commercially. (by non free license)
Maybe this unsupported feature list is pointed out somewhere else, though, to be added here later and when found.

7

A user named Iversen posted a brief description of his method for creating something along these lines at How-to-learn-any-language.com. Here is his post: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7875&PN=6&TPN=2. Iversen’s post is the 2nd post (10/10) on the page. I do wonder how the relatively long sentences of Ancient Greek can comfortably match up with English. And as a disclaimer, I have never used his method because it seems far too tedious for my patience.

8

This is valuable a link, thank you.

9

Hi, by now I focused on Smyth’s Grammar.

First: I do not know, if this choice turns out to be overkill at my humble stage (even though for compendium). Maybe anybody got an opinion.

Next thing:
There are two resources right now available:
such as https://grammars.alpheios.net/smyth/xhtml/smyth.html , this is online (x)html, and searchable
http://www.textkit.com/learn/ID/142/author_id/63/ this is offline (pdf) and not yet searchable.

Seems that by now nobody had dropped a copy of searchable pdf of it. If there was an alternative or -I do not know how to say - a way to wait for such a searchable offline text copy of a decent Greek grammar, is still the question.

Edit:
I could tell, that I just printed out the table of contents of the alpheios version with libreoffice in columns, (unnumbered, capital letters though), but without formatting problems, unicode or the like.
Then:
Doing a pdf copy searchable text, even done manually, should not be an effort that far. One could lance a feature request to alpheos, perseus, or who in question?
Thanks in advance for commenting.

10

You might try downloading a free app called Grammaticus, which contains a fully searchable copy of Smyth (and Allen and Greenough for Latin). You can use the app offline, too.

As far as I know, there are versions for iOS and Android.

11

Thanks a lot for that valuable hint.
No, it is not free software, it is a freeware Grammaticus Trial Version. And it was for Android 5.2 upwards.

You know, it is not what exactly what I was looking for: I just looked for a plain unicode text file 700 pages, pdf or txt.
And: as I am getting nearer and nearer to it, I wonder if there was/were (my english is not that strong) a licensing issue between in the unicode version, and or one of business scarcity.

"fully searchable copy of Smyth ", what does that mean to you? A file? Pdf? To be copied to another computer? Legally?
Thanks in advance

12

I have the version for iPad (1.3 (8)), which is definitely free and not a trial.

13

Hi,
and you got the pdf searchable a file at your finger tips or just an app’s user interface to the book? That latter, I assume. Cause otherwise, would it be a big deal to share it?
Maybe I have not searched well or one needed have patience, cause it is getting to come out every moment, too.
Greetings.

Edit: I found compromise navigating within the not searchable pdf Smyth grammar scan, by first printing to paper the table of contents 10 pages and using the “goto page” tool of the free software pdf viewer okular. Just for completeness.

14

Next edit: There is ultimately scarcity of goto page functionality.

I found and used a goto-page at this one said to be a fork of non free ebookdroid a fork called “document viewer”: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.sufficientlysecure.viewer
and GPL licensed.