eston

dumb question (keep in mind that I cut my teeth on koine and am just starting to learn classical).

is “eston” the same as “estin”? I’ve never seen it until today and it appears to be used the same…

Looks like the dual to me, either 2nd or 3rd person. But it might help if you posted the whole phrase. If I am in error, someone please correct me.

Try using this free software for verb conjugation, or word lookup (kinda spotty on the latter…try exw):
http://www.kalos-software.com/downloads.php

(If you know a better one let me know)

PS:
-As you know I’m a beginner, so wait till the experts weigh in.

EDIT: I should have said that the form is of the present indicative, dual, second or third person.

Imagine that! I am not used to the dual verbs since they are not used in koine!

the full clause, from A Greek Boy at Home:

θ?ασυμαχος τε και θ?ασυστομος εστον τεκνω τοθ θ?ασυλλου.


So I guess the τεκνω is dual as well?

Yeap, but don’t expect to find dual all that often in classical Greek either :slight_smile: Just keep in mind that you might encounter it.

Klewlis.
θ?ασυμαχος τε και θ?ασυστομος εστον τεκνω του θ?ασυλλου.
Trasymacus and Trasystomus are (both two, εστον is a dual form of ?ιμἰ) sons of Trasylus.

I do not know how to translate the Greek names form Spanish to English. I am sorry.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

Excuse me.
How are you learning Attic Greek?

at the moment, just by reading A Greek Boy at Home. I have Smyth to reference when I need to look up something about grammar (actually I bought Smyth so many years ago that I forgot I even owned it until last night! It will come in handy…).

It seems very well.

That is one phrase I would never have expected you to say. :wink:

second time this week! lol

Greek Boy is good… very repetitive but I guess that’s good for learning.

Out of curiosity, which works did you study which were written in Koine? And by koine are you referring to the Hellenistic Period only, or the Roman Period as well? AFAIK the Koine period (with no diglossy) lasted for about three centuries only, roughly from the time of Philip to the downfall of Antony. From the time of Augustus and onward, most writers subscribed to Atticism to some degree, and so diglossy was in effect.

new testament. :wink:

Oops, the most obvious case. OK, that’s koine with, iirc, minimal literary influence (at least the Gospels, not sure about the rest, as I did not even read Acts in Greek).

New Testament is much easier to read than many other texts because there is a limited vocabulary; also, most of the contributing authors were not native Greek speakers, so their writing is relatively simple. Thus it was a bit of a shock the first time I tried to read something else in Classical Greek. That’s why I’m glad to have a progressive reader like Greek Boy; it is very helpful. Once I am finished with that one I’ll move on to other greek readers, and hopefully to full texts.

BTW, I have not “read” the NT; I’ve just sampled various sections of the Gospels. Certainly I did not translate them. I was just repeating what I remembered Brown to have said concerning the Gospel language, namely that it was mostly spoken koine. Certainly I would guess that Paul and other sections are quite harder to read. I even remember that what I saw in Acts to be slightly harder than the Gospels.

Yes, Greek Boy at Home is quite helpful to me also.

Paul actually isn’t that bad… some of his letters are pretty simple (the first thing we read in first year greek is one of his letters). Luke, Acts, and Hebrews are the toughest (and Revelation but that’s only because of unusual vocabulary, not grammar).

Paul must have been in a difficult mood when he wrote 2 Corinthians.
Is Revelation’s vocabulary that unusual? I found I could read through Rev. without much difficulty.

I found it to be weird… but I don’t think I read the whole thing. I found there to be lots of new words due to the strange symbolism and stuff… but maybe that’s just me! :slight_smile:

The whole NT for the most part is full of literary influences - even the Gospels - just not so much Attic influence, although a little can be seen in Matthew, and it’s noticeable in Luke-Acts.

The main influence, though, comes not from the Attic writers so much as the LXX.