What to say? I will try to stay away from my usual custom of poetic speech. No matter what it always seems I end up talking in such a way. I have a very poetic and romantic soul. I’m a Scorpio and 23. I’m quite the Renaissance woman, reading anything from ancient texts to Marvel comic books. But my main passion has always been the classical world. Maybe that is why it is so important to me to learn these languages. My love is so great I’m even in the process of crafting a fantasy world based on the ancient world, particularly the classical world.My favorite book series are the Loeb Classical Library and the I Tatti Renaissance Library.
I’m hoping this site can help me. Though I’m ashamed to admit it, at times I can be quite dense in certain areas. Things have to be thoroughly explained for me. I hope this won’t be the case here. If I may ask, this site says it focuses on ancient Greek; I wonder, what is the difference between ancient Greek and modern Greek?
Salve! Well, you’ve come to the right place. Latin is my particular passion, and Greek my hobby. If you’re looking for a place to start, I stronging recommend LINGVA LATINA by Hans Ørberg; I have used this book with my students for five months now, and the results have been very positive! I also learned Latin myself by means of LINGVA LATINA a few years ago. This site shows it off nicely:
Curiously, I also am 23 and a Scorpio — my Latin blog ScorpioMartianus.com is dedicated to the theme.
As for the differences between Modern and Ancient Greek — they are manifold! I think a topic was started recently to answer that question, and there are experts here in both languages who could inform you better than I.
The main differences:
• pronunciation
• vocabulary
• grammatical usage
Which, really, could be true of any two languages! But I’ll let the others clarify.
How much of either Greek do you know, because then it would be easier to give details? But overall, the main differences are that Modern Greek has really simplified the inflections of Ancient Greek (both in terms of how many inflections there are and how these inflections are formed) and avoids the long, complicated sentences you often see in Ancient Greek. Pronunciation-wise, the actual pronunciation has of course changed, but Greeks today pronounce both Ancient and Modern in the same way, so that’s doesn’t have to be a problem. Even with vocabulary, the changes are not that great, largely because so many Ancient words have been reintroduced in the Modern language and so are the same, and even those that have changed over the years are easily recognized because of the very conservative spelling.
