I agree entirely. In fact his scheme has become my standard. The more I think about pronunciations I am of the singular opinion that my preference for much of modern Greek comes from that lilting, sing-song, quality which is somewhat still preserved in the modern. Just about any native Greek speaker today will pick my Greek out as American “accented”. This used to distirb me until I listened very closely and realized what my friends were telling me was my speech lacked PITCH which they called accent.
I also find Hindi to have the same quality and rather enjoy eavesdropping others’ conversations in that idiom, even if I’ve no clue as to what is being said.
I saw on the Resources Suggestions thread on this board that Athenaze is available for borrowing (http://discourse.textkit.com/t/resources-suggestions/10411/1) on OpenLibrary. You might want to check that out before committing to a purchase.
Personally, I primarily use Mastronarde. I agree with this review’s (http://www.jstor.org/stable/3297758) criticisms of Mastronarde, which reflect Mastronarde’s intensive focus on grammar. The review thinks that the exercises are too difficult, and too little attention is given to exhibiting aspects of Ancient Greek culture in its readings. I will add that Mastronarde introduces too many senses of Greek prepositions too early, and in its attempt to cover finer points of grammar, makes the beginner less certain that they understand what a Greek sentence/passage might be saying, given the wide range of meanings they now know the word might take. So don’t despair if you have trouble with the exercises and need to regularly refer to references while doing them.
Regardless of these criticisms, I find Mastronarde excellent for me; it errs on the side of explicating too much rather than the reading method approach of explaining too little and assuming that the reader will internalize a pattern correctly. I also appreciate the occasional etymological and historical notes it has and its accuracy in its explanations. I had supplemented Mastronade with Athenaze when I needed motivation and lacked confidence with my understanding early on, but I now hardly touch Athenaze.
One final note regarding accents in Greek words: most non-compounded, non-contracted words have, in their base forms, their accents either as far back to the front of the word as possible, or located on the ultima, even for words with a persistent accent. Words with accents on the antepenult are the exception. Rather than trying to memorize which syllable a word has an accent on, it may be easier, conceptually, to categorize words with persistent accents into quasi-recessive, ultimate, or exceptional in being antepenultimate.
The more I study Greek and Hebrew, the more I’m certain I’m going to need an instructor/professor to help guide me beyond the basics. I feel like I’m undertaking trigonometry without someone to guide and correct me. Except trig is easier.
Re: Mastronarde – I think the exercises are indeed too difficult given such basic grammatical explanations, typically showing only one example per concept. I believe the excerpts from Lysias I are unadapted and I don’t know about the others (Lysias just being the only text I own of those excerpted in the book); in any event the readings towards the end are harder than the Anabasis. Furthermore what exercise sentences there are often don’t use the new grammar at all. It seems pretty clear that Mastronarde is meant for classroom use – for the independent learner the answer key is even more essential than those to most books. But I made my way through it, and I’ll have to review it after I’m done with Xenophon (as I did with Wheelock’s after Caesar) to recall the primary tenses and first and second persons.
It’d be hard to recommend it for someone without some comfort with highly-inflected languages.
FauxKneeBologna – if you need help this is the place for it.
I’m currently debating between doing an hour or two a day in both Hebrew and Greek, or doing an hour or two in each on alternating days. I hit a wall in Hebrew today, and the resulting frustration has me taking a break, currently. Occasionally, I watch YT videos about why people learn these languages to try and keep myself motivated.
Probably going to do that now, then a little Scripture, then go to Greek for a while.
Bright side of all this frustration and studying is that it makes reading in my native tongue significantly easier.
Edit: I also really need to remember there’s a pastor here who apparently knows Greek. Gotta stop being shy, since he’s probably the only one I can go to with these things in person. Never met him, though.
“Oh hey, I know this language!” is my standard reaction after spending however long in Greek or Hebrew. It makes reading legal documents a welcome break.
I cant help myself, how I become a fan of Lingua Latina by Orberg?
I wish there exist an attic greek primer like that one
one that my venerated JACT reading greek fail to reach
better than the confusing Matronarde
nowhere as dim as wheelock
feel free to disagree with me dear fellow I’ll take it
but how I fond of orberg’s method!
