καλόν ἐστιν. Very well done. Despite a few minor mistakes, I understood 100% of it. I also agree with the underlying meaning of the story.
Following ἑκηβόλος’ lead, I rewrite the story, taking the point of view of ὁ διδάσκολος. I correct some of the minor mistakes and make a few other minor changes.
Nice retelling Markos, helps me with internalization. I notice that the instructor says that he “was” ( past tense, Διδάσκαλος ἤμην) one, in a terse opening statement..That piqued my interest as a reader and got me to wonder about his lot even after I had finished reading the story. Nice use of a simple tense at the right place and time. One does not always need to use intricate words and word structures to write powerfully.
A certain frog in the field licked an insect which was sleeping on a flower and swallowed it. And being filled with pride, he cried out in a loud voice and said, “ I snuff out life as often as I will.”
While he was yet speaking, a camel trampled on him, killing him without notice.
εκηβολε, That’s quite close to being Greek (and much closer than poor Isaac’s). Some corrections would bring it closer.
(Your text below, with mistakes in bold. Corrections below that.)
ἀνατέλλοντος τοῦ σειρίου ἐξεπορεύσατο γυρῖνος ἐκ τοῦ ᾤου αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐνῴκησεν ἐν μέσῳ τῶν τοῦ Νείλου καλάμων. διαγένοντος δὲ χρώνου ὀλίγου πλημμυρὶς ἐγένετο. μετὰ ταῦτα, ξηρανθείσης δὲ τῆς γῆς ἐγένετο ὁ γυρῖνος βάτραχος. κατήγαγων ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕδατος ὑπήντησεν ἀκρίδα. ἐρεθίζων δὲ τὴν ἀκρίδα ὁ βάτραχος εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὅτι ἡ φωνή μου ἔοικε σύριγγι, ἀλλὰ ἡ φωνή σου τυμπάνῳ. ἡ δὲ ἔφη ἀληθὲς λέγεις. ὁ δὲ βάτραχος ἀπήντησεν αὐτῷ λέγων ὅτι ὅσονᾠδικοτέρα τυμπάνων συρίγγες, τοσοῦτον μείζονες ἀκρίδων βάτραχοι. εἶτα νυκτὼρ φεγγούσης τῆς σελήνης εἶδεν ὁ βάτραχος ἑρπετὸν κοιμᾶσθαι ..,
χρονου
μετα δε ταυτα ξηρανθεισης
καταγαγων
ακριδι
αυτῃ
η εμη φωνη … η δε ση
Don’t you have the sounds the wrong way round?
απηλθεν? They’ve already met.
οσῳ … τοσουτῳ
ωδικωτεραι
(Articles with the nouns would be better)
κοιμωμενον
Edit. Or did you mean not ἐρεθίζων δὲ τὴν ἀκρίδα ὁ βάτραχος but ερεθιζουσα δ’ η ακρις τον βατραχον? Something is the wrong way round.
It was a 3am and mostly asleep composition, so the language monitor or checking function may not have been too active.
χρώνου for χρονου, displacing the discourse marker from the syntax in μετὰ ταῦτα, ξηρανθείσης δὲ for μετα δε ταυτα ξηρανθεισης and ᾠδικοτέρα for ωδικωτεραι are all face-palm mistakes.
κατήγαγων for καταγαγων is an error in my grammar due to wrong memorisation of an exemplar text. (Strategy - say that word of the exemplar Diod. 13.90.1 more clearly without making the alpha into a schewa).
ὑπήντησεν +acc for +dat is something I did learn at one time, but have apparently forgotten now. (Strategy: incorporate some anta- family wirds into my compositions for a while).
εἶδεν +inf for +ptcpl is a lack in my understanding if the language. (Strategy: Look into it).
ἀπήντησεν used with the meaning “answer” is cross-linguistic interference from Modern Greek. (Solution: find a Classical Greek word for “answer”
Yes, the characters and their voices definitely are a bit confused in this version.
Is the case required by the syntactic pattern of each phase the same? A necessary condition of grammatical apposition is that the cases match. Logical or inferential aposition (in the conceptual i-language) doesn’t translate into grammatical aposition withoit the grammaticisation required by the e-language, ie Greek grammar.
The relative pronoun always wants a finite verb, and so κοιμᾶται. Otherwise, just leave the relative out, and certainly don’t add the article, and you have something that sounds a bit more like Greek.
It is great that Isaac is singularly motivated to ecapsulate his meaning in Greek and interaction with others is probably a great part of his continued motivation.
If you’d like to try something different, consider these other options:
Expansion - saying what he said in the “correct” or a different way.
Extension - using the meaning he brought up to keep the “conversation” going.
Correction - pointing out his errors explicitly or asking him to find them.
Instruction - telling him how to correctly do what he seems to be trying to do.
You can see in my responses (extensions) that I feel he needs to develop the communicative features of language - to know that others can respond thoughtfully to the meaning he has expressed. He himself sometimes asks for direct correction of form.
