yeia sas

[spotysocks]

Yay , we are converting you shadow

Actually learn Greek is not as hard as people think because of the different alphabet. I know quite a few people who have managed to learn greek and in relatively short period of time between 1-2 years , depending on how much work they put into it. somehow i think Xrimo will be a much better teacher than me because of experience in teaching BUT i can assist! :biggrin:

[XRIMO]

Well, it depends if he wants to learn the Modern Greek or the Ancient. I have more knowledge of the Ancient Greek, while I think you, Spoty, have more knowledge in the Modern Greek.
Unless of course, he wants to know both.

[spotysocks]

I can be more experienced in Modern Greek however the way you explained the dipthong idiom was very good and i am not very good explaining grammar.

*Note, Ancient Greek is pronounce as it sounds instead of Modern Greek where many of the vowels become 'i' sounds. So the 'u' in astu is an upsilon and not the 'ou' dipthong.

It is also valid in Modern Greek.

I d like to play a little game with you Xrimo, i type in modern greek and see what you understand? I believe you might know more modern Greek that think you do.

[XRIMO]

Okay. I admit I know some since I was immersed in it for a month, but I am still at a beginner's level. Although, I did manage to pass my modern language requirement for my MA in Modern Greek...

[spotysocks]

Well done :biggrin: It's a few months practice for you and you will have another 'live' language under your belt.

Learning a language like Ancient Greek though you are certainly in a better position in understanding plays, writers and philosophers like Socrates for example who has contribute a lot in many sciences as we know them today. Said that, quite a few people with a background in classic studies like yourself ended up writing something fantastic of their own.

[XRIMO]

Learning a language like Ancient Greek though you are certainly in a better position in understanding plays, writers and philosophers like Socrates for example who has contribute a lot in many sciences as we know them today.

I have already read Euripides' Bacchae, Plato's Apology, some of Herodotus' histories, and several poets like Archilichus, Sappho, Alcaeus, Tyrtaeus, Callinus, Mimnermus, Alcman, and Semonides.
Unfortunately, I will never get to read Socrates since he didn't actually write anything... but at least Plato gives us the playback.:tongue:

Said that, quite a few people with a background in classic studies like yourself ended up writing something fantastic of their own.

I hope so. I have one paper that seems to really define my undergraduate career, and it is probably what I will continue with in my thesis (if I manage to get there).
Beyond the realm of academic papers, I am also a writer in some ways. I used to write lots of short stories when I was much younger. Now I have one huge story that I can't seem to get out of my head. I've started, but school and other things take up my time.

[spotysocks]

I will never get to read Socrates since he didn't actually write anything... but at least Plato gives us the playback.:tongue:

hehe I know his students Xenophon and Plato did.

See i thought you might be interested in writing although that might not be an intuition as i think you said somewhere in anther post you are into writing as well. This would be a right path for someone with your background. It's very hard work to write something from scratch, now that i know this whenever i read a book i see it in a different eye.

[Shadow]

Well thank you both for the offer of assistance !!

To me, it's ALL good so I'd be perfectly happy learning ancient AND modern Greek - even if it's just the basics ...

... so perhaps you could start by explaining to be a bit about how the Greek alphabet works ... translitteration obviously, but how does it work ?

Alpha, beta, gamma, theta, epsilon et al ... they're not straight-swaps for the Roman alphabet are they ... some are "th" and so on, non ?

I remember Spotysocks explaining to me that my name (David) would be pronounced "Thaveth" in modern Greek ... it's all so interesting to me, particularly given my love of Greek Mythology :biggrin:.

Any information you can share with me would be GREAT xxx

!?!?! Shadow !?!?!

[XRIMO]

Well since I can't figure how to get the font, this is going to be a challenge.
In ancient Greek the letters pretty well sound like our equivalents. a beta is a 'b' sound rather than the modern 'v' sound, and delta is a 'd' sound, rather than the modern 'th'. The letters in the Greek alphabet that throw people off are theta, xi, chi, phi which are just equivalent to our 'th', 'ks', 'kh' or 'ch', and 'ph' or 'f' respectively.

The vowels are little more tricky. These are the Greek vowels: alpha, epsilon, eta, iota, omicron, upsilon, and omega.
eta and omega are just long vowel sounds of epsilon and omicron. The remaining vowels in ancient Greek all sound like our equivalents pretty much.
There is no actual letter for 'h', however the sound existed. It exists in the form of a rough-breathing mark over the first letter in a word, but that first letter has to be a vowel. There are both soft and rough breathing marks. Any word that begins with a vowel will have one of the two breathing marks.
It is extremely hard to explain if you can't actually see it, so I will try to find a way to do it later. But you have some basic info on the ancient structure of the alphabet and how to pronounce letters the ancient way.