Ancient Greek for Everyone : Essential Morphology and Syntax for Beginning Greek

Abstract

AGE is a digital resource for students of the 21st century who know English and want to learn Greek. Every explanation and exercise has been designed and tested to make translation from English to Greek (or Greek to English) as smooth and direct as possible. Sometimes we make use of the tools of the nineteenth century, because they are still the most effective tools we know. Understanding the sounds of letters and parts of speech remains straightforward and powerful, but we use these tools purposefully. AGE is a gateway to learning a rich and fascinating language.

To promote increased student engagement with the Greek language as they move through the core material of AGE, each lesson chapter includes: A list of key terms and concepts at the end of each lesson chapter, to facilitate an understanding of how Greek works as a language. -- References to the section numbers in Greek Grammar, by H.W. Smyth (abbreviated as “S”). These references provide interested students and instructors a chance for more advanced study of morphology and syntax. References to paradigms in the Greek Paradigm Handbook, by E. Geannikis, A. Romiti, and P. T. Wilford (abbreviated as “GPH”). The Greek Paradigm Handbook provides all essential Greek paradigms in a small, easy-to-use spiral book. -- An inscription. These inscriptions come from the corpus of over 7000 inscriptions that have been recovered during excavations by the Athenian Agora Excavations (agathe.gr). Each inscription can be clicked for a larger view. For interested instructors and students, a bibliography is provided in AGE to facilitate further study. While it is not expected that beginning students can translate many of the inscriptions (and some of the inscriptions are not complete enough to translate, anyway), these inscriptions nevertheless can serve as a gateway for discussions of a number of broader issues, such as the differences between the Attic and Ionic alphabets; religious practices; administrative practices; burial practices; and the reuse of stone inscriptions as spolia. -- Additionally, the readings include samples of the standard authors famous in the Greek tradition and the New Testament, but also from writings of the same period that are less well known, but which become open to you since you can read Greek. Some background and full citations are always given so that you can pursue more reading in the areas that interest you.