Josquin's Classical Log - Graeca non leguntur

[Tillumadoguenirurm]

That's hilarious, yesterday morning I suddenly had a strong urge to read grammar despite not having touched Irish for weeks.

Looking forward to reading more log posts!

[Gaedheal92]

'Sé do bheatha ar ais!

[Josquin]

Maith thú! I also started over a few days ago by picking up where I left off some months ago - Cuairt na Cruinne in Ochtó Lá / Around the world in eighty days (Jules Verne). RnaG is great for getting back on track. Even if I don't understand a whole lot of what they're saying, the language doesn't sound foreign. Just a matter of vocabulary and grammar.

Thanks! Cuairt na Cruinne in Ochtó Lá will probably also be one of the books I'll tackle as soon as I feel ready for it. In fact, I even listened to a little bit of RnaG yesterday evening, but I couldn't make a lot out of it. But yeah, it's only grammar and vocabulary (and listening comprehension...)

Seeing you two get back into Irish really makes me want to rededicate myself to it now! Thanks guys, and glad you're feeling better Josquin.

Thank you! I'm glad we inspired you to learning Irish again. If you need some more incentives, might I offer you some cookies? Apparently, that has worked for some people to be tricked into studying Finnish...

That's hilarious, yesterday morning I suddenly had a strong urge to read grammar despite not having touched Irish for weeks.

Looking forward to reading more log posts!

Well, great minds think alike! Hopefully, there will be more posts in the future. It has got pretty quiet in this log lately. So, thank you!

'Sé do bheatha ar ais!

Go raibh míle maith agat, a chara! Tá mé an-sásta thú a fheiceáil arís. Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? Aon scéal agat?

[Gaedheal92]

Níl mórán leis an bhfírinne a rá, tá rudaí socair go maith anseo faoi láthair. Is beag am atá agam i gcomhair staidéir ar na saolta seo, ach tá súil agam go dtiocfaidh feabhas ar chúrsaí sula i bhfad!

[Josquin]

Níl mórán leis an bhfírinne a rá, tá rudaí socair go maith anseo faoi láthair. Is beag am atá agam i gcomhair staidéir ar na saolta seo, ach tá súil agam go dtiocfaidh feabhas ar chúrsaí sula i bhfad!

Is oth liom sin a chloisteál, ach tá mé sásta go bhfuil tú ceart go leor. Tá súil agam go mbeidh tuilleadh ama agat go gairid. Is dóigh liom go bhfuil tú i do mhúinteoir Gaeilge fós, mar sin is dócha go bhfuil neart deise ann do chuid Gaeilge a chleachtadh, nach bhfuil?

Ach, ar ndóigh, tá teangacha eile ann freisin. Is cuimhin liom go raibh tú ag foghlaim na Gearmáinise agus na Fraincise. Nach raibh fonn ort an tSean-Ghaeilge agus an Bhreatnais a fhoghlaim freisin? Bíodh sin mar atá, tá súil agam go mbeidh tú in ann staidéar a dhéanamh ar do chuid teangacha gan móran achair. Go n-éirí leat!

[Josquin]

SATURDAY, 15 JULY 2017

Question to the Gaeilgeoirí among us: Did my last post make any sense? I composed it with excessive use of dictionaries and grammar books, but I'm not sure if it's idiomatic Irish. Probably not. I even discovered some pretty basic mistakes on my own. Well, I tried my best...

Other than that, there's not much to report. I'm still suffering from headaches, which seem to get worse when I have to concentrate for longer periods of time. I managed to read a contemporary novel in German (Ruf mich bei deinem Namen), but only because it was pretty shallow and straightforward, and now I'm trying to read Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, also in German, which is comparably more exhausting.

For this reason, I have delayed my plans of starting with native materials in Irish. To be honest, I don't have a lot of motivation for Irish anyway. I had to cancel my trip to Cork, or at least delay it for some months, and also I've been concentrating on Irish for some time now, so a little bit of diversion would be nice.

Moreover, studying a minority language I really start to feel the limited use of the language. Even in Ireland, it doesn't get you very far as the guy in No Béarla proved. Besides some Irish-language media like TG4, RnaG, or Tuairisc.ie, there simply seems to be no material in Irish. And I've never met a native speaker by now. Well, maybe it's just me, but a little bit more usefulness would be very appreciated.

As I told you, I restarted Ancient Greek. I'm still on the first unit of Reading Greek, but I still remember a lot from when I last dabbled in that language. I really like it and it would be great if I got far enough to study classics like the Odyssey in the original, although I understand that Homeric Greek is pretty different from Attic Greek, which is what I'm learning right now.

If I take a break from Irish, I might give another language I've been neglecting a try, although I haven't decided yet which language that would be. Well, the wish list is long enough...

[Josquin]

SUNDAY, 16 JULY 2017

A little bit less headache today, so I did the following things:

• listening to Ardtráthnóna, which is a podcast from Raidió na Gaeltachta
• continuing working on unit 1 in Reading Greek
• ordering bilingual editions of the Odyssey and the Aeneid
• continuing reading Sense and Sensibility

I might really get into classical languages this summer. It would be great to brush up my Latin while learning Greek, as I need Latin texts for my doctoral dissertation. I learned it pretty thoroughly at school, but I only used it sporadically ever since. Also, it would be nice to read some classical literature again. Surprisingly, even the Odyssey was a pretty good read when I bought a German edition about twelve years ago, so why not? There are lots of classical works I'd like to read, such as Ovid's Metamorphoses or some Greek dramas. And then there's all the classical philosophy I'd love to read in the original, such as Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, or Marcus Aurelius.

[Josquin]

THURSDAY, 20 JULY 2017

So, my headaches are gradually getting better and I can spend more and more time on intellectual activities, such as reading, listening to sophisticated music, and of course studying languages.

Gaeilge

I've decided not to take a break from Irish. It's still my favourite language and even if it's of limited usefulness, it's simply breathtakingly beautiful. So, instead of abandoning them, I took a closer look at my textbooks. I guess there isn't much I can still do in Irisch für Anfänger, except some more advanced exercises. Other than that, I've really worked through the book. As far as Learning Irish is concerned, I also need to do the exercises, preferably even Nancy Stenson's additional exercises, but I can still profit from studying the texts. They are far more demanding than the ones in Irisch für Anfänger.

Concerning native materials, I've made my choice. I will start with An Leon, an Bandraoi agus an Prios Éadaigh before moving on to Cuairt na Cruinne in Ochtó Lá. It's the easiest book in Irish that I own. I'll also have a look at my volumes of Asterix in Irish although I guess I won't really study them. I'll spice everything up by listening to Raidió na Gaeltachta from time to time and reading Irish-language news on tuairisc.ie.

Ἑλληνική

I'm making good progress in my Greek studies. I've covered the first half of section one in Reading Greek, which consists of altogether ten dialogues. The grammar covers the present tense conjugation of regular consonantal and contracted verbs, the declension patterns for nouns and adjectives of the o- and a-declension, and the declension of the definite article. I still know most of this from the last time I dealt with Ancient Greek, but I also want to be able to reproduce the patterns actively, so I will have to memorize them more intensively.

Also, I bought a bilingual edition of the Odyssey. It's still a long way to go, but I hope I'll get there one day.

Latina

I won't be actively studying Latin, as my plate is full as it is right now, but I nevertheless bought a bilingual edition of the Aeneid to skim through when I have some leisure time. I translated a good deal of the first book some time ago and I might try to just read it for pleasure, although Latin poetry can be a tough nut to crack sometimes.

I will however continue to consume Latin music, as I'm closely dealing with vocal music of the 16th and early 17th century right now, which is mostly in Latin. I'm especially enjoying Tomás Luis de Victoria's Tenebrae Responsories, which are a set of 18 motets dealing with the events of Holy Week. Strictly speaking it's not the right time of the year for that, but it's nevertheless simply gorgeous music!

Here is the first motet, Amicus meus:



Wanderlust (עִבְרִית‎)

I'm not wanderlusting at the moment, but I plan on getting back to my Hebrew studies as soon as possible. There's just a little problem as my library account is locked right now and I don't want to buy the necessary books myself. As soon as this is resolved, I'll truly delve into all three classical languages.

[Josquin]

SATURDAY, 22 JULY 2017

The last few days, I've continually been working on my languages, despite still persisting headaches. They're getting better though, so I hope I can study for longer periods of time soon. At the moment, my studying consists of little chunks of about 15 minutes. I'd love to be able to study for an entire hour again.

Gaeilge

As I said, I'm a little bit unhappy about the limited usefulness of Irish. By that, I don't even mean the limited amount of media that is available, but rather that it's so difficult to put my Irish actively to use. On Lang-8, my posts don't get corrected and it's really difficult to find native speakers. Yes, there are enough people with worse accents than my own, talking in breac-Ghaeilge, but I'd rather learn correct Irish than just English grammar with Irish words. Rant over.

For this reason, I'll try to write my log entries in Irish, so I'll get a little bit of practice at least. I don't know if it's a good idea, as I probably won't get any corrections, but otherwise my Irish studies would be useless.

Anois, ní dhearna mé móran le mo chuid Gaeilge an tseachtain seo caite. Bhain mé úsáid as mo chuid téacsleabhair, sin é Irisch für Anfänger agus Learning Irish. Ní dhearna mé tada le Irisch für Anfänger, ach léamh mé roinnt téacsanna éagsúla den chuid Learning Irish. Bhain mé triail as mo leabhar Gaeilge (An Leon, an Bandraoi agus an Prios Éadaigh) a léamh, ach ní raibh mé in ann móran a dhéanamh. Bhí tinneas cinn orm tar éis cúpla nóiméad, mar sin bhí orm éirí as. Tá fonn orm níos mó a dhéanamh as Gaeilge, ach beidh orm fanacht go dtiocfaidh feabhas ar mo thinneas cinn. Dá mbeadh aithne agam ar Gaeilgeoirí ar bith, bheadh breá liom a labhairt nó a scríobh leo, ach is deacair a bhualadh leo.

Now, I haven't been doing much with my Irish last week. I used my textbooks, that is Irisch für Anfänger and Learning Irish. I didn't do anything in Irisch für Anfänger, but I read a couple of various texts from Learning Irish. I tried to read my Irish book (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), but I couldn't do much. I got a headache after a few minutes, so I had to stop. I'd like to do more in Irish, but I'll have to wait until my headache gets better. If I knew any native speakers, I'd love to talk or write with them, but they're hard to hit on.

Ἑλληνική

I've finished section one of Reading Greek. I still need to do the exercises, but I've worked through the dialogues, the grammar, and the vocabulary. The second half of the first section dealt with the present tense of εἰμί and οἶδα, the word πολλά, and the constructions τε... τε... and τε... καί...

So far, everything is pretty easy, but I guess I won't have to wait long for complication. I even learned my first line of Homer: Πλέομεν δ' ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον ("We are sailing on the wine-dark sea"). I think scholars are still unable to explain why Homer thought the sea had the colour of wine, but there are interesting theories out there.

Latina

Today, I got the vocal score of Victoria's Tenebrae Responsories, and now I'm shocked by the sheer expressiveness of the text, let alone the music! I never knew the Catholic church had such emotional texts for their services. The Holy Week indeed is a special time of the year!

The responsories tell the story of the crucifixion, partly from Jesus's point of view, and they start with "Amicus meus osculi me tradidit signo" ("My friend betrayed me with the sign of a kiss"). It then goes on with "Tenebrae factae sunt, dum crucifixissent Iesum" ("There was a darkness when they crucified Jesus") and culminates in the touching "O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam, attendite et videte si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus" ("All of you who pass by the road, watch and see if there is any suffering similar to my suffering") before the responsories close quietly with "Sepulto Domino" ("When the Lord was buried").

I will have to spend many more hours with the score and the recordings before I can adequately appreciate this great work of art! By the way, I'd love to sing it with a choir myself one day!

עִבְרִית‎

Still no news on the Hebrew front. I'm still deliberating whether I'd rather buy the books or pay my library fees. Let's give it a few more days!

[Josquin]

SUNDAY, 23 JULY 2017

Okay, just a short update for today. I've been writing pretty much over the last few days, so I'll try to keep it short this time. First of all, good news: My headache has got significantly better! It's almost gone today, so I managed to study quite a lot.

Gaeilge

I started reading An Leon, an Bandraoi agus an Prios Éadaigh. So far, it's quite enjoyable with a few unknown words now and then, but manageable. I hope I'll keep it up, because fantasy literature usually isn't my cup of tea, except LOTR. Also, I've seen the film, so I know most of the plot already.

Furthermore, I repeated a thing or two in my textbooks. My problem is, as I said, that I hardly get to use my Irish, so when I write something here it sounds pretty clumsy or flat out wrong. I don't know what to do about that. Maybe, I'll start an Anki deck with idiomatic expressions, of which Irish is so full.

Ἑλληνική

I finished section one in Reading Greek and started with section two. I read the first two dialogues and had a look at the grammar. As I said, things were bound to get complicated and here they are! Section two introduces medium deponent verbs, that is verbs that have medium forms with indicative meaning.

Also, there are several subcategories of the a- and o-declension being introduced, which make matters more complicated. The good thing about Greek is you only have to be able to recognize forms, you don't have to repoduce them actively. At least that's what I'm aiming for.

Latina

No Latin today! I was totally captivated by Greek. I had a short look at the Aeneid, but closed it after a few lines. Latin sounds so dry and sober compared to Greek...

עִבְרִית‎

So, I've decided I had probably better pay my library fees, so my account can be unlocked. I don't want to buy any books for Hebrew right now, as I will only be dabbling in the language. If I get more serious, I can still buy everything for myself. For the time being, I'll just read about Hebrew grammar on the Internet till I can use my library account again.