Josquin's Classical Log - Graeca non leguntur

[Josquin]

Wow, thank you! Seems very interesting. I can use all the recommendations of good media in Irish I can get. There's so little out there.

If anyone is interested in learning about Dúil, here's a talk by Prof. Gearóid Denvir about O'Flaherty and his short stories. It's in, as far as I can tell, very good Irish and comes with optional English subtitles. Really interesting to listen to!

[Josquin]

CÉADAOIN, 1 SAMHAIN 2017

A chairde, seo chugaibh iontráil eile as Gaeilge. Tá súil agam go mbheidh sí suimiúil daoibh.

Inniu inseoidh mé daoibh rud beag fúm féin, cén fath a bhfuil mé ag foghlaim na Gaeilge agus cén chaoi a bhfuil mé ag déanamh staidéar uirthi. I dtosach beidh mé ag insint daoibh cén fath a bhfuil mé á foghlaim.

Bhuel, is breá liom teangacha le mo chuimhne agus bhí suim agam iontu i gcónaí. Thosaigh mé ag déanamh staidéar orthu nuair a bhí mé óg. D’fhoghlaim mé Béarla, an Laidin agus an Fhraincis ag an scoil agus rinne mé staidéar ar an Iodáilis agus an tSualainnis i m’am saor.

Nuair a bhí mé bliain is fiche d’aois bhí orm dul ar an ollscoil. Ní raibh a fhios agam go cruinn cén cineál cursaí ba chéart dom a thoghadh. Chuir mé m’ainm síos do fhealsúnacht, stair agus don tSualainnis, mar sin d’fhoghlaim mé í ar an ollscoil le dhá théarma.

Ba mhaith liom an tSuailainnis ach ní raibh áthas orm i ndáiríre. Bhí fonn orm rud éile a dhéanamh. Mar sin, thosaigh mé leis an gceoleolaíocht. Níor fhoghlaim mé teangacha le cúpla blianta ina dhiadh sin. Bhreathnaigh mé ar sraitheanna theilifíse as Béarla ach ba sin é.

Thosaigh mé le staidéar na dteangacha dáiríre nuair a bhí mé cuig bliana is fiche d’aois. D’fhoghlaim mé an Íoslainnis, an Rúisis agus an tSeapáinis agus rud beag Gaeilge na hAlban freisin. Is ag an am sin a chuaigh mé go hÉirinn den chéad uair.

Ba bhreá liom an tír, na daoine agus an chultúr agus mar sin bhí socair agam an tseanteanga na hÉireann a fhoghlaim. Cheannaigh mé cúpla leabhair i mBaile Átha Cliath agus thosaigh mé staideár a dhéanamh ar an nGaeilge. Bhí sé deacair ach bhí sé suimiúl freisin. Caithfidh mé ag rá go raibh spórt ann mar sin féin. Thit mé i ngrá leis an teanga.

Anois tá mé ag léamh gearrscéalta agus úrscéalta as Gaeilge agus éistim le ceol Gaelach agus le Raidió na Gaeltachta go minic. Níor labhair mé le Gaeilgeoir amháin riamh cé go raibh mé sa nGaeltacht An Daingin uair amháin. Níl a fhios agam a bhainfeas mé úsáid as mo chuid Gaeilge riamh, ach tá a fhios agam gur breá liom an teanga mar sin féin agus go bheidh mé ag leanúint á foghlaim feasta.

[Josquin]

WEDNESDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2017

Okay, besides writing in Irish, I did a few more things which I have to report now. The 6WC has begun and I'm taking it pretty seriously. Let's see if I can get a better score than last time, when I slackened off after a few weeks.

Gaeilge

I started reading An Seabhac in Learning with Texts. LWT is really a pretty handy tool and helps me reading the story a lot. I can truly recommend it!

Русский

Started reading Игрок by Dostoyevsky in LWT. Maybe, I'll make it to the end this time, although the plenty of verbal forms in Russian really impedes the functions of LWT. Well, we'll see or, as we say in Russian, увидим!

Ἑλληνική

I moved on to dialogues 8C and D in Reading Greek. The grammar is still mostly datives, with some optatives here and there. The next dialogue will introduce aorist infinitives and imperatives. All in all, this section is pretty easy on grammar, at least when you're familiar with cases.

עברית

I finished lesson 28 in the Lehrbuch. It dealt with the infinitivus constructus, which is a peculiar Hebrew way of using the infinitive. I can't really say I'm totally comfortable with all its forms and functions, but I have at least a basic understanding of how it works. I started on lesson 29 today, which deals with verba I-Nun.

Hebrew has really weird verbs that do all kind of crazy stuff depending on what their root consonants are! Verba I-Nun have a Nun as first root consonant, which gets assimilated in all imperfect forms. The imperative and infinitivus constructus are also somewhat irregular (I think). And then there are verbs that are not I-Nun but behave like them nevertheless. I'm so glad I don't have to speak Hebrew! The verb system would kill me or at least drive me mad.

[Josquin]

SATURDAY, 4 NOVEMBER 2011

So, the 6WC is upon us again and I'm already breaking all my good resolutions. But, yeah, what can you do? I was very tired on Thursday and not really in the mood on Friday and today was just chaos. So, here I am and instead of studying - or, Heaven forbid, going out and having some drinks! - I'm writing this log entry. Okay, here it goes!

English

I usually don't report what I'm doing in English, but as I'm tracking the time for the 6WC, I might as well. Well, I have been watching The Crown, Friends, and a little bit of Downton Abbey in English, and also I'm reading a novel called Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. Apparently, it was a milestone of gay literature when it first appeared and it's still a pretty good read! The language is very elegant but not overly mannered and the story is pretty straightforward.

David is engaged to Hella, but while David is in Paris, Hella spends the summer in Spain. So, David meets the handsome barman Giovanni and to his own surprise a love affair between the two men starts. When Hella comes back, David chooses her over Giovanni, because he wants the security of married life (this is the 1950's after all) although he does love Giovanni more than her. However, this decision leads to a tragic end, which I haven't really reached yet, but which is anticipated throughout the novel.

The real scandal wasn't even the gay plot of the novel, but the fact that Baldwin as a black writer would write about white homosexuals. Well, again, this was the fifties...

Gaeilge

Still reading An Seabhac with the help of LWT. I really like Ó Flaithearta's stories. They're very concise, expressive, and well-written! This one is about a hawk, who's hunting for prey in order to feed his breeding spouse. Doesn't sound very exciting, but it's really very well written and the Irish isn't too difficult.

Other

I haven't really made progress with Ancient Greek, Russian, or Hebrew, so I'll just omit them here. See you soon!

[Josquin]

TUESDAY, 7 NOVEMBER 2017

I'm really doing badly in the 6WC. Somehow, I'm always kept from studying by other things happening. Yesterday, I had to fuss all day with my room-mate, because she couldn't pay her rent on time, which meant for me that I had to get my brother to borrow me some money until my room-mate would finally be able to pay me her share of the rent. Yeah, well, I don't want to get into it, but it almost happens every month, which is a bit annoying.

On the bright side, I finally found some time for studying this evening. I already finished Giovanni's Room yesterday. Really great book! Today, I continued reading An Seabhac and I translated some more sentences in lesson 29 of Lehrbuch Bibel-Hebräisch. Although Hebrew verbs are really crazy, I slowly begin to memorize the patterns and get more or less used to them. As I said, the Lehrbuch doesn't really help you with that, because there's too little Hebrew text to work with in each lesson, but I'm getting the hang of it nevertheless. Those crazy constructed infinitives are still a tough nut to crack though! Also, no Ancient Greek today.

In order to boost my 6WC stats, I'll probably write a polyglot entry again soon, so watch out! Also, I'm going to Erfurt and Weimar over the weekend, so I will have something to report next week. However, it also means I won't be able to study a lot. See you!

[Jar-Ptitsa]

Wenn ich das Wort Weimar lese, dann denke ich sofort an die Weimarer Republik. Viel Spaß auf deiner Reise.

[Josquin]

Wenn ich das Wort Weimar lese, dann denke ich sofort an die Weimarer Republik. Viel Spaß auf deiner Reise.

Danke schön! Ja, die Verfassung der Weimarer Republik wurde 1919 von der Nationalversammlung in Weimar beschlossen. Vielleicht kann ich diesen historischen Ort ja sehen. Ich werde nächste Woche von meiner Reise berichten.

[Josquin]

THURSDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2017

So, I'm back from my trip to Erfurt and Weimar and it was great! Both cities are really beautiful with a lot of historical buildings, plus Weimar has a rich history as cultural centre of Germany. Goethe and Schiller used to live there as well as Bach, Liszt, and other poets and musicians. Besides the cultural aspect, my friends and I also had a lot of fun eating regional food and drinking more than one pint of beer.

Now, I'm back to everyday life and I decided to drop out of the 6WC. Language learning just isn't a priority for me at the moment and it would be wrong to force myself to study only because it's the 6WC. I prefer reading books and making music for the time being. Nevertheless, I made some progress with my languages, it just wasn't as much as originally intended.

Gaeilge

I finished An Seabhac. I saw the end coming, but I was shocked by it nevertheless. Poor hawk whose nest is destroyed and whose spouse is taken captive by humans! In order to read the next text in the collection with LWT, I will first have to scan it and run it through an OCR software. I hope this method will prove effective, as I've really come to like LWT.

Ἑλληνική

I moved on to dialogue 8E in Reading Greek. The problem is once again unknown vocabulary, while the grammar isn't very challenging at the moment.

עברית

I've mainly been dealing with Hebrew for the last days. I'm on lesson 30 in Lehrbuch Bibel-Hebräisch now, and once again, there's a new class of verbs, i.e. verba I-yod. I don't even try to memorize any paradigms any more, I just want to be able to recognize a verb when I see it. The imperfect of many verb classes is quite irregular in one or another aspect, so one mainly has to memorize these pecularities.

The reading section of lesson 29 was about Jacob (Ya'akov) and Rahel, which was quite a nice read. The next excerpt from the Bible will be about Joseph and his brothers.

संस्कृतम्

I decided to start learning Sanskrit. I've wanted to learn it for a long time, but I always put it on hold for other languages and because I had no good resources. Now I have a great textbook and I don't want to wait any longer, so here I go!

I'll be using the Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit by A. M. Ruppel. My first task will be learning the Devanagari script, which might take some time. After that, the real fun can start, e.g. full declension and conjugation patterns for singular, plural, and dual! Or as a friend of mine, who took Indo-European studies at university, put it: "Sanskrit! I need a second brain!!!"

[Josquin]

SUNDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 2017

I have mainly been busying myself with Sanskrit and Greek for the last few days. More exactly, I have been looking for good resources for both. Apparently, it's not that easy to find a good introduction to Devanagari nor to find a good introductory course to Ancient Greek. I'm a little bit unhappy with the progression in Reading Greek, so I'm trying to find something easier to consolidate my grammar.

Sytematiker mentioned the Hellas textbook, which seems to be quite famous and has a good reputation, but unfortunately it seems to be partially out of print. While the textbook itself is still available, the accompanying grammar isn't and goes for ridiculous prices on Amazon. Then there is Zuntz's Griechischer Lehrgang, which is quite famous as well but super old-school.

So, I decided to give Kairós a try. It's the successor of Hellas at Bavarian grammar schools, but seems to be a little bit watered down in terms of thoroughness and depth due to the introduction of G8 (eight years of grammar school instead of traditionally nine years). In any case, it has quite a good reputation as well, although puritans still swear by Hellas. Last but not least, Kairós is what our university uses in Ancient Greek courses (Graecum), so it can't be that bad. So far, I'm through the first units and I quite like it.

Gaeilge

I haven't started on a new short story yet. Instead, I've been scanning the stories from Dúil and processing them with Abby Finereader. This is super easy and gives very good results. I can scan a story very quickly, export it to Word, and then enter it into LWT. So, I'll soon be able to start reading the next story, which is called An Scáthán ("The Mirror").

Ἑλληνική

As I said, I'm a little bit unhappy with Reading Greek and I'm trying to supplement it with Kairós now. RG really helps you reading Greek, I'm already reading adaptions from Aristophanes right now, but it teaches too much grammar too fast. For example, it taught contracted verbs right from the beginning and introduced the middle voice in a very early lesson.

I really need a slower course in order to repeat and consolidate some grammar points. Kairós seems to be a good choice as it's used at German grammar schools and aimed at younger students. The progression is slower and the texts are easier. Also, there isn't as much new vocabulary in each lesson as in RG. I hope this will help me to repeat and consolidate some more shaky grammar points.

עברית

I'm still on lesson 30 in Lehrbuch Bibel-Hebräisch. I'm not that motivated for Hebrew right now, I'd rather study Sanskrit!

संस्कृतम्

So, Sanskrit! I'm trying to learn the Devanagari script right now, which is harder than it sounds. Most resources I've found teach all letters at once in an unsystematical fashion or they are only aimed at learning to write Devanagari. Ideally, I'm looking for something that introduces a few letters at a time and also gives example words as reading exercises. I don't necessarily want to be able to write Devanagari, although I'll probably sooner or later have to.

Well, I think I found something that suits me, namely the Teach Yourself Read and Write Hindi Script. It teaches the Hindi variety of Devanagari, but that's not too different from the Sanskrit one. So, I hope as soon as I receive the book, I can finally start studying Sanskrit.

I've also ordered a reference grammar and got some more resources, such as Sargeant's annotated edition of the Bhagavad-Gita, from the library. I'm really motivated and can't wait to get started, but first I need to learn the script!

[Josquin]

TUESDAY, 21 NOVEMBER 2017

I think I'm really settling on classical languages for the moment. I truly enjoy studying them! In addition to Ancient Greek and Biblical Hebrew, I've now added Sanskrit to the mixture and it's great! I can imagine exploring further classical languages, such as Old and Middle High German, Old and Middle English, Old Norse, Old Irish, maybe even Ancient Egyptian, Akkadian, or Hittite. I also would like to get back to Persian sooner or later. My studies of Ancient Greek and Biblical Hebrew have shown me that I know far too little about ancient mediterranean and oriental history, so it would be great to go deeper into these matters.

Gaeilge

I haven't done anything in Irish since I last posted here. I guess I'll start with the next story in Dúil sooner or later.

Ἑλληνική

I'm really falling in love with Ancient Greek! Kairós is a great textbook that gives a lot of interesting additional information about Ancient Greek history and culture. It doesn't concentrate on Attic literature, such as Reading Greek does, but instead it introduces the student to the entire Greek culture from the Minoans to the Hellenic Empire and the New Testament. I really like this approach!

So far, I'm on lesson 8. The first lessons dealt with the script, of course, the masculine o-declension, and the present active conjugation. Very easy, but I've already encountered numerous words I didn't encounter in Reading Greek.

עברית

I must admit I'm a bit bored by Hebrew and the Lambdin textbook. At the moment, there's one imperfect conjugation after the other and the texts are not very interesting. However, I notice I've made progress. Translating Hebrew has become easier and I've managed to memorize more vocabulary and constructions. I'm still on lesson 30 though.

संस्कृतम्

I received Read and Write Hindi Script in the post today and it seems to come close to what I've been looking for. The Devanagari is introduced gradually with several exercises in between. That's much better than what I've been working with until now, namely Einführung in die indischen Schriften from Buske.

Of course, the book is originally aimed at teaching Hindi Devanagari, but I can simply omit the additional signs and rules for Hindi and concentrate on the signs that are needed for Sanskrit. Anyway, learning the isolated characters won't be a problem. It's the combined characters that really worry me. There seem to be quite a lot!

Well, be that as it may, so far I've covered velar, palatal, and retroflex consonants. I'll have to repeat them tomorrow and do the exercises, then I can hopefully move on. I can't wait to get started on Sanskrit grammar and the Ruppel textbook!