Josquin's Classical Log - Graeca non leguntur

[Theodisce]

What kind of Ancient Greek texts would you like to read (I suppose this is your reason to learn the language)? The flexion (both nominal and verbal) may seem very unclear and confusing at this point. You don't need to worry however, I believe that anyone learning Greek has to go thorough this initial confusion (augments, separate verb ending for different tenses etc.). Have you thought about using interlinear translation? Now, I don't know if your reading lists includes the New Testament, but some of it is written in a rather straightforward language (sometimes by non native speakers, which has its flavor too ) which can be appreciated even at an early stage with the help of an interlinear.

[Josquin]

What kind of Ancient Greek texts would you like to read (I suppose this is your reason to learn the language)? The flexion (both nominal and verbal) may seem very unclear and confusing at this point. You don't need to worry however, I believe that anyone learning Greek has to go thorough this initial confusion (augments, separate verb ending for different tenses etc.). Have you thought about using interlinear translation? Now, I don't know if your reading lists includes the New Testament, but some of it is written in a rather straightforward language (sometimes by non native speakers, which has its flavor too ) which can be appreciated even at an early stage with the help of an interlinear.

Well, I'm not really learning Greek in order to be able to read the classics in the original, but because I'm interested in the language itself. I'd put it like former forum member Ari who said: "I didn't learn Mandarin in order to go to China, I went to China in order to learn Mandarin". Nevertheless, once I'm good enough, I'd like to read all the classics: Plato, Aristotle, Homer, Thukydides, Herodotus, Sophokles, Pindar, you name it.

I'm not really confused by Greek inflection at the moment, because I know it will take time to internalize it. I've already dealt with Latin, Icelandic, and Russian, so I know a thing or two about inflected languages. Only having to recognize an inflected form passively helps a lot, too. If I had to learn the inflections actively, it would indeed be confusing.

Thanks about the tip concerning the New Testament! I don't really aim for reading it in the original, but it might be a positive side-effect. As far as I understand it the NT is written in Koine Greek, which is simplified in comparison to classical Attic Greek.

Anyway, I'll launch into Ancient Greek materials with graded and annotated readers first. I think that will be the best option to begin with.

[Theodisce]

OK, thanks for your explanation. Koine is indeed simplified, but the style and complexity of the language varies from one NT book to another, Luke being the greatest "classicist" among the authors of Gospel.

I also started to read Plato quite early, mainly because I was interested in the content, but I found his language quite easy to follow too. This ease or lack thereof may be something very individual: one speaker of Modern Greek told me that he learned to read the classics simply by exposure, but the author with whom he had the most difficulties happened to be Plato.

[Josquin]

SATURDAY, 5 AUGUST 2017

Thanks for that information, Theodisce! In fact, Plato is one of my favourite authors I'd like to read in Ancient Greek, so it would be highly welcome if he was easy to understand. I've read quite a bit of Plato in translation, but of course it would be great to read him in the original!

Gaeilge

I'm not really progressing with An Leon, an Bandraoi agus an Prios Éadaigh at the moment. There's plenty of new vocabulary to be learned, but I'm being lazy. Today, I read for 15 min with the help of the English original, but I didn't copy out any vocab nor entered it into Anki. I've been doing my reviews though, but the deck with the 6,500 most common words in Irish is more or less crap. I'll have to create my own deck or just work with the wordlists I've compiled.

Be that as it may, I'm just not in the mood for hard vocab work right now. It's summer and the weather is making me lazy. It's a pity there are no annotated readers for Irish, except maybe two German publications I know of. It would make everything so much easier than having to look up everything by yourself!

Ἑλληνική

I continued with dialogue 5B in Reading Greek today. Everything is going quite smoothly. No major problems with the imperfect by now, only some trouble memorizing the endings of the middle voice. They are quite different from the present tense middle voice endings. The next dialogue will introduce the future tense, so there's no time to rest!

עברית

I'm on lessons 6 and 7 in Lehrbuch Bibel-Hebräisch now. Still quite interesting, although the different vocalisation patterns are killing me. Add a laryngeal to the root of a word and you get lots of fun! Lesson 7 introduces the words יש, which denotes existence and possession, and אין, which is the negation of יש. Also, the first conjugated prepositions have been introduced, a concept that I'm familar with from Irish and Scottish Gaelic. In order to create object pronouns, you conjugate the direct object marker את. That's quite elegant!

In other news, today my Modern Hebrew dictionary arrived. From what I've been reading, I gather Modern Hebrew isn't too different from Biblical Hebrew, so chances are good I'll really go into Modern Hebrew after completing this course. I'm looking forward to it!

[Josquin]

SATHARN, 5 LÚNASA 2017

Beidh mé ag scríobh beagainín as Gaeilge inniu. Tá an t-am agam agus níl dada le déanamh. Mar sin féin, níl a fhios agam céard ba chóir dom a scríobh. Níl mo chuid Gaeilge go han-mhaith ach is bréa liom á húsáid.

Céard a rinne mé inniu? D’éirigh mé ag a haon a chlog sa tráthnóna agus d’ith mé mo chuid bricfeasta. D’ól mé ceithre chúpán tae le bainne agus siúcra agus d’ith mé dhá phíosa aráin le liamhás, cáis agus marmaláid. Bhí cithfholcadh agam ansin agus thosaigh mé mo chuid staidéar a dhéanamh.

Léigh mé cúpla leathanach as Gréigis agus ina dhiadh sin phlé mé leis an Eabhrais. Léigh mé cúpla leathanach as Gaeilge freisin agus mé ag éisteacht le ceol traidisiúnta Éireannach. Ghabh mé ceol le huair a chlog agus réitigh mé an dinnéar. D’ith mé pizza iodálais agus mé ag breathnú ag an teilifís. Ansin scríobh mé an iontráil seo mar nach raibh dada le déanamh agam fós.

Cén fáth atá mé ag foghlaim na Gaeilge? Níl a fhios agam. Ceapaim go bhfuil sí teanga an-álainn agus binn. Is breá liom Éire agus na hÉireannaigh agus gach rud atá ag plé le hÉirinn. Is maith liom bia Éireannach agus tae Éireannach agus nádúr na hÉireann. Ach is an rud is fearr liom ná glór na Gaeilge. Is í teanga speisialta í. Ach is deacair í a fhoghlaim. Tá beag teacsleabhair ann agus níl an t-airgead agam le cúrsa a dhéanamh in Éirinn.

Ba mhaith liom dul go hÉirinn chun Gaeilge a fhoghlaim. Léifinn an litríocht clasaiceach agus d’fhoghlaimeoinn faoin stair na Gaeilge. Ansin rachainn go dtí an Ghaeltacht agus labhróinn as Gaeilge le gach uile dhuine. Ach tá mé i mo mhac léinn bocht, mar sin caithfidh mé a bheith abhaile sa nGearmáin agus brionglóidí a dhéanamh ar Éirinn agus ar an nGaeilge.

[galaxyrocker]

Maith thú a chara! Bhí sé sin an-mhaith. Cúpla rud a thug mé faoi dheara go raibh mícheart (cé go raibh an chuid is mó de thar barr!)

Níl mo chuid Gaeilge go han-mhaith ach is bréa liom á húsáid.

... ach is breá liom (a) bheith á húsáid

Ní féidir le 'ag AB' a theacht i ndiaidh structúr mar 'is breá liom' srl. Teastíonn '(a) bheith' roimhe. Is féidir "Is breá liom í a úsáid" a rá chomh maith (I like to use it)

le ceol traidisiúnta Éireannach

Shílfinn féin go mbeadh 'ceol traidisiúnta na hÉireann' níos nádúrtha, ach ní rabih tú mícheart.

Cén fáth atá mé ag foghlaim na Gaeilge?

Cén fáth a bhfuil

Rud an-an-bheag tá ann: clasal coibhneasta indíreach a bhaineanns le 'cén fáth'.

go bhfuil sí teanga an-álainn agus binn

Teastíonn an chopail anseo. sí = teanga an-aláinn

Mar geall air sin: gur teanga an-aláinn agus binn í

bia Éireannach agus tae Éireannach agus nádúr na hÉireann

Mar a d'úirt mé thuas, níl sé sin mícheat, ach shílim féin go mbeadh sé níos fearr mar 'bia, tae agus nádúr na hÉireann'.

Is í teanga speisialta í

Ní theastíonn an chéad "í" -- is teanga speisialta í. Teastíonn an chéad cheann nuair atá tú ag caint faoi rud cinnte (mo mhac, an madra, Seán, srl)

a bheith abhaile sa nGearmáin agus brionglóidí a dhéanamh

a bheith sa mbaile sa nGearmáin ag déanamh bríonglóidí...

abhaile = homewards, ag baile/sa mbaile = at home


--------------------------

Ach fair play dhuit a mhac. Mar a d'úirt mé, bhí sé sin thar barr. Bhí cúpla focal and abairtí deasa (gabh ceol, mar shampla) foglamtha agam théis á léamh sin. Agus tuigim do chás go huile is go hiomlán. Ba bhreá liom bheith in Éirinn, ach níl an t-airgead agam ach oiread. Ar a laghad, b'fhéidir go mbeadh tú in ann post a fháil ansin agus do PhD bainte amach agat.

[Josquin]

Go raibh míle, míle maith agat, a chara!

These corrections are very useful and highly welcome. Thanks!

[Josquin]

MONDAY, 7 AUGUST 2017

I'm happy my little entry in Irish turned out to be so good. It took me some time to compose it, but it was surprisingly easy (except maybe for the conjugation of the modh coinníollach, which I still haven't fully internalized). I should do it more often. Thanks again to galaxyrocker for taking the time to correct it!

Gaeilge

I have finished reading chapter 4 in An Leon, an Bandraoi agus an Prios Éadaigh and I have worked through the vocabulary for chapter 1. It will take me some time to catch up with what I've already read, but I have got the feeling it's worth it. I'm learning plenty of new words, expressions, and constructions! For that reason, I've given up my Anki reviews. This way of learning is much more efficient.

Ἑλληνική

I'm on dialogue 5C in Reading Greek now. This one introduces the future tense, explains the use of the middle voice, and finally sheds some light on interrogative and indefinite pronouns. Still, everything is going pretty smoothly. The texts are getting harder, as I said, but they're still manageable. I still haven't internalized the conjugation pattern for the imperfect indicative middle, but I'm slowly getting there.

עִבְרִית

Okay, Hebrew is still fun although the vocabulary I'm learning is typical dead language vocabulary: king, slave, vineyard, cattle, etc. I finished lesson 7 in Lehrbuch Bibel-Hebräisch today and tomorrow I'll move on to lesson 8. The latter deals with demonstrative pronouns and some more conjugation types for the active participle. The translation exercises are getting more interesting, as the sentences used are getting more complex.

Also, I'm doing surprisingly good in the 6WC by now, but ssshhh! I don't wanna jinx it.

[Josquin]

TUESDAY, 8 AUGUST 2017

I'm doing much better now. My headaches have almost completely gone and I can concentrate much better again. I'm trying to do as many hours as possible for the 6WC, because I'll have a visit from my family at the weekend and I won't be able to study then.

Gaeilge

I'm still plugging along with An Leon, an Bandraoi agus an Prios Éadaigh. I didn't make a lot of progress today, because I did a lot in my other languages and there was little time left for Irish. However, I listened to Séamus Ennis's Ceol, Scealta agus Amhráin, which is an album consisting of Sean-Nós songs, short stories in Irish, and some reels on the Uillean Pipes. Great way to practise your Irish, although I didn't always understand a lot!

Also, I ordered the book Éigse Chonamara, which is a collection of oral stories from Connemara, in Irish of course. It has German translations and annotations and an accompanying CD with native speakers telling the stories. The recordings are from the 60s, so this should be an excellent opportunity to read and listen to some authentic traditional Irish!

Ἑλληνική

Today, I mainly dealt with dialogue 5D in Reading Greek. The main topic is the future tense, which is comparably straightforward. I'm still not absolutely comfortable with the endings of the imperfect middle, but I hope I will be able to memorize them soon. The next dialogue introduces the aorist, so there's no time to breathe!

עברית

I'm on lesson 9 in Lehrbuch Bibel-Hebräisch now. Hebrew is now getting really fun, as the perfect tense has been introduced. Well, Biblical Hebrew hasn't really got any tenses but aspects, so I should rather speak of the perfect aspect. I haven't really internalized all the meanings it can carry, but there seem to be quite a lot. Also, the lesson deals with the proclitic conjunction ו ("and"), which can have several forms depending on the first sound of the word it precedes. But mainly, I'm dealing with the perfect aspect right now.

[Josquin]

FRIDAY, 11 AUGUST 2017

A very short update for today. I haven't been doing anything in my languages over the last few days except watching American sitcoms like HIMYM and Friends. One reason was that my headaches returned, the other that my family is coming for a visit this weekend and I had to prepare the flat, i.e. cleaning and baking a cake. Due to that visit, I won't be able to do much this weekend either, so my next update probably won't come before next week. See you then!