Classical Languages - Study Group

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
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IronMike
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby IronMike » Fri Mar 04, 2022 11:59 pm

IronMike wrote:
RyanSmallwood wrote:Does the Teach Yourself Old Norse have audio? I couldn’t see any mentioned in the description.

Unsure. I'll tell you in November when I get my copy. ;)

When the day came for my pre-ordered copy to be shipped from Amazon, I was shocked to see that Amazon listed it as "out of stock." I wrote to Amazon and they had an auto-generated answer. I looked all over the Teach Yourself website's "Ancient Languages" section and it still says Feb 2020.

I wrote to the publisher today and was surprised to get a response mere hours later: 8/15/2023.
Last edited by IronMike on Mon May 09, 2022 12:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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David1917
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby David1917 » Sat Mar 05, 2022 12:04 am

IronMike wrote:I looked all over the Teach Yourself website's "Ancient Languages" section and it still say Feb 2020.

I wrote to the publisher today and was surprised to get a response mere hours later: 8/15/2023.


Their website is unfortunately very bad. Also that date is crazy!! I know there's recent paper shortages but this thing has been coming down the line for years now. Must also be some issues with the manuscript or recordings, or just that H&S doesn't allocate enough funds to these kinds of things.
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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Tue Apr 26, 2022 6:33 pm

Philo-Lettres with an interesting aggreation of links for learning Latin and Greek.
Among several links is Evandre, which requires a free subscription and knowledge of French. There are many many texts in Latin and Greek.
Another is SkuolaSprint, which does not require a subscription but does require a knowledge of Italian (though my Spanish gets me by). On this site there are bits of Ancient Greek read aloud (with an bit of an Italian accent, kind of droll) and oral explanations of key points. If interested, I suggest you have at least a brief look at this site.
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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat May 07, 2022 8:02 pm

Using bilingual editons came up in another post quite recently, reminding me of a series of translations of Aristophanes made by Alan H Sommerstein, emeritus professor of Greek in the Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Nottingham in the UK. Oxbow Books carries the lot, 11 comedies. A copy of Clouds has helped me, especially because the translation, though not exactly literal, is closer to literal than other academics' translations I have seen and therefore is useful. (the url to Amazon is given here because Oxbow Books has mussed up its listing of the work). This tip comes originally from mwh and Hylander of Textkit.
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Herodotean
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby Herodotean » Sun May 08, 2022 7:47 pm

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Herodotean
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby Herodotean » Tue May 31, 2022 3:45 am

Double-posting for another version of Wordle, this time for Latin.
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thevagrant88
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby thevagrant88 » Sun Jun 12, 2022 2:13 pm

So sorry if some of my questions come off as naïve, but I ask out of genuine curiosity and interest.

It’s my understanding that, generally speaking, the Greek of the New Testament is considered to be pretty straight forward. Occasionally I’ve even heard it described as an “easy” text to work through, at least for the gospels and other less abstract sections, for example

Generally speaking, and obviously this is totally subjective, but is this somewhat uncommon amongst these foundational religious texts of the world? Texts like the Hebrew of the Bible, Latin translations of the NT, Arabic of the Quran, etc. I’ve heard the Sanskrit of the Vedas is very challenging but I couldn’t say much more outside of that.

I ask because I hear this said about the Greek NT so often but I never really hear much about these other works. Considering many people study these languages specifically to study these texts, it would seem that some students would have more of an uphill climb compared to others. My biggest interests personally are the Greek NT and Quran (and let’s be real everything else too) so I guess I’m curious what I have in store, though I’m comforted by the fact that bilingual Qurans are so common.

Sorry for pestering you guys again, but I appreciate it!
Last edited by thevagrant88 on Sun Jun 12, 2022 7:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Beli Tsar
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby Beli Tsar » Sun Jun 12, 2022 2:30 pm

thevagrant88 wrote:So sorry if some of my questions come off as naïve, but I ask out of genuine curiosity and interest.

It’s my understanding that, generally speaking, the Greek of the New Testament is considered to be pretty straight forward. Occasionally I’ve even heard it described as an “easy” text to work through, at least for the gospels and other less abstract sections like revelations, for example

Generally speaking, and obviously this is totally subjective, but is this somewhat uncommon amongst these foundational religious texts of the world? Texts like the Hebrew of the Bible, Latin translations of the NT, Arabic of the Quran, etc. I’ve heard the Sanskrit of the Vedas is very challenging but I couldn’t say much more outside of that.

Can't comment on anything except the Hebrew OT and Latin, but all of these seem to be relatively easy, possibly even easier than much of the New Testament.

I haven't got that far with actual Hebrew study, and yet it's amazing how far that gets you in understanding texts. The language is alien, of course, compared to anything Indo-European, but much of the text is not hard. Not unlike many ancient texts (Icelandic sagas, Homer, etc. Etc) there isn't that much descriptive language compared to modern texts. The core vocabulary is much simpler than, say, a modern novel. Much of it is clearly designed to be read, and to be widely understood - it's not complex literature for they enjoyment of the erudite, nor abstruse like some mystical-philosophical texts (Plotinus!) There are harder bits: some if the poetry is more difficult, and the huge range of era and style between early Torah and the final prophets presents challenges. There are some points where textual transmission makes it hard to understand, though none that really affect any central points.

The Latin Vulgate, on the other hand, is just easy. Again, doubtless parts are harder, but what I've read or dipped into has been easier than the final chapters of most textbooks. It's translated simply and clearly for the masses, and that shows. That also means the style is more regular - whereas in the Greek NT the gulf between easy (Mark's blunt style, or John's elegant simplicity) and hard (Erudite Luke, and especially Hebrews) is substantial.

I'm not far on in any language bar perhaps NT Greek, but there very fact I can read these texts to some level at this stage indicates that are pretty simple.
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galaxyrocker
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby galaxyrocker » Sun Jun 12, 2022 5:06 pm

I don't know if it's been asked in the thread already, but what exactly constitutes a 'Classical Language'? Is it only those that have been associated with the 'Classics', .i. Greek and Latin, sometimes Hebrew and Sanskirt, or is it any dead language? Like would Old French count? Old English? Old Irish? Middle Welsh/Breton?
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tractor
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby tractor » Sun Jun 12, 2022 5:24 pm

galaxyrocker wrote:I don't know if it's been asked in the thread already, but what exactly constitutes a 'Classical Language'? Is it only those that have been associated with the 'Classics', .i. Greek and Latin, sometimes Hebrew and Sanskirt, or is it any dead language? Like would Old French count? Old English? Old Irish? Middle Welsh/Breton?

You’ll find the answer in the very first post in this thread.
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