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Modern vs. classical Greek | ||
Tags: Dead Languages | Greek | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| GettingThere Newbie United States Joined 6248 days ago 24 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 65 09 September 2008 at 6:08pm | IP Logged |
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I am considering studying classical Greek and I'm wondering if it wouldn't be more practical to just learn modern Greek, and use it as a stepping stone to learning classical Greek, or if the two languages are just so different that I may as well skip the modern and go straight to classical since that is my goal anyway. Thanks to anyone who can help.
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| FrancescoP Octoglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5949 days ago 169 posts - 258 votes  Speaks: Italian*, French, English, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian, Norwegian Studies: Georgian, Japanese, Croatian, Greek | Message 2 of 65 10 September 2008 at 2:31am | IP Logged |
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I might be biased here, since I have been at grips with ancient Greek since my early teens and only recently considered learning modern Greek too, but my advice is: go for ancient Greek first, if you are serious about the whole matter! Learning the other way round wouldn't be wise, for a number of reasons:
1) modern grammar is very simple by comparison, and knowing it wouldn't help you one bit with the intricacies of ancient Greek (anyone said "verbs"?) 2) the chances that it reflects back on your English and your awareness of language change are higher. In modern Greek some of the roots that make up much of our technical vocabulary (ex. the prefix "hydro-" from ydor/ydatos, meaning "water") have been replaced. Nowadays water is called "nero", from a somewhat less glorious root. Chances are it says nothing to you. One of the great pleasures of studying classical languages, however, is the lightbulb effect when you realize where a certain damn thing was actually coming from. Enjoy it. 3) There's a considerable stock of immortal literature to discover in the original. Sure, you won't be reading Homer the way you might be reading Harry Potter after a couple of months, or even years (Homer is to Plutarch what Chaucer might be to Oscar Wilde, so it takes extra effort even when you master the later versions of the language), but the pleasure you get even from nibbling single sentences and seeing they make sense in invaluable 4) Getting used to modern pronunciation at an early stage would not be healthy. Greek friends would hug and kiss you if they heard you read Xenophon that way, but most scholars around the world are bound to wince. Discussion about what we assume to be the real "historical" pronunciation of ancient Greek hasn't evolved much since the times of Erasmus from Rotterdam (XVI century), but there is a tradition in universities and highschools that diverges quite strongly from present habits. These were some random ramblings. The gist of the sermon is: going from A to B is possible and wise, going from B to A makes little sense and it's less fun anyway. Where would you like to begin, after all: from learning how to order Feta or from Alexander the Great? 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6271 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 3 of 65 20 September 2008 at 9:15am | IP Logged |
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On the other hand, modern Greek is easier to learn than its ancient version and you can use it in Greece if you go on holiday.
I am neutral on the subject, as beyond knowing a little Latin I am not a classicist. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vista Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 6394 days ago 38 posts - 40 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese, Spanish, French Studies: Modern Hebrew, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Basque | Message 4 of 65 21 September 2008 at 2:06pm | IP Logged |
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I am a fairly new student of Greek and just want to reinforce everything Francesco P said. It is my opinion also that it would make no sense to learn Modern Greek first if your eventual goal is to master the Ancient language. If you want to learn the Modern Greek after, you will have a pretty good foundation.
Maybe you'll find this site interesting. One thing that the author does very well is to point out differences in the modern and ancient language. http://www.foundalis.com/lan/greek.htm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| konto Bilingual Triglot Newbie Greece Joined 6164 days ago 17 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English*, Greek*, Spanish | Message 5 of 65 29 September 2008 at 8:16pm | IP Logged |
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My dad tells me that the differences between both Greeks are night and day. So it depends on what you want, reading ancient texts, or meeting Greek people with their culture and beautiful country.
When i was last in Greece a foreigner there told me that Greece is God's gift to the world. So to me, experiencing the country is far more enlightening than reading something thats already been translated. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6121 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 6 of 65 04 August 2009 at 6:12pm | IP Logged |
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Does learning Modern Greek after having learned Ancient Greek strengthen you abilities in Ancient Greek? I.e., do you get a better “feel” for Greek overall?
Also, I assume that “Ancient Greek” in this discussion subsumes Koine (Biblical) Greek? My thought process is that I am learning Koine (I already know most of the vocabulary) and I’m thinking of learning Modern Greek after that, but only if it will have a beneficial impact on my knowledge of Koine. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Gilgamesh Tetraglot Senior Member England Joined 6241 days ago 452 posts - 468 votes 14 sounds Speaks: Dutch, English, German, French Studies: Polish | Message 7 of 65 04 August 2009 at 8:13pm | IP Logged |
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Hey,
I don't want to seem harsh, but how does learning another language instead of your target language help you acquire your target language quicker? That doesn't make sense. If I want to learn Hindi, I wouldn't consider learning Sanskrit first; if I want to learn Persian, I'm not going to learn Arabic first because there is many vocabulary that has been transferred. If you are willing to learn a language, learn it straight away; everything else is demotivating. Not meant to sound harsh at all, just hope I could make you see that something is a bit... off in your reasoning. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lewisw Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5587 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes | Message 8 of 65 07 August 2009 at 2:05pm | IP Logged |
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The difference between modern and ancient Greek is comparable to the difference between Latin and Italian. Knowing one certainly helps learning the other, but not enough to make it worthwhile sitting down to learn one solely for that purpose.
2 persons have voted this message useful |
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