|
 |
A dead languages challenge? | ||
Tags: Dead Languages | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Lykeio Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4033 days ago 120 posts - 357 votes  | Message 33 of 75 14 February 2014 at 1:10am | IP Logged | |||||
Ha I the temple quip made me genuinely laugh. Allen's book actually looks very fun. Its even got essays on Egyptian culture. As for your textbooks well what can I say? I've flicked through the Assimil and think it a curiosity at best though it has got nice audio, the male is more accurate (though occasionally Germanophonic) and I think it ends with the Odyssey's proem? Anyway I wanted to write a review but only flicked through it twice and I think I deleted my notes. I think my major problems where generally things like well the audio has trouble with geminated consonants and sometimes really messes up sentence stress where clitics are involved. As for the text itself well there was a lot of..unnecessary words (like paidotribes?!?) or sometimes it really couldn't get the context across. I mean kitharizein can mean play the kithara but it more commonly took the sense of "sing in accompaniment to the kithara" and other more technical senses. They wanted "bazein". Also random inverse sentences order. On the other hand apart from some glaring lapses (as with labwn) the book is good at teaching some idiom, e.g no over dependency on Exw but plenty of estin + dative constructions. It's a good(ish) book but it won't teach anyone to read Greek and as for speaking, well not in a way a real Greek would not have found funny. I can't say anything about the Sanskrit Assimil, I've seen reviews but never from someone who already knows the language. The voices sound shockingly Indian, however. I mean somewhat southern rather than Indo-Aryan proper but cf the Germanophonic Greek and Francophonic Latin it's a huge step up. Apparently Nalini Balbir is involved which is enough recommendation for me. I second the recommendation for Reading Greek. I also humbly suggest people purchase the older edition. Its clumsier, sure, but available on Amazon for 0.01 + P&P instead of £15 or what have you. Still serviceable. I don't know when learning a language I like doing it as cheaply as possible. I got my Egyptian textbook for £3 in CUP's damaged sale. They had several other cool textbooks like the new reading Greek, elements of new testament Greek, Using Spanish, reading Latin etc but I either did not need or did not want. A shame really. Anyway, off topic, I just wanted to say mate that you didn't "only get through 100 lines" but you got through 100 lines! of a text in a foreign language! a dead one! of a dead culture! That's not lamentable. That's near god damn magic. Something was uttered in the Eastern Aegean nearly three millennia ago and you're reciting it in your class or library or bedroom/study of where have you. Jump around your room in excitement! Its amazing! 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5321 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 34 of 75 14 February 2014 at 5:00am | IP Logged | |||||
Dates and duration. It sounds like several people want to do their reading during the summer. But before I choose a starting and ending date, I'm going to grab a couple PDFs from the St. Andrews corpus, ones with interlinear transliterations and translations, and see how long it takes me to read 250 words. Since I've only made it to Assimil lesson 40, this will give me a very vague idea of how many hours would be required for the Challenge.
Normally, I'm an Assimil kind of person, and I don't really use textbooks. But Allen's Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs is one of the best language textbooks I've seen in a long time. It's well organized, the explanations are exceptionally clear (even if you're not familiar with grammatical terminology), and it has all kinds of great stuff that's hard to find elsewhere—including a list of all the major grammatical particles, with explanations and examples. I've learned that when I get stuck on a strange bit of grammar in the Westcar papyrus or Peter Rabbit, the fastest way to figure things out is to go read the appropriate section in Allen. Five minutes with Allen's book can often save 30 minutes of frustration with my other resources.
I think you're pretty much captured the spirit of this challenge right there. :-) Edited by emk on 14 February 2014 at 5:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| akkadboy Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5197 days ago 264 posts - 497 votes Speaks: French*, English, Yiddish Studies: Latin, Ancient Egyptian, Welsh | Message 35 of 75 14 February 2014 at 10:22am | IP Logged | |||||
|
nb xa.w "master of crowns", with a direct genitive.
Allen has published this book last year. I haven't read it yet but it looks similar in scope to Loprieno's Ancient Egyptian : A linguistic Introduction. I just ordered Yael Bentor's Classical Tibetan Reader. As far as I can see it has a bit less than 100 pages of stories but that should work well for the challenge and I'd be glad to get even close to the end of it. It will also expose me to a broader vocabulary since most of my Tibetan reading has been done with philosophical texts. I'll use the next days to go through the textbook I used in order to refresh grammar and basic vocabulary.
Edited by akkadboy on 14 February 2014 at 11:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6492 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 36 of 75 14 February 2014 at 3:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I don't do challenges, but on the other hand I have still Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus (in Medieval Latin) lying around somewhere, and maybe it's about time do something about it. And it is definitely more than 100 pages. The reason for the misère was that Saxo has been lauded for his Latin and his accounts are well known in Denmark - alas, the introduction was boring beyond belief, but maybe the 'historical' (silent laughter in the background!) parts are more entertaining.
And Harry Potter I in Old Greek will have to wait until I have learnt the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4698 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 37 of 75 14 February 2014 at 4:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
Just when I thought I knew what I was going to read for this challenge, you remind me that I have the Ancient Greek Harry Potter!! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6386 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 38 of 75 14 February 2014 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Hey, if you allow languages that have Harry Potter translations, endangered but not quite dead languages should also be allowed :P
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| yantai_scot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4591 days ago 157 posts - 214 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 39 of 75 14 February 2014 at 6:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I'm another who'll be watching this thread challenge with interest.
Ancient Greek's been on my 'to do' list for about 15 years... If another is run next year, I'd definitely like to join in. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| gregf Triglot Newbie Luxembourg Joined 3741 days ago 12 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Italian, Ancient Greek | Message 40 of 75 14 February 2014 at 8:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Very happy to have found people as nerdy about dead languages as I am. Please count me in, in whatever format it eventually takes.
I've been studying Ancient Greek pretty intensely for the past two years (including a month in Rome studying with Rico's Polis class). I went back to my Assimil Ancient Greek class recently, to finish off, and I can only wholeheartedly recommend it, despite whatever reservations others might have expressed above. For me it's really a delight, well structured, and interesting enough to keep me going through chapter after mini-chapter. Finally, I'd probably read something like the Anabasis for this, though I've already read the first book a couple of times. Other possibilities would be Plato's Apology, Symposium, Republic, etc. all of which I have Loeb editions for. Edited by gregf on 14 February 2014 at 8:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
