How do I start learning Greek?

How do I start learning Greek?

START

WITH

SUICIDE

NIGGA

be honest with yourself: how intelligent are you?

I learnt Latin, French and German at school and found Latin the most difficult by far, and yet Latin is much easier than Greek.

It would be very difficult to do by yourself. Try finding the reading list of your local university, or even one of the better secondary schools, and look for an introductory textbook. I presume you are American, in which case I would recommmend looking at English universities (Cambridge, Oxford, University College London) as the English universities tend to have a better reputation in classical studies than their American counterparts.

...

You could buy the books Reading Greek by the JACT. They are kind of pricey, but if you're genuinely committed, I think they are worth it.

Learning a language isn't rocket science. Anyone with enough dedication and time can do it.

t. Linguistics major

>I learnt
Start with the english

>buy the books Reading Greek by the JACT

you can find them in soulseek too

Don't be a retard and learn a living language.
Trust me on this, I wasted time on latin and got bored with its antique shit in a month. Haven't read anything in latin in years, probably couldn't anymore even if I tried

that is correct silly

If you want to learn Greek, and don't have anybody to teach you, the best way as others in this thread have said is to buy a textbook set and study it on your own.

It takes a lot of work, but if you are the kind of person that wants to do this sort of thing in the first place I think that work can become its own reward.

Also I've found personally that once you get a good handle on the grammar and a solid vocabulary base the best thing to read to really solidify the mechanics of the language in your head is actually the Bible. The language used is simpler than what is used in attic or homeric greek, and the numbers on all the verses make it easy to keep track of where you are in the reading. Once you gain an intuitive understanding of the grammar it is much easier to simply remember the different vocabularies for the dialects.

>Greek
>ded language

lmao

OP's meme pic obviously implies that he wants to study some ancient greek dialect, who gives a shit about modern greeks or anything they do

'Learnt' is the preferred British spelling, dummy.

Probably the alphabet, if you don't already know it.

how easy is the bible to read after having done a year of textbook learning in attic greek ?

The Bible is in Koine Greek.

If you have been studying attic it shouldn't be that difficult. Koine as a dialect developed from attic in the areas conquered by Alexander. It was less academic than attic in its syntax, and to me it feels like a more streamlined version of it.

I studied attic myself, and I don't think the vocabulary differences were too hard to overcome.

the LXX is not koine, the new testament is. Be careful guys.

Also, I recommend using Pharr's Homeric Greek for Beginners

There are a lot of good all-in-one package books for this. One that is regarded very highly is the JACT's Reading Greek someone has already mentioned and that you can find online.

However, keep in mind that it will require at least one year of regular study, day in day out, before you can start to put it to any sort of use.

Can you study it regularly day in day out for one year, without any sort of practical return? Don't answer this by checking how you feel now about it, answer by checking how you behaved in the past on similar long term projects.

Learning a living language may offer more motivation, although you should still ask yourself the same question.

Start with the greeks

Lol why you do this?
I am greek and what you posted is ancient greek that even greeks find difficult to learn/don't bother when in school. There is little reason to learn that unless he wants to become a linguist.

We will rise again faggot!

If you want to read the testament you better learn hebrew, we have an edit of an edit of an edited translation, there are a lot of bullshit in there.

I'm a PhD fag in classics, my 2 cents:
DO NOT LEARN LATIN OR GREEK UNLESS YOU ARE IN ACADEMIA
Academia can be broad: from classics, to seminary to ancient history to high school latin teacher, but for the love of god do not learn latin and greek if you are not basing your life/career on it.
-Almost all classical works are translated, works in late antiquity and some works in medieval era still lack translations, but major works of those periods are translated. So unless you are an autist who wants to read obscure texts like 5th century basket weaving do no bother
-Learn German and French instead, not only some ancient works that are not translated in english are translated in german/french but you will also find use in these languages unlike fucking latin/greek. You can read french classical scholarship on topics you want, or shitpost in krautchan
-If you want to learn do learn with a teacher, look for intensive greek summer schools
-If you can't find a teacher JACT Reading Greek is very good for individual study. Reading Greek is not my favorite book but other books require a teacher imho. Reading Greek is best for solo learning
-Buy the text book, the grammar book and also the independent study guide book, speaking greek cd's are optional, I find it trivial personally
-After finishing reading greek look into its preface where it gives you the names of more advanced books from the same series. A World of Heroes and The Intellectual Revolution, I think there was one more. Anyway its in the preface so go read it after you are done.
>but I want to read muh bible muh precious byzabootexts muh homer
Attic has the best teaching material, and you can later on learn koine, byzantine/medieval greek, homeric greek later on with much ease.

>DO NOT LEARN LATIN OR GREEK UNLESS YOU ARE IN ACADEMIA
>Learn German and French instead
Are you only allowed to study one additional language or something? What is it with academics getting butthurt every time somebody actually wants to learn

>butthurt
hardly, I just want to save people tears and sweats. If you are autistic or a masochist, then go on but you are in academia juice is not worth the squeeze.

I proposed German and French as alternatives, they are much easy to learn (imho) and have more uses than latin and greek.

unless you are in academia*

You sound like a dumb nigger

fuck you

Go live in Greece.

I've read that learning Homeric Greek makes learning Attic Greek later on much easier than if you learn Attic and then Homeric. Do you have anything to say about that?

I don't know, I learned attic first and I'm not a linguistic expert to judge which one is the easiest. "Homeric Greek" as far as I know is a spesific form of Greek, a mixture of archaic doric/ionic etc, so its not the language greeks spoke during the time of homer, but it is the language bards used in their epics (they use doric here and ionic there, something speakers would not do)but nevertheless it precedes attic greek of plato etc and you can compare how attic evolved by looking at homeric greek, just like you can look at koine and see the evolution from attic.
Regardless the biggest problem is the lack of language material, as far as I know, there is no individual study books for homeric greek. There is for attic greek. Reading Greek is really a good series to learn on your own.

And if you are going to torture yourself by learning greek I think one can handle few more whips by studying attic.

k so as an autist who has interests in untranslated ancient and medieval texts, I should still go on with it. what do you and your peers research? is it true that only minoring in greek/latin studies is a waste of time?

>durr blabla bla is more useful than ancient greek
>"useful"

dumb bitch niggers, if you speak english literally every other language you learn has trivial "use", just let people learn what they want to learn jesus christ

In general maybe, but specifically for learning not true, for example If you want to learn about certain greek deities a lot of the scholarship is in french or german rather than english. Hecate for example has thrice the amount of English scholarly work about her in french.
Do as you will and good luck.
>what do you and your peers research?
Still not sure, something something gods in Hellenistic age probably still not advanced into candidacy yet, so I have time to decide.
Currently gender/identity etc issues are very popular, although trends come and go.
>is it true that only minoring in greek/latin studies is a waste of time?
you learn a lot of things that you will never use in your undergrad, regardless of what major you are in.

>be honest with yourself: how intelligent are you?
Well... you know

Damn, a Classics PhD telling people NOT to study the ancients.

Truly a dying field.

Greek is not this herculean intellectual labor it's made out to be. It's harder than Spanish, sure, but if you spend time on it every day and use your time effectively you can learn a lot. It used to be very common for educated laypeople to study Latin and Greek in their free-time. And why? Because it's really fun. If you're a Classicist you should know better than anyone what good honest fun it is to work through Horace or Theocritus, even if there is a bit of sweat to it at times.