Is it possible to learn ancient greek language from only books?
Friday, July 23rd, 2010 at
6:01 pm
I really liked 'The Secret History' by Donna Tartt which was about a group learning classics in university. While reading I became interested in the ancient greek language (not the modern version), and I want to learn it, but I only got some e-books without audio companions. I don't know any teacher around my town. I was told that it is a rather difficult language, but is it possible to learn the basics from only books? Thanks for your answers.
Home | Contact | About | Privacy Policy | Sitemap
Tagged with: ancient greek language • companions • donna tartt • e books • secret history
Filed under: Greek Language
You can learn the basic grammar and vocabulary from a book. You might even learn how to conjugate verbs and write sentences in ancient Greek. But take it from someone who’s language is a derivative of ancient greek (aka modern greek :p): it is NOT an easy language to learn and you’re definitely going to need a teacher to explain to you how spelling works and answer all your questions.
You can definitely learn how to read and write in that language, but speaking is another thing altogether! A lot people study ancient languages like greek and aztec, but I don’t think anyone can speak them. sorry, but you can learn the basics of translating it and writing in it if you want.
and yes, any ancient language is incredibly hard to learn, but if you stick at it, then I don’t see why in a few years you wouldn’t be able to understand it.
Good luck
I would say it depends very much on your current grasp of grammar, and within that what other languages you currently know. Grammatically speaking, Classical Greek is far more complex than most modern languages, and unlike Latin has the added complication that what is written is actually the spoken language, meaning that rules are frequently ignored. In terms of the basics, it’s definitely possible to learn Classical Greek without needing outside assistance, but realistically only if you have a very sound grammatical understanding.
If you decide to have a go, good luck with it – while it won’t be easy, I would definitely say it’s worth a go.