Ancient Greek - Language Study

Ancient Greek - Language Study

Table of Contents

• Materials
• Intro - Alphabet & Pronunciation
  • The Ancient Greek alphabet (Alpha Beta, right?)
  • Recite your alphabeta
  • Pronunciation - Accents, Dipthongs, Punctuation
• Intro - Writing Accents
• Unit 1 - Noun Declension
• Unit 1 - Definite Article
• Unit 1 - Misc Vocab
• Unit 2 & 3 - Verb Conjugation
• Unit 4 - Noun 1st Declension Update
• Unit 4 - Adjective 1st / 2nd Declensions
  • 3 ending adjectives 1st and 2nd declension
  • 2 ending adjectives 2nd declension
• Unit 4 - Conditional Sentences
• Unit 5 - Verbs in Passive Voice
  • PERFECT INDICATIVE PASSIVE OF CONSONANT STEMS
  • PLUPERFECT INDICATIVE PASSIVE OF CONSONANT STEMS
  • PERFECT INFINITIVE PASSIVE OF CONSONANT STEMS
  • Genitive of Personal Agent
  • Dative of Personal Agent
  • Dative of Means or Instrument
  • Substantive use of the adjective
  • Substantive use of the article
  • The articular infinitive
• Unit 6 - 3rd declension nouns
• Unit 7 - Middle Voice
• Unit 7 - 2nd aorist active & middle voice
• Hortatory Subjunctive
• That's all for now
• See Also

Materials

• Fisch study guides
  • Units 1-3
  • Units 1-5
  • Units 1-7
  • Units 1-8
  • Units 1-9
  • Units 1-10
  • Units 1-11
  • Units 1-14
  • Units 1-15
• The Aion study guide
  • Units 1-7
  • Units 1-14
  • Units 1-20
• Soular
  • Unit 12, 13, 14 Study Guide_ -μι Athematic Verbs
  • Unit 15
  • Unit 16

Other drills and learning resources

• SomaLibrary Drills! - quiz yourself with our short drills
• kosmossociety.org videos

Book

• Hit the Resources for Greek an Intensive Course by Hansen and Quinn, and others that will teach everything you see below.

More at the bottom under See Also

Intro - Alphabet & Pronunciation

The Ancient Greek alphabet (Alpha Beta, right?)

Recite your alphabeta

[Dr Hillman recites the ancient greek alphabet] audio only

Pronunciation - Accents, Dipthongs, Punctuation

Hard Breath - (vowel | diphthong) starts word use

• ( curve above ἑ - “hey” hard breath
• ) curve above ἐ - “ey” soft breath

Accent vocal pitch + slight stress
Can only appear on 1 of 3 last syllables in a word

• / ramp above ά - up
• \ ramp above ὰ - down
• ~ curve above ᾶ - up down

Long or short vowel

• _ above ᾱ - long
• α - short
• Long : α ah, η ay, ι ee, ω ou
• Short : α uh, ε eh, ι ay, υ oo
• Long : all diphthongs

Can combine

• )/ - ἄ soft and accent
• (/ - ἅ hard breathing and accent
• _/ - ᾱ́ accented and long

Diphthongs (acc/brth mark goes over 2nd char)
αι - eye
ει - ay
οι - oy
υι - wih
αυ - ow
ευ - eh oo
ηυ - ay oo
ου - οο

short ι after vowel (ι is not pronounced!)

• Subscript (for lowercase)
  • ᾳ - α with dot under - ay
  • ῃ - η with long feet
  • ῳ - ω with a dot under
  • Needs a breathing mark ) or (
• Adscript (for uppercase)
  • Αι
  • Ηι
  • Ωι
  • Needs a breathing mark ) or (

γ Gamma combines (first γ becomes 'n' sound)

• γγ - ng - anger - ἄγγελος
• γκ - nk - banker - αγκυρα
• γξ - nx - sphinx - σφίγξ
• γχ - nkh- lunkhead - ὀξύρρυγχος

Labial, Dental, Palatal

Double consonants

• Ψ - πς, βς, φς (Labial + ς)
• ζ - δζ (Dental + ζ)
• ξ - κς, γς, χς (Palatal + ς)

Hansen Greek is unaspirated
This is aspirated pronunciation with hard breath (

• π (p) with hard breath ( results in φ (ph)
• τ (t) with hard breath ( results in θ (th)
• κ (k) with hard breath ( results in χ (ckh)

This is unaspirated, soft breath )

• π (p)
• τ (t)
• κ (k)

fricatives - φ (f), θ (th), χ (ckh)
Notice the labial, dental, palatal?

Punctuation

• Comma and Period ,. Same as English
• Colon and Semicolon · Dot
• Question mark ; English semicolon
• Quotation marks “ rarely used if ever

Capitalization

• Original ancient texts didn't have capitalization (or accents), it was added by later scribes.
• Rules:
  • Proper name
  • First word of paragraph
  • Not first word of sentence

Intro - Writing Accents

Ultima - [n-1] last char
Penultima - [n-2] 2nd to last char
Antepenult - [n-3] 3rd to last char

Rules for accents / \ and ~

• / - acute
  • [n-1] - allowed when there’s a pause .,·
    • Otherwise use \ with no pause - [n-2] - allowed if not long followed by short
    • short short - [n-3] - allowed when [n-1] is short
    • long short - \ - grave
  • [n-1] - allowed
    • Replaces / when no pause - ~ - circumflex
  • [n-1] - allowed over long vowels
  • [n-2] - allowed over long vowels
    • required when accented+(long | dipthong) followed by short
    • forbidden when [n-1] is (long | dipthong) - 3 syllables recessive
  • [n-1] is
    • short? / on [n-3]
    • (long | diphthong)? / on [n-2] - 2 syllables recessive
  • Must be on [n-2], last two are
    • short (any) ? - /
    • (long | diphthong) short - ~
    • (long | diphthong) (long | diphthong) - /

Recessive accent

• when on farthest syllable back allowed by rules
• most verb forms are recessive
• Verb: stop: )/επανσα

Persistent

• when accent stays on the same (vowel | dipthong) between all forms of word
• Persistent on most nouns, βιβλίων and learned with vocab
• May change if rules require it

Unit 1 - Noun Declension

Noun structure

• stem - dictionary meaning
• ending - case, gender, number (inflection)

Noun Structure - Unit 1

Noun Case - puts the noun in one of a possible number of relations to the rest of the words in the sentence.

• NOMINATIVE: subject, predicate nominative, naming things (The Homer)
• GENITIVE: from; of; away from/out of; possessive (gifts from Homer)
• DATIVE: to/for; by with; in/at; indirect object (gifts to Homer)
• ACCUSATIVE: motion toward, direct object, or length of space or time (teach Homer)
• VOCATIVE: invoking someone; a noun is being addressed directly (O Homer!)

Noun Gender - Masculine, Feminine, Neuter

Noun Number - Singular, Plural, Dual

Noun Inflection

• declension (noun is declined)

Verb Inflection

• conjugation (verb is conjugated)

1st declension nouns (feminine)

2nd declension nouns

Practice Memorization:

• [Audio Only - Maddalena Sings the Declensions - Noun + Definite Article - 10min loop]

Unit 1 - Definite Article

Definite article (The) - Declension

Unit 1 - Misc Vocab

ἡ ζεως - hey Zeus - (the Zeus)
χριω
χριος
ἡ χριστος - the christ

Unit 2 & 3 - Verb Conjugation

Verbs must be conjugated.

Verb Conjugation

All verbs have 6 principle parts that are not deterministic, must be looked up (and learned, for each verb).
Similar to English sing,sang,sung.
But there are 6.

Verb Conjugation - 6 Principle Parts + their Endings

Practice Memorization:

• [Audio Only - Maddalena Sings the Conjugations - Verb - 9min loop]
• [Watch Dr Hillman recite verb endings for Unit 2]

Unit 4 - Noun 1st Declension Update

Let's update the 1st declension table with 2 new columns:

• Sometimes a Feminine noun will end in a short α.
• Sometimes a 1st declension is Masculine.

1st declension nouns

Unit 4 - Adjective 1st / 2nd Declensions

Just like the definite article...
...The adjective must agree in case/gender/number with the noun it modifies.

attributive position
NOTICE: the adjective in the attributive position

• ὁ ἀγαθὸς ἄνθρωπος - the good man
• ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁ ἀγαθός - the good man (the man, the good one)
• ἄνθρωπος ὁ ἀγαθός - the good man (a man, the good one)

predicate position (adjective that agrees with a noun, but without it's own article)

• predicate adjective
  • NOTICE: article + noun is the subject; adjective is the predicate adjective.
  • ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἀγαθός - the man is good
  • ἀγαθὸς ὁ ἄνθρωπος - the man is good
  • οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἀγαθοί - the men are good
• predicate noun
  • NOTICE: two nouns, one is the subject, one is the predicate noun
  • τὸ βιβλίον δῶρον - the book is a gift
  • δῶρον τὸ βιβλίον - the book is a gift

3 ending adjectives 1st and 2nd declension

2 ending adjectives 2nd declension

Unit 4 - Conditional Sentences

If... then...

• prostasis - assumption (negative is μή)
• apodosis - conclusion (negative is ού)

Mixed Conditional - Sometimes the protasis / apodosis are mixed between types (in later Units).

elison

• when a word ends with a short vowel, and the following word begins with vowel/dipthong, the vowel at the end of the first word is sometimes dropped/elided and replaced with ᾽.

Unit 5 - Verbs in Passive Voice

Verb Conjugation - Passive Voice

Consonant Stems
When the perfect passive tense stem ends in a consonant, writers avoid awkward clusters of consonants by smoothing that juncture between stem and ending. Principle Part V often has a consonant of the stem in an altered form. e.g. γέγραφμαι becomes γέγραμμαι

PERFECT INDICATIVE PASSIVE OF CONSONANT STEMS

PLUPERFECT INDICATIVE PASSIVE OF CONSONANT STEMS

PERFECT INFINITIVE PASSIVE OF CONSONANT STEMS

Genitive of Personal Agent

With most passive verbs, the personal agent is expressed by:

• ὑπό + the genitive

ὑπό τοῦ Ὁμήρου - by means of Homer

Dative of Personal Agent

• the dative

Dative of Means or Instrument

• the dative

Substantive use of the adjective

Example:

• Simplify "The good people die young" to "The good die young" (drop the noun "people")

ὁ ἀγαθός - the good (man)
ἡ ἀγαθή - the good (woman)

Substantive use of the article

Since the definite article (the) has [gender, number case], it can be used as a substantive

οἱ - the men
τἆς - the women
τὰ - the things

The articular infinitive

Infinitives are best translated by the English gerund ("writing") rather than by the English infinitive ("to write"). e.g. the man writing with a red pen.

Behold:

Unit 6 - 3rd declension nouns

• Nom S - learned from the standard vocab listing of each noun
• Acc S - almost all with consonantal stems use ending -α. Stems ending in -ιτ, -ιδ, -ιθ (without iota accent) drop the consonant and add -ν.
• Voc S
  • identical to Nom S:
    • when Nom S ends in -ξ or -ψ
    • when Nom S ends in -ν or -ρ, and accents the ultima
  • otherwise it's the stem alone (drop any final dental).
  • All Voc S neuter nouns identical to Nom S.
  • Some nouns dont follow this rule (given in the vocab).
• Nom / Voc P - identical. All neuter use ending -α in Nom/Voc/Acc P.
• Dat P - see below box for rules for combining Dat P ending -σι with 3rd declension consonantal stems.

π, β, φ + -σι = -ψι
κ, γ, χ + -σι = -ξι
τ, δ, θ + -σι = -σι
      ν + -σι = -σι
      σ + -σι = -σι
-αντ-   + -σι = -ασι
-εντ-   + -σι = -εισι
-οντ-   + -σι = -ουσι
      λ + -σι = -λσι with no change
      ρ + -σι = -ρσι with no change

Unit 7 - Middle Voice

Unit 7 - 2nd aorist active & middle voice

Hortatory Subjunctive

A hortatory subjunctive is simply the Greek way of saying, "Let's do this!"

Quick Examples:

• λύωμεν (luōmen) – Let us loose!
• μὴ λύωμεν (mē luōmen) – Let us not loose!
• ἴωμεν (iōmen) – Let's go!

That's all for now

See Also

• Materials are at the top of this page
• Hit the Resources for Greek an Intensive Course by Hansen and Quinn, and others that will teach everything you see above.
• Ammon U - Dr Hillman teaches ancient greek, using Hansen+Quinn...