Greek Language and Linguistics
Ancient Greek, mostly Hellenistic
Thanks to Mike Aubrey for making me aware of the free download of Rutger J. Allan’s dissertation on the Middle Voice in Ancient Greek. You can download the whole dissertation or individual chapters here.
While Dr. Allan was dealing with Homeric and Classical Greek, many of his observations and conclusions appear to be very applicable to the hellenistic period as well.
I have added the published version as well as the dissertation to my online bibliography.
On March 1, Mike Aubrey commented about Rijksbaron’s book, “And this is just one book that should be on the shelf of every student of Ancient Greek.” It wasn’t on mine. So I bought a copy.
What a nice overview of the Classical Greek verbal system! I will have more to say about it later, but for now I’d just like to comment that I really like Rijksbaron’s integration of syntax and semantics, his clear discussion of how the semantic content of individual verbs influences the way such issues as verbal aspect play out in given contexts. He is conversant with current theory in both semantics, discourse theory, and syntax. He also has a very solid grasp of more traditional Greek grammar.
I second Mike’s recommendation.
See the book at Barnes and Noble.
In each of the lessons dealing with the middle and passive voices, I have taken the opportunity to introduce a little more detail needed for a clear understanding of the functions of these voice categories. In lesson 22 I have included an unusually long discussion of transitivity as it relates to the passive voice.
While I think understanding transitivity is crucial for correctly understanding Greek voice, I’m unsure about how helpful my discussion of it is for beginning students. I would love to hear candid remarks on how helpful this discussion is or how obscure, confusing, or problematic you consider it to be.
I have thick skin. I can take criticism. I want the grammar to be useful to as many students as possible, so I don’t mind hearing recommendations for change!
I have updated the course lexicon (cumulative vocabulary list) for my online grammar. It is now current through lesson 22.
I’ve uploaded a “Jeopardy” type flash game to practice recognizing the present and aorist forms of five very common irregular Greek verbs: ἔρχομαι, ὁράω, φέρω, λέγω, and ἐσθίω. Give it a try, and let me know what you think. I may add it to the table of contents for the online grammar if it seems useful. It’s designed for use in the classroom, but it could be used by individuals at home as well.
Update (3/16/2011 9:06 pm)
There were some problems with the Flash version of the game, and I was unable to repair it, so I’ve replaced it with a QuickTime version. It performs the same as before, but takes up way more space on my server!
Lesson 22: The Present Middle and Passive is now up and running. It has exercises for recognizing both Ω conjugation and ΜΙ conjugation verbs as well as several vocabulary exercises.
I have added six short exercises to lesson 21: More on the Aorist Middle and Passive. The exercises provide practice recognizing the aorist middle/passive forms of the following six verbs:
If you learn the aorist middle/passive forms of these six verbs you will be able to recognize the aorist middle and passive forms of all verbs in the New Testament.
I have updated all of the exercises and the vocabulary quiz for Lesson 4: Nouns.
Exercise 1: Recognize Masculine Case Forms
Exercise 2: Recognizing Neuter Noun Forms
Exercise 3: Distinguishing Masculine and Neuter 2nd Declension Nouns
Exercise 4: Recognizing the Greek Article
I’ve added a couple of new exercises to lesson 20: one for practice recognizing 1st aorist middle forms, and one for recognizing 2nd aorist middle forms.
I have added three drag-and-drop vocabulary exercises and a vocabulary practice quiz to lesson 19: Semantic Roles and Voice.