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Greek Alphabet Cards

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Re: Greek Alphabet Cards

#41

Post by gschizas »

ομφαλός (belly button) is quite weird for ο (omikron), but I can't think of something better!

Just listing the letters below and my rating for each letter, maybe someone has a better idea for some of them:

α - αχλάδι (pear) 5/5

β - βάρκα (boat) 5/5

γ - γίδα (goat) 4/5

δ - δεινόσαυρος (dinosaur) 4/5

ε - έντομο (insect, bug) 4/5

ζ - ζώνη (belt) 3/5

η - ηλιοτρόπιο (sunflower) 3/5

θ - θρόνος (throne) 4/5

ι - ιππόκαμπος (seahorse) 3/5

κ - κάκτος (cactus) 2/5

λ - λιοντάρι (lion) 4/5

μ - μάσκα (mask) 4/5

ν - νυχτερίδα (bat) 4/5

ξ - ξύλο (wood, stick of wood) 2/5

ο - ομφαλός (belly button) 1/5

π - πόρτα (door) 4/5

ρ - ρακέτα (racket) 4/5

σ - σαλιγκάρι (snail) 5/5

τ - τραπέζι (table) 5/5

υ - υποβρύχιο (submarine) 4/5

φ - φίδι (snake) 5/5

χ - χιόνι (snow) 2/5

ψ - ψάρεμα (fishing) 3/5

ω - ωκεανός (ocean) 5/5

I'm basing my rating on how common a word is, and how much the shape resembles the drawing and vice versa.

Re: Greek Alphabet Cards

#42

Post by ben_w »

trvz wrote: post #34
nephihaha wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I say above, the issue is that modern Greek pronounces some letters very differently. We use the classical pronunciation in maths etc.

Modern Greek is, frankly, irrelevant. Ancient Greek is needed to get a full Western education, for reading some of our foundational literature properly.

Everything written in ancient Greek that is foundational to western literature, has already been translated, likely to a higher standard than most of the people trying to learn it.

Unless you wish to be part of an effort to further improve the quality of these translations, including to adjust them for the fact modern languages themselves are a moving target, just read those translations.

Modern Greek, on the other hand, is a living language with new art and culture coming from it. I may not be able to write "a cup of tea please" without misspelling tea, nor pronouncing it so badly they reply in English (as per my user profile), but this is infinitely more valuable than knowing if the ancient Greek character inviting people over for a meal is saying the people will eat the meal or be the meal.

Re: Greek Alphabet Cards

#43

Post by nephihaha »

gschizas wrote: post #40
nephihaha wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I say above, the issue is that modern Greek pronounces some letters very differently. We use the classical pronunciation in maths etc.

What you call "classical pronunciation" is really at best an approximation of the ancient Greek pronunciation, but mixed heavily with English (after some frolicking around in Latin). As far as I know, this is limited to English speakers only. For example, π is pronounced "πι", or probably closed to "pee" in modern and in ancient Greek. It's never pronounced like "pie". Same with all letters that end with "i", for exa…

I'm well aware it is an approximation, but there is a traditional classical pronunciation in use as there is with Latin (or Sanskrit, Pali and classical Hebrew), which is still in use whether or not it is authentic.

Re: Greek Alphabet Cards

#44

Post by nephihaha »

ben_w wrote: post #42
trvz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern Greek is, frankly, irrelevant. Ancient Greek is needed to get a full Western education, for reading some of our foundational literature properly.

Everything written in ancient Greek that is foundational to western literature, has already been translated, likely to a higher standard than most of the people trying to learn it. Unless you wish to be part of an effort to further improve the quality of these translations, including to adjust them for the fact modern languages themselves are a moving target, just read those translations. Modern Greek, on the other h…

To be fair, there are nuances in the ancient Greek which are best brought out by some study of the language. The most frequently translated ancient Greek text(s) would be the New Testament, and even there you can see a lot of modern churches base their ideas on dubious translations.

I find ancient Greek not so helpful when it comes to etymologies. Some are helpful, but many are obscure or misleading. Climax comes from the word for a ladder apparently, and electron comes from the word for amber. There are stories behind both but they won't get you far. Any word beginning with psych- tends to relate to the mind, but the Greek means "soul".

Re: Greek Alphabet Cards

#45

Post by FarmerPotato »

gschizas wrote: post #40
nephihaha wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I say above, the issue is that modern Greek pronounces some letters very differently. We use the classical pronunciation in maths etc.

What you call "classical pronunciation" is really at best an approximation of the ancient Greek pronunciation, but mixed heavily with English (after some frolicking around in Latin). As far as I know, this is limited to English speakers only. For example, π is pronounced "πι", or probably closed to "pee" in modern and in ancient Greek. It's never pronounced like "pie". Same with all letters that end with "i", for exa…

I had a native Italian professor who said "β" more like "vita". One day he tried to write "ξ" on the whiteboard and said "whatever the hell this is?". I was the only person who spoke up.

Re: Greek Alphabet Cards

#46

Post by FarmerPotato »

ben_w wrote: post #42
trvz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern Greek is, frankly, irrelevant. Ancient Greek is needed to get a full Western education, for reading some of our foundational literature properly.

Everything written in ancient Greek that is foundational to western literature, has already been translated, likely to a higher standard than most of the people trying to learn it. Unless you wish to be part of an effort to further improve the quality of these translations, including to adjust them for the fact modern languages themselves are a moving target, just read those translations. Modern Greek, on the other h…

Wow, what a way to write off something "foundational to western literature".

I studied koine Greek with my dad. Today, I study Aristotle alongside half-a-dozen English translations (the latest, Adam Beresford's Ethics, is hilarious, "like Han Solo and Chewbacca, Achilles and Patrocles" in the notes; his Aristotle uses "Perhaps...but that's a bit off-topic").

None of the English translations is as convincing as knowing the original vocabulary. Many phrases and idioms are still obscure or debated. Why should the student not want to look behind the curtain?

Finally, there is something bracing about knowing the ancient grammar. Greek has features long-vanished from English.

You would separate students into those who never need to bother looking a bit into "foundational to western literature" and those handful who are on a PhD track. Eventually, nobody would grow up to be recruited into the latter.

Re: Greek Alphabet Cards

#47

Post by jaharios »

gschizas wrote: post #41

ομφαλός (belly button) is quite weird for ο (omikron), but I can't think of something better! Just listing the letters below and my rating for each letter, maybe someone has a better idea for some of them: α - αχλάδι (pear) 5/5 β - βάρκα (boat) 5/5 γ - γίδα (goat) 4/5 δ - δεινόσαυρος (dinosaur) 4/5 ε - έντομο (insect, bug) 4/5 ζ - ζώνη (belt) 3/5 η - ηλιοτρόπιο (sunflower) 3/5 θ - θρόνος (throne) 4/5 ι - ιππόκαμπος (…

For χ - χελιδόνι (swallow) with X tail-wings is the best

Re: Greek Alphabet Cards

#48

Post by FarmerPotato »

NooneAtAll3 wrote: post #16

I wish cards like these didn't stop at ONE letter a lot of reading skill is in connecting one letter to the next, syllable-grouped teaching should incorporate that

There was a hilarious illustrated book "Greek to Me". It is a thorough (English) introduction to koine Greek, mainly Bible as well as classical from Herodotus, Arrian, et al.

It uses the silly-picture mnemonic approach. For instance, the verb εγειρω features a fellow raising up a suction-cup arrow with an egg stuck in it.

Present-indicative conjugations are in a picture of an omelet oozing in an oasis:

-ω -ομεν

-εις -ετε

-ει -ουσιν

Re: Greek Alphabet Cards

#50

Post by FarmerPotato »

unkeen wrote: post #28
BobAliceInATree wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not. It's about teaching letter forms to kids.

… which heavily involves memorizing foreign letters. English and German mostly share the same alphabet, though, which suggests that the person asking the question hasn’t quite grasped the point. That’s what I was trying to get at in my comment.

The author criticizes also English cards for not having letter shapes.

Also, "foreign" is always relative. How about an Ancient Greek referring to the barbarians who have no Greek? And, the author's using Greek while living in China.

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