This free course, Getting started on ancient Greek, offers a taster of the ancient Greek world through the study of one of its most distinctive and enduring features: its language.The course approaches the language methodically, starting with the alphabet and effective ways to memorise it, before building up to complete Greek words and sentences. Along the way, you will see numerous real examples of Greek as written on objects from the ancient world.If you're wondering why study an ancient language, here are four reasons:Transcript65
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- Historical overview
- Acknowledgements
- Session1Session 1: The alphabet
- Introduction
- 1 First steps
- 2 More letters
- 3 Unfamiliar letters
- 4 ‘False friends’
- 5 Places and people
- 6 Transliteration
- 7 Learning the letters
- 8 Alphabetical order
- 9 Practise your learning
- 10 A Greek inscription
- 11 Summary
- Acknowledgements
- Session2Session 2: Sounds
- Introduction
- 1 The sounds of Greek
- 2 Breathings
- 3 Refinements
- 4 Accents
- 5 Stress
- 6 Diphthongs
- 7 Practice
- 8 Reconstructing pronunciation
- 9 Listening to Homer
- 10 Summary
- Acknowledgements
- Session3Session 3: Writing
- Introduction
- 1 Forming the letters
- 2 First words
- 3 Practice
- 4 Upper and lower case
- 5 Listening
- 6 Ancient writing
- 6.1 Capital letters
- 6.2 Lower case
- 6.3 Word division
- 7 Summary
- Acknowledgements
- Session4Session 4: Words
- Introduction
- 1 Greek and English
- 2 Suffixes
- 3 Prefixes
- 4 Eponyms
- 5 Vocabulary
- 6 The definite article
- 7 Counting
- 8 Plato's Timaeus
- 9 Summary
- Acknowledgements
- Session5Session 5: Word endings
- Introduction
- 1 English noun endings
- 2 A Greek example
- 3 The genitive case
- 4 Case endings
- 5 Patronymics
- 6 The genealogy of Leonidas
- 7 The direction of Greek writing
- 7.1 A Greek vase
- 7.2 The Gortyn code
- 8 Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Session6Session 6: Subjects and objects
- Introduction
- 1 Subjects and objects
- 2 Sentence patterns
- 3 Noun endings in English
- 4 Nominative and accusative
- 5 Declensions
- 6 Using case endings
- 7 Forms of the article
- 8 Alexander's dedication
- 9 Local scripts
- 9.1 Athens
- 9.2 Crete
- 10 Summary
- Acknowledgements
- Session7Session 7: Subjects and complements
- Introduction
- 1 Subject and object: recap
- 2 Subject and complement
- 3 εἰμί, I am
- 4 Boundary stones
- 5 καλός inscriptions
- 6 Beatitudes
- 7 The standardisation of the alphabet
- 8 Summary
- Acknowledgements
- Session8Session 8: Reading Greek
- Introduction
- 1 Alexander’s dedication
- 2 Reading skills
- 2.1 The alphabet
- 2.2 Sounds
- 2.3 Word shape
- 2.4 Syntax
- 2.5 Meaning
- 2.6 Context
- 2.7 Putting it all together
- 3 Closing thoughts
- Acknowledgements
