So, you want to learn Classical Greek? I will tell you now, some the things you will learn along the way will be most interesting, not to mention the language itself! To any student who wishes to begin learning this language with me, I will also tell you now that I won't be teaching you how to read it the way any Classicist who isn'tGreek seems to do. I strongly believe you should NOT learn a theory when the language STILL exists!
I am extremely passionate about the Greek language at any stage of its development into Modern Greek. When teaching the modern language I bring up quite a lot ways of remembering words through an understanding of the ancient meaning as I feel this helps the student connect with the language. The same goes for using Modern Greek pronunciation... "reconstructed" pronunciation Anglicises the language. It takes away the feel of the language (and you can't ignore the accents: placing the intonation wherever you think it should go is Anglicising it greatly and bastardises something worthy of such respect!) Not a good idea... really, trust me.
I would like to show you here something that has come up twice now in recent Modern Greek lessons that I have given. They relate to Classical Greek and helped my students remember the names for the numbers 0, 11 and 12. (I wished to give you a hypothetical example of something I might bring up in a Classical Greek lesson in relation to Modern Greek [in terms of language evolution], but as this hasn't happened to me yet I will provide you with something the other way around... You'll get the idea!):
0 - μηδέν [This looks like a combination of μη (don't) and δεν (not). Both negating words in Modern Greek. In origin it's μηδ- (not) and the masculine -ἕν (one). Μηδ- is also found as Ουδ-, so οὐδέν or μηδέν mean "not-one".)
11 - ένδεκα [This is a combination of the Classical Greek numbers ἕν (one) and δέκα (ten).] > It was here where the student didn't understand why this was different from every number following 10 up to 20: 13 "ten-three", 14 "ten-four" and so on: δεκατρία, δεκατέσσερα. This follows the Classical pattern of putting the numbers the other way round but also including the word for "and" [which seems to have fallen out of use later on]: τρία καὶ δέκα, τέσσαρα καὶ δέκα.
12 - δώδεκα [This is an interesting combination. Greek has several "contracted" words both found on their own and in synthesis with others. Δώδεκα is also found as δυώδεκα or δυόδεκα. The second one is more obvious in it's construction: δύο- and -δέκα. Why is it δώδεκα, though? Well, both δύο and δύω can be shortened to δω as many letter combinations in Greek, when elided, become ῶ. The circumflex signifies a missing letter and usually when we find ῶ in Greek it is short for: -άω, -έω, -όω, -ύω, εο, εα, αο, υο.]
I hope this hasn't scared anyone off, I just wanted to show you from the start what I am able to offer you in terms of understanding the make-up of this ancient, beautiful language thus helping you CONNECT with it which is the most beautiful thing of all. Language exists in us all and should never be subjected to foreign personal preference unless there is no source of reference (unlike the case of the Greek language...which has survived until now relatively unchanged on a basic level!).
Χάριν σοὶ φέρω διὰ τὴν σὴν ἀνάγνωσιν! [Ευχαριστώ που διάβασες! Thank you for reading!]
