Teach Yourself Ancient Greek

Rating:
Summary: Good, but flawed by use of "c" in place of sigma
Review: I have used two other Greek texts to try to learn the language on my own, Paine's Beginning Greek and Ruck's Ancient Greek: A New approach. Please tolerate my discussion those other books in this review, since my experience with all of them shapes my evaluation of each of them.

TY's book is generally good, but has one fatal flaw--sigma is represented with as a roman letter c, "for reasons of convenience, the one increasingly used in modern editions." I've never seen the usage in any other text and, as such, I assume they mean the convenience of the typesetter and publisher, not the student. That may explain why it is out-of-print. TY may be revising or replacing the book. Also, the noun declensions are in a different order than one would expect--the other texts have nom., gen., etc. while TY goes nom., voc., acc., gen., dat. The layout of TY is extremely dense, with almost no white space, and is thus a very unpleasant read. I also noticed that the Greek passages were very difficult to make sense of because idiomatic usages and expressons are explained nowhere but in the translations in the answer key.

The layout of the Paine book is very old style: it looks just like the Latin texts used 30 years ago, with all their infelicities. As for the language and approach of the book, I find it a little stuffy--TY or Ruck is straightforward and helpful, not prickly and standoffish like Paine. The major problem I have with Paine's text can be found on pp. 46-47: a huge , two-page chart conjugating 4 tense systems, 4 voices and 4 moods of the verb to loose, luw. If you multiply that by 6 forms (I, you, s/he, we, you, and they), the number of elements grows to over 300. I found it impossible to digest such a huge gulp of grammar despite rehearsing it repeatedly and doing the exercises. Greek is a very complex language, more so than Latin. However, I see no reason for such an explosion of grammatical complexity.

Ruck, though generally excellent, has a fatal flaw for the independent learner--no answers are provided for any exercises. While the layout is the best of the three, with lots of white space making reading it a pleasure, this comes at the sacrafice of row labels for the model declensions and conjugations. A minor annoyance that makes it difficult to tell at first glance what you're looking at. Also, a minor annoyance--the text uses an alternate, cursive form or theta. While this book has an excellent approach, I cannot recommend it for the independent learner because of the lack of answers to the excercises. As far as I know, there is no teacher's guide for this book.

I haven't yet found any text that's right for me. Perhaps the Athenaze books, much maligned for being too basic, would be more fitting, although I don't see a teacher's guide for Volume I.

Rating:
Summary: THE 'LUNATE' SIGMA
Review: The orthographically impaired reviewer below calls TY's use of the "roman letter c" for sigma a "fatal flaw".

The letter used is, in fact, the LUNATE SIGMA, an extremely common variation for the middle/final sigma in modern printed Greek texts. The lunate sigma, just as the three- and four-bar sigma, is found more or less throughout the history of the Greek language.

The reviewer's unfamiliarity with this convention announces his/her lack of experience with the printed Greek language. Please do not be swayed by that part of his opinion.

Rating:
Summary: THE 'LUNATE' SIGMA
Review: This book is a fantastic introduction to Ancient Greek. For a price of about [$$$], you'll have your hands full, learning vocabulary, reading, and learning the grammar.

I wanted to get back to Greek (after an absence of thirty years) because, as time passed by, it became clearer and clearer that the greatest literature EVER WRITTEN was written in Greek. And it also seemed to be clearer and clearer, with the passage of time, that American schools and universities are in the process of letting this language go. Go ahead and count the number of active Classics Departments in the year 2003, and compare that number with 1963!

And this book is great! I notice the other reviewer was unhappy about sigma (it's dead easy to work around), and the order chosen to teach noun declensions. Hey, in the end, the declensions have to be in your head, right?

An excellent benefit is that this book actually comes with a working website! (How many books make that promise, and fail to deliver!!??) I have already gone there, configured my browser to display Greek properly (the instructions are there, and they are easy) and have printed out the first supplemental exercises for Lesson Two! So you get about TWICE as much stuff as you bought with the book.

Obviously the authors love their subject, and are passionate about it.

A great little book! Highest recommendation!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, a true labor of love!
Review: This book is a fantastic introduction to Ancient Greek. For a price of about [$$$], you'll have your hands full, learning vocabulary, reading, and learning the grammar.

I wanted to get back to Greek (after an absence of thirty years) because, as time passed by, it became clearer and clearer that the greatest literature EVER WRITTEN was written in Greek. And it also seemed to be clearer and clearer, with the passage of time, that American schools and universities are in the process of letting this language go. Go ahead and count the number of active Classics Departments in the year 2003, and compare that number with 1963!

And this book is great! I notice the other reviewer was unhappy about sigma (it's dead easy to work around), and the order chosen to teach noun declensions. Hey, in the end, the declensions have to be in your head, right?

An excellent benefit is that this book actually comes with a working website! (How many books make that promise, and fail to deliver!!??) I have already gone there, configured my browser to display Greek properly (the instructions are there, and they are easy) and have printed out the first supplemental exercises for Lesson Two! So you get about TWICE as much stuff as you bought with the book.

Obviously the authors love their subject, and are passionate about it.

A great little book! Highest recommendation!