Greek, Classical Vocabulary Cards: Academic Study Card Set

Rating:
Summary: A Clarification of Mr. McMenomy's comment
Review: Mr. McMenomy writes: "Another Greek set, specifically devoted to Biblical vocabulary, is not quite as good -- not because the vocabulary is somehow inferior, but because the set is not as well assembled and as complete."

I often wondered what he meant by the set not being quite as good; I have it now myself, and would like to clarify. The verb cards have only the first principal part, lacking the other five; all the cards lack the lists of similar Greek words (i.e. in the Classical set the card for the verb "to live" will also have the words for "life, course of life"; "life; living, sustenance"; "worth living"); and there are no English cognates and derivatives. The lack of principal parts is a serious problem; the other two are pleasantries which can be done without.

For what it's worth the noun cards do offer the genitive singular endings in addition to the nominative singular.

A good set if you like to have your Greek words printed, instead of sloppily scribbled; but if you're expecting a lot of nice extras you may be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Not a book, but a well-honed tool for a specific job
Review: The Vis-Ed card set for Classical Greek is one of the better entries in this series of study helps, which has become something of a fixture on college campuses.

The Classical Greek set concentrates on the core vocabulary for the student of Attic Greek (Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.) in a lexically standard form. A separate set is available for Biblical Greek vocabulary; students of Homeric Greek should refer instead to Owen and Goodspeed's Homeric Vocabularies, which will provide the best return for the effort there. This is only an intermediate step, of course, to the mastery of a vocabulary large enough to cope with Aeschylus or Thucydides, or even most of Plato, but mastering a basic vocabulary makes further reading a good deal easier, and the climb is commensurately less steep.

In the Classical Vis-Ed set, verb cards give all principal parts, nouns offer genitive singular endings, and so on. Definitions appear on the reverse. English cognates and derivatives also improve the memorization process.

The total count of 1000 cards significantly under-represents the set's usefulness: in fact one can acquire a vocabulary of 3,000 words or better, since many cards cluster words that share common roots -- especially families of verbs with prepositional prefixes. Not only does this enable the student to learn more words, but it provides a stable base of comparison, where the varying forms (often confusing in their variety) may be seen and compared at one time.

Definitions of the words are pithy, as befits a flash-card treatment, but not overly so: multiple meanings are offered where it is relevant to do so.

I have recommended these cards and their Latin fellows to my Greek and Latin students for years, and they all find them as useful as I did in my own day. Another Greek set, specifically devoted to Biblical vocabulary, is not quite as good -- not because the vocabulary is somehow inferior, but because the set is not as well assembled and as complete.