Independent Study in Greek at Illinois State University with Dr. Janice Siegel

Spring 2002

Coursework: We will work our way through as many chapters of Donald J. Mastronarde's Introduction to Attic Greek text as possible during the semester. We will create vocabulary index cards, complete in-text and supplementary exercises, and practice pronunciation and accentuation by visiting expert websites. The companion website to the textbook may be found at http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~ancgreek/ancient_greek_start.html. Visit it early and often!

January 16, 2002 - first meeting

• reviewed Greek history, timeline, culture, evolution of literary and linguistic tradition
• reviewed the Greek alphabet
• visited Mastronarde's Greek Tutorial site: for pronunciation practice http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~ancgreek/ancient_greek_start.html
• practiced writing the letters of the alphabet

homework for January 23, 2002:

• read Helma Dik's worksheet on Greek accents (squiggles)
• do the exercises provided by Helma (answer sheet)
• do the exercises provided by Mastronarde on pp 20-21
• make vocabulary index cards for the words in chapter 1 (listed on p 28)

January 23, 2002 - second meeting

• reviewed homework: exercises provided by Helma Dik
• did Mastronarde's accentuation exercises on pp 20-21
• listened to Greg Nagy read from the Iliad 
  other sites to visit: The Sound of Ancient Greek - Classical Pronunciation
  and Society for the Oral Reading of Greek and Latin Literature (SORGLL)
• we reviewed the concepts of case and inflection
• reviewed UNIT THREE vocabulary
  
  homework for January 30, 2002
  
• learn the o-declension paradigm (p 25)
• create an o-declension paradigm index card
• learn the difference in endings in m, f, and n
• complete the exercises on p 29
• make index cards for the next group of vocabulary words, p 32 (A-declension I)

For February 27, 2002:

General Translation of Prepositions in Greek

RESOURCES:

GREEK GRAMMAR ON THE WEB: The Electronic Gateway to the Study of Ancient Greek. Includes comprehensive listings of on-line resources in the following categories:  Greek Fonts, The Alphabet, Numerals, Accentuation and Pronunciation, Introductory Courses (in English, German, French, Portuguese, Japanese and Korean), Elementary Training (in English, German, French), Dictionaries and Lexica, Systematic Grammar: Morphology and Syntax, History of the Greek Language, Advanced Study of the Language, The Reading of Ancient Greek Texts, and Other Online Surveys and Bibliographies.

Where to get Greek fonts:

Classical Greek Fonts and Utilities. This site provides a resource for classicists, theologians, and anyone else who wishes to type Classical Greek into their PC (apologies to Mac users, who must look elsewhere). It contains a selection of Classical Greek fonts, various utilities to facilitate the process of typing Greek, and answers to a number of the common technical problems facing the twenty-first century Hellenist.

Maria Pantelia's list of Fonts and Software

A list of Greek Language Fonts from the Hellenic Resources Network
Oxford University List of Software for Classicists and IT Resources

Helma Dik's (of the University of Chicago) recommendations:

• SPIonic (from Scholars Press) exists for both Mac and Windows users,
  both with the same character and keyboard maps, so that both types of
  humans can communicate in Greek:-). Click here for downloading the
  Windows version or the Macintosh version of SPIonic: there are  readme-files
  (both for Windows and Macintosh) instruct you how to use your keyboard.
  A Keyboard Map of SPIonic can also be found at latinaboutcom.
• SPIonic is available on Macs in Crerar, and will be available on Usite PCs
  from winter quarter.
• Athenian (an SMK font) is also available in both Mac and Windows versions,
  but unfortunately, they don't come out the same if you save in Word and then
  open the document on the other platform:-(
  You can download Athenian at the Perseus website.
• Athenian is available on Usite Macs and PCs.

Understanding how Greek works (Also recommended by Helma Dik) (http://mkatz.web.wesleyan.edu/grk101/linked_pages/grk101.grklanguage.html)
A link to another Greek 101 site, beautifully done by Marilyn Katz at Wesleyan. Read this page if you want to get to grips with subjects, objects, etc. [Sections 1 and 2 are currently relevant]
You can also visit her syllabus page, with still more goodies (ie extra practice).