Ancient Greek Lesson 1: The Greek Alphabet

Рет қаралды 13,285

11 ай бұрын

The first lesson in my Ancient Greek course. Lessons 1-6 teach you how to pronounce Ancient Greek. I do not point out every letter which has a part that is subscript in this video, so take care to note which letters have a part that goes beneath the line (e.g., gamma and chi in their lower-case forms).

Пікірлер: 75

@Qunsanutina Күн бұрын

As a Greek who is learning Ancient Greek I must tell you that I've noticed non Greeks are more interested in Ancient Greek than Greeks themselves You do an extraordinary job at teaching I hope you continue Αγαθή σειρά

@Red-vk4oy 4 күн бұрын

There is no way most of us can express our appreciation adequately-I'm a random person from India who after reading a Homer translation got inspired to read the original text and this paired with Pharr helps a lot

@LearnAncientGreek 2 күн бұрын

@@Red-vk4oy Thank you for your very kind comment. It’s brilliant that you got inspired like that! Keep following that inspiration :)

@farlandergirl 16 күн бұрын

This is so helpful, thank you so much! I’m starting Ancient Greek next year at uni but figured I’d make a start over summer so this is incredibly useful for getting the pronunciation down!

@zerothewolfdragon3029 11 ай бұрын

Holy shit this is my dream. Thank you so much for making these videos! I can't wait to read ancient greek works in their native language!

@LearnAncientGreek 11 ай бұрын

Thank you very much! There will be more videos coming in August :)

@renataq4468 10 ай бұрын

@@LearnAncientGreek August is almost over, where are you? 😢

@LearnAncientGreek 10 ай бұрын

@@renataq4468 Thank you so much for your comment! I plan to have my next video out soon [edited - I originally set a date here but will have to get the video done when I can]. I have not forgotten the channel; I have just been very busy. I start full time work soon as well, so I am not sure how frequently I’ll be able to upload videos, but I shall try my best to get at least one video uploaded each month! This will be a long-term project :)

@LearnAncientGreek 10 ай бұрын

@@renataq4468 Sorry, it's going to be later than I expected, but I am now working on the next video! :)

@x-ray9397 9 ай бұрын

@@LearnAncientGreekTake your time sir, I'll be patient in this journey. Thank you very much for your teachings sir.🛐✨

@qohelethsmind 9 ай бұрын

You can tell your manic /insane when at 1-2 am you decide, “I’m going to learn ancient greek” and start writing down the alphabet and practicing pronunciation with this lad. haha Good video 😁

@LearnAncientGreek 9 ай бұрын

That doesn’t make you insane! Sounds like a fun night to me :) Thank you for your comment!

@saadraheel9998 3 ай бұрын

Nahh cause thats exactly what im doing rn (went to open university website, am currently on session 4 of ancient Greek), and its 5 : 30 rn

@mathiusq9128 2 ай бұрын

Its quite a normal gentleman thing to do

@londynhunter2469 Ай бұрын

that's what I'm doing rn lmao, learning new languages this late at night is a stress response

@An-Interesting-Name Ай бұрын

It's not even 1 am for me. Just middle of the day insanity right before finals

@Ded_Silu 3 ай бұрын

My first inkling for Ancient Greek was awakened during senior year and the summer after high school graduation, and a visit to the Louvre and British Museum and their collections of artifacts from the Mediterranean region.

@TeacherBiochem Ай бұрын

Good material. I did not find any Ancient Greek lessons in Polish language, so during these videos I learn Greek and English together 😀👍

@GloriaASMR 2 ай бұрын

Ive been searching for these videos! This is super helpful! Thank you! 🙏

@dogberrieink 2 ай бұрын

Thank you for this series! I'm considering taking Ancient Greek as an elective and this will be very helpful to help me decide how I might fare with it. Cheers!

@LiShuBen 2 ай бұрын

It’s long been my dream to learn this language! Thank you for putting this course together!

@TheTrwebster 3 ай бұрын

I found beginning Ancient Greek Open Learn course last year and was fascinated by it. To find this will be really helpful in learning the pronunciation. I really enjoyed this video. Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

@lanadewilde9791 6 күн бұрын

Thank you!

@eclecticapoetica 6 ай бұрын

Just starting on your video course - please keep producing these videos. I have been cruising the web looking for good resources, I am really happy to find an instructor who delivers crisply and doesn’t pfaff around. Good work!

@LearnAncientGreek 6 ай бұрын

Thank you very much for your encouragement and kind words! :)

@Kinetic.44 3 күн бұрын

It's interesting the the Attic sounds so French in pronunciation, whereas the Koine sounds more Spanish. That is just my casual subjective interpretation of past experiences. Chi must be where the German comes in haha!

@ovseatum 3 ай бұрын

hi, hello! a student of ancient greek here. i don't know if this is just a different textbooks thing but i was taught to pronounce ζ as "dz" and not "zd". loved the video otherwise, actually taught me something new!

@annesmith9070 3 ай бұрын

There is indeed evidence for both. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nM-Dett1u5mueYU.htmlsi=JlU17sg0DYFsaHe4

@badgerface2020 4 ай бұрын

Thanks for the lessons it's my third day and I can read and sound out the letters im happy thank you for the lessons I'm on the fourth lesson

@zoyablake9538 4 ай бұрын

So helpful! I have subscribed!

@iamjustaguy9777 2 ай бұрын

Brilliant love it. 😁

@user-fu7mu2bs5y Ай бұрын

Thank you for your time and energy creating this. what about digamma after epsilon?

@Coconutoilcrazy 25 күн бұрын

Well done! I just started Ancient Greek with Dr Ammon Hllman. Using the book Greek an Intensive Course. It may sound silly, I couldnt figure out how to apply the letters. My brain wanted to use the word- Alpha rather than A or a etc.. You cleared that up for me. On to the next video

@ayanfarzadehan2174 6 ай бұрын

I have no choice but to tell or mention you as 'Sir'. Great Job, keep it up so we can learn a lot.

@LearnAncientGreek 6 ай бұрын

Thank you for your kind comment! :)

@ayanfarzadehan2174 4 ай бұрын

@@LearnAncientGreek I have to talk with you personally for an inquiry, would you mind to put your email or any media so that I can contact with you?

@PolakenLP 9 ай бұрын

Very nice. U won me over, i will try to learn this at least a lil bit

@LearnAncientGreek 9 ай бұрын

Thank you! That's good to hear :)

@Kinetic.44 Ай бұрын

Thanks very much.

@user-xo4cz5nk7r 5 ай бұрын

Thank you sir

@luriellelunae 9 күн бұрын

Great Video! I just got a question about the pronunciation system you are using.. wich exactly do you use? your talked about using the ancient system, but I read that there is more then one (Erasmian, Early High Koine, Koine)

@IGroupchannel 4 күн бұрын

I would like to invite you to our channel for a Podcast. It's mostly to translate ancient texts in ancient Greek, we mostly want to learn how to translate ancient bible texts.

@yujidesu 24 күн бұрын

okay because for some ridiculous random reason that I can’t even remember I chose Ancient Greek gcse without actually knowing any

@AndriiRiabchuk 10 ай бұрын

In case someone missed, book referenced - JACT "Reading Greek"

@LearnAncientGreek 10 ай бұрын

Thank you. They are great books. I primarily used "Reading Greek: Grammar and Exercises", "Reading Greek: Text and Vocabulary", and "Reading Greek: An Independent Study Guide" to learn Greek :)

@priyadarshiniprasad5747 9 ай бұрын

@@LearnAncientGreek Thank you for the video. :) Could you please write the names of the books as well.

@LearnAncientGreek 9 ай бұрын

@@priyadarshiniprasad5747 You’re very welcome! I posted the names of the main books I used in the comment above yours :)

@annabohovyk-22-16 11 ай бұрын

Thanks for the video! That's cool ❤

@LearnAncientGreek 11 ай бұрын

Thank you for the comment! There will be more videos coming in August :)

@kalliaspapaioannou7045 9 ай бұрын

It would be great and informative to mention which one of the "proposed" reconstructed pronunciations you are using and also in which era of ancient Greek language (classical Attic, early koine, NT koine etc) because there are differences in pronunciation between them. Also the intonation in some words you refer to, doesn't follow the actual one, for example, in the word Socrates the intonation goes to alpha not to omega (Σωκράτης). Finally according to Plato (Plato, Kratylus 418c), already from late 5th century bc, "η" was pronounced as "ι", though in earlier times people used to pronounce it either as "ε" or as "ι" depending on their dialect they were using. Great effort in general though

@annesmith9070 3 ай бұрын

Agreed! But from what I understand η was still pronounced [ɛː] in attica in the late 5th century and was still [e] in Koine period and didnt close to [i] till the Byzantine period. Could you explain how 418c says differently? I don’t see it but I may be missing something…

@kalliaspapaioannou7045 3 ай бұрын

@@annesmith9070 The pronunciation of η as ι or ε has to do with the place not the time. Both pronunciations co existed, even in Athens of 5th century bc. Plato gives the example of the word "ημέρα" and explains that some people (referring to women, i would add the "Μέτοικοι" also) were saying "εμέρα" probably because they used less formal language or dialect, given the lack of education for most of them, when others mainly the most educated used "ιμέρα". "iotacism" as it's called didn't happen in an exact date, but it was going back and forth from time to time for centuries. Also talking about Koine period, many linguists today, propose the modern or for others historical pronunciation at least for the NT Koine instead of any reconstructed one, as the closest one to the real thing.

@annesmith9070 3 ай бұрын

⁠@@kalliaspapaioannou7045 thanks for the clarification- I was reading (the short version) of Ben Kantor’s recent book on Koine pronunciation and he says ‘η’ was not yet ioticized and wouldn’t be till the late byzantine - BUT yes some regional caveats plus now I also seem to remember (Luke Ranieri?) talking about how these shifts were taking place in some areas and then Alexander the Great came along and pushed it all back to a more conservative ‘classical attic’ - my unscholarly turn of phrase :-)

@jasonhuegan7007 Ай бұрын

Please add more commercials at random places. The actual content is getting in the way of my viewing pleasure.

@PremSingh-ev4mo 4 ай бұрын

What does each names mean you dont explain

@walktroughman1952 6 ай бұрын

Modern Greek Β, Γ And Δ Are pronounced "Véta", "Ğamma" (soft g) and "Thelta" respectively, so they got softened over time?

@walktroughman1952 6 ай бұрын

Also, Η/η is a long e, as in encapsulate, enthrall, Ι/ι is never long unless it's toned properly cause that's usually what η is for. Χ/χ can change width depending on the vowel after it by the way. The X in "Χάνω" is pronounced as a taller and less wide consonant than the X in "Χοίρος".

@annesmith9070 3 ай бұрын

Yes. For example: “At the time of the New Testament, it is probable that γ was pronounced as /ɣ, ʝ/ in most regional varieties of the Koine. The fricativization (and palatalization) of γ was a relatively early change in the consonantal system across the Mediterranean.” From Ben Kantor’s ‘A Short Guide to the Pronunciation of New Testament Greek’. I believe β and θ softened much later but soften they did.

@Bah1357 10 күн бұрын

Does this course also work with Koine greek?

@LearnAncientGreek 10 күн бұрын

Yes, it does :) In this course, I am teaching Classical Greek, and Koine Greek is effectively a simpler version of Classical Greek. So, if you learn Classical Greek, then you will be able to read Koine, but this does not work the other way around. Note that Koine probably would have sounded slightly different to Classical Greek though, meaning that the pronunciation of Koine would likely be a bit different to that which I am using in the videos. I hope this helps!

@Bah1357 3 күн бұрын

@@LearnAncientGreek Thank you for the explanation.

@LearnAncientGreek 2 күн бұрын

@@Bah1357 You’re welcome! :)

@jesse2990 2 ай бұрын

I thought Pi was pronounced "pee" not "pie" Am I wrong?

@samuelhoffmann162 9 ай бұрын

Why don’t we call him “Platon” as is said by the ancient Greeks?

@LearnAncientGreek 9 ай бұрын

Very good question! I mention that we lose the endings of some names in English at 28:03 in Lesson 7: Transliteration. I think that there are different reasons for this, depending on which name we are talking about. In the case of Plato, I believe the final “n” is lost because of how his name was transliterated into Latin. Latin often has names that end in -o in their nominative form, so “Plato” was more natural in Latin than “Platon”. And thus we know him in English as “Plato” rather than “Platon” :)

@brandonhemphill5638 Ай бұрын

What are your views on Dr. Ammon Hillman? Just watched a podcast with him and Danny Jones about the ancient Greek Ridings and the ancient Greek Bible before it was translated. It’s truly mind blowing when you realize just how many drugs they were doing back in the day and all the sexual degenerate practices.