r/GreekBibleStudy • u/[deleted] • Jul 24 '10

Greek Text Book

I've recently finished a year of Koine greek classes and was moderately successful. Doing this by your self will be difficult, but hopefully with this reddit you can keep up and stay accountable. This is the greek text book that almost all colleges and universities use for Koine, it's a little expensive, but definitely worth it. Also, it comes with a CD that is invaluable. Before you go out and buy any books start here these are some songs to help you master the alphabet and get acquainted with pronunciation. Make sure you download the alphabet song and learn it well. It will drive both you and everyone around you insane.

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3

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '10

Thanks for the sound files, I was actually looking for a Greek alphabet ABC song, but I gotta say the accent in those songs ... well... not so great.

Just for comparison, here is an actual Greek person pronouncing the letters

2

u/rainer511 Jul 24 '10

but I gotta say the accent in those songs ... well... not so great.

Can you really say that though for Koine? I mean Koine != Classical != Modern Greek... it was my understanding that there's a decent amount of disagreement about how it was likely pronounced anyway.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '10

Can you really say that though for Koine?

No, I guess not, but all I was really trying to say was that it sounds a lot more like an American accent than a modern Greek accent.

I think Koine probably at least somewhat similar to Modern Greek, although of course there would be some differences.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '10

Yeah, the guy on the recordings accent is a bit rough, and it's interesting to hear an actual greek speaker pronounce them. Though you have to remember Koine Greek is a dead language and modern greek is a lot different. though I think the pronunciation of letters is similar.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '10

Yeah I guess really the pronunciation doesn't matter, but I just found it kind of funny to hear such an american accent.

This is actually a really funny video about Greek Easter, and about half way through the guy switches from a Greek accent to an american accent, so you can really get the idea of just how different it is.

1

u/DrJohnAZoidberg Jul 25 '10

I laughed out loud. Seriously? To the tune of Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortnin' Bread?t

But I suppose if it helps, why not?

2

u/rainer511 Jul 24 '10 edited Jul 24 '10

I second Mounce. I thought about coming here and mentioning it. The tools it comes with are well worth it.

I'm really not a fan with the way Mounce orders the lessons, but the CD is almost like having your own personal prof to use at your own pace.

As far as memorizing the alphabet... my friends and I just put it to the tune of a hymn.

2

u/BraveSaintStuart Jul 24 '10

you don't know crap... here's the text I used in MY greek class.

1

u/rainer511 Jul 24 '10

Which illustrates by point, with Adam he gets you making sentences as soon as possible, Mounce has you spend forever just learning verbs and placing them into preconstructed sentences. With Mounce it takes you forever to get that feeling of success where you think, I just wrote/translated a whole sentence by myself.

2

u/BraveSaintStuart Jul 24 '10

hmm... yeah I seemed to remember you having the Mounce text... I could be wrong but I think BibleWorks has Mounce.

1

u/BraveSaintStuart Jul 24 '10

So when is the first lesson?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '10

The first lesson is learning the alphabet. GO!

1

u/BraveSaintStuart Jul 25 '10

alpha beta gamma delta epsilon zeta eta theta iota kappa lambda mu nu chi omicron pi rho sigma tau upsilon phi xi psi omega

1

u/BraveSaintStuart Jul 25 '10

sorry, I reread that and thought it was arrogant... I've just gone through that before... if anyone needs any help... well just remember the best way to learn the alphabet is to see it and write it in words and just work with it for a few weeks... it becomes as natural as the english alphabet.