Ancient Greek
preliminaries / textbooks and passages
nouns & adjectives / adverbs / pronouns & demonstratives
verbs / participles / infinitives / the dictionary
Preliminaries
Read me!
Some background and history
- An introduction to language
- Indo-European comparative linguistics
- A brief history of the Greek world and the Greek language
- Textual archaeology
The alphabet and pronunciation
- The Greek alphabet
- Pronunciation
- Accentuation
- Letters that can and can’t end a Greek word
- Spelling Greek words in English
- Syllabification and meter
Sound changes, consonants
- Assimilation
- Stop consonants and sigma
- Droppage of digamma and sigma
- Merlin (μρλν)
- Double dental rule
- Laryngeals
Sound changes, vowels
Dialects
- Attic and Ionic / Doric / Aeolic / Homeric
Reference
- For the dictionary, see below
- Glossary of terms
- Explanation of linguistic notation
Textbooks and passages
Balme & Lawall, Athenaze
Hansen & Quinn, Greek: An Intensive Course
Keller & Russell, Learn to Read Greek
Mastronarde, Introduction to Attic Greek
Patterson & Welch, Reading Greek Morphologically
Nouns and adjectives
The syntax of nouns: case usages
The syntax of adjectives
FEMININE AND MASCULINE
| Nominative singular Genitive singular Dative singular Accusative singular Vocative singular | Nominative plural Genitive plural Dative plural Accusative plural Vocative plural |
NEUTER
The archaic instrumental case
Degrees of adjectives: positive / comparative / superlative // syntax
Nouns and adjectives in -ι/ and -υ/
Representative paradigms
Adverbs
Adverbs: positive / comparative / superlative
Syntax
Pronouns and demonstratives, including the article
Definite article: morphology and syntax
Relative pronoun: morphology and syntax
Demonstrative pronouns: morphology and syntax
Verbs
Characteristics of verbs: person and number / time / aspect / voice / mood
Thinking about verbs in terms of formation
An introduction to the syntax of verbs, and reading left-to-right
Sequence of tenses <but we don’t talk about tense>
PRESENT PROGRESSIVE INDICATIVE
| ACTIVE thematic athematic and /μι verbs | MIDDLE thematic athematic and /μι verbs | PASSIVE ⬅︎ same as middle |
PAST PROGRESSIVE (IMPERFECT) INDICATIVE
| ACTIVE thematic athematic and /μι verbs | MIDDLE thematic athematic and /μι verbs | PASSIVE ⬅︎ same as middle |
FUTURE INDICATIVE
| ACTIVE all forms | MIDDLE all forms | PASSIVE all forms |
FUTURE PERFECT INDICATIVE
| All forms: active, middle, and passive |
AORIST INDICATIVE
PRESENT PERFECT INDICATIVE
| ACTIVE all forms | MIDDLE all forms | PASSIVE ⬅︎ same as middle |
PAST PERFECT (PLUPERFECT) INDICATIVE
| ACTIVE all forms | MIDDLE all forms | PASSIVE ⬅︎ same as middle |
SUBJUNCTIVE
progressive / aorist / perfect
OPTATIVE
progressive / aorist / perfect / future / future perfect
IMPERATIVE
progressive / aorist / perfect
uses of the imperative, and other commands
The dual
Representative paradigms (and some specific ones, like ἵημι and οἶδα)
Participles
Representative paradigms
Thinking about participles in terms of formation
PROGRESSIVE
| ACTIVE thematic athematic and /μι verbs | MIDDLE thematic athematic and /μι verbs | PASSIVE ⬅︎ same as middle |
FUTURE
FUTURE PERFECT
| all forms: active, middle, and passive |
AORIST
PERFECT
| ACTIVE all forms | MIDDLE all forms | PASSIVE ⬅︎ same as middle |
Infinitives
Thinking about infinitives in terms of formation
PROGRESSIVE
FUTURE
AORIST
| ACTIVE sigmatic asigmatic athematic /μι verbs | MIDDLE sigmatic asigmatic athematic & /μι verbs | PASSIVE all forms |
PERFECT
The Dictionary
the Dickinson core vocabulary list
A guide to principal parts
Special lists
reading morphologically 