"How Good Is Your Classical Greek?" Topic

On a scale of zero (none) to 10 (like a Roman).

0 except a few expressions ex. pro bono

Katatrekete tuos nothos! err….Baklava, Gyros…err….

I remember once in History class, the teacher asked one of the students who was a 1st generation immigrant from Greece how a particular work should be pronounced – it sounded like she was gargling a mouth full of marbles, I was so glad I had taken Latin to study.

Pro Bono is actually Latin

I'm pro Bono as well, since U2 is my favorite band.
Whenever my math teacher in high school would have difficulty explaining calculus to us students, he would give up and always say, "It's Greek to me."

Attic = 2; Koine = 6

I recognize most of the letters from math classes. Otherwise, c'est du chinois.

Ron

-3

About 3, I suppose.

I have an O level in it (that's what we used to have before GCSEs, youngsters), I can spot when the Loeb translators of Polybios render "thorakitai" as "cuirassed infantry" in one paragraph and "heavy cavalry" in the next, I can argue the meaning of technical terms with the aid of a decent lexicon, but I couldn't compose a sentence or ask the way to the symposion.

Good enough to know pro bono is Latin

zero here too.

When I was reading a lot of stuff on ancient galleys I could remember the letters and pronounce the Greek spellings better but that has mostly been forgotten.

0

Zero. I have a vague memory of "Classical Studies" being taught for 40 minutes each week.

Pointless exercise in a school churning out Scottish factory workers.It must have been soul destroying for the teacher,could explain his frequent use of "the Belt" :-)

0.something.

Koine, not as good as it should be.
Attic, not good enough to read any more.
Mycean and Pontic, fuggedaboudit.
Which ones did I skip?

So…

ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα
(èn oîda hóti oudèn oîda)

If I know one thing, it is that I know nothing. – attributed to Socrates by Plato

I assume that many people are better than I am. I see lots of "μολὼν λαβέ" bumperstickers.

Not as good as my Anglo-Saxon.

Its all double Dutch to me

I was ready to say 2 when I read the question, but if I use GurKhan's scale, II'm a 3. (Thanks, GurKhan!)

I was better in college when I majored in Latin and Greek for undergraduate studies. I dreamt in Attic on more than one occasion as a senior. I found that weird.

Curiously enough, the first students to drop the Classical Greek class were the modern Greeks. The language has had twice as long to evolve from Attic to modern Greek as English has had from Old English to modern English. The pronunciation is quite different, and the language evidently has changed much more than they realized. I wouldn't have signed up for a course in Old Engiish thinking it was easy!

Rick

0

What GurKhan describes sounds roughly like my level, so I guess I'm about a 3 too.

Attic Greek probably about a 3.

Koine Greek probably an 8. I was halfway through my Ph.D in New Testament studies and did a lot of extra courses in Greek literature of the period. It has rusted a bit though!

About a 1

Latin would be more like 5

7ish? 8 on a good day? Good enough to teach prose composition in a language-heavy graduate program, anyway. But plenty of room for improvement!

1, a few years back when I was binge reading academic articles I found I was starting to understand the technical stuff in untranslated excerpts, so closer to Duncan's 3 back then – but I've forgotten much since.

I speak Attic with a Welsh accent, thanks to the Professor who taught me. Otherwise, not too bad.

I do like Gyros and Stuffed Grape Leaves plus a bunch of other Greek dishes I can't spell !

So … Does that count ?

8ish.

I'm with GurKhan a 3. I had two semesters of ancient Greek in college, that and bronchitis ruined my post graduate fantasies.

I'm good enough with a lexicon. I was good enough in college to prove to my professor that some of the LOEB Asclepiodotus was mistranslated by somebody without a military history angle- and the dismissal of that work back then eons ago in the 1970's was unwarranted. Luckily over the years that bias has been corrected.

I guess what I'm saying is that I can read the Greek words, with some understanding, and can understand the confusion about Socrates vs. his evil twin Sokrates. How the Phokians moved to England to become the Phocians.

Χαῖρε πολλά!

I'd say it's on a par with my ancient Sandskrit.

Just as good as my modern Greek. 0