I am an American who is struggling to learn Koine Greek for Biblical studies and patristics. I am trying to get my keyboard to work right now so I can type in Greek. I could not use the Microsoft language extension technique because it needed my disc and my installation disc drive is broken. I downloaded MultiKey. That gives me a compile error in MS Word so no luck. This is my first attempt to write any Greek using MultiKey over the Internet. Here is a passage I memorized. I can't remember if I have the spelling right.
παρασμοσ υμασ ουκ ελεφεν ει μη ανθροπινοσ πιστοσ δε ο θεοσ ωσ ουκ εασει υμασ περασθινει υπερ ο δυνασται αλλα ποιησει σιν το περεισμου και την εκβασιν του δυνασται υμασ υπινιγκειν.
It worked! That was unicode. Now I've got to figure out how to add in the diacriticals.
Feel free to comment. I'm a beginner. Greek is hard for me. Introduce yourself please!
James, the passage you quote (with many mistakes) is from www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/new-testament/corinthians_1/10.asp" target="_blank">Paul's 1st epistle to Corinthians (10.13) The text is : πειρασμὸς ὑμᾶς οὐκ εἴληφεν εἰ μὴ ἀνθρώπινος· πιστὸς δὲ ὁ Θεός, ὃς οὐκ ἐάσει ὑμᾶς πειρασθῆναι ὑπὲρ ὃ δύνασθε, ἀλλὰ ποιήσει σὺν τῷ πειρασμῷ καὶ τὴν ἔκβασιν τοῦ δύνασθαι ὑμᾶς ὑπενεγκεῖν.
I wish you the best on your way to learning Greek - you will have many benefits if you go all the way - but even the first step (to remember Cavafy) is not of a small value!
Χαιρε (chaire, "Greetings"), James! I'm new here myself (joined today), and also an American learning Greek for Biblical studies. I first began it 41 years ago, though. 2 years of formal study and the rest on my own. I'm more at home reading the New Testament than the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament), though that is due partly to a wider vocabulary range to learn, and partly due to Hebraisms. I also have learned a fair amount of Hebrew, though am more at ease reading historical passages than poetry, except for Psalms and Proverbs. When I get some time this summer, I will be working some more on my translation of John and some expanded notes on translation problems, idioms, cultural material, theology, etc. So, if you want help with your Greek, feel free to ask me. I also have a couple of Bible blogs I write for (not as often as I'd like), and deal with Greek words and phrases, translation questions, etc. from time to time, so you might want to look at them. They are "Dewayne's Devarim" (Hebrew for "words"), and "HasSopher's Sayings" ("HasSopher" is "the scribe", used to describe Ezra in the Old Testament).
It's great you want to type in Greek; that will really help you learn. You might want to try the Tyndale House Font and Keyboard Kit, which also includes Hebrew. Both the font and keyboards are Unicode. The font (Cardo) works for both languages. There is a keyboard layout chart included you can print for reference. If you want to try it, here's the link. I use the font and keyboards often, and they work really well in both Windows and Mac settings, with several different word processors, including MS Word. It is easy to type the accents and breathings with this kit also. You can even use it to type computer file names in Greek or to search online for Greek words/phrases.
Several tips that will really help your Greek:
1) Use your Greek NT devotionally, even if you read it alongside your English NT at first. When you attend church services and Bible classes, try to follow along readings from the New Testament in your Greek Testament.
2) Try reading the Greek out loud, both your vocabulary words, exercise sentences, and Scripture itself. A good source of audio files to guide your pronunciation, which you can use on your computer or on an MP3 player is at Greek-Latin Audio. You can either download individual chapters for free (as many as you want), or pay a few dollars for a DVD that has the whole NT in both Greek and Latin. I did the individual route at first, but as that's over 200 files just for the Greek, I opted for the DVD once I learned it was available. Hearing it and then trying to read aloud really helps. The pronunciation is the Modern Greek one, which is thought to be closer to the original Koine, but different from what is usually taught in schools. I'm starting to get used to it, tho.
3) Learn as much grammar and vocabulary as you can, but don't feel you have to master these before reading or trying to read the Greek NT. Keep learning as you go.
4) Attempting to translate Scriptures, even a verse or two at a time, will help you tremendously in learning your Greek. The study needed to learn the vocabulary and to understand idioms and sentence structure (syntax) will really pay off.
5) Study key words and phrases with the aid of a concordance, preferably a Greek concordance (if interested in one, Iet me know and I'll recommend some), so you can learn the different ranges of meaning words have in Greek.
6) More difficult, but helpful (as I myself am finding out now) is trying to compose something in Greek, or translating something from English to Greek, rather than just Greek to English. I have virtually no experience in doing this, but am trying now, as I am trying it in Latin also. Before long I will post my first major Greek attempt on a new online forum for Greek and Latin buffs called ΔIAΛOΓOI ATTIKOI (Dialogoi Attikoi), where the working languages are Attic (Classical) Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic. (I only know a little Attic Greek, but I have the impression it is not radically different from Koine.) There is enough English there to help you get started and to navigate the site, tho. Trying to speak a little Greek to somebody else helps too, if you know somebody who would like to try. Or if you want to try a writing a little in your posts, or in an email to me at [email protected]
Again, welcome, James, and I hope the above is helpful and not too overwhelming! Any questions you have, feel free to ask.
Philios, welcome to Koinonia and thank you for this post. I was impressed by the "devotional" (1st) part of your post, where you say something very few people have the sensitivity to notice.
For the technical part, if someone is already in a Windows environment perhaps the best way would be to use the www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/greek-fonts.asp">tools and fonts available in Windows to write polytonic Greek in Word or other processors supporting unicode.
Eυχαριστω σε, George! I started using the Greek language learning section using Homer you have here on Elpenor, and am enjoying the background material about the concepts behind the vocabulary. It will help a lot as I expand my study to include Attic. I am reading the section about Achilles (www.ellopos.net/elpenor/lessons/lesson2.asp" target="_top">Lesson 2-Achilles' grief). I must thank the site owners for this unique and helpful approach to learning the language! Forums like Koinonia are great helps also.
I forgot to mention it to James, but another good tool is a Greek spellchecker/word processor called Unicorn. It works with both Windows and Mac, and does Latin and Hebrew too. (The Hebrew part doesn't spellcheck yet, but hopefully that feature will be added in a new version.)
χαρις υμιν και ειρηνη απο θεου πατρος ημων και κυριου ιησου χριστου (Philippians 1:2)!
Struggling to learn Koine Greek
Posted - 04 Jul 2009 : 06:31:21
