By Y. C. Amy Wang
“What!” exclaimed my friend in disbelief. “You’re not out of your mind, are you?” She put her hand on my forehead. “No, it doesn’t make sense; you don’t have a fever.” This was the reaction I got when I answered her question, “What second foreign language are you taking?” with two words: “Classical Greek.” I began out of curiosity, really. Another friend had been taking the course the previous year, and it sounded intriguing. I gazed in awe as she spelled out familiar names in mysterious lettering of which I only had a faint impression from high-school math classes. “I’d like to know more,” I thought. Besides, there aren’t many universities in Taiwan which offer this course. Why not, when it is offered in my university? So despite the many complaints about homework loads I’ve heard, I went ahead and registered for the course last semester. To tell the truth, the class is rather demanding, but that doesn’t kill the fun. The first qualm I had about taking this entirely unfamiliar language was the alphabet. As we started reading the text, however, the class learned the new letters quickly. It wasn’t as difficult as I had imagined. There are 24 letters in the Greekalphabet, and most of the pronunciations are close to English: Here are a few names we have came across in Introduction of Western Literature: Do you recognize them? They are: Zeus, Hera, Artemis, Poseidon, Athene, Aphrodite, Apollo, and Dionysus. The ‘ and ’ are aspiration marks. When there is a mark, then the word should be pronounced with a [h] sound, like ??H?? [hera]; without the mark it would be pronounced [era] instead. Other marks on the letters indicate tones. Seems complicated, right? Actually, because Classical Greek is already a dead language, its pronunciation is not the most important part one needs to learn. Moreover, these pronunciation marks are modern conventions, for real Classical Greek was all written in the upper case, without punctuation and spacing! a
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May 2024
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