🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <joe-ya023580002312960218230001@news.tezcat.com>, joe@sfbooks.com (Joe Bernstein) says:
>

>(What I really liked was the old Teach Yourself books I used to see about
>15 years ago, that always introduced pronunciation and orthography in great
>detail right away, tersely and informatively.  So even if you hadn't a clue
>what the language was really like without reading the whole book, you could
>persuade yourself that you could "read", i.e. sound out, the language right
>from the start.  Alas, that was all I really felt I needed at 14, to this
>day I know little more Irish, Welsh or Greek than that...and can no longer
>find the danged books.)
>
 Yup, that's the first thing I go for in tackling a language - getting a
feel for the sound of it. Authentic Latin was easy - I've never studied
the language otherwise, but used Mario Pei's phrase-book (I'd like to find
it again if I ever tackle Latin - is there a similar work in Greek?).
 I've mucked around a Greek primer (Reading Greek) off and on for 12 years, and
I'm finally motoring, having quit trying to learn to speak it right off (I'm
orally oriented) and using it for what it's for, reading. I'm coming up on
Greek 201 "midterms" in my self-teaching, and it feels good.
 Greek was much harder to learn pronuncation - I finally have mastered the
aspirated chis, phis, and thetas, and can keep them straight, and don't
confuse my etas and epsilons or my omegas and omicrons. Took a very long
time for it to sink in. But the pronunciation affects what phrases flow
naturally in a language, so I think it's worth it. I might confuse anyone
who was used to angliced Greek, though!
 -Steve Martin
"He Selene despoina sklere" - R. A. Heinlein.