Luke Ranieri’s Newsletter
2021-02-25
Greek Pronunciation & Latin Immersion ?
? Χαῖρέ τε καὶ salvē! ?
It has been a busy couple of weeks! You’ve probably seen some of my new projects. I’ve started a series on polýMATHY where I explain the historical changes in every aspect of historical Greek phonology, starting with the infamous ει digraph:
It has been very gratifying to see how well received this video has been! by both Greeks and Classicists outside of Greece.
And always enjoying putting theory into pratice, I have kicked my Ancient Greek in Action series into high gear, with two new videos using full immersion Comprehensible Input:
The goal of Ancient Greek in Action (AGIA) is to prepare the student to read most introductory Ancient Greek (Classical or Koine) textbooks nearer the level of Extensive Reading, rather than Intensive Reading or Reading Pain. To the end, AGIA will aim to prepare the student primarily for chapters of Athenaze, one of the best known and most comprehensive textbooks for Ancient Greek. By the end of 2021, there will hopefully be approximately 30 videos of AGIA, each being a lesson or groups of lessons to watch before reaching a chapter in Volume I of Athenaze
Speaking of Athenaze, I have recorded the entirety of Volume I of the version of this textbook for English speakers, which I call Athenaze UK, and I am releasing the audio for the chapters on a regular basis here, free for anyone in the world to access:
As for AGIA, I’d like to have your input on this question: should the next video be about members of the Family, as in this Lingua Latina Comprehensibilis video, or about using the Accusative Case, like this other Lingua Latina Compehensibilis video? Athenaze introduces accusative case in Chapter 1 well before genitive in Chapter 3, but I’m not strictly following Athenaze for these early videos (since Athenaze UK and Athenaze Italy are notoriously un-comprehensible in the beginning), and am liberally drawing from Polis, Ancient Greek Alive, Alexandros, and other textbooks to create a truly and completely CI experience. (If you’re wondering, I will be continuing Lingua Latina Comprehensibilis soon, creating videos to accompany LLPSI, in a few weeks! My focus has been on Greek since I have beginner Greek students this semester.)
As it is Lent, many of you have asked me for recitations of certain traditional Latin prayers. I will definitely be making those! I appreciate these suggestions. Thanks! Keep them coming.
In the meantime, you may enjoy my recording in Greek, Latin, and English of the Gospel of John, which tells the story of the Passion:
Even folks without religious associations have found the audiobook and side-by-side text very useful, since it’s a great way to learn Latin and Greek through comparison of the verses. Thanks so much to those of you who have purchased it!
I have also been very glad to see that my little video on Snow in Latin has been well received! Here is the link if you haven’t seen it yet:
Since this video has been fairly popular, I will make more like it! What topics would you like me to cover in this conversational manner? Let me know!
I’ve also been overjoyed that my collaboration with the famous Stefano Vittori on this Latin performance of Hellfire has had broad appeal:
Stefano and I have about 20 more songs planned for this year, so stay tuned!
And another dear friend and colleague, Chris “Pernox” Davis, has been doing us all the great service of learning Ancient Greek publicly! in weekly livestreams where I teach him Ancient Greek entirely in Latin!
? Ancient Greek thru Latin (AGTL)
My personal goal in many of these video series, like AGIA and AGTL is to make it possible for anyone to learn Ancient Greek, especially and foremost all Latin speakers. Fluid comprehension of Ancient Greek is something that once remained stubbornly out of reach for me for many years, despite my being very comfortable with Latin, and it was only with great effort that I managed to cobble together the necessary resources (which are now audio book series) to facilitate my growth.
But I firmly believe this is not because Ancient Greek is inherently a “difficult” language, certainly not more than Russian or or Hungarian, two modern languages that are learned fluently by non-native speakers every day, but due entirely to the pedagogical tools available. It is with extraordinary pleasure to be able to dedicate my life to contributing to the great work already done by so many other tremendous teachers, and to help bridge the pitfalls that remain between the boulders up the sides of Parnassus.
Valē atque ἔῤῥωσο!
Luke · Lūcius · Λούκιος ?
P.S. If you’re interested in the audiobooks I make, I have some free ones at LukeRanieri.com/audio along with all the audio recordings I make for my Patreon supporters, and I have others at my audiobooks store.