The Greek language has a long history, starting before 2000 B.C., and as such has had a major impact on most of the languages the western world is familiar with. The Greek described here is that of Athens in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., known as Attic Greek. Attic Greek will help in the reading of major prose writers and playwrites of that time period, as well as the reading of some more archaic Greek poetry. Quite importantly, at least to me, it lays a foundation for the Koine, or “common” dialect used in the writing of the New Testament.
Greek is a member of the Indo-European language family, and so has notable similarities to Latin and its descendants, Sanskrit, and even English. Anyone looking at the alphabet will recognize a distinct similarity to Russian.
I will attempt to lay out a foundation for lexical and syntactic analysis of Greek, beginning with the alphabet (consonants along with short and long vowels) and noting the use of accent, breathing and punctuation. Word forms will follow, as I present nouns and the case system in general, verbs and their constructs (especially participles), adjectives and adverbs. Lastly, syntax will be presented. I will not be placing this information in a progression suited well for learning incrementally (sorry!) as more interplay between topics would be required. Rather, topics will be grouped together as a grammar review.
Should I get adventurous, I may try to add a small dictionary of those words that come to my attention.
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The Greek Sound System
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The Article and Such
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Verbs
- Present Indicative/Infinitive/Subjunctive/Optative/Imperative Active
- Present Indicative/Infinitive/Subjunctive/Optative/Imperative Middle/Passive
- Imperfect Indicative Active
- Imperfect Indicative Middle/Passive
- Future Indicative Active
- Aorist Indicative/Infinitive/Subjunctive/Optative/Imperative Active
- Perfect Indicative/Infinitive Active
- Pluperfect Indicative Active
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Dictionary
