Introductory Ancient Greek Language/Articles

2007-02-27T15:34:18Z

129.93.65.27: /* The Definite Article Table */

== What is a Definite Article?==
The definite article we use in English is the word 'the' and its the only one we have. Ancient Greek has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The definite article will change accordingly. For those who have some background in Spanish or French this is the same difference between 'la' and 'le' in French and 'el' and 'la' in Spanish. We do not have this distinction in English.

Also unlike English, Greek differientiates between plural and singular. For, the comparison this is the 'los' and 'las' of Spanish or the 'les' of French.

Unlike most modern languages ancient Greek also has cases, and the definite article reflects this.

== Cases ==
Greek has five cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and vocative. Some of you taking this lesson may know what these words mean, but most probably won't. In English we use word order and helping words to understand what ancient Greek conveys with cases.

'''Nominative and Accusative'''

For, example take the sentence [The dog bites a cat.] In this sentence we understand that the dog is the subject doing the biting, while the cat is the direct object being bitten. In Greek the subject would be in the nominative case and the direct object in the accusative.

Because these cases explain to the reader what's happening in the sentence you can have a sentence structure in Greek such as [Cat bites dog.] which actually means that the dog bites the cat. This may be a little confusing, but this is just an introduction and it will make more sense when you see it in the actual Greek.

'''Dative'''

Words usually take the dative if they are indirect objects. In English we typically use the word 'with' to understand this. So, the sentence [The dog bites a cat with teeth.] would have 'dog' in the nominative since its the subject of the verb, 'cat' would be accusative since its the object, and 'teeth' would be dative.

'''Genitive'''

The genitive case primarily denotes belonging. We have some examples of the genitive case in English. This is the difference we find between the first person pronouns me and my. The sentence [Achilles' spear is bright] would have 'Achilles' in the genitive and 'spear' in nominative.

'''Vocative'''

Finally there is the vocative case which is only used when directly speaking to someone. Since ancient Greek is only used in the translation of texts you will rarely find this form. Examples would be in plays where a character addresses another.

== The Definite Article Table ==

{| border="1"'
|+ Singular
! !!Masculine !! Feminine!! Neuter
|-
!Nominative
| ὁ|| ἡ || τό
|-
!Genitive
|τοῦ||τῆς||τοῦ
|-
!Dative
|τῷ||τῇ||τῷ
|-
!Accusative
|τόν||τήν||τό
|-
!Vocative
|ὦ||ὦ||ὦ
|}

{| border="1"'
|+ Plural
! !!Masculine !! Feminine!! Neuter
|-
!Nominative
| οἱ||αἱ||τά
|-
!Genitive
|τῶν||τῶν||τῶν
|-
!Dative
|τοῖς||ταῖς||τοῖς
|-
!Accusative
|τούς||τᾱς||τά
|-
!Vocative
|ὦ||ὦ||ὦ
|}
[[Category:Ancient Greek Language]]

Introductory Ancient Greek Language/Lesson 2

2007-02-27T15:32:18Z

129.93.65.27: /* Accent Marks */

== Breathing Marks Explained ==
Every Greek word that begins with a vowel (α,ε,η,ι,ο,υ, and ω) will have something called a breathing mark. These look like apostrophes and can be either rough or smooth.

'''Rough Breathings'''

If the breathing is rough then it is an apostrophe curved in the opposite direction (ἑ,ἁ,ἡ, etc...) If a breathing is rough then the word is pronounced as if there were an /h/ in front of it. Thus, the Greek word for 'sleep' ὕπνος will be pronounced as [hupnos].

'''Smooth Breathings'''

If the breathing mark is smooth (ἀ,ἐ,ὀ, etc...) then it is shaped exactly like an apostrophe and comes either slightly before the vowel or directly above. Smooth breathing marks simply mean there is no /h/ pronounciation.

'''Exception'''

These are present only when vowels are the first letter of the word except in the case of the letter rho (ρ). If rho is the first letter of the word then it always has a rough breathing mark. This is why most English derived words such as rhinoceros, rheumatism, and rhododendron have the /rh/ in front.

== Accent Marks ==

You may notice the second mark after the breathing mark in the word ὕπνος. They are imporant for distinguishing the difference between words. There are three different typs of accents in ancient greek. The acute, the circumflex, and the agrave. Ancient Greek was originally a tonal language - this meant that the pitch of a word made a difference to its meaning. The acute accent used to indicate a higher pitch, the agrave a lower pitch, and the circumflex a hidher then immediately lower pitch. later they simply indicated on which syllable the emphasis landed.

There are various rules concerning where an accent mark will fall:

'''Acute:'''
*It can be placed on both long and short vowels on any of the final three syllables.
*If the last syllable is long, it can only be placed on the final two syllables.
*If the penult is long and the ultima is short, it cannot go on the penult.

'''Circumflex:'''
*It can only be placed on long vowels.
*It can only be placed on the last two syllables.
*It can only go on the penult if the ultima is short.

'''Grave''':
*Only ever exists when replacing an acute accent on the ultima when another word follows immediately without any intervening punctuation.

''Antepenult''= third last syllable of a word

''Penult'' = second last syllable of a word

''Ultima'' = last syllable of a word

'''NB:''' accents on words DO change to obey these rules, eg. ἄνθρωπος becomes ἀνθρώπου when it goes from nominative to genitive, and οἶκος becomes οἴκου when it goes from nominative to genitive.
[[Category:Ancient Greek Language]]

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Introductory Ancient Greek Language/Articles

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