[INDOLOGY] A book to learn Greek.

[Antonia Ruppel]

Dear Alakendu,

If you are mostly interested in the relationship between Sanskrit and
Greek, then may I also recommend an introduction to Indo-European
philology? James Clackson's 'Indo-European Linguistics' is excellent and
very readable; Ben Fortson's 'Indo-European Language and Culture', as the
title suggests, also covers some of the cultural aspects you mention being
interested in. Personally, when it comes to understanding language
relationships, I also rather like Anthony Fox' 'Linguistic Reconstruction'.
These are just a few of the books available on these subjects.

Given you say you may go back 'beginning with as early as Sir William
Jones', just a brief note: William Jones, although a very famous
participant in this debate, was far from the earliest. The first European
missionaries who came to India and were able to learn Sanskrit realised
right away that it must be related to Latin and Greek (many sources make
that clear, the earliest western grammar of Sanskrit by Father Heinrich
Roth SJ from the 1660s among them). William Jones was, however, the first
to suggest (at least in writing) that the common source of those
languages 'perhaps
no longer exists' (his words in 1786); in other words, he suggested that,
against earlier beliefs, the relationship between these languages was not
that the western languages derive from Sanskrit, but that they all came
from a common source and are thus sisters or cousins. That of course is the
view that has been confirmed by philologists/linguists since then.

I hope the above is relevant to what you are looking into!

All the very best,
      Antonia

On Sat, 12 Oct 2019 at 16:07, alakendu das <mailmealakendudas at rediffmail.com>
wrote:

> Dr.Ruppel,
>  Thank you very much for elaborating on the matter.I am keen to get access
> to a Beginner's book on Greek to get an insight of a belief among scholars,
> beginning with as early as Sir William Jones,namely an identity between
> Sanskrit and Greek . Though,I am not a student of Linguistics, but of
> Indology and Vedanta Philosophy,.... still i intend to understand
> Indo-European culture ,to a certain degree deeper, may be as an extension
> of my Indological roots.( Language , being a component of culture)
> I shall certainly look for the books you referred.Hope,they are  available
> through Amazon.
> Alakendu Das.
>
>
> Sent from RediffmailNG on Android
>
>
>
>
> From: Antonia Ruppel <rhododaktylos at gmail.com>
> Sent: Sat, 12 Oct 2019 20:04:39 GMT+0530
> To: alakendu das <mailmealakendudas at rediffmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] A book to learn Greek.
>
> Dear Alakendu,
>
> My classroom favourites for teaching Greek have long been Athenaze (Oxford
> UP) and Learn to Read Greek (Yale UP). They both come in several volumes
> and thus are not the cheapest; but their length is due to the number of
> resources they make available. (Plenty of good, author-written readings in
> Athenaze, large amounts of annotated original Greek readings in LTRG.
>
> However, if you want to use the book just for yourself (rather than to
> teach a group of students with varying strengths and interests), the
> one-volume Introduction to Attic Greek by Mastronarde may be the way to go,
> especially for someone who already knows Sanskrit and thus is already
> familiar with most of the grammatical categories and concepts we find in
> Greek. It also comes with its own supplementary website:
> http://atticgreek.org <http://atticgreek.org==>.
>
> There are various others - if none of the above sound good, let me know
> what you are looking for and I'll be happy to talk more about what else is
> out there.
>
> All the best,
>     Antonia
>
>
>
> On Sat, 12 Oct 2019 at 14:43, alakendu das via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
> Respected scholars,
> Can anyone suggest a beginner's book  on Greek language.
> Alakendu Das.
>
>
>
> Sent from RediffmailNG on Android
>
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