ANCIENT GREEK WORKSHOP - BASIC

The 'Beginners' Greek' classes are intended for those students who do not have previous knowledge of Ancient Greek or wish to refresh it starting from the grammar traditionally taught at high school level. The classes are for those who wish to attain a level of proficiency suitable for the study of ancient and Medieval Greek literature, philosophy, archaeology, ancient history, palaeography and epigraphy.
There are three different levels taught during the year: second period (Module I), third period (Module II) and fourth period (Module III). Students can enrol in the level appropriate to their knowledge of Greek.

Students are expected to attend regularly and to complete assigned home-works before each class, there is no programme for non-attending students.

Through attendance of classes, active participation in learning activities and individual study students will achieve:

MODULE 1 (II period: Professor Alessandra Bucossi):
- knowledge of alphabet and spelling rules of ancient Greek;
- knowledge of I and II declension; verbal system (present and imperfect);
- ability to read ancient Greek texts aloud;
- ability to conduct a basic phonetic-morphological analysis;
- understanding of the basic structures of the Greek language and ability to adequately translate them into Italian.


MODULE 2 (III period: teacher to be defined, for questions contact alessandra.bucossi@unive.it)
- consolidation of previous notions of Greek grammar;
- knowledge of III declension, class II adjectives, pronouns, numerals, athematic verbs, subjunctive and optative of the present tense;
- intermediate skills of analysis and translation of short texts in medium complexity language;
- understanding of the elementary-intermediate structures of the Greek language and ability to effectively translate them into Italian.

MODULE 3 (IV period: teacher to be defined, for questions contact alessandra.bucossi@unive.it)
- thorough knowledge of the Greek verbal system: present, aorist, future, perfect, active, middle and passive diathesis;
- knowledge of all the rules of the syntax of the period, with particular attention to the subordinate propositions and the use of the participle;
- ability to analyse and translate texts of medium complexity;
- knowledge of a large part of the basic terminology and related cultural aspects.
- understanding of the Greek linguistic structure and ability to effectively translate it into Italian.

Compulsory: adequate proficiency in Italian, which will enable the student not only to attend classes, but above all to translate Greek into Italian adequately.

Desirable:
- ability to analyze grammatically and logically a text in Italian
- ability to meet the requirements of intensive language learning and its weekly deadlines

Module 1:
- Greek alphabet and orthography;
- nominal and verbal morphology (1st and 2nd declensions; 1st class adjectives; occlusive stems of the 3rd declension; present and imperfect system);
- outlines of syntax (copula phrases; causal, temporal and declarative clauses; nominal infinitive);
- reading, grammatical analysis and translation of short sentences or passages in Greek.

Module 2:
- Morphology and phonology of 3rd declension nouns and 2nd class adjectives
- Personal, demonstrative, relative, interrogative and indefinite pronouns; possessive adjectives;
- Comparatives and superlatives;
- Numerals;
- Morphology of the present subjunctive and optative;
- Syntax of the participle, the subjunctive and the optative;
- Consecutive and relative clauses;
- Conditional clauses.

Module 3:
- How to form and analyze the stem of the present, imperfect, aorist, future, and perfect
- Rules for the formation and conjugation of aorist, future, perfect (active, passive, middle) and their use in context
- Elements of advanced syntax
- Recap of multifunctional conjunctions

The required coursebook is:

P. Agazzi - M. Vilardo, Hellenisti. Hellenisti. Corso di lingua e cultura greca. Quarta edizione. Zanichelli 2018. (3 vols.).

Students will also find useful to own the Greek-Italian dictionaries by F. Montanari (Loescher) or L. Rocci (Dante Alighieri Editrice) or to consult the paper or online version of the Greek-English dictionary by Liddell-Scott-Jones (http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/lsj/#eid=1&context=lsj ).

At the end of the course there will be a final written exam. It will consist in

1) 10 short questions on phonology and morphology topics targeted during the course: during this part of the examination grammars, dictionaries and other sources will not be allowed. The highest score is 10/10 (1 point for each correct answer).

2) the translation of 5 short sentences, or a short text; dictionaries will be allowed but not grammars or other books. The highest score for this part is 20/20 (4 points for each sentence / part of the translation).

The exam will take place over 2 hours. The highest score for both parts is 30/30. The final mark will be expressed according to the grades: ottimo, buono, discreto, sufficiente, insufficiente.
During the last week of the course a mock exam text will be uploaded on Moodle.

The teaching is organized in traditional classes, which consist in short presentations by the lecturer concerning new topics of Greek grammar, followed by individual or group exercises through which the students will learn how to translate and consolidate their knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary. Homework will be assigned.

Italian

For further information on the three modules, please contact: alessandra.bucossi@unive.it

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