Ancient Greek Lesson 1: The Greek Alphabet 

That is 101% correct.

That doesn’t make you insane! Sounds like a fun night to me :) Thank you for your comment!

Nahh cause thats exactly what im doing rn (went to open university website, am currently on session 4 of ancient Greek), and its 5 : 30 rn

Its quite a normal gentleman thing to do

that's what I'm doing rn lmao, learning new languages this late at night is a stress response

It's not even 1 am for me. Just middle of the day insanity right before finals

Thank you very much! There will be more videos coming in August :)

@@LearnAncientGreek August is almost over, where are you? 😢

@@renataq4468 Thank you so much for your comment! I plan to have my next video out soon [edited - I originally set a date here but will have to get the video done when I can]. I have not forgotten the channel; I have just been very busy. I start full time work soon as well, so I am not sure how frequently I’ll be able to upload videos, but I shall try my best to get at least one video uploaded each month! This will be a long-term project :)

@@renataq4468 Sorry, it's going to be later than I expected, but I am now working on the next video! :)

​@@LearnAncientGreekTake your time sir, I'll be patient in this journey. Thank you very much for your teachings sir.🛐✨

@@RowanSharkey-im5sq You’re welcome! I’m glad that it was helpful. I hope that you find my other lessons helpful too! :)

@@Red-vk4oy Thank you for your very kind comment. It’s brilliant that you got inspired like that! Keep following that inspiration :)

@@neilsapsworth5562 Thank *you* very much for the Super Thanks! It is very kind of you :)

Thank you very much for your encouragement and kind words! :)

There is indeed evidence for both. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fiSGxDV3JIQ.htmlsi=JlU17sg0DYFsaHe4

there are different traditions (reconstructions) of the phonetics of Ancient Greek. the one you were taught is of Erasmus who argued that Xi should be pronounced [dz]

@@user-gf2lq1eq3x ohh, makes sense. thank you !

Thank you! That's good to hear :)

Thank you for your kind comment! :)

​@@LearnAncientGreek I have to talk with you personally for an inquiry, would you mind to put your email or any media so that I can contact with you?

Thank you. They are great books. I primarily used "Reading Greek: Grammar and Exercises", "Reading Greek: Text and Vocabulary", and "Reading Greek: An Independent Study Guide" to learn Greek :)

​@@LearnAncientGreek Thank you for the video. :) Could you please write the names of the books as well.

@@priyadarshiniprasad5747 You’re very welcome! I posted the names of the main books I used in the comment above yours :)

@@lanadewilde9791 You’re welcome! Thank *you* very much for the Super Thanks! It is so kind of you and I greatly appreciate it :) Also, I unlocked the feature to receive Super Thanks quite recently, and you may like to know that you are the very first person to use the feature on my channel! Thanks again :)

Agreed! But from what I understand η was still pronounced [ɛː] in attica in the late 5th century and was still [e] in Koine period and didnt close to [i] till the Byzantine period. Could you explain how 418c says differently? I don’t see it but I may be missing something…

@@annesmith9070 The pronunciation of η as ι or ε has to do with the place not the time. Both pronunciations co existed, even in Athens of 5th century bc. Plato gives the example of the word "ημέρα" and explains that some people (referring to women, i would add the "Μέτοικοι" also) were saying "εμέρα" probably because they used less formal language or dialect, given the lack of education for most of them, when others mainly the most educated used "ιμέρα". "iotacism" as it's called didn't happen in an exact date, but it was going back and forth from time to time for centuries. Also talking about Koine period, many linguists today, propose the modern or for others historical pronunciation at least for the NT Koine instead of any reconstructed one, as the closest one to the real thing.

⁠@@kalliaspapaioannou7045 thanks for the clarification- I was reading (the short version) of Ben Kantor’s recent book on Koine pronunciation and he says ‘η’ was not yet ioticized and wouldn’t be till the late byzantine - BUT yes some regional caveats plus now I also seem to remember (Luke Ranieri?) talking about how these shifts were taking place in some areas and then Alexander the Great came along and pushed it all back to a more conservative ‘classical attic’ - my unscholarly turn of phrase :-)

@@johnclark59 The pronunciation which you mention is for Modern Greek. In Modern Greek, beta is pronounced “v” and delta is pronounced as a hard “th”. I hope that helps :)

Also, Η/η is a long e, as in encapsulate, enthrall, Ι/ι is never long unless it's toned properly cause that's usually what η is for. Χ/χ can change width depending on the vowel after it by the way. The X in "Χάνω" is pronounced as a taller and less wide consonant than the X in "Χοίρος".

Yes. For example: “At the time of the New Testament, it is probable that γ was pronounced as /ɣ, ʝ/ in most regional varieties of the Koine. The fricativization (and palatalization) of γ was a relatively early change in the consonantal system across the Mediterranean.” From Ben Kantor’s ‘A Short Guide to the Pronunciation of New Testament Greek’. I believe β and θ softened much later but soften they did.

Thank you for the comment! There will be more videos coming in August :)

I would assume the closest living language is modern Greek and Koine is still used in the Orthodox Church it would probably be closer to modern Greek

Yes, it does :) In this course, I am teaching Classical Greek, and Koine Greek is effectively a simpler version of Classical Greek. So, if you learn Classical Greek, then you will be able to read Koine, but this does not work the other way around. Note that Koine probably would have sounded slightly different to Classical Greek though, meaning that the pronunciation of Koine would likely be a bit different to that which I am using in the videos. I hope this helps!

@@LearnAncientGreek Thank you for the explanation.

@@Bah1357 You’re welcome! :)

Very good question! I mention that we lose the endings of some names in English at 28:03 in Lesson 7: Transliteration. I think that there are different reasons for this, depending on which name we are talking about. In the case of Plato, I believe the final “n” is lost because of how his name was transliterated into Latin. Latin often has names that end in -o in their nominative form, so “Plato” was more natural in Latin than “Platon”. And thus we know him in English as “Plato” rather than “Platon” :)

in what way?