[B-Greek] Memorizing Declensions -

Randall Buth randallbuth at gmail.com
Tue Oct 17 13:34:04 EDT 2006


Mitch you are on the right track to learn to use real words.

SLA (Second Language Acquisition) theory is strongly on the side of
use and presentation of real forms in simple context (understandable
content as presented!) Unfortunately, nothing like this exists for
ancient Greek.

the above does NOT mean that paradigms are bad. But relying on them
for initial learning has a strong tendency to develop the analytical
side of a language at the expense of fluency. Use of language within
understandable context is the crucial factor. This is also a scalar
category with shades of adaptability as well as extremes. By their
fruit you will know them: consider 2 German lit majors having a
conversation over lunch in German. Consider two classics majors having
a conversation over lunch in English.

Randall Buth

> From: Mitch Larramore <mitchlarramore at yahoo.com>
> I am unable to reproduce the chart on page 81 of
> Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek (2nd Edition). But I
> was wondering if this method is how others have
> memorized declensions.
>
> Under 1st/2nd declensions, he has 3 columns of masc
> fem neut. They look something like:
>
> nom sg  S / - / -
> gen sg  U / S / U
> dat sg  i / i / i
> acc sg  N / N / N
>
> To the right of this chart, he gives the 3rd
> declensions under columns masc/fem and neut, thus...
>
> nom sg   S / -
> gen sg  OS / OS
> dat sg   i / i
> acc sg  A,N / -
>
> My question is whether or not others find such charts
> helpful? I have had a tendency to memorize a few
> prototypical nouns from each declension, rather than
> learning 'endings.' Is there a benefit for learning
> endings in this manner?
>
> Mitch Larramore
> Sugar Land, Texas


-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη πληθυνθείη
שלום לכם וברכות
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
randallbuth at gmail.com


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