University - Discovering Ancient Greek and Latin

About this free course

This free course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A275 Reading Classical Greek: language and literature: http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/modules/a275.

This version of the content may include video, images and interactive content that may not be optimised for your device.

You can experience this free course as it was originally designed on OpenLearn, the home of free learning from The Open University - www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/discovering-ancient-greek-and-latin/content-section-0.

There youll also be able to track your progress via your activity record, which you can use to demonstrate your learning.

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Introduction

You can experience this free course as it was originally designed on OpenLearn, the home of free learning from The Open University - www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/discovering-ancient-greek-and-latin/content-section-0.

Learn the basics of either Ancient Greek or Latin with this OpenLearn course.

Knowledge of classical Greek or Latin is essential for anyone wanting to get beneath the skin of the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. This free course provides a taste of what learning Latin and Greek entails by taking you on the first steps of the journey towards learning these classical languages. It has been written with beginners in mind, especially those who have encountered the classical world through translations of Greek and Latin texts and wish to know more about the languages in which these works were composed. If you have looked at a classical text in the original language, you may recognise the gap that can exist between 1) possessing the tools of the trade for reading ancient languages such as a text, a dictionary, a commentary and a translation and 2) actually being able to read the language! The aim of this material is to help you bridge this gap by introducing some of the linguistic skills required to navigate a passage of Latin, Ancient Greek or both.

Note that in this course all Greek is presented twice, first in Greek letters and secondly transliterated into English letters. You can therefore study this material without knowledge of the Greek alphabet. You may, however, wish to acquire some knowledge of the alphabet and pronunciation before you begin, by looking at Introducing Ancient Greek.

If you are interested in the pronunciation of Latin, you may wish to look at Introducing Latin before you begin this course.

Note that references to the Greek language in this course are to Ancient Greek rather than modern.

Figure 1 Brutus coin celebrating the Ides of March, 1st century BCE, RRC 508/3 reverse. The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge. Photo: Bridgeman Images

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A275 Reading Classical Greek: language and literature.

Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• explain why Greek and Latin are referred to as classical languages

• understand some of the distinctive features of Greek and Latin and some features they share in common with other languages

• understand why an English translation cannot represent a passage of Greek or Latin word for word

• contrast the role of word order and word endings in Greek and Latin with those in English

• explain the terms case, declension and (for Latin only) conjugation.

1 Characteristics of the Greek and Latin languages

You can experience this free course as it was originally designed on OpenLearn, the home of free learning from The Open University - www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/discovering-ancient-greek-and-latin/content-section-0.

If you embark on the study of Greek or Latin, what sort of language will you be learning? What are their distinctive features? What do they share in common with other languages?

We can start with one obvious characteristic. Both are referred to as classical languages, a word which seems to endow them with a special status. But what does that really mean? There is no single or simple answer to this question. The attempt to answer it, however, can shed light on important features of both languages. It also leads directly to another central issue for any student of Greek and Latin. What can these languages offer us today and why do they continue to deserve further study?

Activity 1

What does the term classical suggest to you? What do you think it means when applied to Ancient Greek and Latin?