From: Daniel Ria–o (danielrr@mad.servicom.es)
Date: Sat Dec 05 1998 - 12:27:37 EST
>Fellow list members;
>I have always wanted to learn minimal German. Is there in these days of
>advanced technology a short cut way of doing so? I mean simply learning
>how to read rather than going back to school, language labs, etc.? If
>there are computer tools, what would you recommend? Please reply off
>list.
I am certainly not the best suited person to write in such matters,
but anyway I'll do it.
Probably there is more good literature about Ancient Greek and
Greece written in English during the last 20 years or so than in any other
modern language. But there is a lot of fundamental works for the study of
ancient Greek written in German, French, and Italian (and in a lesser
degree, in Russian, Spanish, modern Greek, etc, etc, and of of course in
Latin). If you are going to specialise in the study of, say, Greek language
(esp. morphology, phonology) you *must* know French. If you are going to
specialise in the history of institutions, papyri, inscriptions, etc., you
better be learning Italian. In any case, if you are planning to specialise
in any aspect of Greek, you should be able to read "academic" German. (I
also think you should learn Spanish if you are interested in ancient Greek
linguistics).
Since I understand that what we are talking about here is a very
instrumental use of German, let me suggest the following three steps method
in order to e able to read any paper in German about ancient Greek: (a)
read the main chapters of a German grammar; (b) buy a good German
dictionary (c) start reading directly the papers you want to read, using
your grammar and your dictionary.
I'll explain why I consider a practical method to start reading the
papers of Greek and Grammar instead of the usual short stories, Krimis vel
sim. you usually start with after "Grundstufe I": The acquisition of
vocabulary slows down the learning of any non-related language: but the
vocabulary of philology and linguistics is in a very high degree
cuasi-universal, (based mainly on Greek and Latin). If this is so (and
provided your target is reading the great German-writing scholars like
Wilamowitz, Schwyzer, Brugmann, Mayser, Debrunner, Krueger, Radermacher,
Kuehner, Madvig, Nilsson (the last two Danish), etc, etc) you'll save a lot
of time starting with the kind of texts you really want to read. But please
note: It is probably not the best idea to start with 19 century Handbuecher
and Dissertationes, since the German academic style of that time sometimes
requires a previous knowledge of German and even Latin literature (and
there are differences in the cases and vocabulary).
Moreover, German academic style is moving to the short-sentence
period of the English writing papers, and that makes easier for all
(Germans included) to read German academic papers. Here is an extreme
example:
"Demetrios Poliorketes.
Sohn von Antigonos, geboren 337/6 vor Christ.
Er heiratete 320 Phila, die ihm Antigonos gebar.
Er nahm am Krieg gegen Eumenes teil.
Als Kommandeur gegen Ptolemaios wurde er bei Gaza vernichtend geschlagen.
Ein Feldzug gegen die Nabataioi misslang ebenfalls."
etc.
This excerpt is not taken from a basic curse in German, but a word
by word quotation (only some signs omitted and abbreviations expanded) from
the article "Demetrios [2]" from "Der Neue Pauly" Bd. 3 (all its articles
are written by some of the leading specialists in the field). As you see,
you don't actually need to *know German* to read it: some basic notions of
the language and a dictionary will suffice!!
On the other hand, if what you are pursuing is the reading of some
of the highest creations of human spirit in the original language, then go
directly from your German grammar to the Goethes, Kants, etc!
N.B. Creo que E. Norden "Die Antike Kunstprosa" ha sido ya
traducido al espanyol en Mexico. Si alguien est'a interesado en esta
traducci'on le puedo avisar tan pronto aparezca el libro en las librer'ias.
___________________________________________________________
Daniel Ria–o Rufilanchas
c. Santa Engracia 52, 7 dcha.
28010-Madrid, Espa–a
___________________________________________________________
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