Beginning Greek

Teacher(s)

Obsomer Claude;

Language

French

Prerequisites

None

Main themes

Inititation into the Classical Greek language and/or consolidation of the basics acquired in the Secondary.

This course deals with the following themes:
1. The morphology and syntax of nouns and adjectives;
2. The morphology of the thematic verbs (indicative, imperative, infinitive and participle);
3. The translation of sentences and small texts illustrating the grammatical rules;
4. A basic vocabulary about 650 words.
5. An outline of the Greek roots and their importance for the French spelling.

For the students who followed a successful training in Greek in the Secondary, the learning of basic notions (first half of the course) will be replaced by the translation of texts of a certain length.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	At the end of this course, the student will be capable of reading, translating and analyzing grammatically sentences and small texts written in Classical Greek. To do it, he will have acquired the master of the basics of nominal morphology and syntax of cases.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

The course intended for the beginners consists of twelve lessons including theory (grammatical acquisitions, translation, analysis of sentences, vocabulary) and exercises (morphology and translation).
After an explanation of the writing and phonology, the lectures allow beginner students to discover gradually Greek declensions and conjugations, with sentences illustrating the theory and syntactical rules.
The exercises organized in parallel, allow the students to progress actively and individually in differnts matters, under the guidance of one member of the teaching team.

The students who have studied Greek in the Secondary are registered as such in the first session. A specific program of textes to be translated is proposed to them instead of lessons 1 to 6. These texts concern historic and/or mythological questions.
From the lesson 7 (aorist), they attend the same course as the others, in order to verify and refine their grammatical knowledge.

Teaching methods

The lecture sessions are organized as follows:
a) Lessons 1 to 6 : the beginners attend the lectures, whilst the other students translate individually the texts which are proposed to them.
b) Lessons 7 to 12 : all the students attend the lecture.

The exercices sessions are organized as follows:
a) Lessons 1 to 6 : the beginners prepare the exercises, and they are corrected by a member of the teaching team; the texts prepared by the second group of students are corrected and commented by the teacher.
b) Lessons 7 to 12 : all the students make the exercises of these lessons.

Evaluation methods

The final mark in January includes :

• the results of the 4 assessments planned from september to december (15%);
• the results of the final written exam (85%).

Only written exam in June or September.

Other information

We shall take into account the basics by  students who studied Greek at Secondary level. Their actual level will be assessed during the first week.

Online resources

The syllabus and planning of the course are available on the iCampus server, as well as a copy of Planque's Grammar, and the informations about written evaluations.

Bibliography

• Cl. Obsomer, Initiation au grec, Louvain-la-Neuve et Namur, 2012.
• Cl. Obsomer, Textes choisis, Louvain-la-Neuve, 2013.
• D. Planque et alii, Grammaire grecque, 8e éd., Namur, 1977.

Faculty or entity

FIAL