Ancient Greek is easy to learn for eveyone... GOTCHA! Let's explore all the fun stuff that makes Greek such a pain to study. This video has been made in loving imitation of the Mulan Gotcha video by Vito: ruclips.net/video/BfygsYajMVo/видео.html 🦂 Support my work on Patreon: www.patreon.com/LukeRanieri 📚 Luke Ranieri Audiobooks: luke-ranieri.myshopify.com ☕ Support my work with PayPal: paypal.me/lukeranieri And if you like, do consider joining this channel: ruclips.net/channel/UCLbiwlm3poGNh5XSVlXBkGAjoin 🏛 Ancient Greek in Action · Free Greek Lessons: ruclips.net/p/PLU1WuLg45SixsonRdfNNv-CPNq8xUwgam 👨🏫 My Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata playlist · Free Latin Lessons: ruclips.net/video/j7hd799IznU/видео.html 🦂 ScorpioMartianus (my channel *entirely* in Latin & Ancient Greek) ruclips.net/user/polymathyluke 🎙 Hundreds of hours of Latin & Greek audio: lukeranieri.com/audio 🌍 polýMATHY website: lukeranieri.com/polymathy/ 🌅 polýMATHY on Instagram: instagram.com/lukeranieri/ 🦁 Legio XIII Latin Language Podcast: ruclips.net/user/LegioXIII 👕 Merch: teespring.com/stores/scorpiomartianus 🦂 www.ScorpioMartianus.com 🦅 www.LukeRanieri.com ☕ Supported in part by LanguageMugs.com : languagemugs.com/shop/?wpam_id=11 📖 My book Ranieri Reverse Recall on Amazon: amzn.to/2nVUfqd 0:00 Intro 1:25 Best Alphabet 1:52 papera 2:54 Unambiguous Clarity 3:56 Greek is good for your health 5:30 Read the New Testament in the original 6:07 The Homeric Epics 8:02 It's pretty easy 9:02 How to *actually* learn Greek
Hey Luke! As an Italian who did poorly in Ancient Greek but still loves the language I cheer your incredible work and divulgations! I have a suggestion for a video, have you ever thought of analyzing the Greek shanties from AC Odyssey? They are super catchy and some are even arrangements of Archilochus and Homer. Keep up the good work!
I'm actually from Greece and we started learning ancient Greek like two years ago and it isn't that bad not gonna lie since the "new version of Greek" is almost the same. Please kill me.
am from greece ......and i have to say that you right and wrong the same time ..........beacose france ,english italian ,spanish and more are baced on ancien greek ...(and sorry for my english speling ...i am not good at english😇😅🤣
Im Greek myself i left college recently and I can say its harder than mandarin and Arabic for me, ancient Greek was and still is a struggle for modern Helenics
Homeric Greek was Greek for Greeks living in Homeric period same as Classical Greek, Hellenistic period Greek also early and late Byzantine and then modern Greek. A language is a living organism that changes and transforms during the centuries, going through multiple social and cultural brewing, affected by historical circumstances and influenced by other ethnic groups. Treating or referring to Greek language as if it’s a separate dead language ancient and modern creates a confusion and a point of understanding purely based on ignorance.
They are easy I can learn how to translate half a page of acient greek I am greek i speak excellent English and acient greek for the modern greek is like a puzzle The words are the same but a little big changed
@Nubiamancy you are the blind nationalist here claiming ancient greek comes from some egypt one lmao. but as I said, dont wanna ruin your dream you live in.
@Nubiamancy The Poles said that they were the descendants of the Sarmatians and the Lithuanians said that their language was descended from Latin. Claiming that one's culture and language comes from other civilizations for street cred is a common practice and does not equate to actual historical fact. Ancient Greek is demonstrably Indo-European and that should be clear from even the most cursory of readings. However, it is true that Ancient Greek did contain a number of loanwords from Ancient Egyptian, such as "ξίφος", from Ancient Egyptian "zi:fat", related to Arabic "sayf" and ancestral to Coptic "sēfe".
@@afonsomorais288 weirdly enough in Brazil we say greek in the "I don't understand" saying, like "are you speaking greek?" or "i don't speak greek"(not gonna put an exemple in portuguese cus you guys probably hate the way we conjugate verbs)
@@ntonisa6636 there are no articles in Russian :) that’s why it’s super hard for Russians to understand why the heck should we use it at all in English, German, etc.
Ancient Greek is easy for Greeks if you are interested in it. If you know the grammar and syntax rules you can't be wrong when analysing an ancient Greek text.
Nouns: Pretty easy Adjectives: Even easier Articles: For the most part the same as modern Greek with a few additions Smooth Breathing: I don't know why it's there but I can live with it Verbs: I'M SORRY ANCIENT GREEK LANGUAGE I AM NOT CALLING YOU EASY EVER AGAIN PLEASE GOD HELP ME TAKE THESE EVIL SPAWNS OF SATAN OUT OF HERE! Sorry about that. High school flashbacks of me trying to memorize some of the more obscure forms of λύω.
The fact that I hate learning languages, vocabulary, literature and writing essays but always loved ancient Greek grammar, and once even wrote all by myself just for fun an excel document with all the possible forms of "ἄγω" just makes me consider more about myself... I'm not even in humanity studies, I'm in love with mathematics and physics...
All true: Greek is a fiendishly difficult language to learn well. I once got into an automobile accident in which I sustained a compound fracture of the ankle, a dislocated shoulder, and a head wound. My injuries required manual resetting without anaesthetic, surgery, and the insertion of orthopaedic hardware. But it was all worth it: it got me out of sitting a Greek exam.
@@altralinguamusica Did any of your students point out that sayin "Vulgar language" instead of "slang or crass words" is racist? I am the opposite of an SJW but it really is racist. Imagine saying "Dont use Finnish language" instead of "stop swearing"... oh wait, you do say that, you say "pardon my French"... anyway nevermind.
I am a native Greek speaker, and have taken only 3 years of ancient Greek in highschool. I remember having bought a huge book on irregular verbs .that was bigger than the official grammar of ancient Greek issued from school. I can sympathize with the sentiments of the video, although for me the experience was learning something familiar. So, without being an expert or a scholar of the Greek, language I would advice -if possible- to start with modern Greek. It is easier to learn and a great stepping stone for ancient Greek. On top of that there is a hidden treasure of modern Greek literature, poetry, and philosophy generally unknown to the world, that would surprise many people.
@@nikostheofanidis9970 If pronounciation is the only confusion and maximum damage that can be caused by learning modern greek first... then count me in. I feel way more confident in "fine-tuning" my ancient greek once I start it.
I spent 4 semesters taking Greek for my classical studies major in college and this video super accurately describes how I felt during that time. Still, though, it was definitely worth having learned.
I had classical studies classes. Two of them. Im a history major but i needed the units. One was a monster/folklore class but the other was mythology, all of it greek. We read ovid, some homeric hymns, some snippits of Euripides, and one story (i forget the name) about Bacchus and the Maenads and someone climbs a tree, and someone gets ripped apart by the bacchantes (i think it was also euripides)? Idk. I dont remember. Its was a few years ago. The professor was dope and we learned greek words here and there when it was important to the day's topic, but i dont remember the words except for thyrsos.
I have been studying ancient Greek for 6 years in high school. In my last year, I got to the point I was able to understand an average text, analyse syntax and grammar and translate in modern, the moment it had been given to me. Painful memories.
@@tonivoul1971 I learn things really easily (and Ancient Greek) but I am not a history nerd even though I like history (but in general I prefer math and art but this is not relevant)
I guess that's why why your forefathers murdered nearly the whole system and started to write at least two moods/tenses* with simple particles, yes? 😄 *) (subjunctive and future, am I right? I've studied ancient Greek but have only been looking into modern Greek for half a year now.)
@@athenapol7507you like maths which it was a very greek thing to do and if you like history and suck at it doesn't matter you only to be interested to it
@@gimgame1397 Not really. He's talking about ancient Greek, where X is a kh sound. The daseia (like c but up there ') is the h sound. Even in modern Greek, the X is still a lot coarser than the English H.
I had abandoned ancient greek a few month ago, due to lack of time. This video made me crack open that Athenaze one more time, so I'll say it's been working well!
@@polyMATHY_Luke I only believe you are being honest, and sincere with the Ancient Greek language learning. There are loads, and loads of ups, and downs, and do's, and dont's, and you are not sketching it out as the easiest language to learn to.
@@akariito4579 and everything is good till someone mixes up these two in words like "παιδόφιλος" which comes from "παιδί" (child) and "φίλος" (friend) but means child predator...
@@georgegkoumas5026 OH GOD, "PEDOPHILE" LITERALLY MEANS "CHILDFRIEND" - THAT ISN'T VERY COOL. Definitely not a remnant of anything. Nice last name, fellow Greek. You can always tell that someone is Greek by their name.
@@georgegkoumas5026 yes you are right, but exactly that is what the west does. They pretend greek doesnt exist anymore and can give to a word the meaning they want to. Nowadays mostly out of political reasons, there are tons of such words. Its easier to lure their people with "pedophile" than "childfriendly".
I am Greek and I find ancient greek quite difficult. Some texts are easier and really beautiful, of course- for example Xenophon's. Koine greek is another story -for today's Greeks. It's closer to modern greek and we can understand it... well, more or less.The language of the New Testament, especially John's gospel, is amazing.
John's gospel is the easiest because he writes in oral-like Koini Greek. Any modern Greek without formal training in any of ancient Greek can read it easily, almost like a modern book give or take a few notes. Mark's gospel is the most difficult since Mark was educated and tried often to emulate antiquated forms of Greek, Attic-style as it was the fashion in Roman times. But still Mark is readable. It is guys like Plutarch, the 2nd century AD Delphi priest, philosopher, historian who does try hard to emulate the 5th century Attic-style and his texts are far more difficult as they are not Koini Greek but a "Katharevousa" of his days. We need to note that Attic language was a written literary language as much as Homer's language was a poetic language (made up by 2 basic dialects and including 1000s of poetically invented words). As such these texts are bound to be difficult to read and they were meant to distinguish the educated from the uneducated - remember ancient Greeks needed to get lessons in ancient Greek to read Homer, it was not automatic for them either. Of the classical writers, Xenophon is one of the most difficult - who would expect a warlord like him to be so eloquent and complex writer! The easiest text of the Classical Age, 5th century BC, is the Pella Katadesmos, a curse written by a poor Macedonian woman that barely knew writing => she wrote in oral speech and her way of expressing herself sounds eerily close to Koini Greek, a testament of the massive influence the Macedonian dialect (a Dorian-related one just like the Epirotan and Aetolian ones) had upon the evolution of the Greek language.
@@thesecretlibrary890 Yes we actually do. I could never accomplish anything of value at the Ancient Greek studies back in my school days, as I was more of a maths-science guy, and yet I can still understand 99% of John's Gospel. Try reading it for a change. And while you do, if you speak modern greek quite well, or you are a native, keep an open mind to what he is trying to say. You'll be surprise of how much of his writings you will be able to underastand.
I studied Koine Greek for a year in grad school and agree 100% with this 😅😭. What takes 20 minutes to learn in Spanish or Chinese could easily take months to master in Greek. It’s beautifully insane.
@@gimgame1397 Well, that's just our education system that both tries to make us love them (emphasis on "tries") and sucks because half of what we learn will neither prove that we are smart nor that it will help us later.
@@georgegkoumas5026 True, it focuses on the grammar, the worst part of learning a language, and reading. But when we're asked to talk in Ancient Greek by people from other countries we don't know what to say except maybe a quote or two.
And now imagine having to learn literally everything about ancient greek and you also have to translate everything in order to pass into a university by 17-18 years old
The beauty of this language is that every time you speak English you use it, you say paralyzed for example, it comes from λυω. The verb you mentioned .
Celtic Invasion of Greece in 279 BC. A huge army of Celts goes in, butchering their way, pillaging, showing unimaginable acts of cruelty. Nobody gets out........
@@BasildeRayen Except that, they met their demise in Delphi, where according to the legend Achilles himself together with Athena were leading the Greek army.
@@johnnyplatis Actually not just an army but the whole population (men, women, children) of every age run after them, recalling the sacrileges they made earlier.
I picked up my first Greek textbook 37 years ago. Every book I've looked at since then teaches λύω by chapter 3. Someday, I hope to meet this word in actual Greek.
The #1 reason for reading the Iliad: Chryses comes "to get his daughter released" in the first scene. Textbook λύω, plus textbook "use of the middle voice"!
I'm Greek and this is the third yearn I take Ancient Greek lessons and I I'm telling is hard to learn even for us the native greeks. But there are so many amazing things about this language. There are countless English words that actually are Greek. It gives you another way to perceive the world. But yes it's a little pain to be honest. Πολυ ωραίο βίντεο. Καλη σου μέρα!!
As a native Greek, Italian, and English speaker with 6 years of Ancient Greek studies my first thought when I saw the title was: "He has got to be pulling my leg!" Interesting to see how people perceive it from the outside.
Is ancient Greek that much different from modern Greek? I speak Spanish but Russian, which has a much more complex Grammar, was easy to get used to. Makes me wonder how seriously difficult Greek is compared to Russian.
@@freedomgoddess about the difference of sparta and athens, there is a saying of ancient sparta: "ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς" (translates to "either *you are coming back holding* it or *you are coming back* on it", the bold are not written nor said but the meaning is there. It is referring to their shields, since sparta is known for its soldiers, meaning that the soldier is either coming back as a winner, holding his shield, or coming back dead, carried by other soldiers on his shield, and that's because they didn't consider retreating as an option, that's also the mindset behind Leonidas) which may sound confusing to greeks who haven't heard it before but with the pronouncing of athens it becomes "ἢ τὴν ἢ ἐπὶ τῆς" which is written the same as morden greek, excluding the parts that don't exist "ή την ή επί της"
@@freedomgoddess But every language does that "add 3 letters and you get a new word" thing. Like "take" (=λαμβάνω). Take, take out, take on, take up, take under etc are all different from each other. Greek just usually does it before the stem word, english after.
Ancient Greek: the real reason unification had to wait until Philip II and Alexander the Great. "From now on, our dialect shall be this!" and thus Koine Greek saved human sanity.
Koinē Greek is actually the Attic one. Philip set as dominant Greek language the idiom of Athenians. He was smart enough and he did it for geopolitical reasons. Philip is way more great than his son Alexander. Philip ruled a kingdom of shepherds because Macedonians were a shepherds kingdom until Philip and he achieved to make them noble men philosophers fighters and respected by all other greek kingdoms at the end. Philip the Great. Discredited by hisyory
@@KostisP83 Koini is not the Attic one. Sure Attic influenced the general grammar (in terms of official grammar and orthography) but the syntax is not at all the same as the Attic, it is much more streamlined and comprehensible to the modern speaker, foreigner as even more to the ethnic Greek (native Greek speakers can read Koini Greek with little trouble). The official alphabet was the Ionian one, not the Attic one. We need also to realise that Dorian - and in particular the Macedonian-Epirotan part of overall Dorian) had a massive influence in the development of Koini, especially in accent and syntax and this is a realisation we just wake up to. We do have Macedonian writings by poor half-uneducated people, even women of middle-low class, dating back to the Peloponesian War (late 5th BC century) and these are some of the easiest texts for the modern Greek to read. Attic Greek of 5th BC century as we know it was a written language, not an oral one, even Athenians themselves did not speak like that. We know that from theatrical plays where dialogues are more natural and the syntax is simpler.
@@KostisP83 philip was definitely the greater one, alexander only conquered and even though he conquered a lot thats basically all he did afaik. he was also fucking crazy
@@dinos9607 your last paragraph makes wonder whether the written attic greek was a more archaic and conservative type of greek or not. because usually when the literary and formal language is different from the colloquial one it means that the formal one is an archaic form. at least this is true for my native language persian
@@mahatmaniggandhi2898 The Attic texts we have, such as Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Herodotus were all written by extremely educated writers in a form of Attic which was quite very far from the oral spoken Attic dialect of the day. Writers such as Xenophon were ever maintaining an orthography that was almost 2 centuries obsolete in his time in the late 5th century BC. We do have examples of written text closer to oral speech from Aristophane's comedies and it is visibly easier in comparison, even if again it remained a theatrical (thus kind of poetic still) language. Mind you, such texts are difficult and often puzzling even to people who study ancient Greek for decades and a main part of the difficulty is the altered syntax : ancient Attic syntax is hell (e.g. they could be going on paragraphs using participles instead of verbs!)! They were difficult texts even back in those times for the average Greek. Modern Greeks can ready easier the Koini Greek (i.e. the resulting amalgamation of older Greek dialects) and they read e.g. the New Testament (1900 years old) almost like a modern book. The reason is that it was written for the most in simple Greek quite very close to the oral speech of the day. Myself as a Greek who had no formal training in Attic or Koini Greek did the experiment for a foreign colleague of mine and he was amazed when I could translate literally word for word random passages from the New Testament (1st AD). I could master a general translation of passages from within Thucydides' history (5th BC) however losing quite some details, often not being able to get the full meaning but still getting the general idea of what it was saying. I tried the Iliad (8th BC) and to his amazement I could grab a lot of words and even get, in vague, what it was talking about but then losing most of the times the details and the general idea. This, on a language that is almost 3000 years old, in a highly poetic form and formed out of a combination of older poems written in 2 extremely archaic forms of Attic and Aeolian dialects. Greek in general was for the most a conservative language. Because it was widely written and because Greeks maintained, at least up the end of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453 a very high rate of literacy (only comparable to what was attained in Europe in the late 19th century), it meant that there was an intrinsic continuum of the language even though it underwent considerable changes as all languages are going through time. Reading and writing decelerates the rate of linguistic change.
@@thesorcererwiththepointyhat to be fair we dont learn the langauge except if our parents are uni teacher or doctors with infirioty complex, sooooooo.....
Also: - As an Indo-European language, Greek shares many vocabulary with other languages from the same group, so it's easy to identify what is being told about... GOTCHA! - for instance: Nai means yes, and Ochi means no!
Ah yes echidna and hedgehog case, tak in polish vs Indonesian, also vedic Sanskrit is hard too cuz a lot of substrate words from BMC not sure about Greek
It is that difficult to study Ancient Greek, but for some reason I simply cannot give it up. It's so venerable in my mind that my attitude towards it is almost mystical.
Every time I start getting bored with Latin and start considering learning Koine so I can read the new testament in it, I come back to this video Luke.
I learned platonic Greek. It is hard to learn in the beginning, but as soon as one has got the basics, it is great fun. And Koine is actually quite easy, so you will soon be able to translate the Septuagint and the New Testament. To all beginners I will recomment to begin with the verbs. Start with the simpler ones like παιδευω, λυω etc. to understand how to form tempora. Then follow up with verba vocalia, verba muta, verba liquida and verbs ending on -μι. And do not fear the Aorist. You will come to love it. By the way: Ancient Greek is a good match to be translated into German. We both have a love of composites.
@@culturecanvas777 No. It is still difficult bcs very irregular forms. Even as a native speaker I find it to be pure chaos with only some semblance of order.
@@PewPewPlasmagun I do actually also think it gets a lot easier. The thing with Russian for foreigners, particularly English speakers, is that in order to even start saying basic things in Russian, they need to get introduced to a loot of grammar, gramatical gender, inflection, verb conjugation, cases, a completely new writing system, lack of the copula "to be" in most sentences, and a few new phonemes! All that stuff since the very beginning, before you can even think of saying "The book is on the table". Once you finally climb that awfully ladder at the beginning, the rest is kinda like learning any other Language, are there exceptions? Sure! A ton! But so are in Spanish and French, and those are the "easy" languages
@@sebastiangudino9377 Spanish is the most regular thing ever compared to Russian, if you look at verb inflections. There is only one verb that I have ever seen which can be conjugated differently (erguir), at least so far as I have found. And the stress???? In Spanish there is 100% clearness but Russian is PURE chaos. To say nothing of rhe fact that dialectwise the stress is ofttimes different. Also, verbs have often older or simply alternative inflections regarding times or participles, ect. Yes you may understand what is meant once you have gained a basic understanding and a feel for Russian but you are incorrect elsewise, bvs mastery is a different thing. I repeat, I am a native speaker of Russian and I live the tongue as much as the other 3 that I know (save from English, with which my relationship is somewhat twofold).
In Greece, children learn ancient Greek since 7th grade. And actually, middle voice is also used in modern Greek, so we learn it from ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
... and we forget about it right after. I still try to bring to my mind a middle voice verb even in modern Greek. E.g. "Χτυπιέμαι" (I hit myself) is middle voice or passive voice? Because it sounds like passive but it is me doing that to myself, thus has to be middle isn't it?
I've been going through LLPSI, and was just re-reading Chapter 18, where Orberg sneaks in "Lingua Graeca difficilis est". I have a feeling he also had the need to just vent about that (even if in only one sentence). Haha I haven't taken a crack at Greek yet, but I bet that sentence hits different for those who are on that journey.
I once heard that the "unnecessary" smooth breathing mark actually meant some sort of a liaison with the previous word, and that this is why, when followed by a word that starts with a vowel, many words in ancient Greek that end in a vowel will generate an extra ν (n), especially verbs. But this happened to all the verbs so it's really a leftover of old.
It’s from the Ionian alphabet adopted by Euclid in 403 BC. When so many words begin with vowels but no spaces are written between words, the smooth breathing marked the beginning of a many new words. It doesn’t make sense when we have a system that uses spaces
Now that was therapeutic. Nothing like watching someone else suffer trying to learn that language. Especially someone who can speak fluent Latin to Italians to the point that they start to lose their temper.
Hahaha, love it! ... And I don't even speak Greek! (Even if maybe I should, considering my name, hmm 🤔) This is a great format, I can't wait to see more! Looking forward to the one about Latin, seeing as I recently started learning it and fell in love with your channel 😁 Gratias tibi ago, magister!
Yes ..., here in Italy it is much more common to study ancient languages at school, usually Latin and ancient Greek. I don't know how but some manage to understand something, after the first 3 months I didn't understand anything anymore (I was only studying how the accent works at the time) and after about 2 years I still don't understand anything. DON'T DO IT DON'T RUIN YOUR LIFE
That was so lovely! Beaches of Santorini? ROTFL! (Actually loving the mediopassiv, but getting a few extra heartbeats when hearing the cut bars in the Zauberflöte's ouverture).
Hahahahahahahaha hearing the intro, as a Greek student of History& Archaeology I felt awkward 😂😂😂 Ευχαριστούμε! I know, Greek language is not easy. If someone manages learning ancient Greek, then medieval and modern dialects will be quite easy. Remember. Even for the best modern Greek philologists it's very difficult to fully understand the text. Imagine if it's a philosopher's, politician's or rhetor's text...it's like climbing a mountain in the middle of the winter!
Hello, I am a native Greek speaker and teacher by profession. I'd like to give some examples for the use of the verb "λύω" and some of its derivative words used in both the ancient form and the modern version of the Greek language as well as in the English language: ΛΥΩ (or ΛΥΝΩ for modern Greek) = Solve, settle, dissolve, untie etc. ΛΥΣΙΣ (ΛΥΣΗ) = LYSIS (meaning solution, improvement or even destruction in Biology terminology) ΑΝΑΛΥΣΙΣ = ANALYSIS ΔΙΑΛΥΣΙΣ = DIALYSIS ΠΑΡΑΛΥΣΙΣ = PARALYSIS ΥΔΡΟΛΥΣΙΣ = HYDROLYSIS (perfect example for the "h" sound in the beginning) ΑΝΑΛΥΤΙΚΟ = ANALYTIC And a more complex derivative word would be: ΨΥΧΑΝΑΛΥΣΙΣ = PSYCHOANALYSIS, i.e. ΨΥΧΗ (PSYCHE) + ΑΝΑΛΥΣΙΣ (ANALYSIS) Hope that helps and it "doesn't sound Greek to you" anymore! 😉 Cheers!
@@polyMATHY_Luke of course not! Just trying to add a grain of knowledge here. I appreciate the effort you put in making those videos. Keep up the great work!
too funny Λύω was the first verb ever that was taught to us in the Ancient Greek class at school... Three years later they required of you to read Sophocle's Antigone from the original...! Nightmares, flashbacks, REAL PTSD situation here!
You know what the worst thing about ancient Greek is? Here in Greece we (learn) ancient Greek in school AND odyssey / Iliad and if we don't know these things by the time we are done with school it's concidered a bad thing
I had 6 years of Ancient Greek at school (Gymnasium in the Netherlands, I dropped Latin after 3 years or so).. This video had me laughing and crying at the same time 😂 I will never forget the one sentence my Greek teacher translated years ago, still to this day.. I do not know what he meant by the translation. Every once in a while I come across a screenshot of the translation, giving me immediate flashbacks to our Greek classes lol. The translations was something like this (note; the original translation by my teacher was in Dutch): 'And Socrates said.. Logically Kriton, do those you mean do that, because they think they have an advantage by doing that, and also I, I will not logically do that' Confusion much 😂
Don't worry... If you ever feel like learning Greek is a Sisyphean task, our grammar and syntax (both Modern and Ancient) is being taught horribly here as well! This video had the ONLY fleeting explanation of the middle voice I've ever come across, nobody explains why things are named as they are or how the constructions work at all, they just throw a table of verbs, moods and voices at you and call it a day... Have fun!
In Brazil(probably in others portuguese speaker countries too) when someone say something we don't understand properly we say the person is speaking greek hehe
Wait, what dialect do you speak? Masry (The main dialect I've been learning) don't have the dual anymore (Well, it does, but just for nouns not for verbs i mean), and i used to think this was the case for all of them, was i wrong? Are you just referring to the nouns? Has my life been a lie?
@@sebastiangudino9377 I speak the Gulf dialect. The plural and dual suffix are written the same "-ين" but pronounced differently. The dual is "-ayn" while the plural is "-een". And yes, it mostly is used for nouns, rarely for verbs as well. I don't know if this is universal for all Arabic dialects though.
@revilo178 Yes! I know, that's due to most languages, relying on inflection for that sort of things, i just mentioned the example of Indonesian because they do something cool, instead of inflection, like in English or Arabic, or using a separate word, like "many" like "mga" in Tagalog (IIRC). Indonesians repeat the word to make it plural, that to me is really fun and very intesting!
"We choose to learn Ancient Greek, not because it is easy, but because it is hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.." J.F. Kennedy.
We actually have a kind of middle voice in portuguese aswell. It's called "Reflexive voice". Ex: when you do an action but you are the patient of that action - "i cut myself" (i cut but at the same time i'm being cut)
I had no idea this was in your personality....this made my day better it was so funny. Your style of humor perfectly matches with my preference lol Also I loved the Peter Griffin impression Also is it bad this only made me want to learn Ancient Greek even more
Haha thanks! Yea, this is my sense of humor. 😆 I’m glad you want to learn Ancient Greek! You should. As for the impression, I wrote the script she recorded the audio with those two funny voices just because I liked them, without any particular character in mind. Technically it’s a stereotypical NYC/Long Island accent and a stereotypical stodgy old fashioned voice. Then when I was looking for images I realized that they sounded kind of close to Peter and Dr. Hartman.
You may find me a masochist or crazy man, but I find Ancient Greek quite relaxing. My only real problem with Ancient Greek is the pitch accent and the accentuation. I mix those damn accents a lot.
“H looks like someone sneezed on the book while you weren’t looking” I’ve watched a couple of Lukes videos but by god, I never knew he was this funny 😂 The whole video I was laughing my as* off until the end...when I remembered that I wanted to learn ancient Greek 🤣
Mate, this video is spectacular, God damn it Luke. I'm still getting used to the sound effects though, wonder if they're gonna grow on me, found them slightly annoying, but the script, pacing, jokes... Chef's kiss!!
i am from greece and i have to agree with this video it is not an easy language ( prov that i am from greece ( Γεια σας παιδές οσοι θελουν να μαθουν ελληνικα καλη τυχη)
At the end of the video, I turned my mousepointer toward the like-button, only to find that I had already liked the video, but forgotten about it. Now I feel disappointed that I can't like it twice. Thank you for this experience.
I loved the vid, It would be awesome if you turned "GOTCHA!" into a series, like you could do another one for Latin or other topics/languages. I am interested in learning ancient greek, but at the moment I'm looking at old English, old Norse and old High German, so maybe after I get a grip on those tounges first
i like this guy. greek girl approves. it's actually hilarious how english people try to understand ancient greek with english in mind (i mean yea, makes sense) but the fact that their own language derives from Greek makes it so ironic lmao. but jokes aside, ancient greek is literally so important to learn, especially for greeks. you can't fully understand modern greek or use it in full capacity without knowing where the words even came from and their etymology. it's just, the way its taught in schools nowadays... they make us hate it and that sucks.
Ancient Greek is easy to learn for eveyone... GOTCHA! Let's explore all the fun stuff that makes Greek such a pain to study.
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0:00 Intro
1:25 Best Alphabet
1:52 papera
2:54 Unambiguous Clarity
3:56 Greek is good for your health
5:30 Read the New Testament in the original
6:07 The Homeric Epics
8:02 It's pretty easy
9:02 How to *actually* learn Greek
Amazing video Luke! Please do more of these haha, maybe for russian?
Hey Luke! As an Italian who did poorly in Ancient Greek but still loves the language I cheer your incredible work and divulgations! I have a suggestion for a video, have you ever thought of analyzing the Greek shanties from AC Odyssey? They are super catchy and some are even arrangements of Archilochus and Homer. Keep up the good work!
I'm actually from Greece and we started learning ancient Greek like two years ago and it isn't that bad not gonna lie since the "new version of Greek" is almost the same. Please kill me.
am from greece ......and i have to say that you right and wrong the same time ..........beacose france ,english italian ,spanish and more are baced on ancien greek ...(and sorry for my english speling ...i am not good at english😇😅🤣
Im Greek myself i left college recently and I can say its harder than mandarin and Arabic for me, ancient Greek was and still is a struggle for modern Helenics
Homeric Greek was actually Ancient Greek for Ancient Greeks!
u have ask agamemnon?
Exactly
@@prezentoappr1171 it is easy to know that when you're Greek mate 😉🇬🇷 your comment is....how can i put this politely... dam !
Homeric Greek was Greek for Greeks living in Homeric period same as Classical Greek, Hellenistic period Greek also early and late Byzantine and then modern Greek. A language is a living organism that changes and transforms during the centuries, going through multiple social and cultural brewing, affected by historical circumstances and influenced by other ethnic groups. Treating or referring to Greek language as if it’s a separate dead language ancient and modern creates a confusion and a point of understanding purely based on ignorance.
What is Koiné Greek?
As someone who actually studies Ancient Greek at school, this is REALLY accurate.
@Nubiamancy dont say that out loud. you might actually believe it yourself lmao
@Nubiamancy ?????
Pseudo-historian 😂
They are easy
I can learn how to translate half a page of acient greek
I am greek i speak excellent English and acient greek for the modern greek is like a puzzle
The words are the same but a little big changed
@Nubiamancy you are the blind nationalist here claiming ancient greek comes from some egypt one lmao. but as I said, dont wanna ruin your dream you live in.
@Nubiamancy The Poles said that they were the descendants of the Sarmatians and the Lithuanians said that their language was descended from Latin. Claiming that one's culture and language comes from other civilizations for street cred is a common practice and does not equate to actual historical fact. Ancient Greek is demonstrably Indo-European and that should be clear from even the most cursory of readings.
However, it is true that Ancient Greek did contain a number of loanwords from Ancient Egyptian, such as "ξίφος", from Ancient Egyptian "zi:fat", related to Arabic "sayf" and ancestral to Coptic "sēfe".
Now I understand the saying "It's all Greek to me".
In Portugal we say "It's all Chinese" 😅
@@afonsomorais288 we say the same in Greece...-:)
@@afonsomorais288 also in Greece! But I admit that Greek language is not easy
In Turkey we say "Are you speaking in Arabic?"
@@afonsomorais288 weirdly enough in Brazil we say greek in the "I don't understand" saying, like "are you speaking greek?" or "i don't speak greek"(not gonna put an exemple in portuguese cus you guys probably hate the way we conjugate verbs)
Ancient Greek: "We have 27 articles"
Russian: "Never heard of her."
Ahahahahahahha
I don't know any Russian so I'd love if someone explained that joke to me.
@@ntonisa6636 I am trying to learn Russian for ages now and I don't understand it either.
@@ntonisa6636 there are no articles in Russian :) that’s why it’s super hard for Russians to understand why the heck should we use it at all in English, German, etc.
@@polina1735 exactly
Can confirm that even for Greek people studying ancient greek, we feel your pain even if we can understand it
Well not for me it's easy
@@alexfreddy5804 I'm studying it for (including high school) 5 years in depth, still hurts my brain so good work
Especially for adolescents, who are forced to learn the language at school...
@@alexfreddy5804 SAY THAT AGAIN
Ancient Greek is easy for Greeks if you are interested in it. If you know the grammar and syntax rules you can't be wrong when analysing an ancient Greek text.
Nouns: Pretty easy
Adjectives: Even easier
Articles: For the most part the same as modern Greek with a few additions
Smooth Breathing: I don't know why it's there but I can live with it
Verbs: I'M SORRY ANCIENT GREEK LANGUAGE I AM NOT CALLING YOU EASY EVER AGAIN PLEASE GOD HELP ME TAKE THESE EVIL SPAWNS OF SATAN OUT OF HERE!
Sorry about that. High school flashbacks of me trying to memorize some of the more obscure forms of λύω.
your pfp makes me laff so hard
The fact that I hate learning languages, vocabulary, literature and writing essays but always loved ancient Greek grammar, and once even wrote all by myself just for fun an excel document with all the possible forms of "ἄγω" just makes me consider more about myself... I'm not even in humanity studies, I'm in love with mathematics and physics...
Me on the verge of transfering to thetiki while learning the -μι verbs.
Don't forget the 50+ subvariants of verb clauses that can literally depend on a single letter
λυω ελυον λυσω ελυσα λελυκα ελελυκειν λυομαι ελυομην λυσομαι ελυσαμην λελυμαι ελελυμην
After finishing my first year of attic Greek in an "intensive summer course"- I felt this in my ψυχή
Yeahhhhh
Wow!! Συγχαρητήρια!
XD
ουδεν κακο αμηγες καλου. Εκτος απο αυτο το μαθημα
Έστι πάντα εν ψυχαίς ημών
Pro tip: the best way to learn the Greek alphabet is to study theoretical quantum physics. After that, it will feel both natural and easy.
As a 15 year old speaker you just need to study alot if you want to make some words in acient greek
I did and you're right!
math also helps, I started noticing I could read greek (alphabet) texts after I got my degree
Start from Proto Indo European, maybe? There's only two voices instead of three! Oddly, the one you still have to remember is the middle voice. :\
And how do you make theoretical quantum physics feel natural and easy?
All true: Greek is a fiendishly difficult language to learn well. I once got into an automobile accident in which I sustained a compound fracture of the ankle, a dislocated shoulder, and a head wound. My injuries required manual resetting without anaesthetic, surgery, and the insertion of orthopaedic hardware. But it was all worth it: it got me out of sitting a Greek exam.
it's so funny when we have Greek tests in school and people don't show up because they're ""sick"" 💀💀💀💀 as if we don't know
"What's a clitic?"
"Don't say vulgar things at me"
fucking genius
enclitic, that is.
@@la-civetta Enclitics are a specific kind of clitic: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clitic
This is one of my jokes I use with my students every time I first mention them haha
@@altralinguamusica Did any of your students point out that sayin "Vulgar language" instead of "slang or crass words" is racist?
I am the opposite of an SJW but it really is racist. Imagine saying "Dont use Finnish language" instead of "stop swearing"... oh wait, you do say that, you say "pardon my French"... anyway nevermind.
@@MasterOfWarLordOfPeace what are you on about?
Somehow this made me want to learn Ancient Greek even more
Good!
To flex on the English speakers lol
I will do the same
Bahaha good luck with that
@@tonivoul1971even on Greeks
I am a native Greek speaker, and have taken only 3 years of ancient Greek in highschool. I remember having bought a huge book on irregular verbs .that was bigger than the official grammar of ancient Greek issued from school. I can sympathize with the sentiments of the video, although for me the experience was learning something familiar.
So, without being an expert or a scholar of the Greek, language I would advice -if possible- to start with modern Greek. It is easier to learn and a great stepping stone for ancient Greek. On top of that there is a hidden treasure of modern Greek literature, poetry, and philosophy generally unknown to the world, that would surprise many people.
@@nikostheofanidis9970 If pronounciation is the only confusion and maximum damage that can be caused by learning modern greek first... then count me in.
I feel way more confident in "fine-tuning" my ancient greek once I start it.
I spent 4 semesters taking Greek for my classical studies major in college and this video super accurately describes how I felt during that time. Still, though, it was definitely worth having learned.
If you had a friend show you basic modern Greek, it would have probably been a bit easier
I had classical studies classes. Two of them. Im a history major but i needed the units. One was a monster/folklore class but the other was mythology, all of it greek.
We read ovid, some homeric hymns, some snippits of Euripides, and one story (i forget the name) about Bacchus and the Maenads and someone climbs a tree, and someone gets ripped apart by the bacchantes (i think it was also euripides)? Idk. I dont remember. Its was a few years ago.
The professor was dope and we learned greek words here and there when it was important to the day's topic, but i dont remember the words except for thyrsos.
I have been studying ancient Greek for 6 years in high school. In my last year, I got to the point I was able to understand an average text, analyse syntax and grammar and translate in modern, the moment it had been given to me. Painful memories.
Bro we Greek kids have to memorize all of these things😂
Only history nerds can learn easily acient greek
@@tonivoul1971 I learn things really easily (and Ancient Greek) but I am not a history nerd even though I like history (but in general I prefer math and art but this is not relevant)
*had
I guess that's why why your forefathers murdered nearly the whole system and started to write at least two moods/tenses* with simple particles, yes? 😄
*) (subjunctive and future, am I right? I've studied ancient Greek but have only been looking into modern Greek for half a year now.)
@@athenapol7507you like maths which it was a very greek thing to do and if you like history and suck at it doesn't matter you only to be interested to it
Ουδέν κακόν αμιγές καλού.
Verum est.
"there is no bad with no good"
@@themis467 Αχιλλεύς και Θερσίτης
@@landofw56 those are names
@@themis467 Nomina sunt omina, Themis
"Angry duck hissing looks like an X". Hahaha
Untitled Goose Game flashbacks occur in my mind...
Χ is supposed to be the english H so laughing is χαχα
@@gimgame1397 Not really. He's talking about ancient Greek, where X is a kh sound. The daseia (like c but up there ') is the h sound. Even in modern Greek, the X is still a lot coarser than the English H.
Currently learning Ancient Greek in school, this actually made me laugh
Luke, how is this brilliant attempt at reverse psychology working as a marketing technique so far?
I'm going to start studying Greek after watching this. 🤔🤔🤔
_you cannot keep your secrets from me forever, oh ancient scrolls!!_ 😤😤
I had abandoned ancient greek a few month ago, due to lack of time. This video made me crack open that Athenaze one more time, so I'll say it's been working well!
Looks like it’s working hehe
@@polyMATHY_Luke I only believe you are being honest, and sincere with the Ancient Greek language learning. There are loads, and loads of ups, and downs, and do's, and dont's, and you are not sketching it out as the easiest language to learn to.
@@culturecanvas777 hhahahhahaah good luck with that.. YOU'LL NEED IT I am greek tho
Everyone: Aah, math is so hard, I can't understand a thing
People who are learning Ancient Greek:
👁️👄👁️
Well I am greek and I have to tell you that the hole middle and high school we learn ancient greek
Well, i only learned greek alphabet due to math and physics 😄
Γρεεκ αλφαβετ
@Enrico Amatori 3blue1brown for me
@Enrico Amatori Good Lord, this is so lame
That’s because most of the Modern Mathematics have been invented by the Ancient Greeks
8:19 Horselover = Φιλιππος (Philippos) :D
I’m glad you got that! 😄
horsefriend not horselover. filos vs. erastis.
@@akariito4579 and everything is good till someone mixes up these two in words like "παιδόφιλος" which comes from "παιδί" (child) and "φίλος" (friend) but means child predator...
@@georgegkoumas5026 OH GOD, "PEDOPHILE" LITERALLY MEANS "CHILDFRIEND" - THAT ISN'T VERY COOL. Definitely not a remnant of anything.
Nice last name, fellow Greek. You can always tell that someone is Greek by their name.
@@georgegkoumas5026 yes you are right, but exactly that is what the west does. They pretend greek doesnt exist anymore and can give to a word the meaning they want to. Nowadays mostly out of political reasons, there are tons of such words. Its easier to lure their people with "pedophile" than "childfriendly".
I am Greek and I find ancient greek quite difficult. Some texts are easier and really beautiful, of course- for example Xenophon's. Koine greek is another story -for today's Greeks. It's closer to modern greek and we can understand it... well, more or less.The language of the New Testament, especially John's gospel, is amazing.
John's gospel is the easiest because he writes in oral-like Koini Greek. Any modern Greek without formal training in any of ancient Greek can read it easily, almost like a modern book give or take a few notes. Mark's gospel is the most difficult since Mark was educated and tried often to emulate antiquated forms of Greek, Attic-style as it was the fashion in Roman times. But still Mark is readable. It is guys like Plutarch, the 2nd century AD Delphi priest, philosopher, historian who does try hard to emulate the 5th century Attic-style and his texts are far more difficult as they are not Koini Greek but a "Katharevousa" of his days. We need to note that Attic language was a written literary language as much as Homer's language was a poetic language (made up by 2 basic dialects and including 1000s of poetically invented words). As such these texts are bound to be difficult to read and they were meant to distinguish the educated from the uneducated - remember ancient Greeks needed to get lessons in ancient Greek to read Homer, it was not automatic for them either. Of the classical writers, Xenophon is one of the most difficult - who would expect a warlord like him to be so eloquent and complex writer! The easiest text of the Classical Age, 5th century BC, is the Pella Katadesmos, a curse written by a poor Macedonian woman that barely knew writing => she wrote in oral speech and her way of expressing herself sounds eerily close to Koini Greek, a testament of the massive influence the Macedonian dialect (a Dorian-related one just like the Epirotan and Aetolian ones) had upon the evolution of the Greek language.
@@dinos9607 "can read it easily"
No they actuallg don't. Keep living in your false beliefs.
@@thesecretlibrary890 Yes we actually do. I could never accomplish anything of value at the Ancient Greek studies back in my school days, as I was more of a maths-science guy, and yet I can still understand 99% of John's Gospel. Try reading it for a change. And while you do, if you speak modern greek quite well, or you are a native, keep an open mind to what he is trying to say. You'll be surprise of how much of his writings you will be able to underastand.
Αυτοοο
I studied Koine Greek for a year in grad school and agree 100% with this 😅😭. What takes 20 minutes to learn in Spanish or Chinese could easily take months to master in Greek. It’s beautifully insane.
Let's say years instead.... I am greek..
Lol, Ancient Greek is a Nightmare to learn, even when you're Greek.
It is just useless. I am greek had to take lessons for 4 years just so i would forget them a year later this about middle and 1year of highschool
@@gimgame1397 Well, that's just our education system that both tries to make us love them (emphasis on "tries") and sucks because half of what we learn will neither prove that we are smart nor that it will help us later.
@@georgegkoumas5026 True, it focuses on the grammar, the worst part of learning a language, and reading. But when we're asked to talk in Ancient Greek by people from other countries we don't know what to say except maybe a quote or two.
if you are greek you dont have to learn it, you allready speak it no matter if you know that you speak it or not.
@@akariito4579 well we don't speak ANCIENT Greek and we have to learn it at school for some reason
Nothing like finding someone who knows the pain you've been through
And now imagine having to learn literally everything about ancient greek and you also have to translate everything in order to pass into a university by 17-18 years old
If you have a photographic memory lile mine you will find them easy to learn them
Bro i can learn one in 20 minutes or 30
@@tonivoul1971 Believe me even with photographic memory it would still be very difficult to learn if you are not a native speaker.
@@tonivoul1971 what exactly can you learn in 30 minutes? Ancient Greek?
@@helgaioannidis9365 translate stuff that philosophers said or some stories by them
@@tonivoul1971 you can learn a whole language in 30 minutes? Cool. How many languages do you know so far?
The beauty of this language is that every time you speak English you use it, you say paralyzed for example, it comes from λυω. The verb you mentioned .
As well as analyse, dialysis(from διαλυω), catalyst (from καταλυω), to name just a few off the top of my head
Having a bad day? 🤣
Poor Obelix, he thought the Romans were crazy, imagine if he had known the Greeks better... 😖😱😂
To me he just sounds like a crybaby who complains to the whole world for not understanding a language that is not used anymore 😂
Celtic Invasion of Greece in 279 BC. A huge army of Celts goes in, butchering their way, pillaging, showing unimaginable acts of cruelty. Nobody gets out........
@@BasildeRayen Except that, they met their demise in Delphi, where according to the legend Achilles himself together with Athena were leading the Greek army.
@@johnnyplatis Actually not just an army but the whole population (men, women, children) of every age run after them, recalling the sacrileges they made earlier.
T. L.O.R - The pillaging Celts must have met their end attempting to learn Greek.
I picked up my first Greek textbook 37 years ago. Every book I've looked at since then teaches λύω by chapter 3.
Someday, I hope to meet this word in actual Greek.
Tους ζυγούς λύσατε!
ruclips.net/video/eyNd3yTI_b0/видео.html
The #1 reason for reading the Iliad: Chryses comes "to get his daughter released" in the first scene. Textbook λύω, plus textbook "use of the middle voice"!
That's why if you learn ancient Greek you get far far many ways to perceive the world around you.
Wouldn't a tab of LSD be easier?
@@davidweihe6052 yeah but it works for a few hours
I'm Greek and this is the third yearn I take Ancient Greek lessons and I I'm telling is hard to learn even for us the native greeks. But there are so many amazing things about this language. There are countless English words that actually are Greek. It gives you another way to perceive the world. But yes it's a little pain to be honest. Πολυ ωραίο βίντεο. Καλη σου μέρα!!
Loves it... Who knew ancient Greek was so easy.. . 😭Best video ever.
Thanks, Craig!
Now I see why my Arab ancestors loved the Greeks, we both have a very easy grammatical systems!
As a native Greek, Italian, and English speaker with 6 years of Ancient Greek studies my first thought when I saw the title was: "He has got to be pulling my leg!"
Interesting to see how people perceive it from the outside.
Is ancient Greek that much different from modern Greek? I speak Spanish but Russian, which has a much more complex Grammar, was easy to get used to. Makes me wonder how seriously difficult Greek is compared to Russian.
@@freedomgoddess looks like I need to steer clear then hahahha
@Nubiamancy What does that have to do with literally anything?
@@freedomgoddess about the difference of sparta and athens, there is a saying of ancient sparta: "ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς" (translates to "either *you are coming back holding* it or *you are coming back* on it", the bold are not written nor said but the meaning is there. It is referring to their shields, since sparta is known for its soldiers, meaning that the soldier is either coming back as a winner, holding his shield, or coming back dead, carried by other soldiers on his shield, and that's because they didn't consider retreating as an option, that's also the mindset behind Leonidas) which may sound confusing to greeks who haven't heard it before but with the pronouncing of athens it becomes "ἢ τὴν ἢ ἐπὶ τῆς" which is written the same as morden greek, excluding the parts that don't exist "ή την ή επί της"
@@freedomgoddess But every language does that "add 3 letters and you get a new word" thing. Like "take" (=λαμβάνω). Take, take out, take on, take up, take under etc are all different from each other. Greek just usually does it before the stem word, english after.
i had a mental breakdown studying ancient greek as a greek and that made my day thank you :)
Ancient Greek: the real reason unification had to wait until Philip II and Alexander the Great.
"From now on, our dialect shall be this!" and thus Koine Greek saved human sanity.
Koinē Greek is actually the Attic one. Philip set as dominant Greek language the idiom of Athenians. He was smart enough and he did it for geopolitical reasons. Philip is way more great than his son Alexander. Philip ruled a kingdom of shepherds because Macedonians were a shepherds kingdom until Philip and he achieved to make them noble men philosophers fighters and respected by all other greek kingdoms at the end. Philip the Great. Discredited by hisyory
@@KostisP83 Koini is not the Attic one. Sure Attic influenced the general grammar (in terms of official grammar and orthography) but the syntax is not at all the same as the Attic, it is much more streamlined and comprehensible to the modern speaker, foreigner as even more to the ethnic Greek (native Greek speakers can read Koini Greek with little trouble). The official alphabet was the Ionian one, not the Attic one. We need also to realise that Dorian - and in particular the Macedonian-Epirotan part of overall Dorian) had a massive influence in the development of Koini, especially in accent and syntax and this is a realisation we just wake up to. We do have Macedonian writings by poor half-uneducated people, even women of middle-low class, dating back to the Peloponesian War (late 5th BC century) and these are some of the easiest texts for the modern Greek to read. Attic Greek of 5th BC century as we know it was a written language, not an oral one, even Athenians themselves did not speak like that. We know that from theatrical plays where dialogues are more natural and the syntax is simpler.
@@KostisP83 philip was definitely the greater one, alexander only conquered and even though he conquered a lot thats basically all he did afaik. he was also fucking crazy
@@dinos9607 your last paragraph makes wonder whether the written attic greek was a more archaic and conservative type of greek or not. because usually when the literary and formal language is different from the colloquial one it means that the formal one is an archaic form. at least this is true for my native language persian
@@mahatmaniggandhi2898 The Attic texts we have, such as Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Herodotus were all written by extremely educated writers in a form of Attic which was quite very far from the oral spoken Attic dialect of the day. Writers such as Xenophon were ever maintaining an orthography that was almost 2 centuries obsolete in his time in the late 5th century BC. We do have examples of written text closer to oral speech from Aristophane's comedies and it is visibly easier in comparison, even if again it remained a theatrical (thus kind of poetic still) language. Mind you, such texts are difficult and often puzzling even to people who study ancient Greek for decades and a main part of the difficulty is the altered syntax : ancient Attic syntax is hell (e.g. they could be going on paragraphs using participles instead of verbs!)! They were difficult texts even back in those times for the average Greek. Modern Greeks can ready easier the Koini Greek (i.e. the resulting amalgamation of older Greek dialects) and they read e.g. the New Testament (1900 years old) almost like a modern book. The reason is that it was written for the most in simple Greek quite very close to the oral speech of the day. Myself as a Greek who had no formal training in Attic or Koini Greek did the experiment for a foreign colleague of mine and he was amazed when I could translate literally word for word random passages from the New Testament (1st AD). I could master a general translation of passages from within Thucydides' history (5th BC) however losing quite some details, often not being able to get the full meaning but still getting the general idea of what it was saying. I tried the Iliad (8th BC) and to his amazement I could grab a lot of words and even get, in vague, what it was talking about but then losing most of the times the details and the general idea. This, on a language that is almost 3000 years old, in a highly poetic form and formed out of a combination of older poems written in 2 extremely archaic forms of Attic and Aeolian dialects.
Greek in general was for the most a conservative language. Because it was widely written and because Greeks maintained, at least up the end of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453 a very high rate of literacy (only comparable to what was attained in Europe in the late 19th century), it meant that there was an intrinsic continuum of the language even though it underwent considerable changes as all languages are going through time. Reading and writing decelerates the rate of linguistic change.
Fifty Shades of Gre...ek! GOTCHA! That's why Luke is in infernal red today!
By the way, pancreas is an ancient greek word. Meaning all-meat. Because reasons.
Imagine having to do this at the age of 12. Wouldn't that be funny hahahaha
I have had Ancient Greek and Latin on school since I was 11
@@walterdreiberg same
@@victors5018 Nice 💪
Hahaha that would be funny indeed * cries in greek *
@@thesorcererwiththepointyhat to be fair we dont learn the langauge except if our parents are uni teacher or doctors with infirioty complex, sooooooo.....
Also:
- As an Indo-European language, Greek shares many vocabulary with other languages from the same group, so it's easy to identify what is being told about...
GOTCHA!
- for instance: Nai means yes, and Ochi means no!
Ah yes echidna and hedgehog case, tak in polish vs Indonesian, also vedic Sanskrit is hard too cuz a lot of substrate words from BMC not sure about Greek
Imagine how modern world would be if the Library of Alexandria had never burned
I think I had kidney failure from advanced Greek grammar.
Hahahaha I’m so sorry to hear that! 😂
It is that difficult to study Ancient Greek, but for some reason I simply cannot give it up. It's so venerable in my mind that my attitude towards it is almost mystical.
Every time I start getting bored with Latin and start considering learning Koine so I can read the new testament in it, I come back to this video Luke.
Hehe. Well you should still learn Ancient Greek. This video is just a joke
I learned platonic Greek. It is hard to learn in the beginning, but as soon as one has got the basics, it is great fun. And Koine is actually quite easy, so you will soon be able to translate the Septuagint and the New Testament.
To all beginners I will recomment to begin with the verbs. Start with the simpler ones like παιδευω, λυω etc. to understand how to form tempora. Then follow up with verba vocalia, verba muta, verba liquida and verbs ending on -μι.
And do not fear the Aorist. You will come to love it.
By the way: Ancient Greek is a good match to be translated into German. We both have a love of composites.
Ιm Greek and I actually had to learn ancient Greek in school its actually pretty easy for me
Just wanna mention, thos leafy green things are incredibly great. I love them. They are lovely.
I kinda feel worse now that I was complaining that Russian is too hard to learn, lol.
Russian is only hard in the beginninh. After that, the language is very well-organized. 😊
As a native Russian speaker, I fully understand your pain
@@culturecanvas777 No. It is still difficult bcs very irregular forms. Even as a native speaker I find it to be pure chaos with only some semblance of order.
@@PewPewPlasmagun I do actually also think it gets a lot easier. The thing with Russian for foreigners, particularly English speakers, is that in order to even start saying basic things in Russian, they need to get introduced to a loot of grammar, gramatical gender, inflection, verb conjugation, cases, a completely new writing system, lack of the copula "to be" in most sentences, and a few new phonemes! All that stuff since the very beginning, before you can even think of saying "The book is on the table". Once you finally climb that awfully ladder at the beginning, the rest is kinda like learning any other Language, are there exceptions? Sure! A ton! But so are in Spanish and French, and those are the "easy" languages
@@sebastiangudino9377 Spanish is the most regular thing ever compared to Russian, if you look at verb inflections. There is only one verb that I have ever seen which can be conjugated differently (erguir), at least so far as I have found. And the stress???? In Spanish there is 100% clearness but Russian is PURE chaos. To say nothing of rhe fact that dialectwise the stress is ofttimes different. Also, verbs have often older or simply alternative inflections regarding times or participles, ect. Yes you may understand what is meant once you have gained a basic understanding and a feel for Russian but you are incorrect elsewise, bvs mastery is a different thing. I repeat, I am a native speaker of Russian and I live the tongue as much as the other 3 that I know (save from English, with which my relationship is somewhat twofold).
The moment that he says: oh there is one regular verb (λύω) 🤣🤣🤣
Luke: Im gonna learn ancient Greek
Kratos: You are not ready Boy
I never thought I would have heard him say OG, but I’m not mad about it.
Ancient Greek is really easy. Little children learned it for centuries on end, surely you can too! ☺
In Greece, children learn ancient Greek since 7th grade. And actually, middle voice is also used in modern Greek, so we learn it from ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
... and we forget about it right after. I still try to bring to my mind a middle voice verb even in modern Greek. E.g. "Χτυπιέμαι" (I hit myself) is middle voice or passive voice? Because it sounds like passive but it is me doing that to myself, thus has to be middle isn't it?
@@dinos9607 I think it's middle.
@@dinos9607 "χτυπιέμαι" είναι παθητική φωνή, αλλά μέση διάθεση.
@@rosalina528 Πώς τα λες έτσι, δείξε λίγο έλεος!
I've been going through LLPSI, and was just re-reading Chapter 18, where Orberg sneaks in "Lingua Graeca difficilis est". I have a feeling he also had the need to just vent about that (even if in only one sentence). Haha
I haven't taken a crack at Greek yet, but I bet that sentence hits different for those who are on that journey.
You had me at "angry duck hissing"
χαχαχα
This just makes me want to learn it even more.
I once heard that the "unnecessary" smooth breathing mark actually meant some sort of a liaison with the previous word, and that this is why, when followed by a word that starts with a vowel, many words in ancient Greek that end in a vowel will generate an extra ν (n), especially verbs. But this happened to all the verbs so it's really a leftover of old.
It’s from the Ionian alphabet adopted by Euclid in 403 BC. When so many words begin with vowels but no spaces are written between words, the smooth breathing marked the beginning of a many new words.
It doesn’t make sense when we have a system that uses spaces
"The cape hangs/was hung on his shoulders"
I really enjoyed this video format! Χαίρε Λούκιε και ευδαιμονήσοις!
Ευχαριστώ! Χαίρομαι που σου αρέσει το βίντεο.
Now that was therapeutic. Nothing like watching someone else suffer trying to learn that language. Especially someone who can speak fluent Latin to Italians to the point that they start to lose their temper.
Lol
Hahaha, love it!
... And I don't even speak Greek! (Even if maybe I should, considering my name, hmm 🤔)
This is a great format, I can't wait to see more! Looking forward to the one about Latin, seeing as I recently started learning it and fell in love with your channel 😁 Gratias tibi ago, magister!
Thanks! I’ll make one
The thoughts of every greek highschool student :,-)
“You’re suffering from pancreatic failure”
*laughing in background*
Yes ..., here in Italy it is much more common to study ancient languages at school, usually Latin and ancient Greek. I don't know how but some manage to understand something, after the first 3 months I didn't understand anything anymore (I was only studying how the accent works at the time) and after about 2 years I still don't understand anything. DON'T DO IT DON'T RUIN YOUR LIFE
Qualcuno che mi capisce😪
@@laurabalconi4267 Ho quasi finito il IV liceo e ancora non capisco nulla 👌👌
That was so lovely! Beaches of Santorini? ROTFL! (Actually loving the mediopassiv, but getting a few extra heartbeats when hearing the cut bars in the Zauberflöte's ouverture).
I do love Die Zauberflöte
Actually Santorini being a volcanic island does not have beaches, only a couple, very small and narrow and of black sand.
This is hilarious! I love the editing, please make more of this format!!!
Thanks! I will
@@polyMATHY_Luke Fantastic! I'm so glad!
Hahahahahahahaha hearing the intro, as a Greek student of History& Archaeology I felt awkward 😂😂😂 Ευχαριστούμε! I know, Greek language is not easy. If someone manages learning ancient Greek, then medieval and modern dialects will be quite easy. Remember. Even for the best modern Greek philologists it's very difficult to fully understand the text. Imagine if it's a philosopher's, politician's or rhetor's text...it's like climbing a mountain in the middle of the winter!
Hello, I am a native Greek speaker and teacher by profession. I'd like to give some examples for the use of the verb "λύω" and some of its derivative words used in both the ancient form and the modern version of the Greek language as well as in the English language:
ΛΥΩ (or ΛΥΝΩ for modern Greek) = Solve, settle, dissolve, untie etc.
ΛΥΣΙΣ (ΛΥΣΗ) = LYSIS (meaning solution, improvement or even destruction in Biology terminology)
ΑΝΑΛΥΣΙΣ = ANALYSIS
ΔΙΑΛΥΣΙΣ = DIALYSIS
ΠΑΡΑΛΥΣΙΣ = PARALYSIS
ΥΔΡΟΛΥΣΙΣ = HYDROLYSIS (perfect example for the "h" sound in the beginning)
ΑΝΑΛΥΤΙΚΟ = ANALYTIC
And a more complex derivative word would be:
ΨΥΧΑΝΑΛΥΣΙΣ = PSYCHOANALYSIS,
i.e. ΨΥΧΗ (PSYCHE) + ΑΝΑΛΥΣΙΣ (ANALYSIS)
Hope that helps and it "doesn't sound Greek to you" anymore! 😉 Cheers!
Haha the jokes in the video are not to be taken seriously
@@polyMATHY_Luke of course not! Just trying to add a grain of knowledge here. I appreciate the effort you put in making those videos. Keep up the great work!
too funny Λύω was the first verb ever that was taught to us in the Ancient Greek class at school... Three years later they required of you to read Sophocle's Antigone from the original...! Nightmares, flashbacks, REAL PTSD situation here!
I can imagine. It’s so much better if they teach you to converse in AG - an easy task for Greeks - that way reading Antigone is less agonizing.
You know what the worst thing about ancient Greek is? Here in Greece we (learn) ancient Greek in school AND odyssey / Iliad and if we don't know these things by the time we are done with school it's concidered a bad thing
You’re lucky
just finished my 5 years of studying ancient greek(and latin) at university, i still can't put the right accents on luw in pluperfect.
I had 6 years of Ancient Greek at school (Gymnasium in the Netherlands, I dropped Latin after 3 years or so).. This video had me laughing and crying at the same time 😂 I will never forget the one sentence my Greek teacher translated years ago, still to this day.. I do not know what he meant by the translation. Every once in a while I come across a screenshot of the translation, giving me immediate flashbacks to our Greek classes lol.
The translations was something like this (note; the original translation by my teacher was in Dutch): 'And Socrates said.. Logically Kriton, do those you mean do that, because they think they have an advantage by doing that, and also I, I will not logically do that'
Confusion much 😂
Don't worry... If you ever feel like learning Greek is a Sisyphean task, our grammar and syntax (both Modern and Ancient) is being taught horribly here as well! This video had the ONLY fleeting explanation of the middle voice I've ever come across, nobody explains why things are named as they are or how the constructions work at all, they just throw a table of verbs, moods and voices at you and call it a day... Have fun!
In Brazil(probably in others portuguese speaker countries too) when someone say something we don't understand properly we say the person is speaking greek hehe
GREAT ! Great work ...
"Dual, why do you even need a dual?"
Being an Arabic L1 speaker this got me hahaha
Wait, what dialect do you speak? Masry (The main dialect I've been learning) don't have the dual anymore (Well, it does, but just for nouns not for verbs i mean), and i used to think this was the case for all of them, was i wrong? Are you just referring to the nouns? Has my life been a lie?
@@sebastiangudino9377 I speak the Gulf dialect. The plural and dual suffix are written the same "-ين" but pronounced differently. The dual is "-ayn" while the plural is "-een". And yes, it mostly is used for nouns, rarely for verbs as well. I don't know if this is universal for all Arabic dialects though.
@@ImperatorGrausam Ohhh! I get it! Interesting! In fusha you do conjurate the verbs differently for singular, plural, and dual and that for me is hell
@revilo178 In Indonesia it is optional, like "buku" can be book or books, of you need to clarify you say "buku buku"
@revilo178 Yes! I know, that's due to most languages, relying on inflection for that sort of things, i just mentioned the example of Indonesian because they do something cool, instead of inflection, like in English or Arabic, or using a separate word, like "many" like "mga" in Tagalog (IIRC). Indonesians repeat the word to make it plural, that to me is really fun and very intesting!
The middle voice rant is EXACTLY what my soul feels like when I rock up to Ancient Greek....
As a greek even for us is difficult as heck
"We choose to learn Ancient Greek, not because it is easy, but because it is hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.." J.F. Kennedy.
I love it
“Little things stuffed into grape leaves”😂😂I laughed a bit too hard at that
haha thanks, I enjoyed writing that line
We actually have a kind of middle voice in portuguese aswell. It's called "Reflexive voice". Ex: when you do an action but you are the patient of that action - "i cut myself" (i cut but at the same time i'm being cut)
Lots of languages have that, and no it's not that simple sadly
Most of the people: Ugh Ancient Greek is so damn difficult! I'm never gonna learn it!
Greek students: Hold my raki
I don't drink alcoholic crap
And i am a acient greek nerd and history nerd
@@tonivoul1971 Relax dude, it was a joke...
@@elpisp no its kinda a stereotype for the Balkans that everyone here drinks alcoholic drinks like this one you said
@@tonivoul1971 I'm a Greek myself and the original meme says: "Hold my beer" but I changed it to raki to be more of Greek-themed. -_-
Ok, Hold my Korpi water then. Satisfied?
That intro was so different that I thought it was an ad and clicked away. Gosh, you got me there...
Gotcha !
I had no idea this was in your personality....this made my day better it was so funny. Your style of humor perfectly matches with my preference lol
Also I loved the Peter Griffin impression
Also is it bad this only made me want to learn Ancient Greek even more
Haha thanks! Yea, this is my sense of humor. 😆 I’m glad you want to learn Ancient Greek! You should.
As for the impression, I wrote the script she recorded the audio with those two funny voices just because I liked them, without any particular character in mind. Technically it’s a stereotypical NYC/Long Island accent and a stereotypical stodgy old fashioned voice. Then when I was looking for images I realized that they sounded kind of close to Peter and Dr. Hartman.
You may find me a masochist or crazy man, but I find Ancient Greek quite relaxing. My only real problem with Ancient Greek is the pitch accent and the accentuation. I mix those damn accents a lot.
5:25 - ΘΟΥΚΥΔΙΔΗΣ ΟΛΩΡΟΥ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΟΣ...the reason I have grey hair.
We picked the same time to publish our vids 😆
Great minds think alike!
I'm scared now... but there we go!
This combination makes me very happy, GRAZZIE Davide!!
@@sebastiangudino9377 🤣
Oh no I was actually thinking about taking ancient greek in uni, don't ruin my dreams😭😂
You’ll be fine!
@@polyMATHY_Luke I hope so xD
@@lumino8435 Well, think about this, if you watched this video you now know what all the hard thinks are going to be nothing will take you by surprise
grow the f*ck up I've been taking it since middle school
@@victors5018 Was the rude language necessary?
“H looks like someone sneezed on the book while you weren’t looking”
I’ve watched a couple of Lukes videos but by god, I never knew he was this funny 😂
The whole video I was laughing my as* off until the end...when I remembered that I wanted to learn ancient Greek 🤣
Haha thanks
this has the same energy as Mark Twain's essay on the German language in video form :> really nice video man, keep it up 💖
Thanks! Yes Mart Twain as part of the inspiration
Mate, this video is spectacular, God damn it Luke. I'm still getting used to the sound effects though, wonder if they're gonna grow on me, found them slightly annoying, but the script, pacing, jokes... Chef's kiss!!
Thanks! Heh yes the whole video is an homage to a video in the description
@@polyMATHY_Luke just went to check the original, I get it now, but do you plan on making a series out of it? It was a lot of fun >
I speak Greek every time I get drunk and I see something written in Russian…
i am from greece and i have to agree with this video it is not an easy language ( prov that i am from greece ( Γεια σας παιδές οσοι θελουν να μαθουν ελληνικα καλη τυχη)
This is all SO TRUE. Especially the tiny tiny print for no good reason.
Hearing someone else say all the stuff that has been going through my head is strangely cathartic.
The more complex a language is the more the beautiful it is.
That was great as well as spot on.
Now do one for Latin.
Haha will do!
But Latin is sacred, the best and the beautifullest language in the world maybe, so what to laugh about? xD (Yea, beautifulelest is now my word).
@@jakubolszewski8284 Ancient Greek is beautiful to
@@radiantcharts3178 Yes, but my comment was ironically in that: Nooo! U can't make jokes about Latin! Is too sacred xD.
@@jakubolszewski8284 Aren't both Greek and Latin languages sacred?
Since the original Bible and many texts are in Greek.
At the end of the video, I turned my mousepointer toward the like-button, only to find that I had already liked the video, but forgotten about it.
Now I feel disappointed that I can't like it twice.
Thank you for this experience.
And I thank you for watching
I loved the vid, It would be awesome if you turned "GOTCHA!" into a series, like you could do another one for Latin or other topics/languages. I am interested in learning ancient greek, but at the moment I'm looking at old English, old Norse and old High German, so maybe after I get a grip on those tounges first
i like this guy. greek girl approves. it's actually hilarious how english people try to understand ancient greek with english in mind (i mean yea, makes sense) but the fact that their own language derives from Greek makes it so ironic lmao.
but jokes aside, ancient greek is literally so important to learn, especially for greeks. you can't fully understand modern greek or use it in full capacity without knowing where the words even came from and their etymology. it's just, the way its taught in schools nowadays... they make us hate it and that sucks.