γνώσις

[hummingwolf]

Although I attended the University of Maryland as a linguistics major, I went through the first year there without studying any non-English language at all. After five full years of Spanish in middle school and high school, I'd been burned out from dealing with someone in my senior year who could have been an excellent teacher if she hadn't been trying so hard to convert us all to her way of thinking about everything. One of the few teachers I had who did not like me, she really did not like me at all. (All these years later, bitca, and I still don't like your attitude, mmkay?)

Anyway, when registering for sophomore year of college, I decided it was a good time to start learning ancient Greek. Took classes in it four semesters running, and did well, all things considered. Those things I'm considering include the fact that Greek never felt like a language to me, but always seemed just like something to be decoded. Though it was a nifty code, I eventually went back to studying Spanish and forgot very nearly all the Greek I'd ever learned.

For some reason this weekend, I needed to remember the ancient version of a famous phrase as it had been taught to me. First I Googled the transliteration I remembered, only to find early results from people who were convinced that that was the wrong version of the phrase. Theosophists in particular seem to love to use the uncontracted version. Silly Theosophists.

So after the decision to stick with the contraction, it was down to "γνώθι σ'αυτόν" vs. "γνώθι σαυτόν". Unsure whether the apostrophe replacing the epsilon was preferred or not, I did a bit of Googling again. As it turns out, the apostrophe-free version is more common on pages written in Greek. The more popular spelling would usually get my vote, but these are speakers of modern Greek rendering an ancient saying; and although Greek is a remarkably slow-changing language, it still does change. (One of my Greek classes consisted of me, another American woman, and a Greek man. The Greek guy dropped out halfway through the semester because the class was too hard.) After all the searching, I'm sticking with the apostrophe solely because I like it that way.

A motto of the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi and a favorite saying of Socrates, "γνώθι σ'αυτόν" is translated "know thyself." I know myself to be a geek.

Comments

[darth-spacey.livejournal.com]

There is a well-established style of language teaching that treats any foreign language as a code to be deciphered. It does not surprise me that every victim of this method that I have personally known has failed to gain even basic fluency.

I much prefer a Pimsleur-like, conversational approach: jump in with both feet, and worry about the details later. Good luck finding a Pimsleur Ancient Greek, though.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, ancient Greek was definitely taught as something to be translated rather than something to be spoken. We were presumed to be there to learn to study Plato, the New Testament, or Homer. Nobody expected us to be able to converse. I remember one day during second semester Greek, one frustrated guy finally burst out with a question at the beginning of class: "How the heck do you say 'Hello' in Greek?!" None of the students at that point had the slightest idea.

In fourth semester when I was reading Homer, there were flashes where I almost felt like I was really reading instead of decoding. That might have been the start of something fun if health problems hadn't gotten in the way.

I did know a guy in college who could speak classical Greek fluently. He was pretty disappointed when he learned I'd taken four semesters and had no idea what he was saying. (He was a retired older man who had 6 Ph.Ds under his belt and was going back for a B.A. in linguistics. I have no idea when or where he learned his Attic.)

[newbabel.livejournal.com]

I am looking to have the following phrase translated into ancient Greek (it's from Aristotle):

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Is this up your alley?

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Heh. I guess you didn't notice the bit where I said I'd forgotten pretty much all I'd ever learned of the language? I'd like to find the original Greek for you though, but I'm not entirely sure how to go about doing it. Any idea which of his works that quote is from--preferably which chapter? I think it's probably from the Nichomachean Ethics, but even so I'm not quite up to reading the whole thing in translation in order to then try to find a page with the original Greek. If I did find the original source, though, I might be able to pinpoint the lines you've got in translation. Or I could make a stab in the dark--most people you'd show the Greek to wouldn't know the difference anyway. ;-)