/CLG/ FAQ
Q: I must know the get-fluent-quick recipe to learn my favorite classical language, what should I do?
There are no real shortcuts to this, some books may introduce grammar somehow more gently or engage you more than others, but that won't make up for the steady day by day effort required over possibly multiple years to reach a proficiency level that could be considered "fluency". So buckle up, don't be scared, take your time, pick up a good book and stick with it. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Note for Classical Chinese: Knowledge of a modern east Asian language while useful is by no means mandatory, classical Chinese isn't really like anything currently spoken. Furthermore, learning traditional characters is essentially mandatory.
Q: Ok, you said "good book", but I don't know which ones are the most well known, can you tell me?
Sure, here are some basic suggestions for you to consider. Note Although this shouldn't need to be said, you can work with more than one of the following books, you don't need to be a homo unius libri.
- Ancient Greek
- Mastronarde's Introduction to Attic Greek: As with Wheelock's, for the more traditional grammar-inclined student.
- Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek: Like its Latin Nature Method counterpart, this excellent textbook introduces the reader to Attic Greek through a gradual immersive approach. Read this.
- Greek: An Intensive Course by Hansen & Quinn
- Reading Greek by Joint Association of Classical Teachers
- Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners: For those wanting to appreciate Homer as early as possible in their Greek journey.
- Logos: Lingua Graeca
- Chaghatay
- An Introduction to Chaghatay: A Graded Textbook for Reading Central Asian Sources by Eric Schluessel: Good pace, presumes zero knowledge.
- A Grammar of Chagatay by András J. E. Bodrogligeti: Excellent reference material.
- Classical Chinese(Check out this infographic)
- Classical Chinese for Everyone, by Van Norden: New and seemingly very easy. Explains grammatical quirks well in a conversational style. May be a little frustrating to the linguistically-minded/experienced.
- A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese, by Rouzer: Possibly the best in English, but also the hardest, presumes a certain knowledge of Hanzi, with Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean readings. All-around the most comprehensive introduction.
- An Introduction to Literary Chinese, by Fuller
- 古文觀止 (Gu-Wen Guan-Zhi): This is what the Chinese themselves have used as an introductory reader for centuries. Still all-around the best.
- Cai Zong-Qi's textbooks: The best with English annotations. Superior to Gu-Wen Guan-Zhi to readers without Chinese cultural background.
- Hebrew
- A Basic Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, by Jo Ann Hackett: Considered one of the best introductions to Biblical Hebrew.
- Latin(Check out this infographic)
- Wheelock's Latin: A most classic introductory textbook.
- Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata: Familia Romana: A genre defining textbook for those willing to approach the subject through the so called Nature Method, whose focus is on graded immersive reading, albeit without neglecting the important grammatical side of the language.
- Latin: An Intensive Course by Floyd L. Moreland & Rita M. Fleischer
- Reading Latin by Keith Sidwell & Peter Jones
- Middle/Old English(Check out this infographic)
- A Guide to Old English, by Mitchell & Robinson
- Introduction to Old English, by Peter S. Baker
- A Book of Middle English, by J. A. Burrow
- Osweald Bera, by Colin Gorrie
- Learn old English with Leofwin, by Matt Love
- Old French
- Old French: A Concise Handbook, by E. Einhorn
- Old Norse
- A New Introduction to Old Norse, by Michael Barnes
- Introduction to Old Norse, by E.V Gordon
- Old Icelandic: An Introductory Course, by Sigrid Valfells
- Sanskrit
- A Sanskrit Primer, by Madhav Deshpande
- The Student's Guide to Sanskrit Composition, by V.S. Apte: for exercises.
- Devavanipravesika: An Introduction to the Sanskrit Language, by Robert P. Goldman
- For grammar
- A Higher Sanskrit Grammar, by M. R. Kale
- Sanskrit Grammar, by W.D. Whitney
- A Sanskrit Grammar for Students, by A.A. MacDonnell
- Vedic grammar
- A Vedic Grammar for Students, by A. A. MacDonnell
- Vedic Grammar, by A. A. MacDonnell
- Sumerian
- Beginner-intermediate:
- Introduction to Sumerian Grammar, by Daniel A. Foxvog: simple explanations, provides examples to illustrate subjects.
- An Introduction to the Grammar of Sumerian, by Gábor Zólyomi: comprehensive, up-to-date (2018) compendium of Sumerian grammar; great as a supplement to a beginner textbook; freely available online.
- A Manual of Sumerian Grammar and Texts, by John Hayes: great book that teaches both the language and cuneiform; three editions are available, 2018(latest) is advised.
- The Sumerian Language: An Introduction to Its History and Grammatical Structure, by Marie-Louise Thomsen
- Шyмepcкий язык, by Кaнeвa И. T.: in Russian; weaker than the previous books but it covers certain subjects which are little explained in other books.
- Advanced:
- A descriptive grammar of Sumerian, by Bram Jagersma: one of the best textbooks, the most detailed explanations, an extended range of themes; not easy to get into it but it's worth it.
- Sumerian Grammar, by Dietz Otto Edzard: recommended as an excellent textbook.
- Beginner-intermediate:
Q: What about some extra online resources?
Very well, take a look at the following links.
- Ancient Greek & Latin
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collections - The Perseus Digital Library, containing digitalized, easy to read versions of ancient Greek and Latin works.
- https://scaife.perseus.org/library/ - Scaife Viewer, the more up to date version of the former library.
- https://imperium.ahlfeldt.se/ - The digital Atlas of the Roman Empire, useful to orient yourself through the lands and cities of antiquity.
- http://lexica.linguax.com/nlm.php - Bilingual online Latin-Greek dictionary.
- Hypotactic.com - Very useful online project for those interested in ancient poetry.
- Loebulus - Easy to download publicly available Loebs.
- Ancient Greek
- https://lsj.gr/wiki/Main_Page - Liddell, Scott, Jones Ancient Greek Lexicon, quintessential online dictionary.
- Logeion - Logeion, together with Morpho, very useful to lookup declined/conjugated forms.
- http://atticgreek.org/ - Useful tutorials for beginners dealing with the alphabet and accent system.
- https://oxytone.xyz/ - Ancient Greek literature in a richly featured format.
- Hansen & Quinn resources:
- The BIG Ancient Greek Resource Document - Big compilation of resources.
- Classical Chinese
- https://ctext.org/ - The Chinese Text Project, digital library of pre-modern Chinese texts.
- Hebrew
- Aleph with Beth - Free video course.
- https://www.sefaria.org/texts - Online library.
- The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon - A comprehensive lexicon of biblical Hebrew.
- Latin
- https://www.morcus.net/dicts - Online bilingual Latin-English dictionary.
- https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/index.html - Online Latin library, containing ancient, medieval and modern works.
- https://latin-dict.github.io/ - More Latin dictionaries.
- https://neolatinlexicon.org/silva-old/ - Collection of Latin neologisms for those interested in composition.
- https://magistrula.herokuapp.com/latin - Minigames for beginners to drill grammatical forms.
- Old French
- https://micmap.org/dicfro/search/dictionnaire-godefroy - Godefroy online dictionary.
- https://anglo-norman.net/ - Anglo-Norman dictionary, great with continental Old French too, as early stages of the language were just an amalgam of Old French dialects. The interface makes it more convenient than Godefroy, which, though the most exhaustive, is also padded out with poorly attested lemmas.
- Old Norse
- https://old-icelandic.vercel.app/ - Online version of "A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic" by Geir Zoëga.
- http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/texts/oi_cleasbyvigfusson_about.html - "An Icelandic-English Dictionary" by Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson.
- https://old-norwegian-dictionary.vercel.app/ - Johan Fritzner's "Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog", rich but only in Norwegian.
- Sanskrit
- https://learnsanskrit.org/ - Check this out as you start.
- https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/apte/ - Online dictionary by V.S. Apte.
- https://en.amarahasa.com/start-here/ - Sanskrit through stories.
- https://sites.rutgers.edu/edwin-bryant/sanskrit-course-videos/ - Online course based on Goldman's Devavanipravesika.
- Sumerian
- Online conjugators:
- http://www.gilgamesh.ch/svc/svc.html?docu=1 - Also contains useful Sumerian Verb Analyser.
- https://sumerianconjugator.netlify.app/
- Online dictionaries:
- Fonts:
- Corpora:
- ETCSL - The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
- ETCSRI
- CDLI - Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative - contains a vast archive of cuneiform tablets with photos, lineart copies, and transliteration in Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite and other languages.
- EBL - Electronic Babylonian Library - doesn't contain info on Sumerian but it has a rich sign list, dictionary, corpus of text for Assyrian and Babylonian dialects of Akkadian coupled with extensive list of cuneiform character variations in tablets.
- Extra:
- Qantuppi (Sumerian Cuneiform Input Aid) - allows to search cuneiform signs by inputting their Latin transliteration.
- Kurnugia - Cuneiform Script Analyzer - list of cuneiform characters and their possible transliterations for Sumerian and Akkadian.
- Unofficial EPSD2 Rapid Searcher - searches words on the epsd2 site; enter a word and you'll get one or several variants; search is more convenient than on the epsd2 site.
- Digital Hammurabi - beginner Sumerian grammar course.
- Learn Hieratic & Sumerian - appears to be more detailed than the previous course.
- https://sumerianlanguage.tumblr.com/
- http://lexicity.com/language/sumerian/ - aggregator of materials on extinct/classical languages.
- Online conjugators: