BMCR 2008.12.42, C.W. Shelmerdine, Introduction to Greek

C. W. Shelmerdine, Introduction to Greek. Second edition.  Newburyport,
MA:  Focus Publishing, 2008.  Pp. xiv, 317.  ISBN 9781585101849.
$36.95 (pb).

C. A. E. Luschnig, An Introduction to Ancient Greek: A Literary
Approach. Second edition, revised by C.A.E. Luschnig and Deborah
Mitchell.  Indianapolis:  Hackett, 2007.  Pp. xviii, 374.  ISBN
978-0-87220-889-6.  $34.95 (pb).

Reviewed by Kirsty Jenkins, University of Manchester
([email protected])
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These two second edition textbooks have the same basic aim, which is to
teach the fundamentals of ancient Greek to college level students in
such a way that they are able to confront real Greek texts after one
year's teaching or, in the case of Luschnig, within one year. This is a
comparative review of the two presentations. Both texts have previously
received individual attention on BMCR: Barbara Clayton reviewed the
first edition of Shelmerdine (BMCR 2005.05.14), and Wilfred E. Major
reviewed the present edition of Luschnig and Mitchell (BMCR
2007.12.35).

Neither text is designed to be used by a student studying alone, but
rather for use in a classroom situation under the guidance of an
experienced teacher. Shelmerdine's text consists of 34 short chapters
designed to be covered in three meetings a week over the course of one
college year. Luschnig's text, on the other hand, consists of 14 much
longer lessons. The amount of material covered in each book requires
that the teacher and students move at a fairly rapid pace, but the
workload is coverable in the time allotted. In addition, the Luschnig
text has a website which provides supplementary readings and a forum
for discussion about learning Greek.

Both texts also aim to keep the student motivated by providing examples
of real Greek for the student to study. In the case of Shelmerdine this
consists of slightly adapted readings from Xenophon, Herodotus,
Thucydides and in one case Plato, although the majority of readings are
taken from Herodotus. These readings are highly enjoyable and useful as
an introduction to Greek authors, and their length means that students
very quickly become used to reading extended passages of text rather
than single sentences.[[1]] Luschnig favours a slightly different
approach, and provides approximately 20 readings per lesson, usually of
1-4 lines each, although there are some longer passages starting from
Lesson VII. These readings are in the original Greek, and a key to
unfamiliar words and phrases is provided after each reading to help the
student with translation. The fact that the student is reading actual
Greek is of course an impetus to continue. Nevertheless some of these
readings are very difficult, especially in cases where crasis and
ellipsis occur, and sometimes the key is not very helpful.

Both books cover all the grammar usually associated with classical
Greek, although Shelmerdine does not cover the future perfect tense and
neither author covers the dual forms. In both books the grammar is
covered first and then reinforced by exercises, with the readings
coming after this. In Shelmerdine the chapter vocabulary is given at
the end of the lesson after the reading, but in Luschnig the vocabulary
comes at the end of each section and before the readings.[[2]] Both
approaches work well.

Shelmerdine's book is extremely well laid-out with clear tables and
large, easy-to-read text. Her table of contents is incredibly detailed, 
making it very easy to find each topic. Her chapter vocabularies are very
helpfully divided into two parts: learning and reading, which come
under the same heading but are distinguished in an easily recognizable
way, since bold type highlights the vocabulary to be learned (words
which will appear frequently throughout the book), while the
reading/passive vocabulary is displayed in ordinary type. The learning
vocabularies are quite short, especially in the later chapters, and do
not place too heavy a burden on the beginning student who will want to
spend most of his/her time on learning the new grammatical forms
presented in each chapter.

In contrast, the text in Luschnig is small and appears rather crowded.
Exercises in particular are difficult to read since they are single
spaced in small type, and Greek - English sentences for translation are
displayed in lists of up to 80 sentences, meaning that the student
flicking through the book to look up unlearnt words will have
difficulty in spotting the sentence s/he was translating when s/he
returns to the page. The vocabularies too are rather long[[3]] and I
fear that coupled with the grammar to be learnt in each section this
will prove off-putting and overwhelming to most students. However,
Luschnig's vocabulary lists shine in respect to their attention to
detail.  Where applicable, English translations of Greek words are
followed by examples of how the particular word passed into English or
in some cases into Latin.[[4]] This makes for enormous fun while
reading, as well as leading to a greater understanding of English
words, particularly the complex scientific ones which are often derived
from the Greek.

The grammatical explanations in both texts are very clear and easy to
follow, although Shelmerdine tends to explain technical terms such as
athematic once, and then to assume that you will remember their
meanings when you come across them again several chapters later. For a
beginning student who has perhaps never studied grammar before, this
may be a little confusing and at times exasperating. Also, Shelmerdine
seems to assume that the student is familiar with basic grammatical
terms such as noun and adjective. Unfortunately, I have found with my
own teaching of undergraduates that this is often not the case, and
that students benefit from a quick review of basic terminology.

Luschnig on the other hand makes no such assumption. She provides a
handy grammatical outline (pp.13-19), which explains all the basic
grammatical terms and how Greek differs grammatically from English. She
even gives the parts of speech in their Greek terms as well as their
English ones. This attention to detail is seen throughout the book,
with plenty of hints for learning, supplementary information, such as a
discussion about the three obsolete Greek consonants, and mini lectures
at the end of each chapter covering themes as diverse as Greek colours,
street signs, and Socrates. Even the pithy Greek proverbs and sayings
which are scattered throughout the chapters are translated. While some
students and teachers (myself included) will find this to be one of the
charms of the book, others will no doubt feel discouraged by the sheer
amount of inessential information the author provides.

The first edition of Shelmerdine's book was based on L. A. Wilding's
Greek For Beginners[[5]] and this clearly shows in the flow of the
grammatical instruction, which is on the whole highly logical and
traditional, with opening chapters covering high frequency forms such
as the present indicative active of thematic verbs and first declension
nouns, and with concluding chapters covering the lesser-used forms such
as the perfect. The presentation distinguishes clearly between the
forms of  middle and  active verbs. However, she  splits up the
definite article by introducing the feminine form of the definite
article only, followed by feminine nouns of the first declension in
Chapter 3, and then introducing the whole of the definite article at
the beginning of Chapter 4, followed by the masculine nouns of the
first declension, which seems a little strange to me.[[6]] Also, the
text would perhaps have benefited from the inclusion of some discussion
about Greek customs or important Greek personages such as that found in
Luschnig, as this would have relieved some of the tedium of learning
endless tables of forms and lists of words.

Luschnig takes a different approach and begins by giving both the
active and the middle - passive forms of the present indicative of
<greek>w</greek> verbs. Where possible she continues to introduce
middle or middle - passive forms with active ones. This approach means
that the student avoids the situation encountered in most Greek
textbooks, where s/he is suddenly confronted after nine or ten chapters
with the disconcerting discovery that there is an extra set of verb
forms to be learnt, and is, I think, to be praised. What is not quite
so understandable is the fact that she introduces the perfect and
future perfect before the subjunctive and optative, even though the
latter are far more frequently encountered in Greek than the former.

When it comes to exercises Shelmerdine by her own admission
concentrates on translation, both from Greek - English and from English
- Greek.[[7]] Like the rest of the book, the exercises are  nicely laid
out, with plenty of space between each question, and because there are
relatively few exercises in each chapter it is perfectly possible for
all of the exercises in each chapter to be carried out either during
the class or as homework for the next class. But only having a few
exercises per chapter is also a potential drawback, since it means that
there is no room for the teacher to pick and choose between exercises,
and there is no scope for students who might wish to do extra work on
their own outside the class. Also, the concentration on translating
whole sentences means that on occasion the opportunity to reinforce
forms is lost.

Luschnig's text contains an extraordinarily huge number of exercises of
all varieties, including sentences to translate, exercises in
conjugating and declining and exercises in parsing forms, which is
extremely useful to students. There is plenty of scope for the teacher
to pick out the exercises which s/he thinks would be most beneficial
for the class, and there is room for the student to put in extra
practice on those areas at which s/he feels weakest. Unlike in
Shelmerdine's book there is no possibility that all of the exercises
can be covered in class or for homework, so picking and choosing the
most relevant exercises is of extreme importance.

Both books contain a number of errors, but these are mainly minor
typographical errors and can easily be spotted by an experienced
teacher. In the case of Shelmerdine a complete list of errata is given
on her publisher's website and I feel that it is necessary to mention
only one error, which is quite serious and likely to be a source of
confusion to students. This error occurs in Chapter 14 on p.82, where
the principal parts of labial stem verbs are presented. The text
wrongly states that when labials <greek>t</greek>, <greek>b</greek> and
<greek>f</greek> are added to <greek>s</greek> the phonetic change
becomes <greek>s</greek>. <greek>t</greek> should in fact be
<greek>p</greek> and the phonetic change is of course <greek>y</greek>.
In Luschnig, a reading in Lesson III is repeated in Lesson V, and in
Lesson XIII on p.267, in the example sentences showing the use of
<greek>mh/</greek> in object clauses after verbs of fearing,
<greek>au)to\n</greek> is wrongly written as <greek>au)th\n</greek>,
but these are mainly irritating and not likely to cause any real
confusion.

Both of these books are extremely useful guides to learning or teaching
Greek, and I would have no hesitation in recommending either of them or
in using either one myself. They can quite easily compete with existing
Greek textbooks such as Athenaze and Reading Greek,[[8]] and choosing
between them will no doubt come down to personal preference rather than
any real problem with either text. The website connected with the
Luschnig text is a nice bonus and will doubtless be invaluable to many
students and teachers. My personal favourite is the Luschnig text,
simply because of the sheer wealth of supplementary information it
contains, which provides a respite from the hard slog of learning by
rote which successful acquisition of any language requires.


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Notes:


1.   These readings are not introduced until Chapter 8, in order to
allow students to build up their grammatical knowledge to the point
where they are capable of reading extended texts, after which there is
one reading per lesson.

2.   For example, in Lesson I Luschnig discusses the present indicative
active and middle - passive of <greek>w</greek> verbs and nouns of the
first <greek>h</greek> and second <greek>o</greek> declensions, and
provides a separate vocabulary for each section. This pattern continues
throughout the book. The readings, of course, have their own key.

3.   In Lesson I a total of 69 words are presented for learning, a
pattern which continues throughout the book.

4.   One example is <greek>a)gge/llw</greek> (Lesson III); which is
translated as announce (angel; evangelist); the words in brackets are
the English derivatives.

5.   L. A. Wilding, Greek For Beginners Second Edition. Faber and Faber
Limited, 1959.

6.   It would make more sense to provide either  the whole of the
definite article before introducing nouns or to give masculine and
feminine nouns together with their corresponding forms of the definite
article and subsequently to introduce the article altogether.

7.   However, the book provides a variety of exercises such as
translating only the underlined part of a sentence, and identifying and
translating forms of verbs and nouns.

8.   Maurice Balme and Gilbert Lawall, Athenaze: An Introduction to
Ancient Greek 2 vols., rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003,
and Joint Association of Classical Teachers, Reading Greek 2 vols., 2nd
ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.