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The Greek & Latin Roots of English Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an excellent work for anyone studying the English
language for the first time or for an English literature major.
Students of the English language will appreciate the exhaustive
delineation of the roots of words and word families.
In the area of city planning alone, the author provides
comparable Greek and Latin words alongside the standard
English. For instance, urbs and urbis means city.
Porta or portae means city gate. Domus or domi means house.
The work methodically reviews language families, the workings
of Greek and Latin, prefixes, government vocabulary and
vocabulary of the sciences and social sciences.
There are classic utilizations of the Latin in English.
For instance, "in principio" means in the beginning.
"Status quo" means the state in which something exists.
"Ad Infinitum" refers to infinity and "finis" is the end.
This work could be helpful to students studying Latin or
Greek because the author explains the foreign language
relationship to English. The work could be very helpful for
anyone desiring to improve his/her vocabulary. There are
numerous exercises throughout the text. These are designed
to give students ample practice with word utilization and
application in a number of important contexts. This version
has an extensive constituency or strategic audience.
i.e. English majors, foreign language experts, writers,
editors and newspeople and a variety of scientific professional
people. The work could be useful during formal study for the
standardized SAT exam given for college aspirants.

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Over 60 percent of all English words have Greek or Latin roots; in the vocabulary of the sciences and technology, the figure rises to over 90 percent. Through the study of the Greek and Latin roots of English, students can expand their knowledge of English vocabulary and also come to understand the ways in which the history of the English language have shaped our perceptions of the world around us.The approach of this new fourth edition of The Greek and Latin Roots of English is thematic: vocabulary is organized into various topics, including politics and government, psychology, medicine and the biological sciences, literature, ancient culture, and religion and philosophy. Cumulative chapter exercises on tear-out pages reinforce both vocabulary already learned and analytical skills developed in previous lessons. This text will help students begin to learn not only vocabulary, but also the pleasures (and pitfalls) of language study.--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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English Words from Latin and Greek Elements Review

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(More customer reviews)As the reviser of this book--not the Photographer (there is not a single picture in the tome)--I must correct a few misimpressions given in the other reviews, while touting the systematic format that separates Dr. Ayers's book from its competitors. To be sure this is a textbook--the best selling text in this subject area--divided into two halves, one dealing with English words derived from Latin, the other dealing with English words derived from Greek. Each lesson has some introductory material; these intros vary: some explain how English builds words from Latin and Greek bases with an explanation of how dictionaries present such information, some are mini-lectures in linguistic processes that characterize English words, some deal with how the form and meaning of words change with time. Each lesson presents a list of bases, prefixes and suffixes for the student to memorize. These are set forth clearly in caps, and there are many examples given for each item. The lesson ends not with quizzes but with words derived from the elements presented in sentences that are written by skilled writers of English. All of the information is well indexed at the end. This systematic approach gives the student control over the most frequently encountered word elements in English coming from Greek and Latin. As a consequence of her studies, such a student will have stored in her brain the keys to about half of the harder words in English including the many thousands of technical words invented each year--especially those medical and biological tongue twisters invented by the biological and medical communities. With the keys in her head and the word in its context before her, the student will often undertand the author without having to look up words that often are not yet even in the most recent dictionary. This is power; but power is not easily gained in any field of endeavor. The book can be used by a diligent person for self-study, but most students will need a structured environment in which to learn its contents. TD Worthen

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Since 1965,Donald Ayers' English Words from Latin and Greek Elements has helped thousands of students to a broader vocabulary by showing them how to recognize classical roots in modern English words.Its second edition, published in 1986, has confirmed that vocabulary is best taught by root, not rote.The importance of learning classical word roots is already acknowledged by vocabulary texts that devote chapters to them.Why a whole book based on this approach?Ayers' text exposes students to a wider range of roots, introduces new English words in context sentences, and reinforces vocabulary through exercises.It promotes more practice with roots so that students learn to use them as tools in their everyday encounters with new words.English Words is written from the standpoint of English; it neither attempts to teach students Latin or Greek nor expects a knowledge of classical languages on the part of instructors.Its success has been demonstrated at both the secondary and college levels, and it can be used effectively with students in remedial or accelerated programs.An Instructor's Manual (gratis with adoption) and a Workbook are also available.

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Sophocles I: Oedipus The King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone (The Complete Greek Tragedies) Review

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(More customer reviews)Researching translations is never an easy task, and in this case, where you'll have to search on Amazon for the title and the translator to find what you want, it's particularly difficult.
Here's what I've found by comparing several editions:
1. David Grene translation: Seems to be accurate, yet not unwieldy as such. My pick. Language is used precisely, but not to the point where it's barely in English.
2. Fitts/Fitzgerald translation: Excellent as well, though a little less smooth than the Grene one. Certainly not a bad pick.
3. Fagles translation: Beautiful. Not accurate. If you are looking for the smoothest English version, there's no doubt that this is it. That said, because he is looser with the translation, some ideas might be lost. For instance, in Antigone, in the beginning, Antigone discusses how law compels her to bury her brother despite Creon's edict. In Fagles, the "law" concept is lost in "military honors" when discussing the burial of Eteocles. This whole notion of obeying positive law or natural law is very important, but you wouldn't know it from Fagles. In Grene, for example, it is translated to "lawful rites."
4. Gibbons and Segal: Looks great, but right now the book has only Antigone (and not the rest of the trilogy) and costs almost 3x as much. I'll pass. But, from a cursory review, I'm impressed with their work.
5. MacDonald: This edition received some good write-ups, but I wasn't able to do a direct passage-to-passage comparison.
6. Woodruff: NO, NO, NO. Just NO. It's so colloquial it makes me gag. Very accessible, but the modernization of the language is just so extreme as to make it almost laughable. You don't get any sense of the power of language in the play. You just get the story. If you want this to be an easy read, then get Fagles, not this.
7. Kitto: Looks good, though not particularly compelling over either Grene or Fitzgerald (or Gibbons if I wanted to pay so much more).
8. Roche: Practically unreadable the English is so convoluted. Might be the most literal translation, but what's the point unless you are learning Greek and want such a direct translation.
9. Taylor: Way too wordy. Might be more literal, but again, why?
Hope this all helps. Translations can make or break the accessibility of literature. Pick wisely.

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"These authoritative translations consign all other complete collections to the wastebasket."—Robert Brustein, The New Republic"This is it. No qualifications. Go out and buy it everybody."—Kenneth Rexroth, The Nation"The translations deliberately avoid the highly wrought and affectedly poetic; their idiom is contemporary....They have life and speed and suppleness of phrase."—Times Education Supplement"These translations belong to our time. A keen poetic sensibility repeatedly quickens them; and without this inner fire the most academically flawless rendering is dead."—Warren D. Anderson, American Oxonian"The critical commentaries and the versions themselves...are fresh, unpretentious, above all, functional."—Commonweal"Grene is one of the great translators."—Conor Cruise O'Brien, London Sunday Times"Richmond Lattimore is that rara avis in our age, the classical scholar who is at the same time an accomplished poet."—Dudley Fitts, New York Times Book Review

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The Complete Word Study New Testament (Word Study Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)As a leader of Precept Bible studies, I have found these tools to be extremely helpful. Being Greek himself, Spiro has much to offer in the correct interpreting of Gods Word. His insights to the culture and meaning of words has proven helpful and enlightening. These books are user friendly, while being fully detailed and in depth. More than once I have found out the real meaning of a word in the Greek that increased my faith and inticed my appetite to study more in depth more often. Much needed tools for any serious Bible student. I would highly recommend all the Zodhiates reference books. Get them all.

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he Complete Word Study New Testament is a revolutionary product containing an exhaustive amount of Bible study research material in single book formats. Available currently in the King James Version, the text of Scripture comes alive, as you are able to research important information about each Greek word within each volume

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Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an excellent NT Greek grammar. Unlike some Greek grammars (notably Hansen and Quinn's Attic grammar, one I have experience with), this is ideally suited for the self-learner. Here's why:
- Mounce tries to minimize the amount of memorization required. Greek is a difficult language, no two ways about it: but the way the material is presented can make learning easier or harder. For those of us who come at it as adults, memorization is difficult. Some grammars require massive amounts of rote memorization; Mounce takes instead the tack of giving you a number of rules to apply, then only requiring memorization where the rules don't apply. Using this method, the amount of memorization is cut dramatically, and the effort required is reduced accordingly.
- To ease the remaining memorization, Mounce includes lots of good vocabulary helps. Unfortunately, vocabulary acquisition is usually another rote memorization affair. Mounce includes either derivations or cognates in other languages (drawing in some cases on Metzger's "Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek"), or silly little memorization aids. An example of the latter is Mounce's memorable word play on the word ELPIS (="hope"): "Some people HOPE that ELVIS did not die." I think I can safely say I will never forget the meaning of ELPIS.
- In many ways (including the previous two items) Mounce includes the fruit of his years of experience as a teacher of New Testament Greek. Many books that I'm sure would be just fine when learning from a professor completely fall apart when an autodidact (like myself) attempts to use them. With this book, it's almost as good as Mounce being right there.
- Although I would not have believed it, Mounce has successfully integrated devotional sections at the beginning of most chapters. A combination textbook/devotional? Yes, believe it or not. The section for chapter 10, for example, is simply amazing - building off John 1:14, KAI hO LOGOS SARX EGENETO ("And the Word became flesh.") This answers another big problem for autodidacts, which is that you don't have much of an inducement to continue when the going gets tough. These devotional sections (I am assuming a Christian student, of course) add greatly to your experience and make you look forward to new chapters.
The end result is that this book makes it possible to learn New Testament Greek on your own to just about the same depth as you would get at a seminary. That's an amazing feat in itself.
But be aware, this book has no exercises in it. Rather, you need to buy the companion workbook, which has all the exercises.

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New, updated editions of the best-selling and most widely accepted textbook and workbook for learning biblical GreekWilliam D. Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar and its companion tool Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook are by far the best-selling and most widely accepted textbooks for learning New Testament Greek. These excellent tools for studying New Testament Greek are now even better. As a result of feedback from professors, the author has made adjustments to his material. For example, a chapter on clauses has been added at the end of the book. The CD-ROM is now easier to use and has even more information on it than the earlier edition. The workbook has been significantly rewritten. Nearly 50 percent of the verses are new. They are shorter and more focused on the grammar of the chapter.Features include:- Best-selling Greek language textbook- Changes from the first edition made in response to ten years of use- Grammar's CD-ROM is easier to navigate and now includes short audio summary lectures (7-9 minutes)- An appendix in the Grammar allows professors to introduce verbs earlier in the course- Two tracks in the workbook: track one allows you to go through the book in the normal order. Track two has totally different exercises that allow you to teach verbs earlier.- Workbook has 3-hole, perforated pages

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English from the Roots Up, Vol. 1: Help for Reading, Writing, Spelling, and S.A.T. Scores Review

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(More customer reviews)English From The Roots Up is an excellent vocabulary and spelling tool for any age student--including the child who is learning to read, especially with phonics, and can write or the high school student trying to prepare for college entrance exams. It develops words from Latin and Greek roots using simple nemonic devices--index cards outlined in red for Latin or green for Greek, which you make yourself. Students learn one root at a time, and from that root are given examples where it's used. Recognizing Greek or Latin roots in English words enables the student to determine the definition and spelling of unknown words. The exercise is consistent for each root--learn the definition of the root, learn words that have that root and the definitions of those words as well. The lessons build on one another. Elementary children think it's fun, believe it or not, because they find themselves discovering big words that don't intimidate them anymore. They also have fun making up new words based on the roots they've learned. I have my 1st grader working through the lessons along with my 4th grader. We learn one root and the words associated with that root, master it and move on to the next at their pace. The book calls for making the cards on 3x5 index cards, but 4x6 or even 5x7 would be better in my opinion. I can't even write small enough to get the words with the root and their definitions on a single 3x5, much less a 5 or 9 y/o child.

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Just as phonics help children to figure out what words are, Latin and Greek help them to figure out what words mean. Without an early working knowledge of these indispensable components of their language, children are handicapped in their ability to use words well. Why do we put off until it is almost too late, or never provide the opportunity to cultivate understanding of the vivid, active imagery that confers power in the use of our language?

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The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text (New International Greek Testament Com (Eerdmans)) Review

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(More customer reviews)Dr. Bill Mounce (son of Dr. Robert Mounce, who wrote another Revelation commentary, also colleague of Dr. Beale at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) once joked and said that "you know it's good when it's so thick."
I took a New Testament Interpretation class with Dr. Beale, and also have his Revelation class notes.
Indeed, this is a brilliantly written book, which is well-written and thoroughly done from an amillennial perspective. Although this camp is not particularly big within evangelicalism (the predominant view being premillennialism), this particular camp has some advantages of being supported by strong scholarship. Beale's book is one of the best in terms of applying interpretational methods.
Beale starts off with about 69 pages of background on symbolism of numbers and the symbolic nature of Revelation. His main premise is that the beginning of the book of Revelation (Rev. 1:1) begins with "he revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what must soon take place; and he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John..." The word "made it known" (RSV) in greek is esemanen (aorist active indicative, 3rd singular for semaino ... which should be rendered "to be communicated in symbols"). Thus, Beale takes the view that the book of Revelation should be read primarily symbolically unless there is ample evidence that it should not be rendered symbolically. He would note some of those symbols include numbers, lampstands, sword, etc. Thus, because of the symbolic nature of the book, the "1000 years" of Rev. 20:4-6 is to be understood symbolically rather than a literal 1000 years, rendering his view as "amillennial".
Beale does a great job in scholarship in interacting with other views, namely the premillennial and postmillennial views (especially readings of Revelation 20:4-6 ... close to 100 pages here), and also with other theories of the horsemen (e.g., Beasly-Murray, etc.) He even interacts with other commentaries and papers written on Revelation, as well as incorporating other literature (e.g., Jewish apocryphal writings) to analyze the text. Excellent scholarship!
To utilize this commentary well, you will need some basic Greek training (as Beale does utilize the Greek New Testament a lot, including doing textual criticism analysis, sentence flow analysis), like at least a first-year biblical Greek course.
This is indeed the best amillennial commentary (and probably the best commentary) that I've seen of Revelation. The two that are typically suggested by scholars include Dr. Robert Mounce's and this one!

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Accessible and comprehensive, the latest volume of the respected New International Greek Testament Commentary provides an in-depth look at the parallels between images in the Apocalypse and their Old Testament and Jewish antecedents. Beales painstaking anaylsis will help you better understand the obscure metaphors in Revelation and the purpose of the book itself.

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Homer's Odyssey 6-8: Greek Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary Review

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(More customer reviews)Check out my review of Steadman's Symposium to see why I love this series so much. Again Steadman gives us a large font, this time not a blow up of the Oxford Text but what appears to be his own font design. It is about 75% bigger than Loeb, dark, straight, really a joy to read. Since Steadman does not use up the entire page as he does in the Symposium (which includes the Oxford critical apparatus on the bottom, which this text lacks) he could have made the font even bigger, a quibble which he will perhaps address in future editions/volumes.
It cannot be overemphasized how wonderful it is to have the vocab on facing pages. The vocab in Homer is unbearably extensive, and what a joy not to be flipping through a lexicon. You can still look up some words, and you probably will if nothing else to find the roots, which can be helpful in vocab retention, but Homeric vocab is pretty straightforward, and Steadman's glosses cover the range of meanings well.
His grammatical notes are not as extensive as they are in his Symposium. There Steadman gives you explanations and interpretations of EVERY conceivable difficulty. Maybe because the syntax of Homer is much simpler than the syntax of Plato, Steadman is less generous with his help here. Of course, he has to give you about twice as much vocab here than in Plato, so he may simply not have room. Also not in this volume are the helpful same-page paradigms which he gives in his Plato.
None of this is meant to knock this book. I absolutely recommend both books, and I intend to buy virtually anything Steadman produces in this series, which are priced very reasonably.
As to the Odyssey itself, it is either the greatest book ever written in any language, or it is the second greatest after the Iliad. Starting on Book 6 was a good idea since Beetham covers book 5. I don't know anything about Geoffrey Steadman, but I hope he is either a young man or he writes very fast. I want to see him cover all of Homer and as much of Plato as he can.

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Facing each set of 20 lines from Books 6-8 of Thomas W. Allen's edition of Homer's Odyssey (originally published by Oxford University Press in 1908) is a single page of corresponding vocabulary and intermediate level grammatical commentary. Once readers have memorized the core vocabulary list, they will be able to read the Homeric Greek and consult all relevant vocabulary and commentary without turning a page.

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Vocabulary from Latin and Greek Roots: Book 1 Review

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(More customer reviews)We looked for several study books on the market and found this series to be the best. It is highly recommended by a wise, dedicated, highly-educated teacher at our local high school!

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Students learn the sources of hundreds of vocabulary words with this new, multi-year program. Unlike many programs that depend on rote memorization, Vocabulary from Latin and Greek Roots incorporates a variety of techniques to teach students the skills they need to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words, while also expanding sight vocabulary. Vocabulary from Latin and Greek Roots reinforces new words through: *a format that capitalizes on word families *associative hooks and visuals to jog the memory *building language-analysis skills *exercises designed for maximum retention Many vocabulary programs are focused on preparing students for a test from week to week, but Vocabulary from Latin and Greek Roots teaches skills that they can use for a lifetime. *Teaches word analysis skills by focusing on root words. *Additional notes on word and phrase histories build interest *Humorous visual mnemonics reinforce recall. Book One is recommended for 7th Grade. This is a student classroom edition. Tests and Answer Keys are available through the publisher but are only sold to schools and teachers.

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Homer's Odyssey 9-12: Greek Text with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary Review

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(More customer reviews)I have just finished using Steadman's edition of Homer Odyssey 9-12 in my fourth semester Greek course here at Miami University. We read Book 11. 362-696 in seven class days, a little less than 50 lines a day. The students found this a reasonable amount of Homer to read, by their own account spending around two hours per class to write out an accurate translation. The amount of vocabulary and commentary was sufficient for them to read this amount of Greek with very few additional resources--although some of my students regularly use Perseus for parsing weird forms. There is a glossary of more common words in the back and a synopsis of the verb luo'''. As in Steadman's other volumes, the commentary is restricted to grammatical matters rather than literary matters. I think this works great in a classroom setting, since an instructor can decide what elements to emphasize in discussing the text. There are some basic introductory remarks about Homeric language and meter which are concise and useful.
I use the JACT Reading Greek textbook and the Homer selection there is taken from Odyssey 6. Steadman has another volume covering books 6-8, and I toyed with the idea of using that to follow up the JACT selection. However, Odyssey 6-8 are not the most scintillating reading in the Odyssey, whereas books 9-12 are nothing if not scintillating. Steadman's texts are meant to be read from beginning to end, but they are also designed to be selectable, so there is no problem starting and stopping anywhere you please. All that students need is right there on the facing page. In fact it is possible to download the pdf for free and select a few pages if you just want to give a taste of Homer, but the book itself is so reasonably priced, it is worth it for students to buy.
The text is based on T.W.Allen's 1908 Greek edition of the Odyssey, which is out of copyright. It is reproduced in a somewhat unattractive font that could be a little bigger in my humble opinion, but that is quibbling. Since the book is self-published, there are errors here and there, but not many. Moreover, it is possible to contact the author via his Blog with errors and he will correct them in future versions. This is a tremendous boon to Greek instructors everywhere, to have a low-priced intermediate text that has handy resources for students who are just starting to read Homer. Compared to other texts that have glossaries and commentaries inconveniently placed in the back of the book, this text reduces the tedium of flipping back and forth. Steadman has done for these books of the Odyssey what Clyde Pharr's version has done for the first half of the Aeneid.

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Facing each set of 20 lines from Books 9-12 of Thomas W. Allen's edition of Homer's Odyssey (originally published by Oxford University Press in 1908) is a single page of corresponding vocabulary and intermediate level grammatical commentary. Once readers have memorized the core vocabulary list, they will be able to read the Homeric Greek and consult all relevant vocabulary and commentary without turning a page.

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