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Introduction | Description of Modules | Fonts and Browser Settings | Known Problems | Credits

Ancient Greek Tutorials, by Donald J. Mastronarde with the assistance of the Berkeley Language Center of the University of California, Berkeley.
©1999-2005 The Regents of the University of California.

This site is made available to all users by the courtesy of the University of California Press. Although much of it is based on a specific textbook for ancient Greek (see under Credits), the tutorials should be helpful to anyone learning ancient Greek from any textbook.

Since the Berkeley Language Center is ceasing media duplication, it is no longer possible to order a CD-ROm of these tutorials. Instead, as of September 2009, for users who want to use the tutorials without being connected to the internet, Release 1.5 has been prepared as a ZIP archive that may be downloaded. The archive is about 20MB and will expand to over 50MB on your computer. To download, click here.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MODULES

About the two versions: By this date, almost everyone should be able to use with ease the revised (Unicode) version of the modules, simply by using a modern OS and up-to-date browser such as Safari or Firefox (Internet Explorer for Windows probably works as well). The older (pre-Unicode, GreekKeys) version is still available, but there is no reason to use it unless you have an extremely old computer, and aspects of the old version will not in fact work on many modern computers.

Pronunciation Guide provides information and examples for the pronunciation of the sounds of ancient Attic Greek. Text-based in Unicode version, image-based in GreekKeys version. Sounds are embedded and preloaded in Unicode version, individually downloaded in older version.

Pronunciation Practice provides examples of pronunciation of over 100 basic Greek words (taken from the early chapters of the textbook referred to under Credits below). Text-based in Unicode version, image-based in GreekKeys version. Sounds are embedded and preloaded in Unicode version, individually downloaded in older version.

Accentuation Tutorial presents information and examples to help in the understanding and mastery of the accentuation system of ancient Attic Greek. Text-based in Unicode version, image-based in GreekKeys version.

Accentuation Practice presents interactive exercises to test and develop mastery of the accentuation system of ancient Attic Greek. Identical in both versions, with image-based Greek in the exercises.

Principal Parts presents various drills for principal parts (the full set of principal parts of over 250 verbs in the textbook are available; random drills and drills by alphabetic set and verb type set are also available). Identical in both versions, with image-based Greek.

Vocabulary presents over 1000 basic words of Greek vocabulary, with choice of mode of action (study mode or drill mode, Greek to English or English to Greek) and drill by alphabetic and random sets as well as by units. Text-based in Unicode and GreekKeys versions.

Verb Drill presents Greek verb forms for identification. There are about 1500 verb forms in the database. In addition to drill by unit (matched to the book, but providing more forms than in the Exercises), drill by random set and drill by sets defined by type of form are available. Text-based in Unicode and GreekKeys versions.

Noun Drill is a shorthand name for a declensional drill including forms of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns. There are about 900 forms in the database. In addition to drill by unit (matched to the book, but providing more forms than in the Exercises), drill by random set and drill by sets defined by type of form are available. Text-based in Unicode and GreekKeys versions.

English-Greek provides drill in composing Greek inflectional forms, using an on-screen keyboard (or in the Unicode version, there is an option of direct input from the user's physical keyboard). There are over 800 forms available. Some of the items correspond to similar exercises in the book, but there are also many forms not in the printed exercises. Two modes of drill are available. In the more elementary mode, the user's entry is corrected letter by letter, and it is not possible to go on to the subsequent letter until the current letter is correct. In the more challenging mode, the user enters the whole answer and then asks to be checked; if the answer is wrong, some guidance is given as to the error and the user can try to fix the answer or ask to see the answer. Text-based in Unicode version and in GreekKeys versions.

Paradigms presents verb paradigms and noun, adjective, and pronoun paradigms. Text-based in Unicode version (html), image-based in GreekKeys version (PDF).

Introduction | Description of Modules | Fonts and Browser Settings | Known Problems | Credits

FONTS AND BROWSER SETTINGS

This page links to the modules (Vocabulary, Verb Drill, and Noun Drill) that use a GreekKeys-encoded font (Athenian); an optional element of English-Greek also requires that font; and the Paradigms module linked here uses PDFs. If you have an up-to-date browser and operating system capable of using Unicode fonts, it is recommended that you switch to the Unicode version. The only font designated in the html code for the modules that require a GreekKeys-encoded font is Athenian (free for Mac OS X or Windows, downloadable). For installation instructions and information on which browsers work with this font, see the browser instructions. NOTE: the latest Mac OS X browsers display a space instead of omega with smooth and acute in the few places where that character is used. To avoid this problem, use the Unicode version instead.

You may view and use these modules on a Macintosh or Windows computer with most recent versions of major browsers. The screens are designed to be viewed in a window of the size 650x450 or larger. In some modules you may need to adjust the font size.

Many recent browsers come correctly configured by default to use these documents. For correct display and operation, you must use a browser capable of displaying frames and of playing QuickTime files (suffix .mov or .MOV), and it must have Javascript enabled. Display of images must be enabled. For fuller information on which browsers work with which modules and for instructions on configuring your browser (esp. to hear sounds or see Greek), see the browser instructions. To play the sounds, you should have an up-to-date version of QuickTime or the QuickTime Plug-in in the Plug-ins folder of your browser. You may obtain the QuickTime plug-in by using the installer for the free QuickTime Player from Apple, available for both platforms at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/. On some Windows systems, some browsers may work adequately with Windows Media Player instead, if set up so that .mov files are directed to WMP.

Introduction | Description of Modules | Fonts and Browser Settings | Known Problems | Credits

KNOWN PROBLEMS

Adjusting the font size

If the choices in any left panel are badly displayed or the drill item is overrunning the space of the frame in which it is shown, it is necessary to adjust (reduce) the font size of the browser display. Look under the View menu for a command that increases or decreases the font size. In some browsers, the command will affect all frames of the browser window at once; in others, you will need to click in a particular frame and then use the font-adjustment command to have effect on that frame.

Pronunciation Guide and Pronunciation Practice

The Unicode version with embedded sounds works in almost all recent browsers for Mac OS X and Windows XP. Use the latest available version of Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer for Windows.

The older version (image-based, with non-embedded sounds) may work on the major browsers for Windows. In Mac OS X, however, there are many problems in most browsers, and the newer version should be used instead.

In the older version, loading of individual sounds over a modem connection may be intolerably slow, if successful at all. The choice to hear both voices will not work if you have a slow connection, and even on a fast connection you may hear only one sound.

If you have QuickTime installed or recently upgraded your QuickTime and you are not hearing sounds, check to see whether you have two versions of the plug-in present at the same time. Having two versions at the same time may prevent QuickTime from working within the browser.

Some browsers will open a small player window, and you may be required to click on the play button to hear the sound. Look for a setting that makes the sound play as soon as loaded without an additional click.

Principal Parts

Users of Internet Explorer for Windows 4.x or 5.0 may be unable to use the Principal Parts drill effectively because of a bug in IE. The bug has been fixed in IE 5.5 and higher. This bug did not affect Netscape for Windows or any browser for MacOS.

When using the Principal Parts Drill with a Netscape browser, please resize your window to the needed size before beginning a drill or as soon as you begin, since resizing during a drill will reset the drill in a Netscape browser.

Vocabulary, Verb Drill, Noun Drill

These drills require Athenian font for Mac or Windows; on the Mac the Greek will display correctly in most browsers (including those for Mac OS X), but for Windows only IE 4.x and later work. For more information, see the browser settings instructions.

The Vocabulary drills use multiple external javascript files and some browsers have some difficulty loading these properly. In older versions of Netscape for Mac, the problem is intermittent, and is normally solved by reloading the page. In IE 5.5 for Windows, the workaround inserts alert dialogue commands in the files: as a result, the user needs to dismiss several alerts during the loading process. This does not occur in IE 6 for Windows.

With Netscape 6.2 for Mac, the random Vocabulary drills do not work, although the other three types of drill do. All types work with Netscape 7 and Mozilla 1.

When using the Vocabulary drill, Verb Drill, or Noun Drill with a Netscape browser, please resize your window to the needed size (to see all portions of the main frame) before beginning a drill or as soon as you begin, since resizing during a drill will reset the drill in a Netscape browser.

English-Greek Drill

The GreekKeys version of this drill works with both browsers on both Mac and Windows, but with Netscape for Windows some items are omitted from the drill because Netscape for Windows cannot interpret or display the correct answer. The Dictionary Info button of the GreekKeys version operates under Windows only if the browser is Internet Explorer (and requires the Greek font Athenian); it produces no action in Netscape for Windows. This problem does not occur in the unicode version.

Introduction | Description of Modules | Fonts and Browser Settings | Known Problems | Credits

CREDITS

Some modules initially prepared with the assistance of Imre Galambos of the Berkeley Language Center. Voices in the Pronunciation Guide and Pronunciation Practice are Donald Mastronarde and Sarah Stroup, recorded by Alexander Prisadsky of the Berkeley Language Center.

Material in this site is based on Donald J. Mastronarde, Introduction to Attic Greek, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1993, and on software (for MacOS only) Introduction to Attic Greek: An Electronic Workbook, by Donald J. Mastronarde with technical assistance from Jeff Rusch and Ken Lau, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1995 (created with the assistance of the Instructional Technology Program of the University of California, Berkeley)--now obsolete and superseded by this html-javascript version.

For information about the book, click on the title or contact the press (for U.S. and Canada orders) at 1-800-777-4726, FAX 1-800-999-1958, California-Princeton Fulfillment Services, 1445 Lower Ferry Road, Ewing NJ 08618.

This site was developed on Macintosh computers running OS 8.6-9.2 and OS X, using BBEdit from Barebones Software for html and javascript editing, Microsoft Word 1998 and 2001 with Adobe Acrobat 5.0 for production of PDF paradigms, Adobe Photoshop 5.5 and 7.0 and Adobe ImageReady 2.0 and 7.0 for graphics, SuperCard 2.5 and 3.6 for extraction and manipulation of data already present in the Electronic Workbook, and TextEdit for part of the conversion from GreekKeys data to Unicode data.

Introduction | Description of Modules | Fonts and Browser Settings | Known Problems | Credits

This page was revised on September 22, 2009.