Friday, July 24, 2009

Introduction to Dionysius Thrax

As a way to practice translating Greek as well as to read something that I have wanted to read, I am going to translate through the Art of Grammar by Dionysius Thrax (Τεχνη Γραμματικη Διονυσιου του θρᾳκος). Dionysius, a Thracian (from the area of Thrace northeast of Greece), lived during the 2nd century B.C. (or B.C.E if you prefer) who, according to the Souda, a 10th century A.D. (or C.E. if you prefer, though I am not entirely sure the A.D. is in the right spot) encyclopedia, worked in Alexandria. He wrote the Art of Grammar when the vernacular Koine Greek was becoming more divergent from the classical Attic Greek of literature in order that people might better understand the older writings.

I will translate each section of the work and post it hopefully regularly. I might also comment on the text, noting constructions, words, as well as my own thoughts.

There is a Greek text at Bibliotheca Augustana as well as at Wikisource. Feel free to compare and critique my translations.

Here is the Table of Contents:

  1. Concerning Grammar
  2. Concerning Reading
  3. Concerning Pitch
  4. Concerning the Period
  5. Concerning Rhapsody
  6. Concerning the Letter
  7. Concerning the Syllable
  8. Concerning the Long Syllable
  9. Concerning the Short Syllable
  10. Concerning the Common Syllable
  11. Concerning the Word
  12. Concerning the Noun
  13. Concerning the Verb
  14. Concerning the Conjugation
  15. Concerning the Participle
  16. Concerning the Article
  17. Concerning the Pronoun
  18. Concerning the Preposition
  19. Concerning the Adverb
  20. Concerning the Conjunction

2 comments:

Clark Brooking said...

I just wanted you to know that I'm interested and following your progress. Thanks.

yage said...

Translating this would be no small task (which is why I have not set about to do it yet), but worthwhile none the less! I've just started to make some "Talk about Koine Greek using Koine Greek" videos on youtube using the grammar terms in Dionysius, it was actually quite an enjoy able experience to start to think about how to think about koine sentences using Ancient Greek.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9D2hVWnshA

Please consider continuing your translation 😀