Overview of the Greek Basic Course
This course provides introductory materials in modern spoken Greek for
the student who wishes to achieve a working command of the language
currently spoken by educated Greeks. The style is neither entirely
demotic (colloquial) nor strictly formal. The Greek orthography is used
from the beginning so that the students learn to read what they have
learned to say. The second and third levels carry the student further
into the grammar and vocabulary of spoken Greek, and gradually introduce
the more formal spoken and written forms known as 'katharevousa', used
on formal occasions by all educated Greeks, and commonly encountered in
the press. Level One has 16 tapes; Level Two 18 tapes; Level Three 6
tapes.
The Greek described in this Course is represententative of the Kathomilumeni
variety, i.e. that of the 'standard' speech of educated Greeks. As the influences
from the other styles of Greek on the natural speech of an educated person vary
according to the speaker and thus create a great variety of 'correct' utterances,
both the most common dhimotiki and kathaverusa forms are represented in the Basic
Dialogues and Grammatical Notes. At the same time the use of extreme dhimotiki or
'overpure' katharevusa is carefully avoided.
The Whole course consists of 75 units and is divided into three volumes, each volume
containing 25 Units. After every five units there is a review consisting of a Narrative
which is based on the vocabulary of previous units. In addition to this the Review Units of
Volume I have Review Drills in which the student is supposed to supply proper forms of given
words. These drills are continued in more advanced units in connection with the katharevusa
grammatical forms
Katharevusa is systematically introduced in the narratives of Volume III and the rules of
Katharevusa grammar are discussed in the subsequent grammatical notes. Thus the student
who has completed Volume III of this Course should have a good foundation for reading official
documents as well as newspapers written in katharevusa.
The following parts may be found in a unit:
Basic Dialogue
Sample Drills
Response Drill
Substitution Drills
Useful Words
Transformation Drills
'Polite' Expressions
Correlation-Substitution Drills
Narrative
Response Exercise
Grammatical Notes
Topics for Discussion
See also: Our other Greek Courses
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