The Greek Handbook: A Compendium of the Greek Language in Chart Form

By John Antonakos

The principle idea of this book is to reduce a typical three hundred page language textbook to approximately one hundred pages. This size book will give the sudent greater comfidence tha he can learn and retain the subject.This book is mainly for persons who have studied Modern Greek formally and wish to refresh themselves in the Greek language

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468580877

John Antonakos

John Antonakos is a retired electrical engineer who holds degrees in physics and electrical engineering. He was employed as an electrical engineer for over forty years, thirty-two of which were with the United States Army at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. He has always been interested in history, biography, language and philosophy, and has read widely in these fields. Being of Greek background, he is especially interested in exploring his roots. Because of these interests he has written the following books: Noted Greeks of Antiquity, Noted Greeks of the Middle Ages, The Greek American Community of Essex County, N.J., The Maniates of Newark, N.J., The Greek Handbook, A Compendium of World Classical Literature, A Proposed International Alphabet, English Spelling and Pronunciation Guide, and Life’s Objective.

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© 2012 John Antonakos. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 8/2/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-8088-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-8087-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012906433

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I GREEK SYMBOLS

CHAPTER II WORD ACCENTUATION AND ALTERATION

CHAPTER III ARTICLES

CHAPTER IV PRONOUNS

CHAPTER V NOUNS

CHAPTER VI ADJECTIVES

CHAPTER VII VERBS

MOODS

CHAPTER IX OTHER PARTS OF SPEECH

APPENDIX COMMON VERBS

INTRODUCTION

This book is primarily written for use of the student of Modern Greek at the high school or college level. The book may be used for a complete course of study, for reviewing, or for ready-reference purposes. This book is not intended for the beginner in Greek. It is especially intended for those who have attended a Greek-American school, who want to freshen-up on what they had studied and at the same time also wish to advance in Greek learning.

It is the purpose of this book to present the elements of Greek pronunciation, grammar, and spelling in the most succinct form possible. This has been done, for the most part, by using the simplest charts that could be devised. In addition to the charts, lists of the most commonly used words and sample sentences are given. Before attempting to use the book, though, the facts that follow concerning the Greek language and how this book is to be used, must be thoroughly understood.

Modern Greek has two forms. The puristic, missing image file is a continuation of Ancient Greek.It is mainly used by the courts and the newspapers. The demotic, missing image file is a more simple form that contains many words that are borrowed from other European languages. It is the language that is ordinarily spoken and written. To solve this language dilemma, hopefully, these two forms will blend into one language in the future. For the present, though, the puristic and demotic forms must be distinguished. In this book when only one form is given it is the puristic, or it is used both in the puristic and demotic. When there is a distinct demotic form, it is placed after the puristic form in parentheses. The sample sentences and verb listing given in this book are in the demotic.

The modern Greek language is spoken in a very dynamic fashion, questions and exclamations being especially