Start with the last chapter about the history and evolution of the Greek language. Unless you've studied it as a child and have nightmares as an adult, in which case you are characterised as the ideal reader of this book - you once fled the study of Ancient Greek. Which left me a little alienated. Grammar causes me seizures anyway, so perhaps I can fit into the scope. There's a lot of jokey, hyperbolic casual language in this book. To sound chatty, the author uses much repetition. It's a stylist...

I have seen the author of this book many times on television and since she made a good impression on me, I decided to buy her book which deals with a subject that interests me very much.The author on TV talked about it with great passion and unfortunately I must say that this passion is not transmitted in the book. The book is very readable and undoubtedly has solid foundations, but it is written in a too didactic form, a bit cold compared to what I expected after hearing her speak. It is percei...

I was disappointed. I bought the book because as I linguist I love when popular books about langauges are published and because I also really like Greek although i dont speak it. But this is disappointing and a missed opportunity. First, because so much is made of what all ancient Greek had (eg dual, neuter, aspect) and through this, a feeling of representing it as an awesome langauge - but never really looking at other languages that have this too today - and in even more quantity (particularly...

Beautiful book! From linguistic analysis the author reaches very attractive conclusions on how ancient Greeks lived and felt. Not being an expert in the Greek language (I mean... I don’t understand it at all; neither modern nor classic) I cannot evaluate whether the content of the book is accurate or not. But I really enjoyed the treatment that the author gives to the classic preference in “how” versus the current focus on “when”, not only when selecting verb tenses (aoristo), but also when thin...

Andrea Marcolongo is right, one does not need to know Greek to appreciate and to understand its importance and influence. However, the book makes the case to even learn some words and to study them even if one does not immerse into its whole grammar. Words do not exist in vacuum, but evolve. Understanding words like an archeologist digs adds many layers of meaning to understand our world, which after all cannot be understood and/or experienced without language. Having learnt some Latin helps me

I have spent this νοσος κακη trying to teach myself classical Greek. Textbooks are piled high and YouTube videos abound. Marcolongo's book is a breath of fresh air. Its engaging, intelligent and new. If anyone knows something like it please share. I could use more Marcolongo and less Hansen & Quinn - Groton - Smyth - etc.Not often do I so disagree with Goodreads reviews but for this book I think many people missed the point. Its isn't a text book - it is the farthest thing from what a person stu...

In the introduction, Marcolongo states that her book can be enjoyed by those who have never studied Ancient Greek before. As someone who is entirely unfamiliar with it, I found that statement to be misleading. The book is written in a way that feels like you are reading a series of grammar lessons, therefore making it inaccessible. It may resonate more with former students of Ancient Greek, as I noticed that Marcolongo frequently addresses the reader as if they were a former Ancient Greek studen...

this was great and i will definitely reference this once i continue studying ancient greek!!

The book says it's not necessary to know Ancient Greek to understand the book but that is not true.I understood zero from the first chapters. I didn't get the examples. Maybe for someone who does know the Ancient Greek language, it would be a better read.I adore Ancient Greek history and I want to learn the Ancient Greek language someday but this book failed to intensify such love. I'm sad because I waited a lot to get this book.

The author is a bit obnoxious at times but still a fun read

This book illustrates why I wish there were a 10 star system rather than a 5 star system. I did like this book, and indeed it has inspired me to at least consider studying Ancient Greek; but it is full of holes. If there were more of a range of stars, I could accommodate both my "like" of the book with my criticisms of it. I very much liked the notion that the teaching of the language suffers in general by not giving students enough background in the history and culture of the Ancient Greeks. Th...

Simple glorification of ancient Greek with complete ignorance of other languages (the aspect chapter for instance - aspects are not at all unique to ancient Greek but very common in Europe in 2021, just not in Romance languagues such as Italian...).But that's just annoying.I decided to through the book when I got to page 33 (in the French version)That's where the author claims that "Indo-European" was one of the first languages spoken on earth ("... l'indo-européen, l'une des premières languges

I was Greek major in college, so I was excited to hear about this book. It's a bit uneven, some of which may be because it was written in Italian and translated into English. Some of the prose is jaunty and doesn't always make perfect sense. Because she often compares Greek to Italian, which is different from English, her discussion of verb aspect with the aorist gets very muddled, I believe because Italian does not have a present progressive the way English does. The same with the optative mood...

This one caught my eye in my library's return bin, so I took it home. While I am sympathetic to the premise of this book, and it did have some interesting passages, I did not think it was particularly well executed. It was very messy in structure, and quite unclear to me who exactly was supposed to be the audience for this. One moment it seems to target complete novices in language/linguistics/Greek, while at other times throwing a fair bit of linguistic terms and full paragraphs of Greek text a...

The only reason I finished this book is that it was a gift and the giver asked me to give my impression of it (and now I'll have to find a way to lie but not too blatantly).

A few other reviewers have mentioned the fact that the book's blurb about "no previous knowledge of Ancient Greek needed" is misleading, and indeed it was quite daunting at first to face strings of Ancient Greek words that I don't know how to read (It's all Greek to me!). Fortunately, I didn't give up reading this book midway, because there are a lot of good and interesting lessons about learning a second language in general. The grammatical explanations are fascinating. Over time, I even tried

The author must change the part saying no need to know anything about Greek language. Anyone who wants to read this book must know a bit of this language.

For my "at home" project I'm considering learning ancient Greek. This book is one of my preludes, both to help determine if this is really what I want to do, and to get a flavor for ancient Greek and what makes it unique. This book was a good start, by a professor of Ancient Greek (who is, incidentally, Italian). And based on this book, the prospect of learning Ancient Greek is made all the more appealing.I've also recently finished The History of English in Words, by Owen Barfield, which makes

“I am certain, however, that studying Greek helps you develop a talent for life, love, and hard work, for choosing to take responsibility for your successes and failures. It also helps you take pleasure in things, even when things aren’t all that perfect.”“The life of a language resides in the human beings who use it to comprehend the world, who live by putting that world into words.”“The Ingenious Language: Nine Epic Reasons to Love Greek” by Andrea Marcolongo, translated from Italian by Will S...

I wanted to like this book more than I did. Ancient Greek has been waiting its turn for a long time on my list of languages I want to learn. Like Sanskrit, which I learned in order to penetrate more deeply into the literature, culture and philosophy of ancient India, I have seen Greek as a door into another world. Ancient cultures are so different from our own that when we read their authors in translation, we are especially vulnerable to the assumptions, beliefs and skill of the translator, who...