Colloquial Greek

Niki Watts

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317305378
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Colloquial Greek: The Complete Course for Beginners has been carefully developed by an experienced teacher to provide a step-by-step course to Greeceas it is written and spoken today.

Combining a clear, practical and accessible style with a methodical and thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Greek in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

Colloquial Greek is exceptional; each unit presents a wealth of grammatical points that are reinforced with a wide range of exercises for regular practice. A full answer key, a grammar index and bilingual glossaries can be found at the back as well as useful vocabulary lists throughout.

Key features include:

• A clear, user-friendly format designed to help learners progressively build up their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills
• Jargon-free, succinct and clearly structured explanations of grammar
• An extensive range of focused and dynamic supportive exercises
• Realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of narrative situations
• Helpful cultural points explaining the customs and features of life in Greece
• An overview of the sounds of Greek

Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Greek is an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Greek.

Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.

1 Reading and speaking Greek

This lesson will deal with:

• more details of the Greek alphabet

• signs

• greetings and introductions

The aim in this, the first lesson, is to help you consolidate what you have learned about the Greek alphabet in the Introduction. We are going to do this through exercises and reading passages or dialogues, during which we shall rely heavily on the audio material.

In the dialogues that follow, the purpose is to help you become more familiar with the way the language sounds and to understand the gist of what is being said. Do not be concerned with grammar or punctuation at this stage as these will be dealt with in later lessons. What is important is to listen as much as you can, certainly more than once, to the native speakers reading the words and phrases of the exercises and the dialogues. For those of you who have only bought the book, you will find the transliteration given either in the exercises themselves or in the Key to Exercises at the end of the book.

Let us begin with some signs which you are likely to see if you go to Greece or Cyprus on holiday.

Exercise 1

(Audio 1: 10)

Can you read these signs on your own and then transcribe them in lower-case letters? If you have the audio material, listen again and put the stress-accents on the correct syllable, i.e. the one that is emphasized by the reader.

ΕΞΟΔΟΣ	éxothos	exit
ΑΠΟΧΩΡΗΤΗΡΙΑ	apohoritíria	toilets
ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ	trápeza	bank
ΣΤΑΣΗ	stási	stop (e.g. bus stop)
ΕΣΤΙΑΤΟΡΙΟ	estiatório	restaurant
ΤΑΞΙ	taxí	taxi
ΚΛΙΝΙΚΗ	klinikí	clinic
ΑΝΔΡΩΝ	anthrón	Gents (toilets)
ΠΕΖΟΔΡΟΜΟΣ	pezóthromos	pedestrian area
ΕΡΓΑ	érga	road works
ΑΕΡΟΛΙΜΕΝΑΣ	aeroliménas	airport
ΑΕΡΟΔΡΟΜΙΟ	aerothrómio	airport
ΣΤΑΘΜΟΣ	staTHmós	railway

Exercise 2

A great many English words derive from Greek words. Can you recognize the following Greek words well enough to suggest their possible equivalents in English?

η ψυχολογία	το τηλέφωνο	το ράδιο
η αλφαβήτα	η σύνθεση	το α...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Suggestions for further reading
• First steps
• 1 Reading and speaking Greek
• 2 Meeting people
• 3 Travel
• 4 The family
• 5 Entertainment
• 6 Μια φορά κι έναν καιρό …
• 7 Καλές διακοπές
• 8 Επαγγελματικός κόσμος
• 9 Επιμένετε ελληνικά
• 10 Φίλος και ξένος
• 11 Περαστικά …
• 12 Νους υγιής …
• 13 O Xρόνος είναι Xρήμα
• 14 H μερίδα του λέοντος!
• 15 Στον αέρα
• 16 Οδοιπορικό
• Epilogue
• Key to exercises
• Greek–English glossary
• English–Greek glossary
• Grammar index