Language resources for religious studies (let's compile a list!)

[Paraclete]

Considering our specialized needs, I figured I'd start a thread for putting our heads together and compiling a semi-comprehensive list of language resources for our purposes as religious studies students. While there are tons of texts out there for studying modern languages, I wanted to focus on texts that mainly helps one pass a reading/translation exam. A lot of the ancient languages I'm having a hard time pinning down texts, and I'd love to be able to pick your brain for resources, if you have experience in the specific language. I'll go back and compile the list peridiocally, and please feel free to mention what languages I've forgotten. It probably says a lot about me that I can think of more dead languages off of the top of my head than modern ones, haha

 

Well, here goes! I'm throwing on what texts I can think of to get us started. Whee!

 

Modern

German

- German Quickly: A Grammar for Reading German, April Wilson (haven't actually used this, so can't personally vouch)

- Modern Theological German: A Reader and Dictionary, Helmut W. Ziefle

- Introduction to Theological German: A Beginner's Course for Theological Students, J. D. Manton

 

French

- French for Reading, Karl C. Sandberg

- Reading French: A Guide for Students of Religion and Theology, K. Janet Ritch

 

Spanish

 

Hebrew

 

Tibetan

 

Ancient

 

Greek (Koine)

 

Greek (Attic)

- Athenaze: An Introduction to Ancient Greek, Maurice Balme

 

Latin (Classical)

- Wheelock's Latin

 

Latin (Eccliastical)

 

Ugaritic

 

Arkadian

 

Coptic

- A Coptic Grammar: With Chrestomathy and Glossary, Bentley Layton

 

Arabic (Quranic)

 

Ugaritic

 

Phoenician

 

Aramaic

 

Hebrew (Biblical)

 

Sanskrit

- Devavanipravesika: An Introduction to the Sanskrit Language, Robert P. Goldman

Edited March 12, 2014 by Paraclete

[Macrina]

For biblical (Koine) Greek, Mounce is the text I'm familiar with. He has a website with plenty of free resources: https://www.teknia.com

[Kuriakos]

This is the grammar I used for Ecclesiastical Latin: http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Ecclesiastical-Latin-John-Collins/dp/0813206677

[ἠφανισμένος]

Off the top of my head:

 

German

Sandberg, German for Reading (essentially the same as his French book; excellent but out of print)

 

Spanish

Sandberg, Spanish for Reading (not as detailed as the French or German books)

 

Latin

Harrison, Millennium: A Latin Reader (A.D. 374-1374) (texts from the period indicated with light notes)

 

Koine Greek

Randall Buth's living Koine Greek materials

Decker, Koine Greek Reader: Selections from the New Testatment, the Septuagint, and Early Christian Writers

Christophe Rico's Polis: Parler le grec ancien comme une langue vivante (introductory Koine text almost completely in Koine; also available in Italian and German)

Whitacre, A Patristic Greek Reader (selections from various writers, ranging from Ignatius to Gregory of Nazianzus; copious notes for intermediate students)

 

Classical Greek

Hansen and Quinn, Mastronarde, JACT Reading Greek, and Athenaze are some first-year courses.

 

Biblical Hebrew

Randall Buth's living Biblical Hebrew materials

Mansoor, Biblical Hebrew

Weingreen, A Practical Grammar of Classical Hebrew

[Perytion]

For Qur'anic Arabic, W. M. Thackston's "Introduction to Koranic and Classical Arabic" is an old standard.  Also, while I've never used it, "Arabic through the Qur'an" by Alan Jones seems to garner positive reviews.

[xypathos]

Tibetan:

 

Modern - Manual of Standard Tibetan (Nicolas Tournadre and Sangda Dorje)

 

Classical - A Tibetan Verb Lexicon (Paul Hacket)

[RedDoor]

http://www.hebrewsyntax.org/ has resources for several of the languages listed, but the most helpful handouts/instruction is in Biblical Hebrew. The "other languages" section (which is mainly just paradigm sheets) includes Aramaic, German, Modern Hebrew, Ugaritic, and Syriac

[Perytion]

Does anyone know any good resources for Persian/Farsi?  That will likely be my next language, and I wouldn't mind getting a jump start.

 

Also, how different is modern Farsi from older forms?  I don't mean Pahlavi, but if I wanted to ultimately be reading, say, Nasir-e Khosraw, or even Mulla Sadra, would a foundation in modern Farsi be helpful?  Or has the language changed dramatically since then?

[awells27]

Adding to Greek and Hebrew

 

Koine Greek

Randall Buth's living Koine Greek materials

Decker, Koine Greek Reader: Selections from the New Testatment, the Septuagint, and Early Christian Writers

Christophe Rico's Polis: Parler le grec ancien comme une langue vivante (introductory Koine text almost completely in Koine; also available in Italian and German)

Whitacre, A Patristic Greek Reader (selections from various writers, ranging from Ignatius to Gregory of Nazianzus; copious notes for intermediate students)

Stanley E. Porter & Jeffrey T. Reed, Fundamentals of NT Greek (text and workbook).  This in my opinion is the best introductory grammar.

 

Classical Greek

Hansen and Quinn, Mastronarde, JACT Reading Greek, and Athenaze are some first-year courses.

 Andrew Keller and Stephanie Russell, Learning to Read Greek 

 

Biblical Hebrew

Randall Buth's living Biblical Hebrew materials

Mansoor, Biblical Hebrew

Weingreen, A Practical Grammar of Classical Hebrew

 Duane A. Garrett and Jason S. DeRouchie     A Modern Grammar of Biblical Hebrew

Edited March 12, 2014 by awells27

[seroteamavi]

No one has mentioned much of Syriac yet. I am interested in those resources.

 

 

Greek

When I teach Greek, I use the aforementioned BBG (Mounce)

the aforementioned PGR (Whitacre)

Mounce's Morphology of Biblical Greek

Wallace's Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics

Loeb texts (the green books) are particularly useful as well (apostolic fathers, Basil, others...)

 

Latin

Wheelock

Wheelock's reader

Moreland and Fleischer's Intensive Course

Dictionary of Latin Forms, W. Whitacre

The Latin Summa

Loeb texts (the red books)

And for some valuable induction, regular Latin Mass

 

 

Hebrew

Basics of Biblical Hebrew, Pratico and Van Pelt (although my teacher is not fond of this text)

JPS Tanakh

Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon

The Dead Sea Scrolls, Charlesworth's volumes

[sacklunch]

Syriac:

 

Grammars:

Theodor Nöldeke's Compendious Syriac Grammar (an oldie that has been reprinted a bunch)

Wheeler M. Thackston's Introduction to Syriac (this is prolly the best it gets for learning Syriac)

Takamitsu Muraoka's (and S. Brock) Classical Syriac (newer and good basic reference)

 

Lexicons:

Payne's A Compendious Syriac Dictionary (by far the most well referenced grammar....and free online!!! http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/PayneSmith/ )

Sokoloff's A Syriac Lexicon (the newest English dictionary! very extensive, but also very expensive!)

 

I have others in my library (well not Sokoloff...I head to library for that beast), but these are the standard grammars/lexicons. If you really want to start Syriac, it's much easier if you have studied classical Hebrew. Going from classical Hebrew to early Aramaic (e.g. imperial) and then to Syriac makes these grammars much more accessible!!

[AbrasaxEos]

A couple of less-common ones, that might yet be of interest to people in the Late Antique/Early Medieval field:

 

Coptic:

- Bentley Layton's "Coptic in 20 Lessons: Introduction to Sahidic Coptic" [i think better for learning initially, but his language can be very obscure at times, and you'll have to get used to what seems initially like an odd way of getting into the language; also you only get to read parts of the Bible by the end of it]

- Johanna Brankaer's "Coptic: A Learning Grammar" [some people like this one better, but it is rife with English grammatical errors and the organization is confusing at times; however you get more interesting reading by the end]

- Bentley Layton's "A Coptic Grammar: With Chrestomathy and Glossary" [The standard reference grammar]

- Richard Smith's "A Concise Coptic-English Lexicon" [Really nice for quick reference]

- Walter Crum's "A Coptic Dictionary" [The massive tome, look online, as it is available there]

 

Demotic:

- Janet Johnson's "Thus Wrote 'Onẖsheshonqy: An Introductory Grammar of Demotic" [Get it here: http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/saoc45.pdf]

- Wilhelm Spiegelberg's "Demotische Grammatik" [Old, but still the main reference grammar]

- W. Erichsen's "Demotisches Glossar" [Dictionary that is now in the process of being supplemented by The Oriental Institute here: https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/cdd/]

[N.B. You probably need someone to teach you Demotic, unless you are already familiar with an earlier form of the Egyptian language.  However, knowing one or both of these will pay off greatly in understanding Coptic, especially some of the rules of pronounciation that can be confusing if you are too tied to the Greek letters of its inscription.]

 

Old Church Slavonic:

- S.C. Gardiner's "Old Church Slavonic: An Introductory Grammar" [Very basic, more intended for those who mostly want to use the language liturgically]

- H.G. Lunt's "Old Church Slavonic Grammar" [More complete, but if you are not at least roughly familiar with some linguistics terminology you'll be lost after a few chapters]

- T.A. Lysaght's "Old Church Slavonic - Middle Greek - Modern English Dictionary"

- Also see UT Austin's site here if you just want to look into the possibility of learning the langauge: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/ocsol-0-X.html

[ N.B. Again, you'll probably need someone to teach you OCS.  It helps a great deal if you already know Russian or some other Slavic language, as you'll have far fewer alphabetic characters to learn, and they'll make more sense. 

 

Classical Armenian:

- For learning, just use the UT Austin site here: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/armol-TC-X.html

- Robert Godel's "Introduction to the Study of Classical Armenian" [A decent reference grammar]

- Hans Jensen's "Altarmenische Chrestomathie" [A bunch of texts to practice on, and one of the only accessible glossaries - in German though]

 

In general, the UT Austin site has a number of languages rooted in the Indo-European family with basic lessons, so go there and pick some esoteric language to work on in your spare time.

[awells27]

Akkadian: John Huehnergard,  A Grammar of Akkadian.   Eisenbrauns; 3rd edition edition 2011.

 

Someone needs to compile all this into one master list

[Paraclete]

This is great! Thanks for sharing, everyone!

 

I'm working on a spreadsheet right now, and will share a link when I get this topic compiled. I'll probably cross-post this to the languages and classics forums later.

 

Yeah, crowd-sourcing knowledge!

[Paraclete]

Also: why must language texts always cost an arm and a leg. Whyyyyy!!!

[awells27]

Also: why must language texts always cost an arm and a leg. Whyyyyy!!!

http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rfburger/language/German%20for%20Reading/

 

http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/9781589835962.pdf

 

http://www.projethomere.com/ressources/ancient_greek01book.pdf

Edited March 15, 2014 by awells27

[seroteamavi]

Also, not taking for granted that everyone already knows this, Perseus is great for Greek and Latin classics: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/

There, one can also access the Liddell-Scott IGEL online: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0058

[Paraclete]

Blergh. My hands are stiff. Okay, if any one has suggestions for additions, please either email me or comment straight on the Google Doc. I didn't give anyone access just because I wanted to keep it clean. Let's keep this going!

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhvTDVbklJMddGpWTEZWRW9fdWVESW1lYnA5NEJZRmc&usp=sharing

[Perytion]

Thanks for compiling this list.  This should prove very helpful.

[mdiv2014]

Bookfinder.com can help locate used books

Not a source book but a summer immersion in arabic at american uni of cairo is highly regarded

[Perytion]

Indeed.  I spent seven months of 2012 at AUC in their intensive Arabic program, and it was excellent.  I learned a ton.  From what I understand, their CASA program is also excellent.

 

However, I should mention that the books they publish and use for teaching Modern Standard Arabic (the Kitab al-Asasi series) are, in my humble opinion, terrible.  They would be almost useless to anyone hoping to do self-study, and are whole-heartedly NOT recommended.  Just my two cents.

[RD_Paul]

Classical Hebrew

Thomas O. Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew (I've read and tutored now out of a handful of others, and I still think Lambdin's is the best BH grammar I've seen)

Ronald J. Williams' Williams' Hebrew Syntax (Third Edition)

Resnikoff, et al. Tall Tales Told in Biblical Hebrew (this is fun. My professor had us read from these to practice recitation. I found them really helpful...here's a link)

Ethelyn Simon's Og the Terrible (a comic book written for children learning Hebrew in synagogue and written in BH. Also fun...here's a link)

Waltke & O'Connor, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (huge, but really good)

 

Rabbinic Hebrew

Fernandez's An Introductory Grammar of Rabbinic Hebrew

 

Ugaritic (haven't personally used any of these, but they come highly recommended)

Schniedewind & Hunt, A Primer on Ugaritic: Language, Culture, and Religion

Huehnergard, An Introduction to Ugaritic

 

Aramaic

Greenspahn, An Introduction to Aramaic (second edition) (covers Imperial, inscriptional, Targumic, and Dead Sea Scrolls, and even has a chapter on Midrashic)

Rosenthal, A Grammar of Biblical Aramaic

Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (I think this can be found online)

Torah with Targum Onkelos and Rashi's Commentary (link)

Johns, A Short Grammar of Biblical Aramaic

 

Greek

I've taught Greek once, and I used Mounce. It's not my favorite, but I think it's the most student friendly.

I also think Metzger's Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek is helpful.

When I learned, I also used Athenaze. 

Schoder, et al., A Reading Course in Homeric Greek (books 1 and 2) are also really good if you're interested in Homeric Greek. 

 

Latin

Shelmerdine, Introduction to Latin

Goldman and Morton, English Grammar for Students of Latin is helpful

 

Coptic

Lambdin, Introduction to Sahidic Coptic (I haven't used this one yet, but I've heard good things)

 

Syriac

In addition to what's already been mentioned:

Muroaka, Classical Syriac for Hebraists

You can also find The Laughable Stories of Bar-Hebraeus online (just google it). These are fun and easy to read. 

[Macrina]

so I actually came here to look for this information - it's very handy to have it all in one thread

I'm afraid it's all going to disappear into the back pages of gradcafe; is there any way to get this pinned so we don't lose the info? would that even be helpful?

[seroteamavi]

so I actually came here to look for this information - it's very handy to have it all in one thread

I'm afraid it's all going to disappear into the back pages of gradcafe; is there any way to get this pinned so we don't lose the info? would that even be helpful?

 

Yes. This is my new favorite thread. Perhaps every now and then, we can come "bump" it back up to the top.

[mdiv2014]

BUMP

Being a dealer in rare and collectible books, I cannot stress bookfinder.com enough

http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&ref=bf_s2_a1_t1_1&qi=WkKAncpPQDbd3F1D7fiI5E96tW4_2213891704_1:761:3190&bq=author%3Ddenise%2520moyes-schnur%26title%3Dog%2520the%2520terrible%2520returns%2520og%27s%2520further%2520adventures%2520in%2520prayerbook%2520hebrew

this link for classical hebrew og the horrible shows listing from 17-133 usd (whoa, that was including shipping to where i live...)

don't rely just on amazon (it listed it at 133) to buy books

Edited March 20, 2014 by mdiv2014