Spanish helps with Greek?

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3John2

Puritan Board Freshman
I'm about to finish my Summer intensive on Greek & one thing I've noticed is that a knowledge of Spanish helps out quite a bit with it. The gender in the words is something that I relate to Spanish & it has helped me quite a bit. Just thought I'd mention it to those who are thinking of taking Greek in the future & because I've read several people mention that a knowledge a Latin helps in Greek. Well Spanish is a lot more readily available to learn & it's also USED especially nowadays as we are getting invaded by Mexico. Also I had previously studied Russian & that helped a bit as well. many of the letters transfer from Cyrillic to Greek & vice versa. Loving it!!! I have a whole new respect for Spanish.
 
Yes it is. I learned Spanish from my parents. Didn't learn English till I started school. I even learned how to read Spanish which has helped me. I pretty much had stopped using it but when I started using the Machen book & we were doing our study sessions some of the details of the Greek language simply do NOT translate to English. HOwever with Spanish they do. That made it a WHOLE lot easier to grasp. Now I can see why people recommend learning Latin. Thing is we'll never use Latin unless we're reading some classics in Latin. With Spanish since I live by the border we use it all the time.
 
There is a Greek textbook designed specifically for Spanish speakers that tries to make analogies between the languages:

Griego para Sancho: Introducción al griego del Nuevo Testamento
 
Francisco de Enzinas

Franciso taught Greek to Anglos at Cambridge.

Dryander” was the surname adopted by the 16th century Spanish reformer Francisco de Enzinas, giving Greek form to his surname (drys is the Greek word for encina, which is one of the Spanish words for “oak”).

Francis Dryander was born about 1519 and 1520. He was first educated at the University of Louvain, where he had his first encounter with the writings of the 16th century reformers. In 1542 he translated the New Testament from Greek into Spanish while studying at the University of Wittemberg, and published it in the Netherlands in 1543. From 1548 through 1549 he was professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge. Afterwards he translated several works into Spanish, which he was able to publish before his early death due to the plague in 1552.

Spanish historian Marcelino Menéndez-Pelayo, notwithstanding his being hostile to Dryander because of his evangelical faith, writes about him that: “Among the 16th century Spanish Protestants Dryander stands out for his philological knowledge, for the number and quality of his writings…”[1]

Inspired by the life of Francis Dryander, the mission of Dryander Publishing is to make available to the general public writings in Spanish language that present, explain and defend the message revealed by God in the Bible, as well as to promote evangelical authors from various parts of the world and make their writings available.

Taken from www.dryander.com
 
There is a volume (I have it in Mexico City) which has some writing of the ECF in Greek with facing Spanish translation. Very nicely done.
 
Thanks for that nifty bit of history there.
I first posted this as I remember reading several threads where (I don't remember for sure) either Fred Greco or Scott Clark mentioned about learning Latin & how it would help you in learning Greek. Well I don't know Latin however I'm finding how how Spanish has helped me quite a bit. I just thought I'd mention is as learning Spanish is far more accessible & useful for someone to learn that it is to go & learn Latin. Just my :2cents:.
 
It appears my comments have offended some Hispanics/Mexicans on this board. That was NOT my intent in this post. If that is the case I apoligize. I'll just refrain from posting from here on.
 
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