Translating Greek

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JMC838
 
Reply Sat 27 Feb, 2010 05:30 pm
I'm reading "A History of Philosophy" by Frederick Copleston and there are parts of the book that are written in Greek. Does anyone know of a website that has either translated these parts or is able to translate Greek to English?

In the book he uses the Greek alphabet and I don't know how to type in Greek on my keyboard.

-Jason-
 
kennethamy
 
Reply Sat 27 Feb, 2010 05:57 pm
@JMC838,
JMC838;133380 wrote:
I'm reading "A History of Philosophy" by Frederick Copleston and there are parts of the book that are written in Greek. Does anyone know of a website that has either translated these parts or is able to translate Greek to English?

In the book he uses the Greek alphabet and I don't know how to type in Greek on my keyboard.

-Jason-


You can't unless you have greek fonts. You can get them, but I don't know how.
 
Deckard
 
Reply Sat 27 Feb, 2010 08:14 pm
@JMC838,
This tool looks promising
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/polytonic-greek-inputter.html

found it linked off of this website
Greek Fonts
 
VideCorSpoon
 
Reply Sat 27 Feb, 2010 09:09 pm
@JMC838,
Might find this useful;
http://www.kypros.org/cgi-bin/lexicon
 
JMC838
 
Reply Sat 27 Feb, 2010 09:41 pm
@VideCorSpoon,
Deckard;133423 wrote:
This tool looks promising
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/polytonic-greek-inputter.html

found it linked off of this website
Greek Fonts


VideCorSpoon;133440 wrote:


I think it might be a lost cause.

I tried using the converter that Deckard provided to put a word that I know through the translator that Vide provided and it didn't translate it right. I will have to just skip over those portions of the text. Fortunately they are used sparingly. I appreciate your help though.
 
Fido
 
Reply Sat 27 Feb, 2010 09:55 pm
@JMC838,
I have been trying to learn more of it for the same reason...Now I have a real good dictionary, Greek Bible and Bible Greek dictionary... It is interesting, but I am too old to learn it well now...I am sort of getting to where I can sound out words, and some are not so different... I saw some yogurt in my refrigerater, Oikos, was written on it...I closed the door...I know that word I said: house...Which we know through oikonomos, I think is the spelling: House management: Economy...
 
Deckard
 
Reply Sat 27 Feb, 2010 10:02 pm
@JMC838,
JMC838;133448 wrote:
I think it might be a lost cause.

I tried using the converter that Deckard provided to put a word that I know through the translator that Vide provided and it didn't translate it right. I will have to just skip over those portions of the text. Fortunately they are used sparingly. I appreciate your help though.


On that translator click on "Greek Letters". It looks like there are a whole bunch of additional accents involved so if its not exactly right the right word won't come out of the Vide's translator.

You might also getting one line of the the Greek text exactly right and then googling that line in quotes and you might run across English transaltions. That's a bit of work but it might be worth it if you're really interested in the text.
 
Fido
 
Reply Sat 27 Feb, 2010 10:58 pm
@JMC838,
is there a particular phrase or word you are looking for. describe the letters you do recognize and the ones you do not..
 
JMC838
 
Reply Sat 27 Feb, 2010 11:11 pm
@Fido,
Fido;133455 wrote:
is there a particular phrase or word you are looking for. describe the letters you do recognize and the ones you do not..


There were some particular words and phrases that prompted me to write this post, but Copleston uses Greek language throughout the book.
 
Fido
 
Reply Sat 27 Feb, 2010 11:29 pm
@JMC838,
I have a book like that on ancient philosophy..
 
jgweed
 
Reply Sun 28 Feb, 2010 12:01 pm
@JMC838,
Copleston generally follows the accepted methods of citing Greek and Roman authors; these are found in the footnote information he provides.

For example, he will cite the critical edition of Aristotle by its Bekker number (for example, Metaph A 987b 1-3) rather than a page number from a particular edition or translation. These standard "page" references are usually provided along with any scholarly translation, usually to the side of the text.

For many classical authors, the complete original text can be found at Perseus Digital Library, which provides a handy look up function on the same page as the text:

Greek and Roman Materials

Places such as the IPL or Open Library will usually have translations of the major philosophers' works (with standard references); however, the regrettable US copyright law (thanks to Mickey Mouse) often prevents the more current translations from being offered. In any case, one should remember that translations of the same text may differ significantly, especially with philosophical works.
 
Theaetetus
 
Reply Sun 28 Feb, 2010 01:34 pm
@JMC838,
As someone that is working through there fourth semester of Attic Greek, I can say that it would be a waste of time to try working with the Greek text in Copleston. The little that you may gain by doing so, would take far too much effort on your part. A good dictionary and a good grammar would not be enough to get through--you also need to know how to use them as well. Even just to read a few lines here and there of Greek, I would recommend taking a a series of classes on the Ancient Greek language.

Unfortunately, there are really no good resources on the net for ancient Greek/English translations. The things that are up on the net are greatly inaccurate at best.
 
 

 
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