I'm on the second chapter of van den Hout's book and it's gotten me thinking about the order of teaching elements of a language.1 Grammars of inflected languages present the grammar in weekly portions, to make them easier to absorb. (When I post about trying to memorize cuneiform, I'll reflect a little more on the challenges of memorization.) Now I've learned the declensions for the a-stem (chapter 1) and the i-stem (chapter 2), and the present and perfect indicative active endings. So far, so good--and because endings are the same throughout the indicative, regardless of stem changes in the verb, I think I'm pretty well prepared to wade into lots of literature. And because I've studied various languages, I am prepared for the medio-passives, imperfectives and imperatives and have even begun clearing some of the cobwebs from my brain for them. The Hittites were kind enough to not, apparently, have left us a subjunctive or optative mood (indicating various departures from certainty in statements).
Left to my own devices, I'd probably try to learn or at least become familiar with all the verb tenses at once, not knowing what to expect in my readings, and then just ticking them off as I came to them. If I did this, I'm sure I'd neglect some rarer ones almost entirely. It also helps to feel like I'm making some progress--reading the practice sentences at the end of each lesson in a textbook makes me feel like I'm really learning some Hittite, as opposed to having to rush back to the grammars with each sentence.
So I will be consuming these portions as van den Hout and Hoffner & Melchert serve them. I think this is a very good thing. Another example: Moving from Latin to Greek (or dabbling in Semitic languages), when it came to verbs I was struck by the decreased didactic importance of the infinitive. If I had studied Greek without a graded plan, I would certainly have learned infinitives first; then I might have figured out on my own that 1st-person-singulars are a little more helpful for determining forms. This is especially so for contracted verbs, and for the aorist passives. 1-sgs are, I think, the dictionary lemmas for good reason.
1. Hittite is an inflected language, meaning that Hittite's nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs change depending on their syntax. Pronouns, nouns and adjectives are declined, as in he > him > his > they > them; adjectives are conjugated, as in talk > talks > talked.
Left to my own devices, I'd probably try to learn or at least become familiar with all the verb tenses at once, not knowing what to expect in my readings, and then just ticking them off as I came to them. If I did this, I'm sure I'd neglect some rarer ones almost entirely. It also helps to feel like I'm making some progress--reading the practice sentences at the end of each lesson in a textbook makes me feel like I'm really learning some Hittite, as opposed to having to rush back to the grammars with each sentence.
So I will be consuming these portions as van den Hout and Hoffner & Melchert serve them. I think this is a very good thing. Another example: Moving from Latin to Greek (or dabbling in Semitic languages), when it came to verbs I was struck by the decreased didactic importance of the infinitive. If I had studied Greek without a graded plan, I would certainly have learned infinitives first; then I might have figured out on my own that 1st-person-singulars are a little more helpful for determining forms. This is especially so for contracted verbs, and for the aorist passives. 1-sgs are, I think, the dictionary lemmas for good reason.
1. Hittite is an inflected language, meaning that Hittite's nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs change depending on their syntax. Pronouns, nouns and adjectives are declined, as in he > him > his > they > them; adjectives are conjugated, as in talk > talks > talked.
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