Belfast Summer School in Ancient Languages - On line and in person

Elisa Ramazzina Discussion

The eighth Belfast Summer School in ancient languages will take place in July and August 2023. Students can attend in person at Queen’s University Belfast between Monday 17th and Friday 21st of July, or virtually on Zoom between Monday 24th of July, and Friday 4th of August.

Courses are available in Latin, Classical Greek, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Biblical Hebrew, Classical Arabic, and Old English.

 

ENROLL AT: Belfast Summer School

 

Description

The eighth Belfast Summer School in Ancient Languages will take place in July 2023.

The in-person summer school will be at Queen’s University Belfast from Monday 17th July until Friday 21st July, and classes will be available in Latin and Classical Greek at beginners, lower intermediate, upper intermediate, and advanced levels.

The virtual summer school will take place from Monday 24th July until Friday 4th August. Classes will be available in Latin, Classical Greek, Old English, and Egyptian Hieroglyphs. The virtual summer school is a continuous two-week course, however, students may enroll for the first week only.

BELFAST SUMMER SCHOOL GUEST LECTURE SERIES

Accompanying the summer school will be a series of online guest lectures which are open to everyone. Registered students will receive the Zoom links for guest lectures. These are free and open to the general public, and those interested may register closer to the time to receive the Zoom links. Confirmed speakers include Dr. John Taylor, Maiken King, Dr. Anactoria Clarke, and Dr. Kerry Phelan. Others will be announced in due course.

Summer School fees are as follows: £140 if registering for the two-week virtual course, £75 if registering for the one-week online or one-week in-person course.

Please note, it is not necessary to purchase textbooks for the Summer School. All notes and worksheets will be provided.

To view the 2023 provisional programme click here: PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

COURSES OFFERED IN 2023

VIRTUAL SUMMER SCHOOL 

Old English for Beginners is aimed at everyone who would like to learn Old English and have no prior or elementary knowledge. This intensive online course will cover pronunciation and grammar and will include reading and translation workshops. The workshops will introduce various Old English texts to be read and translated with the help of glossaries. Students will thus have the chance to familiarise themselves with Old English texts in their manuscript context.

Biblical Hebrew  Students will be assimilated from the very start into the language, culture, geography, and mode of thinking of the Biblical world, the course will be taught by a Biblical and classical philologist who is also a native Jerusalemite fluent since early childhood in Biblical Hebrew. The main objective is to make the Bible accessible in the original to the students, but the language will be taught using similar methods of teaching living modern languages. Special emphasis will be given from the very start to correct pronunciation and phonology.

Classical Arabic (information coming soon)

Egyptian Hieroglyphs This course will introduce you to Middle Egyptian, the Classical stage of the Egyptian language, and is aimed at beginners with no familiarity with the ancient Egyptian language or hieroglyphs. This course will start by introducing you to the different categories of signs in the hieroglyphic script and their phonetic values. The classes will then cover the following: personal, royal, and divine names; pronouns; nouns and noun-based sentences; adjectives; prepositions and adverbs; and the past, present and future tenses. As we go along, we will practice reading funerary inscriptions such as the so-called Offering Formula dedicated to Osiris, Anubis, and other Egyptian deities.

Latin for beginners: In this course you will start at the absolute beginning, learning about how Latin forms its basic tenses (e.g. Present, Future, Imperfect) and how its nouns and adjectives look when used in different parts of a sentence. By the end of the course, you will be familiar with case usage, and tenses, and be able to translate a good range of basic sentences, including basic sentences in both adapted and original Latin.

Lower Intermediate LatinThis course is for students who already have the basics of Latin. You will be expected to understand what the different cases are, and at least one or two of the noun declensions. You will also be expected to understand at least the Present Tense Active forms of verbs. From there, we will introduce the other noun declensions, as well as the other Active tenses, finally touching on the Passive voice and participles. We will tackle practice sentences and passages throughout the course, and finally attempt unseen passages of original, unadapted Latin. These will be taken from a range of sources, but we will attempt both prose and poetry from the ancient world.

Upper Intermediate Latin: This course is for students who are familiar with all of the declensions and both the Active and Passive voices of all the verb tenses, as well as participles. We will cover more advanced grammar, for example, the Subjunctive mood and the different types of clauses (temporal, conditional, purpose, result), along with indirect statements and questions, before tackling a more advanced passage of Latin. The aim here is to consolidate your existing knowledge, building on the material you covered in previous summer schools, or indeed previous Latin experience from school, university, or your own personal learning. This course will set you up well for tackling unadapted Latin texts on your own, with the help of a dictionary and grammar book.

Advanced Latin: Students will deal with completely unadapted and original Latin texts. A relatively advanced knowledge of Latin vocabulary and grammar will be required for this class. Students will undertake independent translation under the guidance of their instructor, who will offer explanations of the more advanced grammatical concepts they will encounter. Texts to be read will be taken from the UK A-level syllabus and will be confirmed closer to the time.

Classical Greek for beginners: no previous knowledge of Greek is necessary for this course. Students are asked to learn the Greek alphabet before commencing the course, and instructions and a worksheet will be provided. We will learn about how verbs are formed, and about noun declensions. By the end of the course, you will be able to translate basic sentences.

Lower Intermediate Classical Greek: This class is for those who already know some ancient Greek.  You are expected to understand the present tense active forms, first and second-declension nouns, and prepositions. We will continue with future, imperfect, and aorist tenses, and third declension nouns. Students will translate from Greek to English, and English to Greek, and by the end of the course, we will read some adapted ancient Greek.

Upper-Intermediate Classical Greek: This class is for students who are familiar with Imperfect, Future, and Aorist tenses, Active and Middle voices. We will cover more advanced grammar such as the Subjunctive and Optative mood and their uses; the Passive voice, Perfect tense, and subordinate clauses such as indirect statements and purpose clauses. We will read adapted and original texts during the course. By the end of this course, students should be able to attempt a translation of unadapted texts with the aid of a grammar and dictionary.

Advanced Classical Greek: In this course, students will translate un-adapted Greek texts under the guidance of their instructor, who will provide an explanation of grammar and vocabulary as necessary. A reasonable grasp of the material covered in Lower Intermediate Classical Greek and Upper Intermediate Classical Greek (above) will be necessary for students attending this class. Texts to be read will be taken from the A-level syllabus and will be confirmed closer to the time.

 

IN-PERSON SUMMER SCHOOL AT QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST

Latin for beginners: In this course you will start at the absolute beginning, learning about how Latin forms its basic tenses (e.g. Present, Future, Imperfect) and how its nouns and adjectives look when used in different parts of a sentence. By the end of the course, you will be familiar with case usage, and tenses, and be able to translate a good range of basic sentences, including basic sentences in both adapted and original Latin.

Intermediate Latin: This course is for students who already have the basics of Latin. You will be expected to understand what the different cases are, the first three noun declensions, and the Active voice forms of verbs. We will revise this initial material briefly before covering extra uses of the various cases, Relative Pronouns, the Passive voice of all verb tenses, and participles. We will tackle practice sentences and passages throughout the course, and finally attempt unseen passages of original, unadapted Latin.

Advanced Latin: In this course, you will deal with completely unadapted and original Latin texts. A relatively advanced knowledge of Latin vocabulary and grammar will be required for this class. Students will undertake independent translation under the guidance of their instructor, who will offer explanations of the more advanced grammatical concepts you will encounter. Texts to be read will be taken from the UK A-level syllabus and will be confirmed closer to the time.

Classical Greek for beginners: no previous knowledge of Greek is necessary for this course. Students are asked to learn the Greek alphabet before commencing the course, and instructions and a worksheet will be provided. We will learn about how verbs are formed, and about noun declensions. By the end of the course, you will be able to translate basic sentences.

Intermediate Classical Greek: This class is for students who are familiar with imperfect, future, and aorist tenses in the active voice. we will cover the middle and passive voices, contract verbs, demonstrative pronouns and adjectives, reflexive pronouns, and the genitive absolute. During the course, we will read adapted and original texts.

Advanced Classical Greek: In this course, students will translate un-adapted Greek texts under the guidance of their instructor, who will provide an explanation of grammar and vocabulary as necessary. A reasonable grasp of the material covered in Intermediate Classical Greek will be necessary for students attending this class. Texts to be read will be taken from the UK A-level syllabus and will be confirmed closer to the time.

Biblical Hebrew  Students will be assimilated from the very start into the language, culture, geography, and mode of thinking of the Biblical world, the course will be taught by a Biblical and classical philologist who is also a native Jerusalemite fluent since early childhood in Biblical Hebrew. The main objective is to make the Bible accessible in the original to the students, but the language will be taught using similar methods of teaching living modern languages. Special emphasis will be given from the very start to correct pronunciation and phonology.