February 16:
These past two weeks have been really great and I have learned a lot! We have gone over very important things like verb categories and other grammatical concepts like forming clauses without a verb. One exercise that we have done is a translation exercise with the Epistle of St John in Ge’ez. This was new to me. I would start off by reading aloud the group of verses to practice my reading and pronunciation. Then I would vocally exercise translating on the spot. My language partner would suggest some things or point out important grammatical markers and I would thus improve my translation. Another way we did it is by preparing more with the text to spot out vocabulary I didn’t know or conjugations I could mark. Then, during our session, I would use that knowledge to reform the translation along with the feedback of my instructor. We also are trying to translate Melke’a Si’il which is a piece of poetry. The subgenre is “Melk” or portrait. The style is archaea poetry. It isn’t very easily translated in English but it is a type of poetry in which God, the saints, and events are characterized physically. The stanzas are typically 5 lines and the number of syllables in the line are very important to the piece because it is sung in melody. Each stanza ends with a rhyme and keeps one rhyme in the stanza. Thus, words are often rearranged to make the rhyme fit. The order of subject, object, verb is often moved around in comparison to a typical narrative script. The poems are often long, having around 30 stanzas or more.
One of the first important comments that I got from translating this poem is identifying infinitives. Identifying subjunctives, verbs in perfect and imperfect “tenses” is another difficult exercise that we do while translating. And actually I found out that the sense of tenses in Ge’ez is much more dependent on the context of the sentence than just the verb alone. Imperfect tense for example can have a future implication or a subjunctive implication when translated into English.
Another great thing thus far has been the resources that my language partner has compiled for me including grammar guides, dictionaries, and dictionary guides. I have been primarily using Holmstead’s Introduction to Ge’ez. It has small lessons that I take weekly and come back to our sessions with questions. I really like how the information is organized in the textbook. It is very easy to follow and includes graphics and exercises to apply the lessons. It also includes a dictionary and verb conjugation guide.
So far, I really like the format of this class. I am able to apply the concepts that I have learned, work on projects that I am really passionate about, and discuss the application of the Ge;ez language in a larger social context. I can’t wait to see the future projects we choose, because the ones we’re looking at now are really applicable to my daily service in the church as well.
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