Few tips on learning akkadian using a computer.

[af]

Maybe this information will be helpful to those who are learning akkadian.
I learn akkadian words with a program Mnemosyne on PC www.mnemosyne-proj.org/ and AnyMemo on my android phone. So I make a table in Excel with 2 columns which contain words and meanings. Then I load it in a program and it starts to test me, asking the words and I should say meaning etc. It is very easy, much more easier than asking everyone around to test my knowledge of akkadian.

And of course I have to write akkadian transliteration with diacritics. How to make it easier? Download and install the program Autohotkey www.autohotkey.net/~Lexikos/AutoHotkey_L/v/AutoHotkey110200_Install.exe which allows to assign keybinds to the selected unicode symbols. Then start my script to this program art.afkin.ru/kiengir/akkadian.exe (all this only for Windows!) Or write your own script.

In my script the hotkeys to diacritic signs are:

ā – aa
ē – ee
ū – uu
ī – ii
â – =a
ê – =e
û – =u
î – =i
š – =sh
ş – =ts
ţ – =th

[us4-he2-gal2]

Wow! Very nice techniques Af I should try this flash card thing , I am just starting my Akkadian vocab stuff so in addition to this resource you've given I should have a section on vocab up soon I hope.


In the Akkadian class this year there are 23 students which has everybody at the department in Toronto here a little shocked - 6 was expected maybe, tops! Maybe I can get a few more learners here in the coming months, will see

[af]

Bill! Btw can you tell what textbooks are used (or you will use) in your akkadian classes?
More learners are welcome!

[us4-he2-gal2]

Hello Af:



Yes, we are using "A Grammar of Akkadian" by John Huehnergard (2nd edition). The book a very complete guide and may be the first systematic detailed introduction in English - so far is seems wonderfully planned and the author knows how people learn. There is a book that goes with it called "Key to A Grammar of Akkadian" which has the answers to the exercises - although it's not so nice to have to get this separately, it's better than some manuals to ancient language which have no answers to exercises at all.

The ISBN for the Grammar itself is: 0-7885-0318-9

This ISBN for the key to the Grammar is: 1-57506-924-5

[af]

Bill, can you make me a favor? Tell more about the way of studying akkadian in your university? I mean how much lessons a week do you have, what do you do on lessons and what the homework is usually etc? It can help those who learn akkadian alone. All information will be appriciated.
And also - the book of Huehnergard - is for a year or maybe more?

[us4-he2-gal2]

Heya Af -



Yes Huehnergard is supposed to be done in about a year. So our class meets twice a week - and each time we meet we review the next chapter. So that means the class goes at the pace of two chapters a week and you pretty much need to learn the vocab of two chapters each week as well or else it all adds up and becomes a nightmare.

So two chapters a week isn't bad with Huehnergard. Huehnergard really is a genius in my opinion as he structures the book very well and he knows how people learn - when a chapter talks about something difficult to learn and remember, than the chapter is shorter, for example.


So our instructor, Beaulieu, mostly follows Heuhnergard precisely, and his main role is to read the chapter outloud in class and make sure everyone has read and understands it and he answer the odd question but usually there are none. Therefore as an independent learner, you really can do just about the same thing as long as you have access to the book.


So just do a chapter or 2 a week and make charts

[svladu]

Hey, Ush, thank you for your kind words on the other thread. I already have electronic versions of Huehnergard's grammar and key, and also Caplice, Ungand, Gelb, Riemschneider and the dicionaries (von Soden's Worterbuch and the Concise Dictionary of Black et. al). I wanted to ask what is the deal with David Marcus' A Manual of Akadian, if you know it. How does the inductive approach (mentioned in one of the reviews on amazon) differ from Huehnergard?

[us4-he2-gal2]

Svladu:



This is quite an impressive collection of starting material that you have It is very difficult to get Assyriological materials, so you must have worked out a good strategy. I mean, I suppose it is not so difficult if you have money and amazon, but I'm most people I speak to about this problem don't have the money to buy the books, students for example.



As for the Manuel of Akkadian by Marcus, I am REALLY surprised that you have come across a book which I've never heard of! Never heard it named once by any Assyriologist or student in the 6-7 years I've been in school. That may be a bad sign. By "inductive" this usually means that the author will throw text after text at you with little explanation and you learn by seeing the material and wrestling with it. Some professors think this is a good situation for learning, others don't. Huehnergard is really the opposite, he gives you big grammatical lessons in every chapter, and a little exercise at the end. Have to say, I agree with the latter notion of pedagogy. I think Marcus 1978 has all but been forgotten in the field and I had to search to find any comments about it - Walter Farber said this about it in JNES 42 4:

"In 1978, D. Marcus published another attempt at producing a textbook of Akkadian (A Manual of Akkadian [Washington, D.C.]), using what he calls the "inductive method," which seems to me to be not really adequate for the objectives and standards of academic language training in our field; taking the risk of being accused of hyperconservativism regarding new scholarly methods, I do not think the Manual marks an important step forward in the teaching of Akkadian."

[santakku]

I had a huge flashcard system before I got to uni. Just dug it up on my hard-drive - it's embarrassingly clear after testing it still works that I should never have given up!

It's uploaded now at: ankiweb.net/shared/info/1484604102

You'll need the Anki program to run it, but totally worth the trouble (it's free!).

There are a million flaws, some quite substantial, as I had no teacher. But even for all that, it's still a great resource.

Those technically minded could also steal the fonts and CSS to use to their own nefarious ends.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Very nice Santakku Yes I also was very enthusiastic about studying Mesopotamia and also cuneiform before I entered university (as you can see on the message board). Interesting that you used the ANKI flashcard program, I use this all the time but have only discovered its usefulness in the last 3 years or so. It does has some problems its not a perfect program, but together with a good PDF collection and a screen capture software, one can easily capture cuneiform signs from the pdfs and copy them right into the flash card program. It is an easy and quick way to build a flash card deck to be reviewed (usually before tests).

[nemequm]

that deck seems to be AMAZING Santakku, thank you so much for sharing this!

I'm too tired now to look properly to your deck, but I'll for sure start to use it, I just downloaded it and took a small peek. (Also it seems that some fonts or pictures or something aren't working, but I have to figure out where the problem exactly is.) And I'll give the link to all my friends interested in cuneiform ^^

Like I've said somewhere in this forum, Anki has been the method for me to learn cuneiform. Without it I guess I wouldn't know anything. Your deck seems to fix at least part of the problem that with Anki (of Hammurapi law signs) we only learned the one version, the font version of signs...

PS. I still found it amazing how you people have been enthusiastic about cuneiform/Mesopotamia before/outside the Uni. I knew almost nothing about it when I went to Uni...

[santakku]

Could you help diagnose the problem? I tried to include the media files, but it could be that they're all missing. Do any show? Hard for me to tell, as I have the deck already on my account. I would love to get this working for everybody.

[nemequm]

Santakku: I have actually no idea why it mostly works but some things aren't visible. I see pictures of signs, arabic text, translitterated Akkadian (I decided to use only Akkadian part) and so on, but one of the card types seems to not showing all info. If I remember correctly, it's a type asking "what this Akkadian word is in English" and then I don't see the word to translate.

I still haven't got so much time to play with your deck, and of course when I now tried to find the bug everything was working perfectly fine!

I also still wonder how exactly you have used your huge deck? In random order or not, only one language at a time or how? Do you have any tips? I also have to say I don't know how to filter away some card types I don't find so important, but I guess I just have to read the official Anki manual for that.

[santakku]

Most of the cards contain cuneiform Unicode; there are only a few pictures. You didn't mention typed cuneiform, so I'm guessing that's it. ...Which is weird, because the fonts are in the same folder with the same url structure as the images. If this is the problem, hang on 'til I fix it because that's the best bit!

As for tips - well, it kind of grew and grew until it was unmanageable, both for me and Anki. It turned into a database, not a set of flashcards, and a database that took ten minutes CPU to add a new record! So no easy procedure - it's flawed. I did all cards at random until I burnt out - don't do that. I would recommend going into the card browser, sorting by type, and then clicking 'suspend' for those not needed.

Basically, it sparked my interest in designing data for learning. I'm taking all the good bits and designing a website for v2, much more user friendly and with better processing than Anki. The theory is I'll link to CDLI images to get "parse the verb in this .jpg", for example. But exams are getting in my way...

[santakku]

Updated the link: ankiweb.net/shared/info/1484604102

I checked through everything I could and no major breakthroughs. Thinking about what you said, I'm no longer sure you didn't get the fonts - the actual pictures are so few. I did spend ages trying to get the Unicode realistic with CSS shadows etc., so I'd be chuffed if you thought they were pictures?! I created a new account and downloaded it fine, so no obvious problem there. I did run into a few minor typos in the templates - I think I'd just been upgrading them two years ago when I gave up and decided Anki wasn't the best route. So a couple of fixes, but no blank cards filled in. Maybe your issues are more of that type, in which case I'll find them as I get back into it. Other than that, I will try and correct anything pointed out here.

[santakku]

I've found the problem - no cuneiform data for the last batch of vocab I entered. That simple - I'd done half the job. Will take a while to fix, but I will update it.

[tuppum]

Re. not having money to buy introductory assyriological materials: I've found it helpful to have a borrower's card at a local university. Perhaps not every university library will have an extensive collection, but it's worth a try!

[santakku]

I spent the day yesterday hacking (though the non-malicious version! ) ePSD to create a new Anki deck for Akkadian. It's not as flashy as my abandoned project above, but it should have every Akkadian gloss included in ePSD - i.e. every Akkadian translation of a Sumerian word and its English equivalent. Should help me in my exams!

I thought about doing a Sumerian version, but I think simply listing eight unrelated English words on the back of a card is not productive. I still am committed to producing cooler resources at some point, incorporating photos, fonts, audio, and reference tools, but 2750 Akkadian words is a start!

Tested it and think it is okay. I'm not interested in improving single cards right now, but if there's a group with mishandled data let me know. The whole thing was automated, so I haven't checked 95% of it yet.

www.dropbox.com/s/s0cbf7f8nqj0p6y/ePSD%20Akkadian.apkg?dl=0