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Is this a sound Greek tip?

Posted: December 4th, 2018, 8:32 pm
by Bill Ross
I was reading some Greek and was suddenly struck with how similar it was to Spanish. I researched this on Quorum and a guy from Greece was addressing a question[url=[/url] about how easy/hard it might be to learn Greek for a Spanish speaker. Among his interesting comments was this:

[quote]The Greek Χ/χ? It's just like the Spanish "j", so you got ojo = όχο.
[/quote]

"ojo" is how you say "eye" in Spanish (pronounced "oh-ho").

Is that a useful tip for Koine?

Re: Is this a sound Greek tip?

Posted: December 5th, 2018, 10:06 am
by RandallButh
It might be useful, or not, depending on one's control of Spanish dialects. Greek "Χ" is not an "h" (as in some Spanish dialects) but a velar fricative, somewhat like Hebrew khaf ך כ [without dagesh], though Greek χι is often more fronted, more palatal, especially with front vowels.

It is best to view Greek within Greek.