Greek Pronunciation

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Sun Oct 17 08:03:35 EDT 1999


To: Carl W. Conrad, et al.,

<< I am pretty well convinced that ancient Greek is NOT pronounced today in 
most countries in a manner very much like that in which it was pronounced 
in ancient Greek-speaking places, but I think there must have been at least 
as much variation from place to place as there is variation in the 
pronunciation of English today in different places of the world. And 
ultimately, I don't think it really matters, so long as one learns a 
consistent pronunciation so that one can have the aural reinforcement of 
hearing words and sentences to assist with learning the language--I think 
that sounding out what one is learning to read is vital to successful 
language learning. For this reason I warn my students that the 
pronunciation system I am teaching is arbitrary--unlikely to be very close 
to the way the language was ever spoken in any one particular place, but I 
insist that my students learn my own modified "Erasmian" system and read 
aloud regularly in class. >>

That seems to be a practical and healthy attitude to a very complex problem 
from my point of view!

In addition, I would offer this piece of advice for any beginning student 
learning to pronounce Greek, if anyone challenges your pronunciation, just 
look them in the eye, and with as haughty of a voice as you can muster, 
say: "I use a neo-Erasmian system of pronunciation, what system do you 
use?" <g>

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com



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