Greek Pronunciation

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Tue Oct 19 12:57:58 EDT 1999


To: Joe A. Friberg, et al.,

<< [comments from Randall Buth:] but emically, the same pronunciation 
should be used for both /oi/ and /u/, and that pronunciation for 'oi' 
should be distinguished from /i,ei/, as well as from /ou/. >>

JAF: <<  While it may be historically inaccurate, I have attempted to 
maintain a distinction between each graphemically distinct vowel and 
dipthong.  I find this helpful for learning/remembering spellings.  I would 
suggest the heuristic value outweighs historical considerations, esp. for 
the beginner. >>

Where did you learn this?

My own personal variations on pronunciation include the following. 
According to Smyth, the long and short of the alpha, iota, and upsilon are 
supposed to be pronounced differently. But most Greek texts do not 
distinguish between the long and short of these vowels. I pronounce the 
long and short of the alpha and upsilon the same. And I arbitrarily 
pronounce some iotas long, and some short, whichever sounds best to me. 
Smyth says the short upsilon should be pronounced like the French "tu" and 
the long like the French "sur." I don't speak French, so my upsilon sound a 
lot like my pronunciation of  the diphthong OU (which I guess I probably 
also pronounce wrong). The short of it is this. Although I've tried to 
learn a different pronunciation for each vowel and diphthong,  my U & OU 
sound the same, and my H & EI sound the same. I don't consider this a great 
drawback, after all, no one in my neighborhood knows ancient Greek! <g>

FWIW ... anyone interested in reading a history of  the Greek language 
might want to take a look at: "Greek: A History of the Language and its 
Speakers" by Geoffrey Horrocks (Addison Wesley Longman, 1997).

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

 From Luther's Large Catechism: "Why, do you think, is the world now so 
full of unfaithfulness, shame, misery, and murder? It is because everyone 
wishes to be his or her own master, be free from all authority, care 
nothing for anyone, and do whatever he or she pleases. So God punishes one 
knave by means of another" (BoC 386.154).



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