LUPOUMENOI LOIPOI

yochanan bitan ButhFam at compuserve.com
Fri Apr 7 07:14:37 EDT 2000


warren egrapsen:
>hINA MH LUPHSQE KAQWS KAI hOI LOIPOI hOI MH EXONTES ELPIDA
>
>My pastor, Dr. Bob Marsh, pointed out that there is no stop sign after
LUPHSQE, that
>Paul is not saying "do not grieve period" but that MH LUPHSQE KAQWS KAI
hOI LOIPOI
>forms a unit. MH EXONTES ELPIDA seems to balance the the negative
imperative both
>with the MH and with the contrast LUPH<-->ELPIDA, a contrast brought to
the fore by
>assonance.
>
>Now, in my "traditional" (church) manner of pronouncing Greek, the only
difference
>between hOI LOIPOI and hH LUPH is one of accent. And in the verb form MH
LUPHSQE even
>the stress aligns with hOI LOIPOI. Do I not hear Paul using assonance of 
L, P, and
>tearful long E to transfer LUPH to the LOIPOI and to contrast their sad
state with
>E-LPI-DA? Or is my itacized ear playing tricks on me?

Well, a first-century speaker/listener would have almost as much assonance.

OI and U were both pronounced the same (rounded, high front vowel, almost
like 'i' to a foreign ear.)
So LUPH and LOIPOI have identical first syllables, except for accent. 
ELPIDA is slightly different in lacking lip-rounding, but is the same
tongue position. (This is a significant partial overlap, like when a poet
mixes 'b's and 'p's or 'g's and 'k's. And 'y' / 'i' sound even closer if
the listener's mother-tongue doesn't have 'y', as we see in some Egyptian
papyri or hear in some West-African French dialects.)
Your ear is fine and not playing tricks. 
The only 'unfair' overtone above would be HTA as 'i', since that appears to
have remained a close-MID front vowel through most of the Roman period. 

Thank you for bringing the example.

errwso
Randall Buth



More information about the B-Greek mailing list