Basic Pronunciation Question

Erik Westwig ewestwig at palisade.com
Mon Jul 22 10:02:35 EDT 2002


Hi there,

I have an extremely elementary pronunciation question that has been
bothering me for a while.  I've been reluctant to ask the question here,
mainly because: 1) it shows how after a year and a half of studying Greek, I
still can't even say the simplest words to my satisfaction, 2) I've noticed
pronunciation questions to this group tend to cause a flurry of debate well
beyond the original post.

These reservations aside, here's my question.  All the sources I've looked
at (in books, and on the web) pronounce the word BIBLION like this:
BIBLION --> "bib LEE on"

Now these same sources invariably say the sound of iota should be either
short or long:
short iota --> "i" like the i in pit.
long iota --> "ee" like the i in machine.

Also these same source all say if the accent is on a long penultimate
syllable, it must always be a circumflex if the ultima is short.

So... Since the last syllable of BIBLION is short (the vowel is omicron) and
the iota is pronounced with a long "ee" sound, I would have expected a
circumflex accent on the iota. Instead, of course, there is an acute accent
on the iota.  But I would have expected this to be pronounced --> "bib LI
on".

Am I just being stupid?

Erik Westwig
Software Engineer
Palisade Corporation












More information about the B-Greek mailing list