Greek pronunciation?
Eric S. Weiss
eweiss at gte.net
Tue Oct 8 22:42:26 EDT 2002
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian McCarthy" <mccartbs at utrc.utc.com>
> To: "Biblical Greek" <b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 10:59 AM
> Subject: [b-greek] Greek pronunciation?
>
>
> > Are there any recordings available of how the Greek New Testament sounds
> > like as read by a modern-day Greek person, or in a Greek Orthodox church
> > (would the two be the same, or different?)
>
> A recording of the entire New Testament for free download in MP3 format is
> available here:
>
> http://www.ccel.org/a/anonymous/gnt/home.html
NOTE: This is Marilyn Phemister's audio of the Greek New Testament using
the Westcott-Hort Greek text AND USING A VERY-SLOWLY-ENUNCIATED
ERASMIAN-TYPE pronunciation -- NOT Modern Greek or Greek-Orthodox-Church
(which uses the Modern Greek pronunciation to read/pronounce the Koine
text). Phemister's is clear for distinguishing words, but it is very
difficult to get used to if one has heard the Modern Greek or Buth's
reconstruced Koine readings that are much more natural sounding and more
naturally paced (though Zodhiates varies from slowly-read to near-normal
reading speed.
At times on his tapes it seems that even Zodhiates, a native
Greek/Cyprian, is having difficulty with a few words (e.g., some of the
5-or-more-syllable words), and he also is not consistent with his
pronunciation of GAMMA; despite the fact that Modern Greek grammars say
that gamma is pronounced like "y" before "ee"-sounding and "eh"-sounding
vowels and diphthongs (i.e., E, AI, H, I, U, EI, OI), Zodhiates sometimes
pronounces it like "g" and sometimes like "y," and isn't consistent when
saying the same word in different books (e.g., he sometimes pronounces
EGENETO with a "g" sound, I recall, and sometimes with a "y" sound). This
suggests to me that Zodhiates isn't entirely comfortable with the Greek
New Testament, and if I'm right, then it's probably because at times it
doesn't "make sense" to someone whose native language is Modern Greek. I
once showed my Greek New Testament to a lady at church who was from
Greece, and she said it was difficult for her to read and understand, as
she didn't know KOINE Greek vocabulary and grammar.
>
> best,
> Peter Kirby
>
> Early Christian Writings - 30 to 200
> http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/
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