[B-Greek] Choice of transliterations for "David"?

Kevin Riley klriley at alphalink.com.au
Wed Aug 27 21:27:03 EDT 2003



>-----Original Message-----
>From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
>[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Ranulf Doswell
>Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2003 6:14 PM
>
>> This raises a question for me: Since modern Greek pronounces AU and EU
>> as av/af and ev/ef, is it possible that this was also done in Koine
>> times? E.g., I find the Greek forms of "Eve" (hEUA) and "Levi" (LEUI)
>> more difficult to pronounce with the Erasmian pronunciation than if the
>> EU has an "ev" sound. Likewise, POREUOMAI is easier as
>> "por-ev-o-mai" than "por-yoo-o-mai.
>
>As far as I know, even Classical Greek pronounciation was more
>more our "v",
>e.g. EUAGGELION = evangelion
>

That disagrees with what Allen writes in "Vox Graecae" where he gives it as
'w'.  That also agrees with what I have read of Hebrew, where the change of
'w' [waw] to 'v' [vav] is fairly late.  At the time the Septuagint was
written, I assume that DAUID was chosen as the pronunciation of Greek 'U'
would have been the same as Hebrew 'w' [waw].  Even as both changed, the
weight of tradition would have generally been against the change to DABID

>Interesting, in Modern Greek, you'll find that B is now pronounced as v
>(similiar idea to Spanish v pronounced as b) and the distinction between D
>and Q (delta and theta) has largely been lost, e.g. D is pronounced as
>thelta.
>
Except that D is voiced and Q is voiceless.  Most Greek speakers do not
confuse the two.

>If you look at pronunciation charts where the letters are arranged by where
>in the mouth these sounds are made, you'll see it all starts to make sense.
>
>Ranulf Doswell, Coventry UK.
>
Kevin Riley




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