[B-Greek] Re: Greek NT in Audio
Hirokatsu Yoshihara
likeluke at bg8.so-net.ne.jp
Sat Nov 29 12:48:42 EST 2003
Raymond
I really understand what you are talking about. As a native speaker of
the Japanese language who has a more affinity for Modern Greek, I always
find it awkward to hear, say, the CD attatched to Mounce' BBG pronounce
Greek words with American accents.
For example, it seems that "O" in modern Greek is rather "deep" such as
"bought" in British English. Yet, it is rather pronounced as "o" as in
"top," which is actually [a] in the IPA system. Therefore,
LOGOS, LOGOU, LOGWi, LOGON
sound like
LAGUS, LAGOU, LAGWi, LAGUN.
What is more confusing is the nominative singular neuter definite
article TO sounds like TA, while TA is pronounced as TA because of that
American influence which pronounces "o" as [a]. It is also funny to hear
"L" [lamda] pronounced as [leyamda] in an American way.
Of course, I understand that there is a certain limitation when a
speaker of a language tries to pronounce sounds of another language. I
have no intention to make fun of those American ways of pronouncing
Greek words. In fact, I really appreciate those American
scholars/teachers who laboriously try to make Biblical Greek easy for us
students through revising textbooks and developing audio visual
resources. I just would like them to recognize once again that their
pronunciations cannot avoid reflecting their own mother tongue,
and, therefore, that they cannot force those as a standard, so to speak.
Those should be simply a guide for students who learn Greek through
English, which mostly happens to be an American variation (In fact, the
pronunciation of "L" will be obviously quite different in different
American dialects).
Fortunately, as my teaching environment is in Asia and students' English
reflects many different languages, I can more easily install what
Raymond and I prefer; Erasmian without strong American accents. My
English itself is strongly affected by American English, but I try to
avoid reflecting it into my Greek reading. I explain that Greek is Greek
and not English. Through that effort, I also would like my students to
understand that they are studying a different language from English, a
language which is much closer to other European languages such as, say,
Spanish or Italian (especially in the sense that vowels are basically
pronounced in their face values) than to English (which has a more
complicated phonological system).
Some of my students are upset because they have listened to Greek with
American accents. But I try to explain what is going on between Greek
and American English, even having them listen to one of my audio NT
tapes recorded in the modern Greek pronunciation (Of course, I also have
to explain what happened to Greek itself in the course of its history).
Only American students remain upset even after that because they still
find it very difficult to accept pronouncing "O" as [o], as it is. It is
[a] to them whatever may happen.
Having said that, Raymond, I think it will be quite difficult to find
such audio NT in Erasmian without American accents because - we have to
recognize this and we have to be respectful to our dear American friends
once again - it seems that almost all such laborious and troublesome
efforts to record Greek NT have been done by them, dear Americans unless
otherwise by Greeks in modern Greek.
So, let us just be content with and thankful to what has been available
to us. If we are not, it will probably be our turn to make a new
recording in Erasmian without American accents, which both of us prefer
and practice personally.
p.s. I apologize to Raymond that it seems that I have just sent this
message off-list without any particular intention. It was simply my
mistake. I am sorry.
==========
Hirokatsu Yoshihara <likeluke at bg8.so-net.ne.jp>
Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, Baguio City, Philippines
November 29, 2003 (Sat) 23:13 +0800
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