[B-Greek] Lord's Prayer in Greek

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Apr 30 14:22:07 EDT 2004


At 2:54 AM +0900 5/1/04, Raymond Regalado wrote:
>Dear List,
>
>I've mentioned before that I'm trying to cultivate a "pure Erasmian"
><grin> pronunciation.

Why on earth? If, as you admit, the notion of a "pure Erasmian"
pronunciation is a joke, does that mean that you're producing this
sound-byte as a joke?

There is certainly no consensus whatsoever on the "proper" pronunciation of
ancient Greek but Chrys Caragounis several years ago published a pretty
decisive demonstration of the phoniness of Erasmian pronunciation, an
article that has now been expanded into a full-length book as announced a
couple days ago by James Ernest:

At 12:45 PM -0400 4/21/04, James Ernest wrote:
>Spotted in the new Mohr Siebeck catalogue and probably of interest to
>several B-greekers:
>
>Caragounis, Chrys C.
>The Development of Greek and the New Testament
>Morphology, Syntax, Phonology, and Textual Transmission
>
>The introduction of the Erasmian pronunciation in 1528 had two dire
>consequences: Greek was divided into ancient and modern - a division that
>led to the neglect of the later periods of the language, and the
>pronunciation applied made impossible the detection of many communicatory
>aspects and obscured many text-critical problems. Chrys C. Caragounis argues
>for the unity of the Greek language from Mycenaean times to the present. The
>New Testament appears during the time of transition (335 B.C. - A.D. 565)
>from ancient to modern Greek. Morphological and syntactical analysis shows
>that the New Testament often adumbrates morphological and syntactical
>changes that characterize later Greek, up to Neohellenic. This means that
>the evidence of Later Greek is often a sine qua non for a fuller
>understanding of the New Testament. The Historical Greek Pronunciation helps
>us detect rhetorical figures, wordplays, etc. that the Erasmian
>pronunciation has missed, and its application on MS readings solves many
>text-critical cruces.
>
>2004. ca. 740 pages (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament)
>ISBN 3-16-148290-5 cloth   ca. Euros(?) 140.00    into the shopping basket
>(cloth)
>
>
>Caragounis, Chrys C
>Born 1940; B.D. Honours at London University; Th.D. at Uppsala University;
>Professor in New Testament Exegesis at Lund University, Sweden.

If one is going to make a serious effort to recreate the pronunciation of
the NT  era, one probably ought to go with Randall Buth's reconstruction:

	ELLHNIKH SCOLH "Living Koine Greek for Everyone":
		http://www.biblicalulpan.org/

-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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