[B-Greek] Lord's Prayer in Greek/Ancient Greek pronunciation
Meridian Church of God
meridianchurch at qwest.net
Fri Apr 30 16:19:23 EDT 2004
The first Greek class I took the teacher used Modern Greek pronunciation
(that was an introductory class at Seminary).
My first year of Greek, the professor predominately used modern Greek
pronunciation, though we were exposed to Erasmian and ideas of ancient
pronunciation. My second year, the teacher mostly used an Erasmian type
(mixed with some modern).
>From my point of view, Erasmian is not a real pronunciation, so why use it?
I understand that it is the "scholarly Greek," but I prefer to stay away
from certain aspects of it (though I do familiarize my students with it, so
they are aware of it).
I purchased a two cassette series a few years back that I have found to be
very interesting in the pronunciation of Ancient Greek. "The Pronunciation
and Reading of Ancient Greek: A Practical Guide" by Stephen G. Daitz. I do
not know what others who have listened to it think (though I am curious),
but I thought he did a nice job of introducing ideas of what ancient Greek
sounded like (he explains the "whys?" of the phonetics on the tape). I have
not used or learned it as well as I would have liked (someday, though), but
I have certainly made changes in my modern pronunciation to be more like the
ancient (i.e. "B" has the "v" sound in modern, but the "b" sound in
ancient). I still stress the accented syllable vs. change the pitch, but
that has more to do with my inability to sing.
An interesting thing that he does is to read several lines from the Iliad:
first in modern Greek pronunciation, then Erasmian Greek pronunciation, and
finally in Restored Ancient Greek pronunciation. The differences are
phenomenal, and between his examples and the comments he adds, it certainly
increases one's desire to learn the ancient (restored) pronunciation.
If anyone is interested, I bought the cassettes and accompanying guide on
Borders.com. I think it was worth the little bit of money I spent on it.
Pastor Shawn Ragan
Meridian Church of God
"Building Stronger Families"
shawn at meridianchurch.org
http://meridianchurch.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Raymond Regalado" <fwgk5942 at mb.infoweb.ne.jp>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2004 12:30 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Lord's Prayer in Greek
> On 2004.5.1, at 03:22 AM, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>
> > 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?
>
> It wasn't a joke, Dr. Conrad. Why Erasmian? Because I hear that in
> almost every seminary Greek is taught in Erasmian (I could be wrong).
> Mounce teaches in Erasmian. Pennington's CD's are in Erasmian. The
> only complete audio recordings of the (WH) Greek text available online
> is in ("American-style") Erasmian... So, Erasmian is still going
> strong, it seemed to me, and I thought I might as well practice "good
> Erasmian", but I have no one to teach me, no one to imitate, as I am
> self-taught.
>
> > 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/
>
> I've listened before to the sample (1Jn1) on Dr. Buth's site, and I
> think it is simply *beautiful* -- the pronunciation, intonation and
> all. It sounds pretty much like Modern Greek pronunciation. Someday
> I'd like to learn that, but, oh, those iotas! ;-)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Raymond Regalado
> Tokyo, Japan
>
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