[B-Greek] Pronouncing PILATOS with moderns
R Yochanan Bitan Buth
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Sat Aug 14 12:26:32 EDT 2004
>It's not a problem to have an academic pronunciation (or many of them) and
>a separate liturgical pronunciation identical with modern Greek - unless
>you make the mistake of trying to *speak* to a Greek. A friend of a friend
>went on vacation to Greece and tried to greet people in his American
>seminary Koine, and nobody knew what language he was speaking :)
>
>Silouan
>Philip Silouan Thompson
This sounds true to life and should be taken into consideration while a
student is feverishly working away at learning the language. Does one
want the system of Paul and Luke, or would they like to end up with an
unbridgable "what language?". My own experience in Crete in June was quite
pleasant and different, though I drift in and out of modern and ancient
Greek with those patient locals willing to help an interested KSENOS. I
need to be careful to keep HTA as an [i] or they will correct it as
unacceptable in their ears. Otherwise, things proceed smoothly. They hear
my [y] as [i] and the consonants went soft already in antiquity, which I
use (e.g., ghamma was already soft in the first century, as spellings
like IGEROS 'holy' testify.) Pronunciation, of course, is only a means
for expressing the language.
Fluency with the language should be the goal and an occasional glimpse at
what fluency means can only help. An occasional 'reality check': are we
'on track' toward such a goal or are we stalled or on a deadend street?
Self-checking can keep us honest. (Of course, I am referring to the
ancient language and recognize that the modern language is as different
from the ancient as TOK PISIN from standard English.)
META EULOGIWN
Randall Buth
Randall Buth, PhD
Director, Biblical Language Center
www.biblicalulpan.org
and Director, Biblical Studies in Israel
Hebrew University, Rothberg International School
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
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