[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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