[B-Greek] Are accents important?
George F. Somsel
gfsomsel at juno.com
Fri Jun 11 11:23:40 EDT 2004
Accents are useful particularly when learning the language though to be
quite frank, I tend to more or less ignore them (yet I would miss them if
they weren't present). To put the matter somewhat in perspective I'll
cite what Smyth states concerning this
"The invention of the marks of accent is attributed to Aristophanes of
Byzantium, librarian at Alexandria about 200 B.C. The use of signs
served to fix the correct accentuation, which was becoming uncertain in
the third century B.C.; marked the variation of dialect usage; and
rendered the acquisition of Greek easier for foreigners. The signs for
the accents (and the breathings) were not regularly employed in Mss. till
after 600 A.D."
In other words, the accents are comparable to a ladder which, once you
have ascended, can be safely discarded. They are generally not found in
the early MSS.
gfsomsel
_________
On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 22:33:11 -0500 David Mullens
<david.mullens at gmail.com> writes:
> Hi,
>
> I took Greek about 15 years ago. I'm trying to 're-learn' it again.
>
> I remember quite a bit of it, but I want to know it better. One
> thing
> that wasn't covered very well in my courses was accents. Now, I'm
> wondering if it is important to know the rules on accents or if it
> is
> something I can basically skip.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Dave.
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