[B-Greek] re: Lord's Prayer in Greek, minor correction
R Yochanan Bitan Buth
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Sun May 2 11:02:28 EDT 2004
FILOIS CAIREIN
There is a small correction to note on the biblical historical
pronunciation referenced at the biblicalgreek website. I will copy the owner
of that cite offlist, too, as I think that he will be interested in updating
it. For an short description of the evidence you can download a ten-page PDF
file at
http://www.biblicalulpan.org/Sound_files/PRONSYS1_US.pdf
The significant differences concern HTA, U-psilon, and OI.
HTA was apparently still [e] (close to ei in freight)in the first
century, see the discussion in the PDF file. During the 2-4 centuries CE it
too turned into [i].
U-psilon and OI were both [y] (as u in French du café, like [i]
pronounced with tightly rounded lips). If your ears are not conditioned to
hearing this sound, you may think that you are hearing [i] when in fact the
sound has the rounded lips of German ü and French u. The recording of 1 John
1 (James 1 will follow this week) includes both 'H' and 'Y/OI' as distinct
sounds from 'I'
A minor, minor point, ZETA was like a voiced 's' [as in 'buzz'] in both
Koine and modern Greek. The graph 'dz' on the biblicalgreek website may be
confusing. I would suggest a simple 'z' in the chart.
Finally, the biblicalgreek website has a link/download for Cargounis'
article that may be of interest. In general, that article argues that modern
Greek pronounication has ancient antecedents that go back to 5th century BCE
Ionia and Athens. That is true. However, the data needs to be filtered by
what we know about linguistics and phonology and language change. Even
Caragounis was not arguing that the Attic or the NT was pronounced like
modern Greek. For that, the book by Geoffrey Horrocks, Greek: A History of
the Language and Its Speakers (Longman 1997) is better, as well as the
collection of data by Gignac, Grammar of Greek Papyri of Roman and Byzantine
Periods: Phonology. Milan 1976. The PDF paper
[http://www.biblicalulpan.org/Sound_files/PRONSYS1_US.pdf] provides a
summary that is congruent with the findings of these books and adds some
Dead Sea Greek examples for a close picture with the New Testament.
Regalado egrapsen:
[conrad:]
>> And if one is going to do that, then would it not make more sense to
>> adopt
>> and practice a pronunciation that has some sound basis in a historical
>> reconstruction of the way the language actually was spoken at some
>> point in
>> its history?
>
>Point taken. I will strive to learn the "historical" pronunciation (as
>shown here: http://www.biblicalgreek.org/links/biblical.html )
>
>Kind Regards,
>
>Raymond Regalado
>Tokyo, Japan
ERRWSQE
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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