[B-Greek] Re: How do modern Greeks pronounce Biblical Greek?
Paul Buchan
jpbuchan at gmail.com
Fri Apr 8 15:42:51 EDT 2005
I lived in Greece for a few years and learned modern Greek before I began
studying NT Greek seriously. Frankly, when you're used to modern
pronunciation, the Erasmian pronunciation sounds monstrous. If you learn
modern Greek first, it is very difficult to use the Erasmian pronunciation.
Since modern Greek pronounces I, H, Y, EI, OI, YI as I, that can be a bit
confusing. Likewise AI and E. (A lot of people in Greece get these vowels
and combinations mixed up in writing the modern language, too - occasionally
you might see KENH instead of KAINH diatheke, for instance (!) - but what is
perhaps more difficult is the lack of pronunciation for the rough breathing,
which has caused me some confusion. Obviously this means that hYMEIS and
hHMEIS are pronounced exactly the same, which can be problematic. On the
other hand, there are definite benefits to pronouncing chi with a rough
kh-sound, as in modern Greek, to distinguish it from kappa.
On balance, I don't think there's anything really difficult about learning
koine with modern Greek pronunciation.
Paul Buchan
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