[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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