[B-Greek] B-Greek pronunciation

Curtis Hinson curtis at curtishinson.com
Fri Dec 30 20:31:13 EST 2005


I have decided to start reading Shakespeare with a Chinese accent.  
Since all the original actors are dead, it doesn't matter how English is 
pronounced in order to appreciate the language or the literature, even 
though English speakers are alive.  When I run into other fans of 
Shakespeare, I will accuse them of debating about angels and pins if 
they object to my Chinese accent.  One is just as good as the other 
after all, since nobody cares what the language sounds like, or might 
have sounded like then. English is a dead language after all because 
it's changed so much, since say Chaucer.  Besides, English sounds are 
confusing and different letters sound different in different words, so 
I'll make up a system that sounds like Chinese instead of learning English.

Personally, I cannot take someone seriously who claims to care about the 
Greek language at any point in history without being able to discuss it 
with actual Greeks in an intelligible accent anymore than I would listen 
to an Arabic scholar who couldn't speak modern Arabic.

I have run into "Erasmian" in several different countries and it always 
sounds suspiciously like the local language.  I have no interest in 
hearing anyone trying to converse in any language in an accent that is 
made up, although you are welcome to try your fake accent out on native 
Greek speakers.  You'll get some interesting feedback that way.  How did 
things ever get this bad so that lifetime students of Greek language 
speak in a way that gets them ridiculed by actual Greeks? 

You'd think we'd care since Greek was and is an oral language where so 
much about the language depends on euphony.  The language is actually a 
lot easier to learn in a real accent because then you can hear why 
things change, you don't need little charts to figure that out.  Dr. 
Buth has done the footwork for us to see how the language actually 
sounded at the time, which is very very close to how it sounds at the 
dinner-table today.

Bless the Name
Curtis Hinson

Daveat168 at aol.com wrote the following on 12/30/2005 5:08 PM:

>Dear Friends,
>   The only possible relevance that actual pronunciation may have is in illuminating poetic expressions, especially those involving puns.  Otherwise you are counting the number of angels that can dance on a pin-head.
>
>  
>




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