[B-Greek] DIKAIOS, kai demotikh

Curtis Hinson curtis at curtishinson.com
Wed Oct 12 08:27:44 EDT 2005


GEIA SAS

I usually explain the AI dipthong in modern/historical pronunciation as 
"eh" as in "bed" because "ay" seems to prompt English speakers to glide 
the vowel "aeiyi", which doesn't reproduce the Greek sound which is 
short and sharp.  That probably holds true for all Greek vowels and 
dipthongs, Greeks don't mess around or linger on them.  English seems to 
glide more than most languages, for that matter.

Does anyone have thoughts, by the way, on whether the KATHEREUSA is 
closer to historical pronunciation than DEMOTIKI?

Bless the Name
Curtis Hinson

Carl W. Conrad wrote the following on 10/12/2005 5:24 AM:

>On Oct 11, 2005, at 9:52 PM, TuNeCedeMalis67 at aol.com wrote:
>
>  
>
>>LOL, I just opened a barrel of monkeys :-)
>>
>>OK,  I'm using Erasmian with the AI sounding like "eye". If the   
>>syllable
>>breaks at an iota it sounds like "ee". If an iota falls in the  
>>middle  of a
>>syllable it sounds like "i" in pit.
>>
>>Strong often breaks a syllable like the "dik" in (dik-ah-yos). I'm not
>>worried about all that.
>>
>>I'm focused on repeatedly hearing the iota moved to the next syllable,
>>instead of being pronounced with the alpha as a dipthong. I want to  
>>make sure  I'm
>>putting the iota with the correct syllable. I saw that there was a  
>>root word
>>ending in alpha and I'm assuming all this has to do with that?
>>    
>>
>
>That the syllable was a diphthong in classical Attic  is attested by  
>the circumflex
>over the iota in the marking of accents. On the other hand, in terms  
>of dervation,
>DIKAIOS is what's called a "denominative" adjective derived from a  
>noun DIKH
>("right, justice") the older (and non-Attic) form of which is DIKA;  
>the adjective
>was formed with the additive -I/OS-A-ON, and there may have been a time
>when DIKAIOS was a four-syllable word divided DI-KA-I-OS with an acute
>accent on the A. At any rate, in the classical period it was a  
>diphthong AI with
>circumflex marked on the second vowel of the diphthong, as is standard.
>
>  
>
>>In a message dated 10/11/2005 9:30:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>>cwconrad at ioa.com writes:
>>
>>On Oct  11, 2005, at 9:12 PM, TuNeCedeMalis67 at aol.com wrote:
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Is DIKAIOS  pronounced (dik-ah-yos)? Is the AI a dipthong? It's
>>> accented  like
>>>a dipthong, but seems to usually be pronounced  like it isn't.
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Yes, it is a diphthong. I've always divided it as  DI-KAI-OS. I think
>>that pronunciation
>>as DI-KA-YOS is wrong. My  Erasmian would make it DEE-KYE-OS, but I'd
>>expect  Koine
>>pronunciation would be more DEE-KAY-OS (with AY as in "May" or "de-
>>lay").
>>
>>
>>
>>---
>>B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>Carl W. Conrad
>Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
>1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
>cwconrad2 at mac.com
>WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
>
>---
>B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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>
>  
>




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