[B-Greek] Differentiation in Erasmian Vowels?

Randall Buth ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Fri Aug 11 08:13:16 EDT 2006


 >Well, I honestly don't think that the pronunciation one adopts in the
classroom matters very much UNLESS one is making a serious effort to
speak and write Biblical or Classical Greek (or whatever historical
form of the language). IF one is going to make that effort, then I
think that modern Greek pronunciation may be useful, but if it's
Biblical Koine, I'd push Randall Buth's system. There is certainly
one virtue to the traditional Erasmian (even if ONLY one): the
differentiation of the vowel sounds as enunciated.
Carl W. Conrad>

I appreciate the commendation and agree with his overall appraisal.  
Carl is right that classroom pronunciation only begins to take on  
importance when one makes an effort to speak. (One could add that  
speaking an ancient language makes most sense when trying to  
internalize the language [deepen and broaden one's automatic grasp],  
in appreciating the oral impact of of ancient presentations, and in  
more rapid language learning.) Carl's last item about differentiation  
could use some expansion for many who think that they are in that  
category.

Traditional Erasmian does not differentiate all of the 11 vowel graphs.
(EU, AU, HU could be added to the discussion, though they pattern  
differently than EI, OU, OI and are omitted for simplification in  
this email.)

I count sounds 10 in a 'full' Erasmian I, EI/H, E, AI, A, W, O, OU,  
OI, U [umlaut]. However, US Erasmian tends to ignore the U-umlaut,  
and merges this with OU (e.g., people say LOUW 'I wash' when they  
mean LUW 'I loose'). Plus, a version of US Erasmian also merges O  
with A, bringing the total vowel count down to 8 for that dialect.
I am happy to admit that those 8 or 9 or 10 vowels show more  
differentiation than the 7-vowel KOINE system. But they do not meet  
the goal of one sound to one symbol.

In addition to that figure of eight or nine US-Erasmian vowels, it  
should also be noted that the merged sounds join the wrong vowels  
together. Thus, Erasmian joins EI to H, contrary to the early  
Hellenistic Greek merger of EI to I; O to A (in some US Erasmian  
dialects); and U to OU where the Koine and Attic preserved separation.

I know that there are publishing companies out there that are  
publishing the 8-vowel system. That seems an unfortunate choice since  
it neither preserves a sound//graph bidirectionality, nor lines up  
with any historical dialect. Companies and teachers who cherish sound/ 
graph bidirectionality would be better served with the reformed Attic  
of Allen-Daitz. That system does preserve the differentiation that is  
often claimed or desired for Erasmian. Yes, it would entail that most  
seminary teachers adopt something knew, but recordings allow a new  
standard to be set for the next generation. It is very doable. The  
publishers for seminaries would then need to decide if they wanted  
something that would better fit Classics studies (Allen-Daitz), or  
something historical for the NT (a 7 vowel Koine), or something  
historic (a five vowel modern). I really don't think an 8 vowel US  
'rasmian is the best use of current technology. it doesn't preserve  
differentiation.

ERRWSQE
Randall Buth



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