[B-Greek] Jefferson on Greek Pronunciation

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Mon Feb 6 12:55:19 EST 2006


James Ernest has privately called my attention to other Jefferson  
letters on pronunciation; I trust he will not object to my citing the  
information that he sent me; else I wouldn't be citing his notes  
directly:

See also http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/jefferson/1819.html
which gives the following letters bearing on the same topic:

To John Adams.
Monticello, March 21, 1819.
(contains more on pronunciation, including comments "against reading  
Greek by accent, instead of quantity")

To John Brazier, the Author of the Review of Pickering on Greek  
Pronunciation.
Poplar Forest, August 24, 1819.
(doesn't say much about pronunciation)

--as well as the one to which your post referred:

To Nathaniel F. Moore.
Monticello, September 22, 1819.

These letters are also available at:

http://www.constitution.org/tj/jeff15.txt

which preserves the pagination of the print edition of Jefferson's  
works. Here one can also read Jefferson to Edward Everett, February  
24, 1823, where he comments on Buttman's Greek Grammar.

Also of interest (including some brief comment on the similarity of  
modern Greek to ancient, amid a longer discussion of the current  
political situation in Greece): TO MONSIEUR A. CORAY,October 31, 1823

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/




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