[B-Greek] PEI, FEI, XEI, KSI, PSI (was pee or pie)

Curtis Hinson curtis at curtishinson.com
Sun Jul 9 16:42:55 EDT 2006


You explain well some of the problems confronting the system, I 
thought.  I do wish Koine teachers would stop thinking of themselves as 
the little brothers of Classicists though.  The best lexicon to the NT 
is certainly the LXX, not Homer, and Koine teachers should realize NT 
Greek is good Jewish Greek anyway.  (I am well aware that not only do 
many disagree with me me on this, that they actually are irritated by 
it, but there it is.)  Oh wait, I forgot, the NT was written by a bunch 
of goyim who bathed themselves in the blood of bulls.  Anyway.... :-D

It is sad I think when earnest students are unequipped to understand 
real Greek when they hear it.  It is to your advantage though that you 
spent some time with Greek speech.  Concerning accents and breathings, I 
don't teach them.  :-D  Well, I do teach them eventually so people will 
know what they're for, but I otherwise ignore them. They were, in my 
opinion, never an integral part of the Greek language, they're actually 
editorial decisions more than anything.  As a quick example, look at 
John 1:17 in a few different critical editions, and then infer what text 
was used by how different translations render it.  I think you'll find 
that the editorial markings on the ETA play all hell with the meaning of 
the verse.  The theology of course is not up for discussion on this 
list, I'm just making the limited point that it can give us clues about 
the textual problems that diacriticals can introduce here. 

That in particular is disturbing to me, for people to put in the effort 
to learn NT Greek because they want direct access to the writings, then 
end up getting editorial anyway without even being in the least aware of 
it.  It is no accident that polytonic writing is against the law for 
public signs or documents in Greece.

I do think there is hope for the future regarding Greek pedagogy, and I 
will keep working for change and respect for the language.  It's a 
matter of time.

Bless the Name
Curtis Hinson
http://curtishinson.com


TuNeCedeMalis67 at aol.com wrote the following on 7/9/2006 2:32 PM:
> Unless Attic teachers change their pronunciation, I seriously doubt you will 
> see Koine teachers abandon Erasmian.
>
> When I was in the process of switching over to modern pronunciation, I joined 
> an Attic/Koine audio chat one day and had forgotten enough of the Erasmian 
> that I was unable to offer help to another struggling student without going to 
> the trouble of selecting a Greek font he had on his computer, and typing in the 
> word.
>
> It would be more convenient if all of Europe drove on the same side of the 
> road. The trouble to convert everyone is just not worth it, though.
>
> For me, it's just not worth the effort to buck the system. Yeah, there are 
> variations in Erasmian, but we can all understand each other pretty well with 
> the variations. Selecting between the variations is only an issue for my 
> personal drill work, not for communicating.
>
> Modern also makes it harder to memorize accents and breathing marks.
>
> Kat Doe
> homemaker
> ---
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>   

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