[B-Greek] PEE or PIE - Koinê pronunciation

Randall Buth ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Sat Jul 15 13:31:36 EDT 2006


Shalom Mark,

this is a nice summary, pls allow a minor correction (*).

 >since according
to Eric Weiss's excellent comparison charts (thanks for your work,  
Eric) the
basic iota sound is the same in all three systems (except that the  
Buthian
scheme apparently doesn't allow for a short iota sound as in "pit,"  
but that
wasn't one of the options we were considering for our audio files  
anyway). >

*Modern Greek doesn't distinguish two iota's. (Nor did the first  
century.) there is no short 'pit' opposed to long 'peet' or 'pee'. to  
do so would sound distinctly Anglophone. If an English speaker thinks  
they are hearing the English distinctions, they need to listen more  
closely. For those in the US you can approximate this phenomenon by  
listening to spanish. closed, unaccented syllables may cause some  
centralizing of the the sound, but not like the English system, and  
within Greek and Spanish iota is one phoneme.

OK, since i'm writing, a couple of other considerations:

 >they will be using a pronunciation scheme
that will confuse their fellow students and perhaps even a few of their
professors. >

*Actually, all pronunciations will confuse fellow students if they  
have not been building listening comprehension fluency.  when a text  
is read at conversational speed students do not comprehend. (we will  
politely ignore the teachers on this.) When Greek texts are read at  
professional conferences or in 'Greek' classes, the audience follows  
the written Greek handout/text, and/or the translation.

 > the Greek tools I have
a hand in publishing for our largely American audiences will of  
necessity
continue the artificial yet widely recognized "Erasmian" scheme (with
apologies to Erasmus). >

All you would need to do is add alternate MP3 tracks. Let the  
teachers/students make their own choices. You'll be thanked down the  
road.
the BIGGER issue is fluency in the language. (And working toward  
fluency would be a new phenomenon in Greek pedagogy. [apologies to  
WHD Rouse.])

 >but in the meantime, pass me a button!>

Me too. Send the button to a DWDEKANHSWN island, general delivery.

randall buth




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