[B-Greek] PEE or PIE - Koinê pronunciation

Eric Weiss papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Sat Jul 15 13:50:55 EDT 2006


> My own reluctance to take the plunge in the direction of a more authentic 
> pronunciation scheme over the past decade of seminary 
> Greek teaching arises from a well-grounded suspicion that 
> I will be inculcating a system of pronunciation in my 
> classes that is out of step with what every other student 
> is learning in the institution in which I teach (and in 
> all similar institutions nearby, for that matter). The 
> problem is that once students leave my class and move on 
> to their second-year exegetical courses, they will be 
> using a pronunciation scheme that will confuse their 
> fellow students and perhaps even a few of their 
> professors.

We without trouble adapt to Indian (from India) and 
Spanish and Chinese and French and Greek and Hebrew 
speakers - whether students or professors - continuing to 
pronounce English or Greek or Hebrew with the distinct 
accents their native languages cause them to use and 
carry over into their use of English. Thus, I don't think 
it would be a problem for students to learn Modern Greek or 
Buthian (or should it be Buthan?) Greek in their Koinê 
studies and to continue to use such in future classes. It 
shouldn't confuse fellow students or professors, IMO, 
because most will be following along via a written text 
anyway. In my last class, even though most students chose 
the textbook's Erasmian, I often read passsages aloud with 
a Modern Greek or Buthian pronunciation, and they knew 
from the beginning of the class that I would, and why.

The suggestion of alternate audio tracks with Modern or 
Buthian pronunciation is maybe the one small step for 
Hendrickson, one giant leap for NT Greek studies that you 
could do, bravely going where no publisher has gone before!

I know that in the future, if I teach NT Greek (again, it's 
not at an institution), I will use Buth's or Modern Greek 
exclusively, partly because I will hope to include things 
like the Nicene Creed and Chrysostom's Divine Liturgy and 
maybe some of the Daily Greek Orthodox prayers, including 
a visit or two to a local Greek Orthodox Church so they can 
hear the language as used today.



Eric S. Weiss


 			
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