[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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