[B-Greek] Accents and breathings
Kevin Riley
klriley at alphalink.com.au
Mon Jul 17 19:43:34 EDT 2006
I think it depends on what is meant by 'teaching' the accents and
breathings. As the accent marks the stress, teaching that it does so makes
the Greek sound more Greek no matter what pronunciation scheme you use. I
never understood why anyone taught the rules of Latin as the way to accent
Greek when the accents were there on the words and all that you really need
to know is 'accent the syllable with the accent'. Any student can get that
in a minute or less. If by 'teaching the accents' he meant all those rules
about which accent goes where, then for most of us that is a waste of time -
which the Greeks have recognised by changing them all to acute accents that
mark the stress. The stress [either pitch or dynamic] is an integral part
of the Greek language, and there is no good reason why it should be ignored.
Kevin Riley
-------Original Message-------
From: Don Dwight
Date: 07/18/06 05:46:12
Curtis Hinson wrote on July 9, 2006 under the subject: PEI, FEI, XEI, KSI,
PSI (was pee or pie).
"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."
Don Dwight responds.
Thank you, Curtis, for saying publicly what I've been thinking privately.
For me a prime example in the GNT of where someone applying accents and
breathings would have to make an editorial decision is John 1:1.
EN ARCH (preposition with noun dative singular feminine)
EN (noun nominative singular neuter)
ARCH (noun dative singular feminine)
EN (noun nominative singular neuter)
ARCH (noun nominative singular feminine)
Peace,
Don Dwight
Monterey, California, USA
dddwight1234 at sbcglobal.net
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