[B-Greek] Misc Thoughts about Greek

Marion Fox mrfox1 at gmail.com
Wed Jun 21 10:34:47 EDT 2006


Marion Fox here,

Amos, in 1600 the English language did not have the letter "J" and it had
another letter that we do not have today. You can see this in a copy of the
Declaration of Independence (I have a facsimile of the original
Declaration). The letter "J" was introduced about the time of the
Declaration and the KJV was updated at that time. In 1600 the letter "U" was
written like our present day letter "V."

Yours in His service,

Marion R. Fox



On 6/20/06, Amos Bender <bendersa at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Amos Bender
> bendersa at earthlink.net
> EarthLink Revolves Around You.
>
> MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS ABOUT GREEK.
>
> Friends at BGreek,
>
> First I want to say thanks to those who responded to my recent question
> about a Greek New Testament and word study book.  Now I thought I should
> share some issues about Greek as I have experienced and discovered, as they
> might interest some.
>
>
> One issue that impressed me is that in the original KJV translation with
> it's original spelling, Jesus is spelled as "Iesus" sort of like in the
> Greek, as well as other names starting with J start with an I instead, and
> being more like the Greek.  Does that mean old English pronunciation as well
> as spelling was a little more like Greek than English is today?  The
> spelling in the original KJV is very different than what English is spelled
> today, while likely Greek spelling also changed through history.
>
> As I observe various Greek words and their various spellings, I really
> wonder if the various spellings of words were always pronounced
> differently.  Or if readers in old times simply knew that although this word
> in this setting is spelled as this that yet it can or should be pronounced
> the same as if spelled in it's other way.  One example involves the H-Eta
> quite often being exchanged for the E-Epsilon at the beginning of
> words.  This involves at least the words "EULOGHSEN" and "EUPISKON".  Their
> obviously are other Greek words wherein other letters for some reason
> likewise are used quite interchangeably.
>
> Further in some or all ancient Greek, there were no word breaks at all,
> while the word breaks were put in later.  Even with regards to today's Greek
> text, it often is quite obvious that some long Greek words simply are a
> compound words that could or should have been broken down into smaller
> words, and then be pronounced as those individual words.  Yet with Erasmus
> rules of Greek pronunciation, many of these compound Greek words are
> pronounced in a way that none of the words within the compound word are
> pronounced as they should really sound.  If we would do this with compound
> English words, we would pronounce the word "weekend" as "wee-kend", and the
> word "anteater" as "an-tea-ter".  In my own reading I sometimes pronounce
> compound Greek words, as the separate underlying Greek words and even
> include the rough breathing in the second compound word, which makes the
> reading much easier and more understandable, and it is likely more how it
> sounded in old times.
>
> I also wish the Alpha would be pronounced different that the Omikron as it
> would give the language more distinction, while further if the Alpha is
> pronounced as a short "a" as in "hat" various Greek names sound more like
> the name does in English.  I also noticed on a web site that someone wished
> that only vowels with rough breathing were marked with rough breathing
> marks, while vowels with smooth breathing simply would be left unmarked,
> which would make it easier to recognize the rough breathing vowels, and I
> very much agree.
>
> I likely spend several hours every day reading or listening to the Greek
> Scriptures, and it is amazing how those strange characters and sounds, which
> had been so obscure and which seemed could mean so many things or possibly
> nothing at all, can become so meaningful and distinct.  The various twists
> to the words which before seemed to obscure the words, now add much meaning
> to the word and sentence.  I like when the words simply sound right and
> every word naturally falls into it's place in the train of thought while
> listening or reading.  Yet I have a long ways to go, and there are many
> words I yet need to learn.  Feel free to contact me at
> bendersa at earthlink.net.
>
> God Bless
> Amos Bender
> ---
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>



-- 
Marion Fox

http://www.fivefpublishing.com



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