[B-Greek] Introduction, Open Source Greek Audio Files.

Curtis Hinson curtis at curtishinson.com
Sun Oct 29 08:32:34 EST 2006


By way of feedback, these words are pronounced in an American accent, 
with no attempt at Greek pronunciation.  The pronunciation here uses 
sounds that didn't even exist in Koine Greek. The reader vowel glides 
like nobody's business, pronounces his chis as though they were kappas, 
and generally fails to give any clue what the language actually sounded 
like and sounds like.  If that's what he wants to do, why doesn't he go 
through the English alphabet and let readers hear what American English 
words sound like?  It's clearly what he's doing.

It's a waste of a large amount of time to go to so much trouble just to 
teach students to pronounce the words as if they're English anyway.  It 
bothers me to think students continue to be exposed to this.  I'd 
recommend a project like this only in terms of a reconstructed Koine 
accent (see Randall Buth's site about that), or a modern Greek accent 
(which is quite close to reconstructed except for a vowel or two, see 
your nearest Greek-speaker.)

Bless the Name
Curtis Hinson
http://curtishinson.com

David Mackey wrote the following on 10/28/2006 11:34 PM:
> All,
>     I just joined the group perhaps two days ago and only made one post. 
> I appreciate those who have followed up privately with me to inform me 
> concerning rules of etiquette and just to welcome me. I wanted to take a 
> minute to introduce myself. My name is David Mackey, I am a beginner at 
> Greek. I took one year of Greek at Philadelphia Biblical Univ. while 
> completing my Bachelors there. I am currently employed as a Network 
> Engineer, an entirely unrelated field. But I still desire to read the 
> text in the original languages. Which brings me to the second topic 
> mentioned in my subject. I tend to do studying by myself, which can help 
> me accomplish more but also allows for a greater possibility of 
> mispronunciation of new words (and in Greek, all words are new). I found 
> during my studies that the pronunciation I would assume and the 
> pronunciation of the word were oftentimes two very different things. I 
> began searching for audio files that would allow me to learn the correct 
> pronunciation of the words, sadly, I could not find any - except some 
> older Bible software.
>     After mentioning it on the VocabWorks email list I received an email 
> from Prof. George Gunn of Shasta Bible College offering me several 
> hundred of the most common words on MP3 as pronounced by him. I began 
> chopping them up into WAVs and posting them online. I have completed 
> nearly 200 words and have around 150 linked to on the website now. It is 
> a continuing work that I hope many will utilize. I'd love to see vocab 
> software with audio pronunciations as well as bible study software with 
> the same pronunciations. I'd welcome you to take a gander at the site 
> (http://www.dhq.nu/koinegreek/) and give me any feedback you may have.
> Respectfully,
> David Mackey.
> (B.S. in Biblical Studies with an Emphasis on Pastoral Ministry, 
> Philadelphia Biblical Univ.)
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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>
>   

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