[B-Greek] Difficulties of Learning Greek

Bert de Haan b_dehaan at sympatico.ca
Tue Oct 31 20:20:22 EST 2006


Amos Bender wrote;


(A.B)" I believe today's pronunciation of Greek is very improper, since 
accent marks
are not consistent on the different forms of the same word.  Rather when a
particular Greek word has a different form or ending, the accent often is 
moved
to a different syllable of the word making the word largely sound like a 
totally
different word. "
(B.d.H.) Compare that to English;  E.g;  Muni/cipal (or, as some pronounce 
it;  munici/pal)  but the accent moves back in Municipa/lity. Also;  
Tra/nslate compared to transla/tion.

(A.B.)"I believe today's pronunciation of Greek is also very improper, 
because compound
words are not sufficiently pronounced as the individual words in the compond
word, but rather the words are blended together in a way that makes a 
totally
new and very rare Greek word, while one cannot even hear the actual small 
words
within the compound word as it is spoken!"
(B.d.H.) compare that to ki/lo and me/tre which make  kilo/metre. (Now some 
are pronouncing it as ki/lometre.) Also; The/rmo and metre which makes 
thermo/meter.

(A.B.)"I have also noticed some places where the ruff breathing marks quite 
obviously
are not consistent and correct, and which also messes up the pronunciation."
(B.d.H.) I can't say I've noticed that but I wouldn't mind seeing a few 
examples.

Each language has its own difficulties for foreigners trying to learn it but 
I think that the main reason Greek has to be taught in such a "technical 
way" is because very few of us have the opportunity to practice the language 
by using it in conversations etc.
One of my dreams is to attend Randall Buth's 6 week course  (I know he has 
one for Hebrew and I am quite sure he has one for Greek as well.) but for 
the time being my funds are needed to raise 4 kids. (That is not a 
punishment though.)

Bert de Haan.





More information about the B-Greek mailing list