[B-Greek] b-greek online teaching tools

Leonard Isaksson leonardo1orchardcity at mac.com
Sat Dec 8 09:58:47 EST 2007


When I had elementary NT Greek, what made me usually cringe was hearing 
the various anglophonic Erasmian pronunciations.  It did not  make 
music in my ears, nor feel at home.   One surely must grant that the 
modern Greek pronunciation does not allow for a listener to discern 
(m)any differences in the vowels and diphthongs that have the 'ee'  
sound.  So communication is difficult.  It would be nice if the 
ancients had been able to keep hold of the pronunciation, with the 
variety of vowel sounds.  Hmm, which dialect?  I suppose attic had the 
upper hand.

Was it a matter of a good learning of the grammar, which everyday life 
and speech for so many did not always necessitate?   Did Paul have 
difficulty in expressing or spelling, or John?

I enjoy hearing a living language.   In class I did not see many times 
when for the teacher or anyone did it really matter, for usually we 
were looking at words in the text.  But one advantage that R.Buth's 
plan has is that there is a bit of difference in the way they pronounce 
the diphthongs, and yet these folks seem to have imbibed a bit of 
Hellas in them, in their pronunciation.  These folks report that modern 
Greeks do not have much difficulty in listening to this 'Koine' accent.

Leonard Isaksson




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