[B-Greek] b-greek online teaching tools

Sarah Madden sarah.r.madden at gmail.com
Sat Dec 8 10:24:53 EST 2007


Leonard --
How would one find out about B. Ruth's plan for hearing Greek as more of a
living language -- yet with the diphthongs distinguishable aurally?
Re. Paul -- his extensive study and reading of Greek texts would have been a
great help, I'm sure, with his own spelling and grammar. He not only spoke
the language well, he would have also read widely to become a "Pharisee of
the Pharisees."

Sarah Madden
sarah.r.madden at gmail.com

On Dec 8, 2007 9:58 AM, Leonard Isaksson <leonardo1orchardcity at mac.com>
wrote:

> 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
>
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
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>



-- 
Sarah
sarah.r.madden at gmail.com
work: 301.429.8189



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