[B-Greek] Questions regarding accentuation
Vasile Stancu
stancu at mail.dnttm.ro
Sat Jul 19 20:57:14 EDT 2008
My perception is that all languages we hear today are using pitch
accentuation - some with graphic signs in writing, such as Spanish and
French and some without. Stress accentuation would mean - as I understand
the process - a kind of robot talking, with the audio volume increasing some
when accenting a syllable. So, since pitch accent is common place for us
today (supposing my perception is true), why should we struggle to force it
out from Koine Greek? The result would be in contradiction even with modern
languages. Moreover, why should we stick with the entropic tendencies in the
language that were manifest around the 1st century and later? Why not adopt
the position of the traditionalists of that time who maintain the old,
classic features of the language even though the practice of pronounciation
were altering the old system? Yes, we have the modern Greek today as a
landmark, but I believe the process that led to it is not entirely natural,
given the internationalization of the language prompted by Alexander the
Great and the 1000 years of Byzantine rule followed by another 500 years of
Ottoman occupation.
Vasile STANCU
-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Riley
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 11:43 AM
To: greek B-Greek
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Questions regarding accentuation
When Mastronarde says "fully supplanted" I suspect he is meaning that pitch
accentuation no longer functions in any way in any area, probably not even
in reading. He is likely following the lead set by Allen in being
conservative and only claiming a change has occurred when it is obvious it
is virtually universal. As there is evidence that some Greek dialects had
already moved from pitch to stress accentuation as early as around 400 BCE
(and some vowel changes were also evident in some dialects by then), the
process was obviously a protracted one that moved more quickly in some areas
than in others. Attic seems to have been conservative in both respects.
Had Spartan Greek become the dominant dialect, we may never have had any
idea that ancient Greek used pitch accent.
Stress can also occur with lower pitch in some languages, something that
text books in those languages rarely point out, and learners rarely notice
unless it is pointed out.
Kevin Riley
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