[B-Greek] Questions regarding accentuation
Vasile Stancu
stancu at mail.dnttm.ro
Wed Jul 23 03:11:40 EDT 2008
Kevin Riley wrote:
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"Stress accent" does not mean there is no pitch, any more than "pitch accent" means there is no stress.
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This is what I have also aknowledged.
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... but changing the pitch does not alter the meaning of the word, changing „the stress will do so in some instances.
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Could you give me an example? I mean, if you change the stress (which is almost always accompanied by a change of pitch), is there any word (in Ancient Greek) that you know which changes its meaning? I believe you should be referring to the meaning of a sentence, not of a word. (By the way, in wahtever I say, I am referring to accents of words and not to the intonation of a sentence; these two should be distinct matters, I believe).
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One practical reason for not using pitch accentuation is that in all pitch accented languages we know of today the process is more complicated than just using the stresses marked in classical Greek. The extra information that would make a pitch accented Greek sound natural is missing.
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But you have already agreed that there is a certain level of pitch accentuation in all laguages. Isn't is safe enough to apply the normal level of pitch accentuation as we know it today, and instruct the beginner student thus, instead of ignoring it completely? In case the pitch accentuation - as employed by the ancients - would mean any additional information/connotations to the language, we, today, would be hopelessly learning a language which we are never able to really understand. Or, are we simply afraid that our pronounciation would be not natural? But since we apply features to the old language that are surely of a later origin, does this not make it sound unnatuaral enough? (At least to the virtual ears of an ancient...) Why do we want to be pleasing to our contemporaries with something they themselves do not understand properly?
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In theory I am in favour of classical Greek being spoken with a pitch accent, but only if doing so leaves the language with some shreds of its dignity, which the reconstructions I have heard do not do.
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Is it hard for one to reconstruct the system, at least with the information that we already have from the language itself? I mean, since we know for instance that η H is a long vowel, is it difficult or shameful to keep pronouncing it as such? Indeed, some would argue that it turned into an "i" sound at some point in time, but apparently they are not consistent with the fact that it should still be a long vowel. I heard such people pronounce τῆς γῆς THS GHS as something like "TIS GIS" with obviously short vowels. (I wonder what they have in mind when reading such words aloud, given that they learned and are also teaching others that a circumflex cannot stand on a short vowel). Or, knowing that the circumflex accent causes the pitch to rise and fall within the same syllable, is it hard or lacking dignity to apply such pronounciation? There is enough information, I believe, within in the language itself that helps us reconstruct - if we so wish - the pronounciation system almost entirely. At least, we have chances to be consistent with the rules we have already aknowledged in theory. If we do otherwise, then we are disregarding the whole effort of those who transmitted the text with all those accents and spirits we now have. I believe that anyone could describe the accentuation system so as to be quite similarly employed as those who wrote the texts would. Here is an example.... <http://greaca-veche.xhost.ro/accent.pdf>
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It is not ideal, but at least it will not send Greeks into a fit of laughter and/or indignation at what has been done to their language by crazy foreigners (or barbarians, as one Greek put it :) ).
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"Barbarians"? I know you are joking; however, today's Greeks should not call "barbarians" those who are trying to restore the intonation their ancestors used.
Vasile STANCU
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