[B-Greek] Greek NT Audio: vehicle of communication? or enunciation of texts in a dead language?

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Oct 10 08:08:23 EDT 2008


I think it has been pretty well agreed upon by those who have  
participated in this thread that it is important to sound out the  
words and sentences and passages of (Biblical) Greek that are being  
learned in whatever method. I would agree wholeheartedly with that  
notion and would say that acquisition of some degree of understanding  
of the Biblical Greek language is scarcely conceivable without the  
sounding out of the elements: acquisition of vocabulary cries out for  
enunciation of the sounds of the words being learned and, if one  
memorizes paradigms of nominal and verbal inflections, I can't  
conceive of attempting to memorize them without sounding them aloud. I  
think there is also a great value to hearing smaller or greater units  
of text, whether passages from the GNT or sequences of verse or  
passages from Plato, read or chanted aloud. Indeed, this thread was  
launched from request for information on recordings of Greek texts  
that are readily accessible. That's all well and good, and I don't  
think anyone would question the utility of that; the question, rather,  
is which of the schemes of pronunciation of Biblical Greek texts is  
most useful pedagogically for the learner of Biblical Greek—Erasmian,  
reconstructed Classical Attic pronunciation, reconstructed Hellenistic- 
Roman pronunciation, or Modern Greek pronunciation?

Let me raise a tangential question out of curiosity: some have talked  
about a Homeric Greek pronunciation — have even claimed to have used  
it pedagogically; I am curious about what they're referring to as a  
"Homeric Greek pronunciation." I've heard texts of the Homeric poems  
read aloud myself, but not in some distinct scheme of pronunciation  
that differs from how Classical Attic is pronounced in the  
reconstructed Classical Attic pronunciation (Sidney Allen, Stephen  
Daitz). So I would ask those who claim to have used a "Homeric Greek  
pronunciation" just what pronunciation they are referred to and how it  
differs in detail from the other schemes of pronunciation of ancient  
Greek that we've talked about? The recordings of Homer that I've heard  
are either Erasmian or reconstructed Attic.

The chief question I want to raise here, however, is this: How is the  
Greek actually being used when it is sounded out in whichever  
pronunciation scheme has been urged by enthusiastic sponsors of a  
particular scheme? My guess is that it is not being used for anything  
other than the sounding out of written texts, that it is probably NOT  
being used conversationally for real give-and-take communication.  
That, I think, is where Randall's pedagogical application of his  
scheme differs from what's being discussed by all others in this  
thread: Randall wants to use and does use his reconstructed  
Hellenistic-Roman Koine pronunciation in the actual give-and-take of  
classroom instruction and conversation. I think that could also be  
done with the Modern Greek pronunciation, but I don't know whether it  
is actually being done anywhere. Several years ago there was a  
textbook by Carl Ruck (issued in a second edition in 1979 - http://tinyurl.com/3psf6o) 
  that was intended for classroom use of conversational Classical  
Attic using, as I recall, the reconstructed Classical Attic  
pronunciation. I always thought this was the right way to go but I  
didn't think it had been developed far enough to be quite practical; I  
think that what is required is Randall Buth's application of modern  
language-learning techniques in classroom conversation. The question  
is ultimately: How is the pronunciation one prefers to employ  
pedagogically for teaching and learning ancient Greek being employed:  
is it as a real means of communication between its users -- the back- 
and-forth of conversation between teacher and students or between the  
students themselves -- or is it used simply to give an aural  
expression to literary texts in a dead language that is not really  
conceived as a vehicle of communication? I don't disparage the  
practice of vocalizing ancient literary Greek texts for aural  
apprehension of the sounds of the ancient language (although I do  
think it's rather artificial to attempt such vocalization in a  
pronunciation scheme that clearly doesn't represent the way the  
language was ever sounded historically other than in modern  
classrooms), but however valuable such a practice may be, I think it  
can never foster a real grasp of the language as a vehicle of  
communication; the spoken language lies at the basis of all real  
language surely?

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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