[B-Greek] Any Greek grammars use non-Erasmusan Pronunciation scheme?
Randall Buth
randallbuth at gmail.com
Wed Apr 1 17:39:39 EDT 2009
>I think quite a few people on the list prefer non-Erasmian pronunciations,
most notably Randall Buth, who is making taking materials. Certainly
speakers of modern Greek pretty much unanimously don't use Erasmian
pronunciations. They usually use modern Greek pronunciation, although Dr.
Buth has reconstructed pronunciation scheme, which is slightly different for
things like upsilon. See the following website:
>http://www.biblicalulpan.org/
>Peace,
>Andrew
>On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 2:33 PM, Kenneth Litwak <javajedi2 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> I had heard long ago that the pronunciation that Erasmus gave for Greek
> letters might have been based upon a joke played on him. Now that I've read
> Caragounis on this topic, that seems even more certain. So I'm wondering if
> there are ny NT Greek grammars that try to use a more "correct" scheme? I'm
> not sure how I'd teach the scheme that Caragounis puts forwards, as he does
> not have a good example for every sound (several vowels and diphthongs are
> "between did and see"). Or, is his a lone voice in promoting alternative
> pronunciation? Thanks.
>>
>> Ken
Historically, Roger Bacon used modern Greek pronunciation, but of course, he
lived before Erasmus.
Many grammarians have pointed out that the phonology of the first century was
not like that of schools in NorthAmerica or Europe, and some have pointed out
that this was closer to modern than to 'Erasmian', see Robertson's big tome
for example, but none of the commonly used published grammars
have had the courage to act on their information or to work out an
approximate system for the first century for what is known.
For a defensible Koine system you need to go to Living Koine Greek.
We had no choice, as it were.
We recognized the need for listening-speaking pedagogy and we also knew
that we would need to make a defensible choice because we would end up
fluent in the chosen system. To be honest, the thought of ending up fluent
in 'Erasmian' bordered on ugly-repulsive. Certainly, the Greeks themselves are
clear on the matter, even if they have swallowed up two vowels that were still
in use in the first century [e] and [y]. The Greeks flat out do not
accept Erasmian
and I would not want to add insult to injury by choosing something that I knew
was wrong. So we put together a workable, linguistically defensible Koine,
and something within the tolerance of Greeks themselves.
It is also comforting to know that this was a system that Greeks themselves
used for hundreds of years. Modern Greek phonology is part of the reason that
many drastic changes have occurred in Greek over the centuries. The modern
Greek does not really uphold the written first century language, as can be
seen in words like HMEIS and YMEIS. As the modern system took over,
these two common words had to change and are now EMEIS and ESEIS.
The nice thing about Koine is that the system was relatively stable for a few
hundred years and the KOINH phonology was differentiated enough to
carry the whole KOINH language. All languages can tolerate some ambiguity
and built-in redundancies allow communication to take place successfully.
When going back in time it is nice to have a system that is
(1) historically real, on the one hand, (i.e., not relying
artificially on something
the ancient audience couldn't hear) and
(2) does not create more ambiguities than the language could carry.
It puts one 'in the ballpark' with ancient audiences.
ERRWSQE
Randall Buth
--
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth at gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
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