[B-Greek] What we can live with

Mark Lightman lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Sun Apr 12 22:31:20 EDT 2009


Randall egrapse:
 
so how do you read the papyrus?
Do you pronounce AI differently than E, or EI differently than I?
Wouldn't that make nonsense?

would you want your son to do the same? (to use your analogy, you
don't just want to wait 40 years, but send your son back to Egypt?)

That's a very good question.  If I were argumentative, I would say that
I correct the guy's spelling in my mind and then pronounce it like
Erasmus, i.e. I pretend the guy wrote hOTI not hOTEI.  But that's not
true.  I know the guy wrote hOTEI (or maybe OTEI) and so I do
pronounce the EI here like I.  But then I pronounce the EI in POIEITAI
like a as in late.  I would not call it nonsense, but it is inconsistent.
The papyri, and this one in particular, is a strong argument for Living
Koine.  I said I was one of the best defenders of Erasmus, not that I 
was a good one.  I know that the guy who wrote this papyrus pronounced
AI and E alike, and EI and I alike, and I pronounce it like this on the words
he "misspelled" (we can't call it that, can we?) but not on the words he 
spelled correctly.  Yeah, I guess it is nonsense.
 
My original point is that your originial point is on point.  We CAN live
with more we think.  Erasmians live with more than we think.  We conflate
not only alpha and omicron but OU and U and EU and even kappa and
xi.
 
So why aren't I ready to make the switch, to enter the promised land?
Fear, I guess.  Fear of Cannanite Giants.  I'm just afraid that if I give up my
aspirants and pronounce KAI like ke and ERRWSO like erroesoe my
Greek will suffer.  I just need another 40 years. 
 
Mark L.   


      


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