[B-Greek] Grammar Translation (New pronunciation, in Surprised by Joy)

Emanuel Contac vaisamar at gmail.com
Wed Aug 5 04:12:18 EDT 2009


  This is rather an off-topic in relation to what is typically asked on the
forum, but I have one query regarding the "new" pronunciation which C.S.
Lewis mentions in his autobiography, quoted in one of the previous messages.
Does anyone know what new pronunciation was being used around 1914-1915 when
Lewis was studying with Mr. Kirkpatrick (the Great Knock) at Bookham?

   There is a personal motivation behind my question. Last year I translated
Lewis's autobiography into Romanian and naturally, I "exegeted" his text as
carefully as I could, while making the translation. This particular bit
about the new pronunciation would fit into the "historical background", I
guess. But I could not solve it. I still do not make sense of this change to
which Lewis refers. Wasn't the Erasmian pronunciation the standard in those
days?

 

"We opened our books at Iliad, Book 1. Without a word of
introduction Knock read aloud the first twenty lines or so in the
"new" pronunciation, which I had never heard before...

 Emanuel Contac, Romania




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