[B-Greek] Absurdity of Koine Greek accents (was "Allegory about learning Koine Greek")
Christophe Rico
ricochristophe at gmail.com
Wed Jul 22 03:09:45 EDT 2009
I would like to add something to the debate and to the letter of Randy Buth.
Let us put aside the fact that after 20 or 30 years it would be difficult
for me to change my pronunciation of Greek (which is true). If I was now at
the beginning of my Greek studies and I had to choose a pronunciation, I
would still choose the one I use in Polis. I think that Koine Greek is
difficult enough and it seems to me that the easier we make it for the
students the better. In any case, I agree that my pronunciation is not
historically correct if we point out "Koine" as
"a close approximation to the Greek of NT times". But spelling makes the
unity of Koine Greek, at least for literary texts, from the 3rd century
before Christ till the end of Antiquity (and beyond). So why not trying to
be faithful to the spelling, bearing in mind that the pronunciation has
evolved during all this period ? A last word. I am really convinced that
Randy's pronunciation is the closest possible approximation to the
historical pronunciaiton of New Testament Greek. His description of NT Greek
pronunciation is, without any doubt, the most accurate one. But I prefer not
to use it in my classes above all for pedagogical reasons.
Christophe Rico
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