[B-Greek] Koine Kasruth (Especially Keyboards)
George F Somsel
gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Fri Apr 22 14:15:55 EDT 2011
I will grant that there is a definite value in attempting to learn an
historically accurate pronunciation as opposed to an artificially constructed
pronunciation such as Erasmian, but I will not grant that there is an iota of
benefit in using a national keyboard as opposed to one which is user-friendly.
If you choose to use a national keyboard, fine. If you choose to use another
layout phonetically organized on English (or perhaps, western
European) principles, fine. If you choose to pick a keyboard because you like
its name (ah, "Tavultesoft Keyman" -- that sounds beautiful), that is also fine
(though I'm being a bit giddy with that). Whatever suits your fancy is fine so
long as it does the job. No keyboard is inherently supperior to another as
being more in touch with the language though some are definitely more practical
than others.
george
gfsomsel
… search for truth, hear truth,
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth,
defend the truth till death.
- Jan Hus
_________
________________________________
From: John Schwandt <jschwandt at nsa.edu>
To: Sarah J. Blake <sarah at growingstrong.org>
Cc: George F Somsel <gfsomsel at yahoo.com>; Jason Hare <jason at thehebrewcafe.com>;
b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Fri, April 22, 2011 10:35:22 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Koine Kasruth (Especially Keyboards)
It sounds like there are number of members who are fearful that I am attempting
to restrict freedom in the area of keyboard or pronunciation choice. In that
case I must have miscommunicated.
I'm merely responding to comments about best practices in these areas. My
comments began when I read a couple posts excitedly promoting various
anglo-arranged keyboards. I was providing ethnic and historic alternatives that
are often overlooked by our desires for efficiency. Beyond merely providing
alternatives, I also was providing my rational along an number of lines for why
I believe these alternatives to be better.
I really wasn't expecting so many "don't tread on me" type responses. If you
don't buy my arguments, that's fine. I truly enjoy the sharpening of different
opinions. That is how I have arrived at my current opinions and hope they are
helpful to others. This is coming from someone who has been convinced by others
to gain proficiency with multiple Greek keyboard layouts (and now I think that
the ethnic layout is the best). I also spent serious time in the Erasmian
pronunciation (recorded the GNT for the German Bible Society available in
Logos), years teaching with the Modern pronunciation and now am teaching and
recording with the historical pronunciation that Dr. Buth identified. It takes
a serious level of benefit to convince someone to change from their current
practices and I believe the Greek National Keyboard layout and historic Biblical
pronunciation has that kind of benefit (or avoidance of detriment). If that is
the case how much more reason would there be to presented them as the best place
to begin.
My general principle when learning a foreign language is to put myself in that
language-culture as much as possible rather than trying to adapt the
language-culture to my own. (I have reasons for this principle as well, but I
think most of us agree on it.) I think we are simply disagreeing about what can
be generally expected to be possible.
I'm not arguing against any particular individual choice. I'm simply making a
case to categorize keyboard an English keyboard layout and Anglo pronunciation
as concessions in our practices. And thus if we are provided with the personal
occasion to avoid the concession and embrace the foreign we would go for it. I
have plenty of English concessions for my Greek education that I'm still living
with, but over time I strive to reduce them. I'm in no way a purist. I have no
problem finding situations where a Modern Greek word works best in my Biblical
Greek conversation. Rah, rah for concessions!
So if someone has an opportunity to avoid a concession form the outset, I want
to encourage that better learning practice. It is all too easy for people to
miss such opportunities if we restrict our conversations to how excited we are
about our concessions (implying that they aren't really concessions at all.)
It sounds like there are people who don't think using an English keyboard layout
falls into the category of a concession to English. I am happy to contend that
it does, but I don't want that to be confused with any implications that I may
be limiting someone's personal freedom.
Group hug, :)
John Schwandt
On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 8:28 AM, Sarah J. Blake <sarah at growingstrong.org> wrote:
I agree with George. I can type in Greek or Hebrew nearly as fast as I can
>type in English. It leaves me a lot easier time to work with the language
>instead of hunt for keys. Kdyboards are generally arrenged in certain ways
>because of frequency of letter usage. For native speakers/writers this works
>well. For FL speakers/writers, it may be easier to work with an FL keyboard.
>There is really nothing wrong with it. If someone had an English keyboard
>based on a Greek arrangement, I wouldn't think it separated them from
>American culture. I would think it was a creative solution.
>
>Sarah J. Blake
>Personal correspondence: sjblake at growingstrong.org
>http://www.growingstrong.org
>
>Shop for items you need and support Sarah's site: http://amzn.to/bZHlZg
>
>
>---
>B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
>B-Greek mailing list
>B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
>
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list