From: Michael Holmes (holmic@bethel.edu)
Date: Tue Dec 10 1996 - 11:58:53 EST
At 06:09 AM 12/10/96 -0600, Carl W. Conrad wrote, in response to some
comments by Stephen C. Carlson about the question of how certain pronouns
were pronounced:
>Stephen, I find this fascinating.I know we've discussed similar items about
>pronunciation on earlier occasions,and I am really curious about the
>evidence for this assertion; it's not so much that I think it is wrong as
>that I don't see how universal statements can be made about how Koine Greek
>was pronounced in every area where it was spoken and written at any
>particular time. I think there must have been considerable variation from
>one area of the world to another, and also that pronunciations that came to
>be standard everywhere later must have already been current or coming into
>currency somewhere earlier. So I guess I'm curious about the real evidence
>for this. I wold think that papyri from Egypt must be the strongest
>evidence, and I guess that they can be dated with reasonable probability
>within a quarter century or so?
>
For an extensive discussion of the pronounciation of Greek in late
Antiquity, largely based on the evidence of papyri (of all sorts), see:
Francis T. Gignac, _A Grammar of the Greek Papyri of the Roman and Byzantine
Periods_ (2 vols.; Milan: Istituto Editoriale Cisalpino, 1976, 1981); vol. 1
deals with phonology, vol. 2 with morphology.
He offers an extensive discussion of phonological variation and assimilation
in the periods indicated by his title, with copious presentation of evidence.
Mike Holmes
Bethel College
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:59 EDT