[B-Greek] Greek NT audio--attitude of modern Greeks
Randall Buth
randallbuth at gmail.com
Sat Sep 27 17:01:53 EDT 2008
On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 10:56 PM, Vasile Stancu <stancu at mail.dnttm.ro> wrote:
...
>
> May I ask Dr. Buth one question: you mention today's Greeks strongly rejecting the Erasmian system, yet tolerating the Living Koine. If today's Greeks were convinced that Living Koine was the system people in NT times were using, shouldn't they be the first to not only using, but even promoting it? And if they are not, why not?
>
The question of attitudes of today's Greeks is a good question, but some of the
deductions or test questions above scramble more than one issue. Some of the
questions are asking them to look at their own language as though they were
outsiders.
You began a question, "if today's Greeks were convinced that Living
Koine was the
system" ... But that seems to misinterpret my statements.
I claimed that in my experience they tolerate "Living Koine", that it
appears as
somehow "Greek", maybe in comparison to what they imagine or have heard
about foreign academic Greek scholars. When I speak or read they follow along
comfortably. Sometimes an HTA throws them off. They hear Y as I, because
their ears function on a five-vowel grid and a KOINH "Y-psilon"
happens to land
in their acoustic grid-space where it is interpreted as I. This means
that there is a potential
reconciliation between modern Greek and KOINH Greek if the latter were to be
used by New Testament scholars around the world. It may be capable of bridging
the gap between KOINH and modern. On the other hand, the Erasmian dialects
are cacophonic and irredeemably distant from modern. This is one
consideration that should go into the overall mix in choosing a pronunciation.
Not the only criterion, just one criterion.
In sociolinguistic terms this deals with 'acceptance'. Preliminary indications
tell me that KOINH has a chance at acceptability that Erasmian is completely
lacking.
> shouldn't they be the first to not only using, but even promoting it?
>
Why? They don't want to use anything except modern.
Does the outsider, you or I, have the right to tell the insider what
they should
want or what they should consider valuable?
By and large, modern Greeks do not know the history of their phonology.
This should not be surprising. How many English speakers know about the
great English vowel shift and what changed between Chaucer and Shakespeare?
Greeks do not personally recognize a seven-vowel "Koine" system, nor are they
aware of the system transformations that took place in 4-2c BCE. So they
can hardly advocate a KOINH PROFORA.
The teachers know something about the period between Plato and Homer,
but they invariably read according to modern Greek.
In addition, modern Greeks do not speak and do not try to speak in the old
language. They are content to speak in modern Greek when discussing an ancient
text. Consequently, they are not interested in using a different phonology from
modern Greek, since they do not use a different language other than modern
Greek either.
Hopefully, that clarifies modern Greek expectations. If you want to hear how
Greeks might feel about their language, read Chrys Caragounis' book.
ERRWSO
Randall
--
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth at gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
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