[B-Greek] Changing Pronunciation

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Mar 14 09:24:10 EDT 2011


On Mar 14, 2011, at 7:58 AM, Eric S. Weiss wrote:

> Randall Buth's Website is now http://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/
> 
> Buth's Phonemic Koinê differs from Modern Greek in only 3 ways, IIRC: 
> H êta is pronounced as "ay" instead of "ee" (Modern)
> U upsilon is pronounced as French u instead of "ee" (Modern)
> OI omicron-iota is pronounced as French u instead of "ee" (Modern)

I don't think the above is correct for H êta. "ay" is Erasmian, a
long closed "e." In Buth's system Eta is an long open "e" --
I'd make it more akin to the "a" in American English "mad" or "bad." Plato at
some point says that the Eta sounds like a lamb bleating: think "baaaa"

> I made the change several years ago, and haven't looked back. Granted, 
> the distinct vowel and diphthong sounds and rough breathing in Erasmian 
> make vocabulary differentiation and acquisition somewhat easier, but 
> Phonetic Koinê and/or Modern Greek to me are more euphonious and 
> flow more smoothly when listening or reading aloud. 
> 
> I have the Living Koinê materials and am using them to prepare for an 8-day 
> fluency workshop I'm attending this summer under Dr. Buth's program. 


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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