[B-Greek] Changing Pronunciation

Eric S. Weiss papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Mon Mar 14 09:46:11 EDT 2011


In his "Notes on the Pronunciation System of Phonemic Koine Greek," Dr. Buth 
writes re: êta:

"The vowel [H} was somewhat unstable.... Broadly speaking, it would appear that 
most people correctly used it as an equivalent for a "close"/mid-high [e] sound 
in 

the early Roman period. Consequently, we may conclude that most speakers in 
the first century maintained [H] as a separate phoneme.

In his Tongue Position Chart for 1st Century CE, H is described as mid (versus 
high, mid/low, and low), and front (versus rounded, central, back). "The sound 
that 

is written with H is made with the highest part of the tongue relatively forward 
and 

with medium height for a vowel. The lips are unrounded."

I'm not sure there's much audible difference between Phonemic Koinê H and 
Erasmian H, and in his Table of  Vowels in Comparative Pronunciation Systems, 
Buth groups:
 
Attic (Allen-Daitz) EI
Erasmus (U.S. version) EI/H
Phonemic Koinê H

together - i.e., as /e/.

- - -

Eric S. Weiss 



----- Original Message ----
From: Eric S. Weiss <papaweiss1 at yahoo.com>
To: b-greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Mon, March 14, 2011 6:58:06 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Changing Pronunciation

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 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. 


- - -
Eric S. Weiss 


      



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