[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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