[B-Greek] Changing Pronunciation
Benjamin Pehrson
benjamin_pehrson at sil.org
Mon Mar 14 09:48:08 EDT 2011
One of the most fun and interesting things to do in any language learning
situation is to explore onomatopoeia and the sounds that people make for
different things. It's fun because different languages/cultures use
different sounds to represent the same thing. So, it seems to me that
Plato's reference to Eta sounding like a lamb bleating could just as well
represent an "aaaay" sound as a "baaaa" sound. I cannot comment on Buth's
pronunciation system.
Ben
-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Carl Conrad
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2011 11:24 PM
To: Eric S. Weiss
Cc: b-greek
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Changing Pronunciation
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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