[B-Greek] Changing Pronunciation
A. J. Birch
AJB1212 at ono.com
Tue Mar 15 04:15:57 EDT 2011
Hi, Paul (et al.).
I started learning Classical Greek at the age of eleven, with the Erasmian pronunciation. Nearly forty years later, about eighteen months ago, I decided to try to change to 'something more natural'. Basically, I started listening to John Simon's recordings at: http://www.helding.net/greeklatinaudio/greek/. As I understand it, John Simon's pronunciation is somewhere between Randall Buth's system and Modern Greek, being quite close to Modern Greek, but with some differences. My first reaction was: 'Hey, this is very different from what I was taught and have been using all these years!' But I decided to give it a real try and I'm glad that I did! I started off by writing down, as I listened, all the differences I could spot between Erasmian and John Simon. There were quite a few differences, but I was pleasantly surprised how quickly you got used to it with practice and a bit of perseverance. At the beginning, I kept missing some of the differences as I read aloud, but within a few months I found that my pronunciation was acceptably close to John Simon's. I read through the Greek New Testament once a year and I now find the John Simon pronunciation relatively easy, natural-sounding and satisfying. I would say that the single most important change has been something as basic as stressing where the accents come, something that most 'B-Greekers' seem to be agreed about. I'm not in a position to say how good the John Simon pronunciation is, but I'm really glad that I made the effort to make the transition. It's definitely worth it! And, although I understand the practical advantages of the 'Buth' system (differentiating between some vowel sounds, etc.), a lot of modern languages have sounds that are identical in spite of being written differently - like English, for example! - and I find it natural and no big problem following the Modern Greek 'ee' sound with the different spellings, etc.
Well, that's been my experience.
Andrew J. Birch
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
----- Original Message -----
From: Paul D. Nitz
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 7:00 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] Changing Pronunciation
Would those who have switched their Greek pronunciation from Erasmian to Historical Greek Pronunciation share some advice?
1) WORTH IT?
>From what I've read, changing pronunciation is WORTH it. Fluency and internalizing the Greek will be easier for new students if they use a more natural pronunciation than Erasmian. Does your experience mesh with this.
2) ADVICE?
Do you have any practical advice? Cold turkey, etc?
3) MATERIALS ONLINE?
If I understand correctly, HGP comes from Buth and Living Koine materials. I intend to buy the Living Koine materials when back in the States in July, but I had thought to get a start now. A couple hours of search online gave me naught all.
(Nearly all links to promising samples on biblicalgreek.org do not work for me. Likely the vagaries of my African ISP)
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