The sound of Koine

Jack Kilmon (jpman@accesscomm.net)
Thu, 15 Aug 1996 12:58:02 -0600

Listers:

It seems that everytime I encounter a "pronounciation guide" to Koine, it is
very different than the pronounciation I have used since a lad. An example would be
PNEUMATI which I have always pronounced nev-MA-ti but the guides teach noo-MA-ti. The
guides teach Beta as hard, as in BOY, where I have always given it a slight V sound
unless doubled, i.e va-si-LAY-oo for BASILEIOU. Delta, to me, has always had a slight
palatal TH sound, CHI an aspirant H quality (as in German) and a V sound for U when
used as in EUAGGELION ev-an-GEL-i-on or an EE sound as in KUPIOS. My P's have a soft
B-ish tone so PANTA is close to BANTA but harder.

Have I been doing it wrong all these decades? I would like to see a thread
based on the phonetics of Koine.

Jack Kilmon
JPMan@accesscomm.net