Greek Pronunciation

To: B-GREEK@virginia.edu
Subject: Greek Pronunciation
From: Keith Massey <NAPH@macc.wisc.edu>
Date: Thu, 12 May 94 12:37 CDT
Regarding James Tauber's query on the pronunciation of Greek by NT times; a NT
Greek Reading group I'm a part of has recently occupied itself with this issue.
I'm sorry that I can't give you any references at the moment, but a report on
the issue by a few members concluded that what evidence exists points to a
movement by NT times to a pronunciation essentially the same as that continued
to this day by the Byzantines. That is, the eta and the upsilon are pronounced
the same as "ee" (which explains the multitude of interchanges between "we" and
"you" in all their forms). Rough breathings appear to have vanished; diphthongs
such as "ei", "ui", "oi" have become "ee" (when in doubt say "ee" alot). "ai" as
in kai is "e" (as if you said the name Ken and left off the "n"). The upsilon as
a non-initial is consonantal, conditioned for voicing by the following phoneme,
eg., aftos, "He" Pnevma, "Spirit". The delta is fricatized, as is the Beta. The
gamma is rough before vowels such as "a" and "o", but essentially a "y" before
""e" and "i". I believe that about covers it. I would argue that the
pronunciation of Greek New Testament ought to, in principle, follow the living
tradition, though I was trained, as probably most of you were, in the "ancient"
method. I have found it hard to learn the Byzantine pronunciation, but gratia
Dei I will succeed.
 
Keith Massey