From: David L. Moore (dvdmoore@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Wed Jul 31 1996 - 19:29:43 EDT
Edgar M. Krentz wrote:
>
> >I am interested in the different pronunciations that various list users use
> >in their classes they teach, particularly for vowels which have had various
> >pronunciation like Omicron, dipthongs like EI, etc.
> >
> >Jim McGuire
> >Professor of Greek at
> >Logos Bible Institute
> >13248 Roscoe Blvd.
> >Sun Valley, CA 91352
>
> Pronunciation of ancient Greek is a fascinating problem. I do not teach the
> pronunciation used in modern Greek, even though it is close to that of the
> early Roman Empire period, for the reason Carl Conrad gave.
>
> I use a modifed Erasmian pronunciation, taught to me years ago by Prof.
> Saul Levin, an outstanding comparitive linguist. He taught me that omega is
> an extended omicron, for example, close to awe in sound, not a long oo.
>
> I favor a system of pronunciation in which every letter and diphthong has
> its own distinctive pronunciation. If one learns that one always knows how
> to spell what one hears. Thus the iota at the end of AI, OI, EI, etc.
> appears as a kind of final glide into an English e sound. I teach students
> to prohounce the rough breathing that would have stood over an initial
> vowel or rho when the word is in a compound, e.g. in PARhRHSIA.
>
> This is a didactic maneuver that, IMHO, commends itself against a more
> purist use of a reconstructed pronunciation that leads to awful spelling.
> See Carl Conrad's posting.
An effort to reconstruct 1st Century pronunciation does have some
advantages, however. Some text-critical problems can only be understood,
and hopefully solved, by reconstructing the writers' and early copyists'
way of orally expressing and understanding the sounds represented by the
Greek alphabet. Additionally, learning to pronounce that way would
certainly help one to think along these lines.
Romans 5:1 provides a case in point where some scholars have
suggested that Tertius (16:22) may have understood and written EXWMEN for
Paul's dictated EXOMEN (Aland and Aland, _Text of the NT_ [Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1987] p. 281).
-- David L. Moore Director Miami, Florida, USA Department of Education dvdmoore@ix.netcom.com Southeastern Spanish District http://www.netcom.com/~dvdmoore of the Assemblies of God
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