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Need advice pronouncing Ancient Greek | ||
Tags: Ancient Greek | Greek | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6767 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 1 of 9 19 October 2009 at 6:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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So I'm getting my toes wet with Ancient Greek (Attic for now), and I need to know how to pronounce it. I gather that
there are a million pronunciation methods out there loosely grouped into two types: pronouncing the letters like modern Greeks do, or pronouncing them based on scholarly reconstruction of the original pronunciation ("Erasmian" pronunciation). Having learned through Japanese that correct pronunciation really helps pronunciation quirks (elisions, sound changes, etc.) "make sense" to the point where they come naturally, so I naturally lean toward the Erasmian method. However, I'm worried about discord between the audio materials I manage to scavenge. It'll be pointless if all my learning materials pronounce the same words differently. Also, looking at Wikipedia's page on the subject (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_Ancient_Greek _in_teaching), I find myself leaning toward the Italian pronunciation, which is based on authentic reconstructed pronunciation, but certain consonants are pronounced in a more modern manner that seems to make more sense. (Specifically, θ, φ, and χ.) Any tips or opinions to share? Edited by Captain Haddock on 19 October 2009 at 6:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6121 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 2 of 9 21 October 2009 at 12:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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Check out Message 36 of 52 of this thread. Nikol, a native Greek speaker made a recording of herself reading a passage from Plato in the original and a translation into modern Greek:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=11961&PN=0&TPN=5 Nikol also mentioned that this reading of 1 John 1 uses very good pronunciation: http://www.biblicalulpan.org/Sound_files/1John1.MP3 If you want me to post the text of this second one, let me know and I will be happy to do so. Edited by JW on 21 October 2009 at 12:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6767 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 3 of 9 21 October 2009 at 6:59am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the links, JW. The Plato recording should be helpful. I think I'm going to avoid Koine Greek until I have a
handle on Classic (Attic) Greek, however. I'm leaning more and more towards modern Greek pronunciation, now that I've read some articles claiming that the shift to the modern sounds was in progress during the Classical period already. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gilgamesh Tetraglot Senior Member England Joined 6241 days ago 452 posts - 468 votes 14 sounds Speaks: Dutch, English, German, French Studies: Polish | Message 4 of 9 21 October 2009 at 4:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hmmm... Well, if you pronounce it like Modern Greek, a lot of sounds merge into "ee" (as in glee)... Like oi, ei, etc. etc. ... Sticking to a reconstructed pronunciation (which would make more sense for some words) might be more helpful when it comes to differentiating between similar-sounding words... In the end, it's probably not that important, I guess, as I doubt you will have (m)any opportunity/-ies to speak it anyway.
Good luck! P.S. I know you are in Japan, and that you don't study Modern Greek, but I would just like to add that one of the greatest book series I think there is is a collection of philosophical works you can purchase in Greece - one page Modern, one page Ancient. I know a bit of Modern (it used to be my native language); I guess it's awesome if you're interested in the "language as a whole". Otherwise, it's just a nice thing to have. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6767 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 5 of 9 21 October 2009 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Sounds interesting, Gilgamesh. Does it have an ISBN number?
(And about the vowels, I agree it will be a little weird pronouncing all those diphthongs as "ee".) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gilgamesh Tetraglot Senior Member England Joined 6241 days ago 452 posts - 468 votes 14 sounds Speaks: Dutch, English, German, French Studies: Polish | Message 6 of 9 21 October 2009 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
Oufff... The thing about that is: I have my only copy at home. It's more of a series, but I don't remember the name. The only thing I know is where to find them. Go to Athens' biggest bookstore (Eleftheroudakis), and it will be at the end of the ground floor. Two gigantic book cases. ;-) Sorry, that's all I know. If I remembered the name of that particular series, I would google it for you. Edited by Gilgamesh on 21 October 2009 at 6:09pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6121 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 7 of 9 21 October 2009 at 8:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
Actually, here's the English version of their website. I'm sure you could order it there. Cool bookmark for future reference--Thanks Gilgamesh :) http://www.bookstoreguide.org/2007/12/eleftheroudakis-athens .html# Edited by JW on 21 October 2009 at 8:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Minlawc Newbie United States Joined 6531 days ago 24 posts - 56 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 8 of 9 21 October 2009 at 9:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Ancient Greek had a pitch accent. If you go with an Ancient Greek pronunciation, your experience with Japanese may help.
From what I hear, the Erasmian Pronunciation is an attempt to have one sound per symbol, which brings in sounds not originally in Greek. I would go with either the historic pronunciation or the modern pronunciation. Edited by Minlawc on 21 October 2009 at 9:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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