Being Eastern Orthodox, I often find myself in the company of native Greeks. Every Greek acquaintance of mine consistently recommends mastering modern Greek pronunciation first and then incorporating Biblical rules. This approach ensures that your Greek proficiency will be practically beneficial when engaging with Greek media or visiting Greece.
I agree that exposure to and knowledge of modern Greek pronuncuation is beneficial, but Modern Greek pronunciation would make Ancient Greek unpractical for communicative purposes. I personally try to emulate certain features of MG pronunciation in my own Polis pronunciation (apical sigma, fricative khi)
The only place where ancient Greek texts have been read continuously since the late antiquity are the eastern churches. That's why I think we should take into account the pronunciation used in Greek churches even if some changes have been made.
Stress accent doesn't necessarily involve a lengthened syllable. European Spanish, for instance, has a stress accent but stressed and unstressed syllables are generally the same length. The difference between a pitch accent and a stress accent is rather that the pitch contour of a word can't be overridden by sentence level intonation. That is, in a stress accent language, while the stressed syllable might be differentiated by pitch from other syllables, it doesn't always have to be higher in pitch - if for instance you add a question intonation to a word with initial stress, the pitch will still rise across the word, meaning that the stressed syllable might be lower pitched than unstressed syllables. Meanwhile, in, say, Japanese, there is always a pitch downstep after the accent - any question intonation has to follow that downstep, it can't override it.
I’m not sure why someone would want to model their speech after non-native speakers, though (re the discussion of phonological length in a higher-register reconstruction).
Completely understandable question. I myself feel Modern pronunciation is more advantageous (but still not without its drawbacks) and that one should derive one's oral posture and pronunciation of the sigma and other specific consonants from Modern native speakers before learning about and tackling more historical pronunciation, be it Classical, Hellenistic or Imperial Koine.
There are no native speakers of ancient Greek. The idea is to model your ancient Greek according to how native speakers of ancient Greek pronounced it, in order to better understand what they were communicating in their language. That said, as soon as I started to investigate how to pronounce the Greek of 500 BC I also made sure to listen to modern Greek speakers to get a feel for the underlying allophones. So no, I don’t want to pronounce every classical attic diphthong as a iota, but yes I’d like to pronounce iota like a modern Greek native.
I wonder if Paul's speech being "of no account" implies not just a lack of flashy bodily presence, but also a "commoning" of his language for the listeners. He became all things to all men. It's hard to think a majority of the texts wouldn't be communicated colloquially ("not many of you were wise...").
Being Eastern Orthodox, I often find myself in the company of native Greeks. Every Greek acquaintance of mine consistently recommends mastering modern Greek pronunciation first and then incorporating Biblical rules. This approach ensures that your Greek proficiency will be practically beneficial when engaging with Greek media or visiting Greece.
I agree that exposure to and knowledge of modern Greek pronuncuation is beneficial, but Modern Greek pronunciation would make Ancient Greek unpractical for communicative purposes. I personally try to emulate certain features of MG pronunciation in my own Polis pronunciation (apical sigma, fricative khi)
The only place where ancient Greek texts have been read continuously since the late antiquity are the eastern churches. That's why I think we should take into account the pronunciation used in Greek churches even if some changes have been made.
Very much enjoyed this! Ben is such a blessing. So is Biblingo!
Great questions and great answers!! Loved this interview.
Stress accent doesn't necessarily involve a lengthened syllable. European Spanish, for instance, has a stress accent but stressed and unstressed syllables are generally the same length. The difference between a pitch accent and a stress accent is rather that the pitch contour of a word can't be overridden by sentence level intonation. That is, in a stress accent language, while the stressed syllable might be differentiated by pitch from other syllables, it doesn't always have to be higher in pitch - if for instance you add a question intonation to a word with initial stress, the pitch will still rise across the word, meaning that the stressed syllable might be lower pitched than unstressed syllables. Meanwhile, in, say, Japanese, there is always a pitch downstep after the accent - any question intonation has to follow that downstep, it can't override it.
Love Luke Ranieri. He's got some fun videos to geek out on. 🤓
I study in Polis, and no one pays attention to vowel length outside of the subjonctive.
I’m not sure why someone would want to model their speech after non-native speakers, though (re the discussion of phonological length in a higher-register reconstruction).
Completely understandable question. I myself feel Modern pronunciation is more advantageous (but still not without its drawbacks) and that one should derive one's oral posture and pronunciation of the sigma and other specific consonants from Modern native speakers before learning about and tackling more historical pronunciation, be it Classical, Hellenistic or Imperial Koine.
you're losing - give it up
There are no native speakers of ancient Greek. The idea is to model your ancient Greek according to how native speakers of ancient Greek pronounced it, in order to better understand what they were communicating in their language. That said, as soon as I started to investigate how to pronounce the Greek of 500 BC I also made sure to listen to modern Greek speakers to get a feel for the underlying allophones. So no, I don’t want to pronounce every classical attic diphthong as a iota, but yes I’d like to pronounce iota like a modern Greek native.
@@raederle9070
This!
I wonder if Paul's speech being "of no account" implies not just a lack of flashy bodily presence, but also a "commoning" of his language for the listeners. He became all things to all men. It's hard to think a majority of the texts wouldn't be communicated colloquially ("not many of you were wise...").
If you START speaKING ENGlish with a DIFFerent ACcent or STRESS, you will FIND that you HAVE BEcome ChriSTOpher WALken.