Poll Abolish smooth breathings

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We should keep the rough breathing but gett rid of the smooth breathing as unnecessary.

I agree
12
50%
There are points for and against
4
17%
I disagree
8
33%
 
Total votes: 24

daivid
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Poll Abolish smooth breathings

Post by daivid »

Markos' option seemed popular - lets see how much.
λονδον

Markos
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Re: Poll Abolish smooth breathings

Post by Markos »

Just to see what it would look like, here is a little text without the smooth breathings:

μῆνιν άειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Αχιλῆος
ουλομένην, ἣ μυρί᾽ Αχαιοῖς άλγε᾽ έθηκε,
πολλὰς δ᾽ ιφθίμους ψυχὰς Άϊδι προΐαψεν
ἡρώων, αυτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν
οιωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι, Διὸς δ᾽ ετελείετο βουλή,
εξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ερίσαντε
Ατρεΐδης τε άναξ ανδρῶν καὶ δῖος Αχιλλεύς.


and here with:

μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος
οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί᾽ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε᾽ ἔθηκε,
πολλὰς δ᾽ ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν
ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν
οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι, Διὸς δ᾽ ἐτελείετο βουλή,
ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε
Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς.

Vote early and often. :D

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Paul Derouda
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Re: Poll Abolish smooth breathings

Post by Paul Derouda »

I vote against.

Why? άειδε looks ugly.

I'm not in a mood to act reasonably. If I were, I might have voted otherwise. ;)

uberdwayne
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Re: Poll Abolish smooth breathings

Post by uberdwayne »

I say we keep the smooth breathing.... The first paragraph just looks... naked!
μείζων ἐστὶν ὁ ἐν ὑμῖν ἢ ὁ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ

daivid
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Re: Poll Abolish smooth breathings

Post by daivid »

I really like John Taylor's textbooks but I have to pretty much guess whether the smudge at the start of some words is a rough or a smooth breathing. It is not just 19th century reprints that have the problem of the two being hard to tell apart.
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mwh
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Re: Poll Abolish smooth breathings

Post by mwh »

Looks good to me. And I ALWAYS act reasonably. :wink: And what's wrong with naked?

Interaxus
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Re: Poll Abolish smooth breathings

Post by Interaxus »

Marcos:

Thanks for seeding the project. Unsmoothed Homer is a delight to my eyes at least! But judging from the sluggish support, it seems my prophesied Ancient-Greek-Unsmoothed Spring will take longer than expected to get off the ground. :(

Cheers,
Int

Helikwps
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Re: Poll Abolish smooth breathings

Post by Helikwps »

The two breathings give kid-learners of the language a surprising amount of trouble, as well as old folks like me who are growing farsighted. Enjoy those years of crystal clarity folks!

Seirios
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Re: Poll Abolish smooth breathings

Post by Seirios »

The smooth breathing mark is arguably the only reason for me to set my kindle in the landscape mode. I also have a PDF version of an excellent book discussing both Latin and Greek, and it again set me in problem as the PDF was scanned rather a bit not clearly so...imagine that ;) The Latin part is almost clear since Latin practically only need a long vowel mark (but the practice to mark a short vowel in certain locations immediately ruins such practice and unfortunately the book follows).
Indeed removing the mark impairs the beauty of Ancient Greek but practically it's the best solution. It's just another method to spell...
Problem occurs especially when there are two marks above the same letter.

anphph
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Re: Poll Abolish smooth breathings

Post by anphph »

έγωγε ανεῦ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ ψίλου ήδη απὸ μνημῶν ουκ ολίγων γρᾶψαι είωθα, και ουδαμῶς μοι αισχρὸν δοκεῖ. εῖκος οῦν οὕτως γράφειν διατελῶ.

I've been writing without smooth breathings for quite a few months now, and so far I haven't had any problems. I've seen no reason to go back.

athanatos
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Re: Poll Abolish smooth breathings

Post by athanatos »

Yes, please -- as a neophyte, I do loathe the smooth breathings.

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jeidsath
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Re: Poll Abolish smooth breathings

Post by jeidsath »

The smooth breathings are there to tell all the Romans reading the text not to aspirate every word that begins with a vowel.
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

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