by annis » Thu Sep 18, 2003 12:47 pm
[quote author=Midn Easy link=board=2;threadid=649;start=15#6236 date=1063864609]<br />So should the omicron be pronounced: "uh," As in uh-bay for <br />"obey"? Crosby and Schaeffer use the same example of obey for omicron. Furthermore, should Omicron sound more like uhmicron?<br />[/quote]<br /><br />We've gotten a little far afield here.<br /><br />When we talk about vowel length in Greek we really mean that. Unfortunately, in English, "long a" doesn't mean the sound is really longer, but that it's a different sound.<br /><br />Omicron is short o. Omega is long o. That really means that the omega should be pronounced longer. For a native speaker of English (or the other Germanic and Romance languages) this will be hard at first. Start out over-doing it a bit, and pronounce long vowels as though they were written twice. For example, for a long iota (that gets no special letter) imagine this phrase<br /><br /> a silly eery movie<br /><br />In this the 'y' of silly and the 'ee' of eery will merge into a slightly longer lasting 'ee' sound. That's part of the effect of the long Greek vowels.<br /><br />As I said, it's hard at first for people who don't use a language where this matters (unlike, say, Japanese which does have vowel length).<br /><br />Now, long alpha, iota and upsilon don't get a special letter. In beginning books and dictionaries they'll use a long or short sign to help you. A lot of people ignore these, but if you evern plan to read Homer or any of the other poets you should pay attention to this! In some early versions of the alphabet the Athenians used there was no omega or eta, and the long and short versions were both written with epsilon and omicron.<br /><br />In addition to the length difference, it happens that eta and omega had a slightly different, more open pronunciation. That's probably why they got their own letters. <br /><br />epsilon - like Italian or Spanish 'e'; English speakers will be told to pronounce it like a long 'a' in 'day' but that's not quite right, but I suppose close enough (if you pronounce 'day' very slowly, you'll notice that the sound glides into an ee sound - don't do that if you can avoid it for Greek).<br /><br />eta - pronounce epsilon, but open up your mouth more - mostly by opening up more verically rather than horizontally. The resulting sound will come out like 'eh' in 'said'. Some people thing the eta was actually an æ sound, like how a Midwestern American pronounces 'fat'. Greek sheep say [face=SPIonic]bh= bh=[/face], or sometimes [face=SPIonic]mh/ mh/[/face] - "no, no!" - which sent Ajax off the deep end.<br /><br />omicron - again, like Italian or Spanish 'o'. English like 'flow' or 'know' but again English really ends up with an 'oo' (as in 'do') at the end, which should be avoided.<br /><br />omega - pronounce omicron, then open up the mouth more, again more vertical than horizontal. In many dialects of English the open 'ah' sound has savaged the open 'o' (saw, caught) sound.<br /><br />Please note that the advice I'm giving is our best understanding of how these sounds were pronounced. I'm sure there were differences in different dialects. But it also is completely opposite how school primers teach how to say these words.<br /><br />In my opinion, pick a pronuciation and stick with it, but do make an effort to get the length correct. If you can, try to get the vowel quality correct, too, but this, in some degree, an academic exercise.
), short o, not a.
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