How to go about with the pitch accent

Greek Learning Greek
1

So how do you guys approach the pitch accent? I read that the two tones you go through in the accented words are whatever base note you pick and a perfect fifth above that. Then again, when I practice with that, a lot of words just sound odd. Plus, I heard some people reading passages in Ancient Greek, (http://www.oeaw.ac.at/kal/agp/), and they weren’t sticking to the perfect fifths anywhere.

So the question is, if I just go with what sounds nice to my ear, will I be laughed at when my future Ancient Greek buddies and I decide to speak in our common tongue? Does the perfect fifth rule stick true, or does nobody really know?

2

The perfect fifth is reported to us by ancient grammarians. I personally have the suspicion this wide an interval refers to the practice of public speakers, where you’d expect that sort of exaggeration. In contemporary languages with pitch accent, a fifth is awfully wide.

I use a much smaller interval, some use a larger one. This seems more a matter of personal taste.