listening to greek to connect sight and sound

[IreneY]

You don’t Sure, I can see your point in the case of the personal pronoun but convincing people to use a different pronunciation system from their native one for just two words? (The possible MG-pronunciation homonyms’ meaning for all other cases can be determined by context). Nah!

Note just to be a true curmudgeon: It has nothing to do with pronunciation but the fact that “you” can refer to one or many is quite frustrating you know (Not to mention the not-so-rare “Do I have to turn left? - Right”

[Bert]

Or: Go ahead, back up.

[modus.irrealis]

@IreneY

You don’t Sure, I can see your point in the case of the personal pronoun but convincing people to use a different pronunciation system from their native one for just two words? (The possible MG-pronunciation homonyms’ meaning for all other cases can be determined by context). Nah!

That’s true – I can’t think of anything else that’s confusing solely due to the pronunciation.

Note just to be a true curmudgeon: It has nothing to do with pronunciation but the fact that “you” can refer to one or many is quite frustrating you know > >

Wait a second – I’d be very surprised if you have trouble with εσείς being used to address a single person . But actually I do think this is a kind of ambiguity that is difficult for languages to sustain, except perhaps in more formal registers. In my own English, when I speak casually, “you” is always singular and for the plural I have “you guys.”

[NuclearWarhead]

@theodoros

@modus.irrealis

One frustrating thing about the Modern Greek pronunciation (when used for Ancient Greek) is that you don’t distinguish the forms of ἡμεῖς and ὑμεῖς. It seems to me that in the vast majority of cases, either word makes sense in context, so unless you already know what’s being said (or can see it written), you can never be sure what’s being said.

Would be preferable for an Anglophone to pronounce the letter k in the word knight to distinguish it by the word night? And what would be the preferred reading in the Greek alphabet: νάιτ or κνίγγχτ?

Not that it has anything to do with this, but probably around 1400-1600 in English phonological history word initial /kn/ was reduced to /n/ thus creating the homophones they are now. (And during the same period the Great Vowel Shift took place whereby the original Middle English /i:/ was diphtongized).

Sorry if you already knew that. And sorry for the excursion.

[Swth_r]

@bedwere

Are there groups in Greece where people speak the ancient language with the modern pronunciation?

You can have a quite good idea if you visit on a sunday morning an orthodox churche and hear something read out of a gospell.