I have been studying Pharr’s Homeric Greek for a little while. I realized that I own Zondervan’s New Testament Greek Vocabulary and I dusted it off and opened it up. It seems to have a lot of words and phrases voiced on the cd with the words printed in an accompany booklet.
So my question is…will the pronunciation found on these discs be close to that of the pronunciation of Homeric Greek? I know already that the constructions of some of the phrases will be different, but I am interested in how the Greek sounds.
Χαῖ?ε, Πετ?η, you were the one who was asking about Greek pronunciation earlier as well, I think (or it was someone else). Anyway, this may be of help, a site that Will has cited on his website:
Stefan Hagel has long been my guide, and I am endeavoring to become as fluent a reciter of Greek as he. Except for the gurgled German ‘r’ he sadly permitts in his speech, his pronunciation is remarkably good and prosody especially excellent. He sings part of the Iliad here:
I feel sorry that I have to disagree with you. On Hagel’s attempt the German pronunciation prevails, despite his effort. He couldn’t even forget the German custom to put the tone on first syllables in words like Socrates (So/crates) and not to the middle syllables (Socra/tes), as the signs demand. Or stretching the first syllable of isos (i/sos) to sound like iiii/sos (though he stressed the first syllable correctly), though it should be a very short one. And kai, it should sound like kaee/, and not ka/ee. In general, he doesn’t; know where to put the stress, Κυμοδόκη becomes Κ?μοδοκη. It’s a crime. One should establish a rule that says only Greeks are allowed to read ancient Greek poems and prose, even if they have to read in any deconstructed pronunciation. Such horrible attempts to render ancient Greek makes me take a gun and shoot.
I guess my New Year’s resolution is to finish that tutorial on the reconstructed pronunciation I’ve had in mind for more than two years now. With lots of sound files.
Maybe it’s my problem, but I’ve listened him many times. I think his pitch is a stress, or because of German is forced to stress long vowels more than other syllables and it confuses me. Generally, he has a problem with the signs. Καί is sometimes rendered as ga/i. so sounds it to me. Δω?ίς has become a doo/-ris, stressed or pitched at the second o, to mention only one of all the points. Δωτώ should be doto/, not do/to, or do/to/ as he speaks it sometimes. At this point I’d like to know, how do you speak diphthongs? oi is o/i or oi/, δ’ αυτοί is da/utoi?
As in Roman Imperial? Not so! for that intrusive ‘g’ is an Italogermanic tendency that’s very Middle Ages and out of place for you, my friend. I’m much more comfortable with a more Classical Latin approach.
This is the way it’s going to sound to an English speaker. Since our unvoiced stops are aspirated, and voiced ones unaspirated, if we hear an unaspirated stop, it sounds like a voiced stop to us. It’s so hardwired into our brains by the age of two that it takes enormous amounts of practice to overcome this way of hearing. I haven’t achieved it yet, either.
It’s a crime. One should establish a rule that says only Greeks are allowed to read ancient Greek poems and prose, even if they have to read in any deconstructed pronunciation. Such horrible attempts to render ancient Greek makes me take a gun and shoot.
It always puzzles me why the Italians don’t get as hot and bothered by the barbarians using reconstructed Latin pronunciation instead of Church Latin …or do they?
In the above link stressed pronunciation is used and the passage if from the New Testament. But I think the phonemes are quite valid and can be used in classical Greek, except for some errors of theta in θεος, (but it’s correct in σωθη), and in some other cases. I want you to listen how he speaks εις in the sixth line, as well as other diphthongs like αι in αποληται. Also the kappa in various cases. Compare that with Hagel’s pronunciation to see the difference.
Hey, Thomas, thanks for posting this. Unfortunately, that recording only loads through the first few seconds, and on several attempts refuses to load any further.
As for Italians, they generally are pretty set in their ways of pronouncing Latin as if it were Italian, for the most part, but the educated ones will use the Classical Pronunciation. I think the lack of hotheadedness may come from the fact that it’s called a different language — Italian versus Latin — while Greek is Greek now or two thousand years ago, even if it is changed utterly. Plus, arrogance combined with ignorance is a very dangerous thing.
