After seven months of working on a mora-based pronunciation (and listening to a bunch of the Kalevala and Moomin Iambics in Finnish this morning – thanks Edouard), I’m pretty sure that this is the rhythm of Homer, more or less: Iliad video
This version has some readings with the same rhythm at different speeds and different levels of accent: Iliad video, three readings
These sound really good, Joel. The rhythm really comes through in your reading in a very natural way; I think your hard work is really paying off. One thing I noticed that thew me off some was your pronunciation of προιαψεν and πρωτα. You break up the consonant cluster -πρ- and pronounce it almost παρωτα. The combination of stop + liquid should be pronounced almost as a single consonant. It doesn’t throw off the rhythm much because both instances are onsets to a long syllable but it stood out to my ear.
Yes, I’m still a bit uneven on πρ (and ρ in general, especially ρρ, which is supposed to be an unaspirated-aspirated pair according to the ancient grammarians). The metrical evidence indicates that for the same word in the same author, πρ (or any plosive-liquid) can be a single consonant, and not make the preceding syllable count as long metrically, and at other times it’s a double that does make the preceding syllable count as long. Here Ἄιδι προίαψεν needs to be short short long. The final ι of Ἄιδι is of course pronounced short, so it has to be the next word that gives it the length. τὰ πρῶτα is the same.
Here’s pronunciation of the Estonian word for apricot, which is about what I’m going for: aprikoosid.
It’s good indeed and there’s again much progress. There’s a couple of things I might do differently, but I think it’s mostly a matter of taste. Your ερισαντε though has a long final ε and your ψυχας a short υ. But having tried this sort of thing myself, I know how we always make a little slip somewhere. You’ve definitely overcome your native phonology.