Pronunciation of greek
- a) ERASMIC b) STANDARD (reuchlinian)
- Erasmic is the pronunciation for ancient greek, used by non-greek scholars.
- Standard is the pronunciation we use in greece for ancient, mediaeval and contemporary greek.
- a) Erasmic (or Erasmian or Etacisitc pronunciation)
LINK for SOUND: Ancient Greek Tutorials by Berkeley University USA
- Erasmus Desiderius (Dutch humanist 1466?-1536) wrote in 1528 a thesis on the differences of pronunciation of ancient and his contemporary greek. Apparently, Erasmus has met byzantine scholars of his time and was aware of their pronunciation. Till 1588 westerners pronounced ancient greek as their contemporary greeks did (Standard). But in 1588 two british professors at Cambridge proposed to put Erasmus' observations into practice. The term erasmic, is used since 1830 and means: the pronunciation of ancient greek as described by Erasmus. The german hellenist Johann Reuchlin (1445-1522) insisted on the modern greek pronunciation continuity, and standard greek.
- The term 'Erasmic' can also imply, in a broad sense any kind of attempt to reconstruct an ancient greek pronunciation. Of course, the ancient pronunciation is not one, so the erasmic is just an approximation. Note, that it is much easier for a non-greek to pronounce all binary combinations of letters in erasmic manner. (e.g. <AI> is pronounced /ai/ in erasmic, but /e/ in standard greek).
- Today, Erasmic is used only in non-greek schools and universities. In Greece, only Standard, modern pronunciation is used for any texts, from Homer to today's newspapers.
- LINKS:
- Desiderius Erasmus, 1466-1536 by historyguide.org
- greek alphabet pronunciation LINKS
- ↑ b) Standard modern pronunciation of greek (or Reuchlinian pronunciation, or Iotacistic)
- Erasmic is the pronunciation for ancient greek, used by non-greek scholars.
- Standard is the pronunciation we use in greece for ancient, mediaeval and contemporary greek.
LINKS for SOUND: my own GREEK LETTERS WITH EXAMPLES
Philoglossia Greek Alphabet Lessons by the Institute of Language and Speech Processing: ILSP of Thrace, GREECE
- Today's pronunciation of greek has evolved through all centuries of the language's history. Phonological study has shown that ancient and modern greek pronunciations are slightly different. The changes started occurring quite early, in many different places and centuries. To reconstruct one and only one ancient pronunciation model is intangible. The german hellenist Johann Reuchlin (1445-1522) insisted on the modern greek pronunciation continuity. But non-greek philologists adopted the erasmic style of pronouncing.
- In Greece, when studying the classics at school and Universities, we are aware of the strife of foreign philologists to reconstruct ancient pronunciation or prosody, but we do not use it ourselves. For a non-greek, to study ancient greek means 'to study a dead language'. But to a greek, it is just studying a past version of his language.
- my greek alphabet pronunciation guides
links checked in Aug 2007