Stephen Hughes wrote:Paul-Nitz wrote:In learning, consistency is king. I'd say Ancient Greek speakers should use their native prosody. They can do that with no effort whatsoever and with perfect consistency.
For want of a model, yes, for the learning period / process, but later, you will find that reading the texts has an effect on the way you speak it. As a learner tries to catch all that seems like it should be in one breath into one breath, and tries to pronounce enclitics as part of the word they are joint with. .
You'd probably be better to disregard what I've written here and go with what you know, but for what it's worth, here are, in their most basic statement, the rules that I have applied to the text - in preparation for reading:
According to what seems to me to be practical and possible in reading "like a langugae", there are some pauses that can be affected by what is around them and some that are not affectable.
- There is a default word break between words.
- A verb other than an infinitive (or perhaps participle) is followed by a cancellable pause "~".
- words like οὗν, γάρ are both preceeded and followed by a non-cancellable pause "^"
- Words like δὲ, are preceeded by non-negatiable pause canceller "-"
- The article in the nominative case is followed by an optional cancellation of a pause "~" (and perhaps preceeded by a non-cancellable pause "=")
- The artice in oblique cases is both preceeded and followed by optional cancellations of a pause "~" - "article" means joint word it does things like make no space between the preposition and it's nominal phrase, or no space (pause) between a verb and it's object.
- καί is preceeded by a non-cancellable pause "^".
- Personal pronouns in the nominative case are followed by an optional cancellation of a pause "~"
- Personals pronouns in oblique cases are preceeded by a cancellation of a pause "~"
- Special words like εἷς, μία, ἕν, πρῶτος, τέλος, πᾶς (in all forms), ἕκαστος, λοιπά are inherently special and always receive stress no matter where they are in a sentence. Perhaps the list is subjective and depends on the speaker and their community. Stress increases word pronunciation time, but doesn't overly affect pauses around the word.
- Prepostions are followed by a cancellable pause "="
- The The word or group of words second from the end of a unit is pronounced slowly (in longer time) and there is a change of intonation of some sort (possibly a rising then falling tone).
These reading guidelines are simplistic but could be useful. I use similar things for teaching reading English - but the rules are quite different from what we have in English. I don't know why this works, but they seem to work for me to make Greek very much easier to read.
It is probably a waste of your time to try to understand the symbols, but here is a bit of Ephesians 4 with some of those rubbish rules marked on it:
Παρακαλῶ= ^οὖν^ ~ὑμᾶς ^ἐγὼ= ^ὁ~ δέσμιος ἐν= Κυρίῳ (~)ἀξίως= περιπατῆσαι ~τῆς~ κλήσεως ^ἧς^ ἐκλήθητε=, μετὰ=
πάσης ταπεινοφροσύνης ^καὶ πρᾳότητος, μετὰ= μακροθυμίας, ἀνεχόμενοι ἀλλήλων ἐν= ἀγάπῃ, σπουδάζοντες τηρεῖν ~τὴν~ ἑνότητα ~τοῦ~ Πνεύματος ἐν= ~
τῷ~
συνδέσμῳ ~τῆς~ εἰρήνης.
ἓν σῶμα ^καὶ
ἓν Πνεῦμα, ^καθὼς^ ^καὶ ἐκλήθητε= ἐν=
μιᾷ ἐλπίδι ~τῆς~ κλήσεως ~ὑμῶν·
εἷς Κύριος,
μία πίστις,
ἓν βάπτισμα·
εἷς Θεὸς ^καὶ
πατὴρ πάντων,
ὁ~ ἐπὶ=
πάντων, ^καὶ διὰ=
πάντων, ^καὶ ἐν=
πᾶσιν ~ἡμῖν.
῾
Ενὶ -δὲ
ἑκάστῳ ~ἡμῶν ἐδόθη= ^ἡ~ χάρις κατὰ= ~τὸ~ μέτρον ~τῆς~ δωρεᾶς ~τοῦ~ Χριστοῦ. ^διὸ^ λέγει=·
ἀναβὰς= εἰς= ὕψος
ᾐχμαλώτευσεν= αἰχμαλωσίαν
^καὶ ἔδωκε=
δόματα ~τοῖς~ ἀνθρώποις.
~τὸ~ -δὲ ἀνέβη= τί ~ἐστιν εἰ μὴ~ ὅτι ^καὶ κατέβη
πρῶτον εἰς= ~τὰ~
κατώτερα μέρη ~τῆς~ γῆς; =ὁ~ καταβὰς =αὐτός~ ~ἐστι ^καὶ =ὁ~ ἀναβὰς
ὑπεράνω πάντων ~τῶν~ οὐρανῶν, =ἵνα πληρώσῃ= ~τὰ~ πάντα. ^καὶ αὐτὸς~ ἔδωκε= ~τοὺς~ μὲν ἀποστόλους, ~τοὺς~ -δὲ προφήτας, ~τοὺς~ -δὲ εὐαγγελιστάς, ~τοὺς~ -δὲ
ποιμένας ^καὶ διδασκάλους, πρὸς= ~τὸν~ καταρτισμὸν ~τῶν~ ἁγίων εἰς= ἔργον διακονίας, εἰς= οἰκοδομὴν ~τοῦ~
σώματος ~τοῦ~ Χριστοῦ, μέχρι= καταντήσωμεν=
Is that understandable? = plus ~ equals zero. = plus ^ equals ^. etc.
Do you know the rules of English well enough to make a comparision between this and English. But probably it's boring anyway.