Emma Ehrhardt wrote:It sounds like you've done a considerable amount of work on this already. I think I get the gist of what you're aiming for, but I wonder, if you want to practice lots of sound combinations, is it necessary to use attested GNT forms? Especially for 1-2 syllable words, why not just create a list of possible phone combinations, regardless of whether they're attested? (e.g. "aba,ada,aga,apa,ata,aka...ebe,ede,ege", etc.) And if this is also intended for use by students who aren't yet very proficient in the language, they won't recognize words from non-words yet anyway.
I personally doubt that finding a chapter with a higher percentage of rare phoneme combinations will be of much use in pronunciation training. When we talk about lexical items, some are rare enough that it's worth seeking them out for special practice if we want to learn them. But the phoneme inventory of a language is quite small. Some combinations of phones may be less common, but they will still be covered in general usage. That said, you're probably right to emphasize that it is desirable to practice phone combinations in context, so maybe short sentences with a tongue-twister flavor could be useful, perhaps.
If I understood correctly that you're primarily looking for shorter words, why the drive to combine enclitics with the word they lean on? Just for more data?
I do use Matt. 1:1-17 (or parts of it) as pronunciation training with beginning students - almost as soon as they've met the alphabet and written it out while pronouncing it a couple of times.
It is very repetitive, but with some variations which help to keep the students interested. It helps to introduce them to what happens when words in one language (Hebrew) are heard and written by someone using another langauge (Greek). It introduces them to how one translates, or does not translate, δε, and shows the use of the definite article with personal names (which are potential pit-falls for beginners)
I tell them what ἐγεννησεν means, and then off we go, reading a generation at a time and stopping to talk about what's going on.
It also helps to build confidence that the GNT is accessible (and then we get a bit of fun with things such as ἐκ της του Oὐριου being like a brood mare registry)
By the end of that exercise all the students have had a turn at reading aloud alone, the ice has been broken, and there are fewer inhibitions about speaking up and reading aloud.
So several birds get killed with one stone
Shirley Rollinson