Re: Marcan Pidgin Greek

From: Domenico LEMBO (lembodo@ds.cised.unina.it)
Date: Sun Dec 17 1995 - 17:33:15 EST


To Carl Conrad:

Actually, both in Greek and Latin, You have no doubt an excellent sense of
language. However, with "low koine" Greek we are all a bit embarrassed:
many times we cannot explain well why exactly it sounds to us so much
unequal to a "good standard". As non-"native speakers" (non-native,
non-speakers), we simply do not master Greek enough. So we have to be very
cautious about identifying the "rough side" in somebody's Greek. That was
my point. When suggesting that TO KAINON TOU PALAIOU, being not so much
unprecedented, is solid (if a tad inelegant) Greek, I was implying
something more. What we find perhaps out of standard, here and generally in
Mark's Greek, while not realizing it clearly, is not *in primis* word
order. It is something else: a lack of that inner subtle articulation that
gives breath and life to good Greek prose and largely (if not merely)
relies on use of particles. Mark's syntax is a basic one, because it is a
contracted one. This, not word order, is the "roughest side" in Mark's
Greek. Do not You think so?
As for the alternative between hAIREI perispomenon and AIREI paroxytone, it
is not fully comparable to that one between IOUNIAN perispomenon and
IOUNIAN paroxytone. In the latter case you all have been able to reach a
sound and firm conclusion, because there were some more (non-textual) data.
But in the former case we have nothing such: the choice has to be made on
purely linguistic and textual grounds. Of course, the question has very
little relevance. I posed it just *exempli gratia*. But, in this vein, one
could perhaps add something more. As You say, the manuscript tradition does
not tell really which accent or which breathing is the right one. And, on
linguistic grounds, one could maybe slightly prefer hAIREI. But there is
one more external resource to exploit. To decide correctly, one could and
should check the *Biblia patristica*, the indirect tradition of the Bible
passages; because this extends unceasingly for centuries and a reading well
attested in it should be far more reliable, even in accent and breathing
matters.

Best

D. Lembo

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       Domenico LEMBO Universita' di Napoli

                         lembodo@ds.cised.unina.it
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