[b-greek] Re: Modern Greek/Shakespeare

From: Trevor Peterson (spedrson@netzero.net)
Date: Tue Dec 19 2000 - 19:10:56 EST


Okay, okay. Point taken. Just for the record, I could argue that I never
said it was a quote from Shakespeare, and maybe it was a philosophical
question roughly equivalent to "Why do you exist?" :-) But I know when
I'm beat. Honestly, I should have known what it means, since I do know
what all the words mean. (I'm actually quite embarassed that I never
thought of it with that meaning, but I'm not much of a fan of Shakespeare
anyway--although I appreciate him more than I used to--and I've never
given the quote that much thought.) I agree that many modern readers do
take it to mean "where" instead of "why." I just did so myself without
thinking. Part of the problem with this particular example, I suspect, is
that we often hear it without context. And let's face it--"Why are you
Romeo?" isn't exactly a question that readily strikes us as sounding
altogether natural.

Well, all that's to say that I see what you're saying, but I don't know
that the example is perfect. It certainly does speak to the danger of
misunderstanding on the part of the modern speaker, but much of that
danger is there for the non-Greek speaker anyway. Probably the only thing
that makes it greater for the Greek speaker is that he is more likely to
have misplaced confidence in his recognition of the older grammar. The
caution therefore bears repeating that the learning of Modern Greek comes
with an added responsibility to distinguish carefully between phenomena of
the modern language and those of the ancient.

Thanks for the rebuke, and feel free to weigh in on these issues more
fully. I appreciated your comments from the 1996 go-around.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics

> From: LUCY::EHOBBS "Edward Hobbs" 19-DEC-2000 13:47:16.18
> To: IN%"spedrson@netzero.net"
> CC: EHOBBS
> Subj: RE: [b-greek] re: Modern Greek, ... a new direction-Peterson
>
> Colleagues:
>
> Without engtering into the discussion about Modern Greek as a vehicle for
> learning Koine Greek, may I point out that the very example used to show
> that modern English speakers can understand Shakespeare (English written
> four centuries ago) shows the opposite.
>
> A modern English speaker certainly has no idea what Shakespeare meant by
> "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" by quoting it as "Wherefore art thou?"
>
> The sentence in Shakespeare means, "Why is your name 'Romeo'?"
>
> The modern reader who thinks it reads "Wherefore art thou?"
> or "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?"
> supposes it means "Where are you, Romeo?"
>
> The Greek of the New Testament is almost 2,000 years old; Shakespeare's
> English is only 400 years old. But modern readers who do not study
> Tudor English MISunderstand much of what they read.
> (And that's worse than simply NOT understanding.)
>
>
> Edward Hobbs
>
>
>
> --------Responding to---->>>>
>
> "But apparently they can read it and know what they're reading. That was
> most of my point. Just as a Modern English speaker can read "wherefore
> art thou?" and understand it (yet not understand it quite well enough to
> construct grammatically appropriate sentences using "thee"s and "thou"s, I
> presume a Modern Greek speaker can read the old grammar at least in a
> similar fashion, pronouncing it with his own modern accent, perhaps not
> understanding all its quirks fully, but still able to make sense of it.
> And of course, the slightly more studious reader could learn the
> differences from his own grammar without too much difficulty."

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