[b-greek] RE: Greek NT on CD

From: Randall Buth (ButhFam@compuserve.com)
Date: Fri Jan 12 2001 - 18:09:01 EST


egrapsan
>> Also, regarding pronunciation, is anyone aware of a reference
>> work that treats the eta in depth? In works of classical
>> phonology, there seems to be a range from 'like the a in
>> stag' to 'equivalent to the dipthong epsilon + iota'.

Correct. AE to E are argued.
However, you must remember that EI was pronounced like I by Roman Koine
periods.

>>
>> Are there any serious treatments of Hellenistic Phonology in
>> print (or out of print, for that matter)? (I notice many
>> authors claiming that, for example the 'd' sound in zeta
>> dropped out, and theta, phi, and chi became frictives,

Ironically, it's the opposite of what you just listed. Beta, delta and
gamma became fricatives before the voiceless Phi, Teta and Khi. Due to
historical ironies the 'Erasmian' borrowed the modern voiceless consonants
and restored the PRE-Koine voiced consonants, so that they got all six
wrong as far as any one time period or dialect.
However, even though Phi, Teta and Khi were 'hard' going into the Koine
period, (and we have evidence of that being true in Judea in the the first
century too, they did become fricativized during the Koine period and had
probably softened around the time of Eusebius.

>>but I
>> have not found any reference works that demonstrates when
>> those changes occured, leaving me wondering if that shift in
>> language really happened as early as the textbooks claim.
> <

You might tright
G. Horrocks,
Greek, A History of the Language... Longmans 1997.
He makes a good presentation of the Koine changes and will refer you to
further studies. In addition, it helps to read some of the popular letters
of the period. After 20-50 papyri letters you will have a broad idea of
what was being pronounced the same and what was being kept distinct.
Surpisingly to many linguists, ETA remained stable throughout the early
Koine period.

ERRWSO
Randal Buth


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