[b-greek] Re: One language, many dialects

From: Stephen C. Carlson (scarlson@mindspring.com)
Date: Wed Jan 30 2002 - 21:44:43 EST


At 12:52 AM 1/31/2002 -0000, Michael Haggett wrote:
>>RB: For starters, it is beyond any doubt that Paul and Luke
>>would have
>>pronounced "EI" exactly the same as "I" when they were speaking
>>their Greek. We don't know exactly how their "I" would sound,
>>just
>>that it would sound like their "EI".
>----
>
>To me, this assumes a uniformity that seems unprovable. May I
>draw this parallel as a means of expressing my concern:
...
>The spelling error argument seems to hinge on uniformity (within
>any one of many dialects, true) but real language isn't that
>uniform WITHIN dialects.

Both Allen and Teodorsson (fide Horrocks) have adduced
a lot of evidence showing the shift in pronunciation of
EI to I (in _C or _#) generally occurred well before the
first century, and in some dialects even as early as the
5th cen. BC. The spelling evidence shows that this
interchange was pervasive by the 2nd cen. BC. If there
is evidence for differing dialectal treatment of EI by
the 1st cen. AD, no one has produced it, much less has
found a dialect that still used the Erasmian pronunciation
of EI.

This shift did not affect all occurrences of EI, however,
only those before a consonant or at the end of the word.
Before vowels, as in BASILEIA, EI shifted to H (eta), and
only became I when H shifted to I in the late Roman/early
Byzantine period (e.g. c. 500).

But even if one still were to concede the theoretical
possibility that there may be some hilltown in Sicily
that was oblivious to the general shift of EI to I,
the burden of proof has to be on the one claiming that
Paul and/or Luke used anything other than the majority
pronunciation.

Evidence for regional differences in pronunciation is
not so hard to come by, so placing the burden of proof
on the Erasmian EI is appropriate. In fact, many of
Buth's proposals, especially in the lenition of voiced
consonants and treatment of AU and EU, would give the
speaker what would have been perceived as an Egyptian
accent because Egypt shows these changes occurring a
bit earlier than in other areas.

Stephen Carlson
--
Stephen C. Carlson mailto:scarlson@mindspring.com
Synoptic Problem Home Page http://www.mindspring.com/~scarlson/synopt/
"Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs chant the words." Shujing 2.35


---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [jwrobie@mindspring.com]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-327Q@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu




This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:17 EDT