I need a little help with pronunciation

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Apostolos
Posts: 1
Joined: June 24th, 2018, 9:57 am

I need a little help with pronunciation

Post by Apostolos »

Hello everyone!

How is one supposed to pronounce, in Modern Greek, the two letters ι and η when they are together in a word? As clear, separate sounds (ee-ee), or as one sound (ee)?

In the name Γαβριήλ, for example, is it supposed to be a clear distinction between ι and η, as in Gah-vree-eel or are they sounded as one "ee": Gah-vreel?

Same with the name Ἰησοῦς. Is it Ee-ee-soos or Ee-soos? I heard both variants, especially for this name, and I don't know which one is the correct one.

I would appreciate some help.
Jonathan Robie
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Re: I need a little help with pronunciation

Post by Jonathan Robie »

My pronunciation is a little different from modern Greek, but I think it basically is a long "ee", longer than just a single vowel. You can hear that in recordings like this:



I suspect it is neither "ee-ee" with a clear distinction in between nor "ee", but "eeee" if you know what I mean. But I could be wrong and this could depend on the speaker, I am not the person to trust for modern Greek pronunciation. Fortunately, when I get something wrong, someone usually comes along to correct me ...
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
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