Audio of Philemon in Koine

[Mark Jeong]

I am attempting to switch over to a Koine (1st-2nd c. CE) pronunciation of Koine Greek from a restored Classical scheme. I've used Buth's books in the past so the pronunciation is not entirely new for me. Here's my attempt at reading Philemon from the SBLGNT:

https://archive.org/details/philemon_201912

My pronunciation differs from Randall Buth's scheme in that I maintain the spiritus asper, hard δ, and aspirated stops, since these were maintained (except the spiritus asper in some places) in the first century. It's still a work in progress, but it helps that my first language (Korean) has aspirated and non-aspirated forms of all consonants. The hardest sound for me to pronounce consistently is η. In unstressed syllables I find it really hard to distinguish it from ε, and I don't want to pronounce it as a dipthong ("ei") as in Erasmian. Coincidentally, Korean also has two vowels that parallel ε (ㅐ) and η (ㅔ), but native Korean speakers can hardly tell the difference anymore. I know that in modern French the distinction between [e] and [ε] is also disappearing, especially in unstressed syllables. Maybe that was the case in Koine Greek in unstressed syllables?

Let me know if you have any feedback.

[Paul-Nitz]

Mark, That is a wonderful reading of Philemon.
Your fluency and accuracy is great. Very easy to listen to and understand.

I think my African students wouldn't have any problem distinguishing between THETA as an aspirated T and TAU as unaspirated. For those of us (English 1st language) who did not grow up with aspirated/unaspirated making any difference in meaning, it would be a bit harder to pick up purely from listening. But since we all listen and read the text, and since the combinations are so familiar, T-aspirated Θεός is not hard to understand.

I like the choice to do rough breathing marks.

Your OMICRON-IOTA and UPSILON sound like iota to me, but that's perfectly okay.

What will you record for us next?

[Stephen Carlson]

My pronunciation differs from Randall Buth's scheme in that I maintain the spiritus asper, hard δ, and aspirated stops, since these were maintained (except the spiritus asper in some places) in the first century. It's still a work in progress, but it helps that my first language (Korean) has aspirated and non-aspirated forms of all consonants.

Fascinating to hear a text with aspirated/non-aspirated consonants like that. Thanks for sharing a fluent performance. Given the differences with Buth, I'd call what you're doing "early Koine" and Buth "late Koine."

[Mark Jeong]

Thanks for the feedback! I may try Philippians next.