Greetings χαιρετε

[Christopher M. Tully]

Hi everyone, my name is Christopher. I'm from North Dakota, USA and interested in conversing about Ancient Greek. I'm mostly interested in Biblical topics, but might want to read some Classics eventually. I've been studying grammars and doing some mild translating for about 2-3 years now. As for the grammars, I've went through Athenaze, I've got a copy of Rife, and I'm working through Chase & Phillips in a college class which I'm taking at the University of Mary with a Prof. Andreini.

As far as Lexicons go, I've got the medium Liddell Scott, Harper's Analytical Lexicon, and Taylor's Analytical Lexicon of the Septugint. I've got UBS copies of the New Testament and Septuagint. Ancient Greek is great but I'm thinking before long I might be concentrating on Hebrew, we'll see.

My religious affiliation is Roman Catholic, I try to pray as much as I can, I tend to somewhat direct, and for the time being I'm interested in learning about pronunciation, and also learning Ancient Greek prayers. One of the reasons I'm here is because I don't like the Erasmian pronunciation of Ancient Greek that my professors use, and I would like to explore this topic further. My hobbies include drinking tea, socializing, and spending time in the Chapel. God bless and I look forward to corresponding with you all.

[Arne Halbakken]

For pronunciation, you might take a look at this article.
https://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/ ... unciation/

Arne Halbakken

[Shirley Rollinson]

Welcome, Christopher

- - - One of the reasons I'm here is because I don't like the Erasmian pronunciation of Ancient Greek that my professors use, and I would like to explore this topic further. - - -.

You might listen to the videos at "Reading the Bible with Maria" - She is a native Greek speaker with very clear diction.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvniRD ... 9DQCajGQQ/

[Barry Hofstetter]

Welcome to B-Greek.

Just out of curiosity, why don't you like Erasmean? Erasmus never attained sainthood, but I'm sure he's displeased..

Seriously though you might try restored pronunciation or modern, plenty of online resources, a couple of which have already been mentioned. I was trained in a semi-restored Attic, probably not as helpful to you.

[Christopher M. Tully]

Thank you all, before I get to your replies I wanted to mention a few other things. Regarding lexicons I've also got Thayer's New Testament, and for English to Ancient Greek I've got one by a Follett Publishing 1927. Also another one of my hobbies is collecting quotes, and I've been regularly posting on this thread, under the name Kapnosis1988. Some of them use rough language on occasion, but would invite you to post if compelled. I wonder does this forum have a "great quotes" thread?

Regarding the pronunciation, do you prefer that I start a new thread for it or is this one fine?

[Stirling Bartholomew]

As far as Lexicons go, I've got the medium Liddell Scott, Harper's Analytical Lexicon, and Taylor's Analytical Lexicon of the Septugint. I've got UBS copies of the New Testament and Septuagint. Ancient Greek is great but I'm thinking before long I might be concentrating on Hebrew, we'll see.

You should have a New Testament lexicon. STEP BIBLE has Mounce displayed under Meaning. Mouse click on a word in one of the Greek texts.
https://www.stepbible.org/?q=reference= ... NTERLEAVED

[Christopher M. Tully]

...although I suppose the Bible itself is a great collection of quotes, no? perhaps the greatest. I gather that the custom of this forum is to be fairly strict in that all threads must be on the topic of the Ancient Greek langage, but within that limit, digressions are tolerated within threads. Maybe at some point I'll start a thread “Great Bible quotes” or “Great quotes in Ancient Greek.”


At any rate, that article on Koine pronunciation, Maria's readings (by the way, what pronunciation is used here?), and Mounce's lexicon should all be helpful. I still haven't read much on the topic of pronunciation, but I plan on going through some of it soon.

Barry, to answer your question, I dislike several things about Erasmean, but the first would be that it tends to pronounce the omicron as an alpha. So that a word like λογος is pronounced as lah-gahs. Among other things, it seems that this tendency leads to more confusion than if the omicron were pronounced like an omega.

[Arne Halbakken]

"So that a word like λογος is pronounced as lah-gahs. Among other things, it seems that this tendency leads to more confusion than if the omicron were pronounced like an omega."

And what happens when θεός is pronounced with so-called Erasmean? Does it sound like a Greek word for θεάς "goddess"?

Arne Halbakken

[Stephen Carlson]

"So that a word like λογος is pronounced as lah-gahs. Among other things, it seems that this tendency leads to more confusion than if the omicron were pronounced like an omega."

And what happens when θεός is pronounced with so-called Erasmean? Does it sound like a Greek word for θεάς "goddess"?

Arne Halbakken

In American Erasmian, sure, because of the father-bother merger on top of the cot-caught merger for about 70% of Americans. In Australian (and British) Erasmian, the vowels remain distinct.

[James Spinti]

American Classicists generally (not universally) make a distinction. In my experience, it is mainly Seminary-trained and Christian-college-trained Hellenists who pronounce an o-micron as an alpha instead of a shorter form of an o-mega.

That's not a function of Erasmian itself, but a function of the way it was taught to them. Of course, the software company, Logos, being pronounced Lahgahs doesn't help. I still can't bring myself to pronounce it that way. To me it is Logos, with slightly shortened omegas.

James