Talk:Pronunciation of Ancient Greek in teaching

NPOV

This article makes no mention of the fact that the so-called reconstructed pronunciation of ancient Greek has been disputed by advocates of the historical Greek pronunciation since the time that Greece became and independent state. The so-called reconstructed pronunciation of Latin is also the subject of dispute because like the reconstructed pronunciation of Greek it is an ethnocentric theory (centred on the modern pronunciation Germanic launguages such as English) invented by mainly English academics which totally ignores the pronunciation of Greek and Latin as spoken by native born speakers (eg. native Greeks and Italians and the tradition of the Church).

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ancient_Greek_phonology --Thrax 19:07, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

There's no reason that the discussion of the actual historical pronunciation (Caragounis vs. everyone else) should be mentioned here. It's a different topic. The warning label is completely inappropriate. --Macrakis 21:16, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

I agree with Macrakis -- Andreas 14:07, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

- We find enough examples throughout history that languages change irrecognizeably over time. Two examples: Chausser's English is unreadable today for non-specialists, and British English is actually farther away from 17th century English than American English is, especially in the south (I have heard Virginia and the Carolinas as examples). Today's Greek pronunciation therefore cannot be used as reference for how it was spoken 2000, 2500 or 3000 years ago. The accusation that modern reconstructions are based on English speakers is insulting. There has been at least as much research been done in Germany and France, Italy etc., each having substantially different languages of their own. Language reasearch is a science that cannot be ignored so easily, except by conspiracy theorists who in their overzealous convictions ignore facts. For instance, if an Ancient Greek author imitates the sound sheep make with bèta èta, it should be clear those letters must somehow be close to the sound sheep make, who never say "vee". - Duchiffre — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.54.51.131 (talk) 16:51, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

Italian pronunciation

I do not understand what it means when it says "X is pronounced like germanic ich, that is an aspirated c". I would take an "aspirated c" to mean a [k_h], whereas I would take "germanic ich" to mean "German ich-laut" i.e. [ç]. It seems to me that the [k_h] reading makes more sense given Italian doesn't have a [ç] (or [x]), which would make sense given the reading they apply to theta and phi. —Felix the Cassowary (ɑe hɪː jɐ) 11:02, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

I would suggest that IPA symbols be included in the Italian pronunciation. I think that Phlix has some problems with the phonetic nomenclature. Italian does not have [θ], [x] or [[ç], nor does it have aspiration, it does not even have [h], so that it would be difficult to teach how to pronounc aspirated consonants. Andreas 23:06, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

The following was posted on my talk page; I'm copying it here for continuity:

Hi i'm the authoe of that stuff, well, i do not understand what you do not understand, it is simple how do you pronounce in german "ich" wel,l that is the sound in italain of X. It is somethin like k aspirated, i hope you will now understand Philx 19:59, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

But that doesn't say anything that wasn't said before, and it's just as ambiguous. An aspirated k is a velar stop followed by aspiration, whereas the German "ich" is a palatal fricative. Do you have a microphone, so that you can record the sounds, Phlix?

—Felix the Cassowary (ɑe hɪː jɐ) 00:25, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

well italian has't got aspiration so it is difficult for me to explain that, in italian there aren't aspirate words,so i can't put an example i do not have a mic however,ich germanic is very close to how X is pronounced in italian.

EVXARISTOS, in modern greek , this is the most close example of X is pronounced in italian, i hope Some Greek guy will help me on this.in italian to pronounce it will be written efxharistos. Philx 11:58, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Section on Renaissance scholarship

The short section here on Renaissance scholarship is much better than the corresponding bits we currently have over at "Ancient Greek phonology" (or whatever that page's current title is at the moment ;-), especially the mentioning of scholars before Erasmus. On the other hand, that page now contains the detailed summary of Erasmus. I'm tempted to merge some of this material in some way so that it goes together in either the one or the other article (not talking about merging the whole articles, of course). What do you guys think? -- By the way, it might be good to have source references for those scholars. Who's got any? Lukas 16:45, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Italian pronounciation

The article says:

• ζ is a voiced sibilant [z] as in Italian zolla or English zebra.

This cannot be (entirely) true, since the z in Italian is pronounced as /dz/ or as /ts/, while the English z is pronounced /z/. This is in contradiction.

--JorisvS 14:42, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Just wondering whether the eta is pronounced as a (1) iota or like the (2) "a" as in "have" or (3) like the "e" as in "España". Could anybody help me out on this one? And sorry for not knowing the exact phonetical signs... --Artaynte (talk) 17:56, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

I learnt in high school to pronounce ζ as /dz/ but I've recently been told that in Archaic (pre-classic) times it may have been /zd/.

IIUC, in Greek Classical Antiquity (let's say 5th century BCE) η was pronounced as long open /ε:/ as in French chèvre, English bear (the animal) etc., and, if at the start of a word, it always took a rough breathing. Over the centuries, iotacism set in, and many vowels (IIUC, not only ι but also ει, οι, vocalic υ — and η) sarted being pronounced like /i/ (English ee in sheep). The musical accent was also replaced by a stress accent (so that all three classical accents were conflated into one), and the rough breathing ceased to be pronounced. This is why Καλ' ημερα ("Good day" i.e. "Hello") which, in my student days, I would have pronounced "Kal hehmera" /kal hε:məra/ with misplaced stress, is pronounced "Kaliméra" /kali'mera/ in modern Greek. — Tonymec (talk) 23:02, 16 August 2020 (UTC)

Original research

The following is original research and should not put into Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:No original research.

Since long-element υ diphthongs are rarer, the author of these lines does not know whether there is a standard pronunciation in French schools. I have not been able to find any reference on this topic (all French language Greek methods or grammars that I have looked up seem to ignore such diphthongs), and as far as I can remember, I was never taught a way to pronounce ᾱυ, ηυ or ωυ during my school years, and had to invent my own. However, due to disregard of vowel length, diphthong ᾱυ is often confused with similarly written diphthong ᾰυ and pronounced [o]/[ɔ]; similarly, the author of these lines has heard many persons pronouncing ηυ like ευ, i.e. as [ø]/[œ].

 Andreas  ^(T) 15:28, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

You are probably right; while I still think that my memories are relevant, I understand that Wikipedia policies prevent including them. Still the proposition "I have not been able to find any reference on this topic (all French language Greek methods or grammars that I have looked up seem to ignore such diphthongs)" is NOT personal research, I have indeed looked up several common methods and grammar that present traditional French Ancient Greek pronunciation; I am rephrasing this part right now. 145.242.1.212 10:02, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Self-reference

"The author of these lines:" This is not exactly self-reference according to WP:ASR, but quite so. If something cannot be backed by sources, it should just not be mentioned.  Andreas  ^(T) 14:08, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Reuchlinian vs. modern

The article currently says that Greek-speakers use "contemporaneous, local Greek pronunciation" while saying that Eastern Orthodox theology schools ""use the Reuchlinian pronunciation (which is quite the same as the contemporaneous literary Greek pronunciation)". As far as I know, there is no difference between the pronunciation used by Greek-speakers in general and by Eastern Orthodox theology schools. Either way, this should be clarified. If I see no information about differences, I will rewrite. --macrakis (talk) 04:38, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Joke

The "joke" is poorly reverrenced; it appears in a book by Caragounis, whose claims are against mainstream knowledge, see Ancient Greek phonology#More recent developments. The passage in question is not sourced in the book. I culd not find any other mention of this story, so it is unclear where Caragounis got it from.  Andreas  ^(T) 13:06, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

Another joke

One particularly famed piece of schoolyard Greek in France is Xenophon's line "they did not take the city, but they had no hope of taking it" (οὐκ ἔλαβον πόλιν· άλλα γὰρ ἐλπὶς ἔφη κακά, ouk élabon pólin; álla gàr elpìs éphē kaká). Read in the French manner, this macaronically becomes "Où qu'est la bonne Pauline? A la gare. Elle pisse et fait caca." ("Where is young Pauline? At the station. She's pissing and taking a shit.")[4][5]

This is a joke, it is not by Xenophon. I propose to delete the whole paragraph because (although funny) it is not relevant encyclopedic information (trivia are generally not to be included in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Handling trivia).  Andreas  ^(T) 01:25, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

- Please leave the joke! I needed it for the Greek letters! Duchiffre — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.54.51.131 (talk) 16:41, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

Now that we have this high school joke on the talk page, IMHO there's no reason to have it also on the "encyclopædia article" page. — Tonymec (talk) 22:31, 16 August 2020 (UTC)

Link incompatible with (IIUC) Unified Login

Trying to follow the "Finnegan's Wake" link in a footnote to the France section, to http://www.finnegansweb.com/wiki/index.php/Ouk_elabon_polin, I get a page saying only:

MediaWiki does not support installations where register_globals is enabled. Please see mediawiki.org for help on how to disable it.

-- Tonymec (talk) 00:01, 22 January 2017 (UTC)

3½ years later, the problem seems to have solved itself. — Tonymec (talk) 22:26, 16 August 2020 (UTC)

Erasmian pronunciation

“Erasmian pronunciation” redirects to this article, but receives hardly more than simple mentions, such as "Ancient Greek in Italy is always taught in the Erasmian pronunciation", which presuppose that the reader knows more about the topic than the article itself provides. A quick internet search gave me a number of pages referring to it, but no description. Is anyone aware of a good source? ◅ Sebastian 14:27, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

As I'm trying to find out more, I found this quote from Thomas Jefferson[1]: ❝we find that no two nations pronounce it alike, although all pretend to the Erasmian pronunciation.❞ Maybe, after all, THE “Erasmian pronunciation” never existed? ◅ Sebastian 19:47, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

• There was an "Erasmian pronunciaton" during Erasmus's life, namely the one he used. Maybe people who say they use "Erasmian pronunciation" in the XXI^st century have drifted apart from that.
• Since a special label was coined for it, it must be different from the pronunciation of Modern Greek.

I learnt Classical Greek in Belgium, not in Italy; but the main differences between the pronunciation I learnt and the pronunciation used in contemporary Greece are as follows:

• I learnt to pronounce hard breathings as /h/ (in Modern Greek, breathings are silent);
• I learnt to pronounce αι as /ai/, not /ɛ/;
• I learnt to pronounce β as /b/, not /v/;
• I learnt to pronounce δ as /d/, not /ð/;
• I learnt to pronounce ει as /ei/, not /i/;
• I learnt to pronounce ευ as /ø/, not /ɛv/ or /ɛf/
• I learnt to pronounce η as /ɛː/, not /i/;
• I learnt to pronounce μπ as /mp/, not /b/;
• I learnt to pronounce νt as /nt/, not /d/;
• I learnt to pronounce οι as /ɔi/, not /i/;
• I learnt to pronounce υ (not preceded by ε or ο) as /y/, not /i/ and not /v/ or /f/;
• OTOH I did not learn to pay attention to acute, grave and circumflex accents: my teachers of Greek didn't write any accents on the blackboard.

There may be other differences which are not coming back to my mind, and I don't guarantee that I'm using the same pronunciation Erasmus did; but once a Greek friend told me that I had learnt "Erasmian pronunciation". — Tonymec (talk) 17:37, 30 October 2021 (UTC)

IPA

For non-phonologists, the exclusive use of the International Phonetic Alphabet is incomprehensible. Wikipedia should always include pronunciation comparanda. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.111.199.246 (talk) 18:05, 28 July 2022 (UTC)